Levi from a moneth upward Agnosce sacerdos sayes he quanti te Deus tuus fecerit Take knowledge thou who art the Priest of the high God what a value God hath set upon thee that whereas he takes other servants for other affaires when they are men fit to doe him service he took thee to the Priesthood in thy cradle in thine infancie How much more then when the Priest is not Sacerdos infans A Priest that cannot or does not speake but continues watchfull in meditating and assiduous in uttering powerfully and yet modestly the things that concerne your salvation ought you to abstaine from violating the power of God the Father in dis-esteeming his power thus planted in the Priest So also doe we sin against the Father the roote of power Civilis in conceiving amisse of the power of the Civill Magistrate Whether where God is pleased to represent his unity in one Person in a King or to expresse it in a plurality of persons in divers Governours When God sayes Per me Reges regnant By me Kings raigne There the Per is not a Permission but a Commission It is not That they raigne by my Sufferance but they raigne by mine Ordinance A King is not a King because he is a good King nor leaves being a King Rom. 13.5 as soone as he leaves being good All is well summed by the Apostle You must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake But then the greatest danger of sinning against the Father Iudiciaria in this notion of power is if you conceive not aright of his Judiciary power of that judgement which he executes not by Priests nor by Kings upon earth but by his owne Son Christ Jesus in heaven For not to be astonished at the Contemplation of that judgement where there shall be Information Examination Publication Hearing Judgement and Execution in a minute where they that never beleeved till they heard me may be taken in and I that Preached and wrought their salvation may be left out where those wounds which my Saviour received upon earth for me shall be shut up against me and those wounds which my blasphemies have made in his glorified body shall bleed out indignation upon sight of me the murtherer not to think upon not to tremble at this judgement is the highest sin against the Father and his power in the undervaluing of it But there is a sin against this power too Abusus in abusing that portion of that power which God hath deposited in thee Art thou a Priest and expectest the reverence due to that holy calling Ambr Ep. 6. ad Iren. Be holy in in that calling Quomodo potest observari à populo qui nihil habet secretum à populo How can the people reverence him whom they see to be but just one of them Quid in te miretur si sua in te recognoscit If they finde no more in thee then in one another what should they admire in thee Si quae in se erubescit in te quem reverendum arbitratur offendit If they discerne those infirmities in thee which they are ashamed of in themselves where is there any object any subject any exercise of their reverence psal 52.1 Art thou great in Civill Power Quid gloriaris in malo quiae potens es Why boastest thou thy selfe in mischiefe O mighty man Hast thou a great body therefore because thou shouldest stand heavy upon thine own feet and make them ake Or a great power therefore because thou shouldest oppresse them that are under thee use thy power justly Jes 1. ◠and call it the voyce of allegeance when the people say to thee as to Iosua All that thou commandest us we will doc and whither soever thou sendest us we will goe Abuse that power to oppression and thou canst not call that the voyce of sedition in which Peter and the other Apostles joyned together Acts 5.29 We ought to obey God rather then man Hast thou any judiciall place in this world here there belongs more feare then in the rest Some things God hath done in Christ as a Priest in this world some things as a King But when Christ should have been a Judge in civill causes he declined that he would not divide the Inheritance and in criminall causes he did so too he would not condemne the Adulteresse So that for thy example in judgement thou art referred to that which is not come yet to that to which thou must come The last the everlasting judgement Waigh thine affections there and then and think there stands before thee now a prisoner so affected as thou shalt be then Waigh the mercy of thy Judge then and think there is such mercy required in thy judgement now Be but able to say God be such to me at the last day as I am to his people this day and for that dayes justice in thy publique calling God may be pleased to cover many sins of infirmity And so you have all that we intended in this exercise to present unto you The first person of the Trinity God the Father in his Attribute of power Almighty and those sins which as farre as this Text leads us are directed upon him in that notion of Father The next day the Son will rise SERM. XL. Preached upon Trinity-Sunday 1 COR. 16.22 If any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha CHrist is not defined not designed by any name by any word so often as by that very word The Word Sermo Speech In man there are three kinds of speech Sermo innatus That inward speech which the thought of man reflecting upon it selfe produces within He thinks something And then Sermo illatus A speech of inference that speech which is occasioned in him by outward things from which he drawes conclusions and determins And lastly Sermo prolatus That speech by which he manifests himselfe to other men We consider also three kindes of speech in God and Christ is all three There is Sermo innatus His eternall his naturall word which God produced out of himselfe which is the generatiof the second Person in the Trinity And then there is Sermo illatus His word occasioned by the fall of Adam which is his Decree of sending Christ as a Redeemer And there is also Sermo prolatus His speech of manifestation and application of Christ which are his Scriptures The first word is Christ the second the Decree is for Christ the third the Scripture is of Christ Let the word be Christ so he is God Let the word be for Christ for his comming hither so he is man Let the word be of Christ so the Scriptures make this God and man ours Now If in all these if in any of these apprehensions any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha By most of those who from the perversenesse of Heretiques Divisio have taken
judgements did God shew Adam Iudicia pessimorum spirituum sayes he the better to containe Adam in his duty God declared to him the judgement that he had executed upon those disobedient Angels So that as Adam if he had made a right use of Gods grace had been immortall in his body and yet not immortall then by nature as our bodies in the state of glory in the resurrection shall be immortall and yet not immortall then by nature so no Angell after this Confirmation that is the mediation of Christ applied to him shall fall For Quis Catholicus ignorat Aug. nullum novum Diabolum ex bonis Angelis futurum Who can pretend to be a Catholique and beleeve that ever there shall be any new Devill from amongst the good Angels And yet by the way many of the Ancient Fathers thought that those words That the sons of God saw the daughters of men to be faire and fell in love with them were meant of good Angels who fell in love with those women that were committed to their charge and that they sinned in so doing and that they never returned to heaven but fell to the first fallen Angels So that those Fathers have more then implied a possibility of falling into sin and punishment for sin in the good Angels But this none sayes now nor with any probability ever did It is enough that they stand confirmed confirmed by the grace of God in Christ Jesus so that now being in possession of the sight of God and the light of Gâ—ry their understanding is perfectly illustrated so that they can apprehend nothing erroneously and therefore their will is perfectly rectified so that they can desire nothing irregularly and therefore they cannot sin and therefore they cannot die for all sin is from the perversenesse of the will and all disorder in the will from errour in the understanding In heaven they are and we by our assimilation to them shall be free from both and impeccable and impassible by the continuall grace of God Though if they or we were left to our selves even there God could put no trust in his servants nor leave his Angels uncharged with folly And so we have done with the pieces which constitute our first part De quibus of whom these words are spoken First that they were spoken of Angels rejecting that single Capuccin who only denies it and then of good Angels accepting Calvins interpretation because though he be singular in applying this Text to that Doctrine yet in the Doctrine it self he hath authority enough and faire reasons for the Text it selfe and lastly how that which we call Confirmation in those Angels accrewes to them and how it works in them And so we passe to our second Part what is inferred upon these premisses what concluded upon these propositions what by our assimilation to Angels reflects upon us And here 2. Part. Testis Eliphaz because the matter is of much consideration we proposed first to be considered the waight and validity of the testimony in the person of him that gives it for many times the credit of the restimony depends much upon the credit of the witnesse And here it is not Iob himself it is but Eliphaz Eliphaz the Temanite an Alien a stranger to the Covenant and Church of God But surely no greater a stranger then those secular Poets whose sentences S. Paul cites not only in his Epistles but in his Sermons too Certainly not so great a stranger as the Devill and yet in how many places of Scripture are words spoken by the Devill himself inserted into the Scriptures and thereby so farre made the word of God as that the word of God the Bible were not perfect norintire to us if we had not those words of those Poets those words of the Devill himself in it How can I doubt but that God can draw good out of ill and make even some sin of mine some occasion of my salvation when the God of truth can make the word of the father of lies his word There is but one place in all this Book of Iob cited in the New Testament Job 5.13 that is He taketh the wise in their owne craft and those words are not spoken by Iob himself but by this very friend of Iob this Eliphaz that speaks in our Text 1 Cor. 3.19 and yet they are cited in the phrase and manner in which holy Scripture is ordinarily cited It is written sayes the Apostle there and so the Holy Ghost that spoke in S. Paul hath canonized the words spoken by Eliphaz But besides the credit which these words have Visio à posteriori that they are after inserted into the word of God which is another manner of credit and authentiquenesse then that which the Canonists speak of that when any sentence of a Father is cited and inserted into a Decretall Epistle of a Pope or any part of the Canon Law that sentence is thereby made authenticall and canonicall these words have their credit à priori for before be spake them to Iob he received them in a vision from God I had a vision in the night Ver. 12. sayes he and feare and trembling came upon me and a spirit stood before me and I heard this voyce Neither is there any necessity no nor reason to charge Eliphaz with a false relation or counterfaiting a revelation from God which he had not had as some Expositors have done For howsoever in some argumentations and applyings of things to Iobs particular case we may finde some errors in Eliphaz in modo probandi in the manner of his proceeding yet we shall not finde him to proceed upon false grounds and therefore we beleeve Eliphaz to have received this that he sayes from God in a vision and for the instruction of a man more in Gods favour then himself of Iob. Balaam had the reputation of a great Wizard and yet God made his Asse wiser then he and able to instruct and catechize him Generally we are to receive our instructions from Gods established Ordinances from his ordinary meanes afforded to us in his Church And where those meanes sufficient in themselves are duly exhibited to us we are not to hearken after revelations nor to beleeve every thing that may have some such apparance to be a revelation But yet we are not so to conclude God in his Law as that he should have no Prerogative nor so to binde him up in his Ordinances as that he never can or never does work by an extraordinary way of revelation Neither must the profusion of miracles the prodigality and prostitution of miracles in the Romane Church where miracles for every naturall disease may be had at some Shrine or miracle-shop better cheap then a Medicine a Drugge a Simple at an Apothecaries bring us to deny or distrust all miracles done by God upon extraordinary causes and to important purposes Eliphaz was a prophane person and yet received a Vision from
use the Law lawfully Let us use our liberty of reading Scriptures according to the Law of liberty that is charitably to leave others to their liberty if they but differ from us and not differ from Fundamentall Truths Si quis quaerat ex me quid horum Moses senserit If any man ask me which of these which may be all true Moses meant Non sum sermones istiâ—â—onfessiones Lord sayes hee Ibid. This that I say is not said by way of Confession as I intend it should if I doe not freely confesse that I cannot tell which Moses meant But yet I can tell that this that I take to be his meaning is true and that is enough Let him that findes a true sense of any place rejoyce in it Let him that does not beg it of thee Vtquid mihi molest us est Why should any man presse me to give him the true sense of Moses here or of the holy Ghost in any darke place of Scripture Ego illuminem ullum hominen venientem in mundum 1.13 C. 10. saies he Is that said of me that I am the light that enlightned every man any man Iohn 1.9 that comes into this world So far I will goe saies he so far will we in his modesty and humility accompany him as still to propose Quod luce veritatis quod fruge utilitatis excellit such a sense as agrees with other Truths that are evident in other places of Scripture and such a sense as may conduce most to edisication For to those two does that heavenly Father reduce the foure Elements that make up a right exposition of Scripture which are first the glory of God such a sense as may most advance it secondly the analogie of faith such a sense as may violate no confessed Article of Religion and thirdly exaltation of devotion such a sense as may carry us most powerfully upon the apprehension of the next life and lastly extension of charity such a sense as may best hold us in peace or reconcile us if we differ from one another And within these limits wee shall containe our selves The glory of God the analogie of faith the exaltation of devotion the extension of charity In all the rest that belongs to the explication or application to the literall or spirituall sense of these words And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters to which having stopped a little upon this generall consideration the exposition of darke places we passe now Within these rules we proceed to enquire who this Spirit of God is or what it is Spiritus whether a Power or a Person The Jews who are afraid of the Truth lest they should meete evidences of the doctrine of the Trinity and so of the Messias the Son of God if they should admit any spirituall sense admit none but cleave so close to the letter as that to them the Scripture becomes Liter a occidens A killing Letter and the savour of death unto death They therefore in this Spirit of God are so far from admitting any Person that is God as they admit no extraordinary operation or vertue proceeding from God in this place but they take the word here as in many other places of Scripture it does to signifie onely a winde and then that that addition of the name of God The Spirit of God which is in their Language a denotation of a vehemency of a high degree of a superlative as when it is said of Saul Sopor Domini A sleepe of God was upon him it is intended of a deepe a dead sleepe inforces induces no more but that a very strong winde blew upon the face of the waters and so in a great part dryed them up And this opinion I should let flye away with the winde if onely the Jews had said it But Theodoret hath said it too and therefore we afford it so much answer That it is a strange anticipation that Winde which is a mixt Meteor to the making whereof divers occasions concurre with exhalations should be thus imagined before any of these causes of Winds were created or produced and that there should be an effect before a cause is somewhat irregular In Lapland the Witches are said to sell winds to all passengers but that is but to turne those windes that Nature does produce which way they will but in our case the Jews and they that follow them dreame winds before any winds or cause of winds was created The Spirit of God here cannot be the Wind. It cannot be that neither which some great men in the Christian Church have imagined it to be Operatio Dei The power of God working upon the waters so some or Efficientia Dei A power by God infused into the waters so others August And to that S. Augustine comes so neare as to say once in the negative Spiritus Dei hic res dei est sed non ipse Deut est The Spirit of God in this place is something proceeding from God but it is not God himselfe And once in the affirmative Posse esse vitalem creaturam quâ universus mundus movetur That this Spirit of God may be that universall power which sustaines and inanimates the whole world which the Platoniques have called the Soule of the world and others intend by the name of Nature and we doe well if we call The providence of God Spiritus Sanctus But there is more of God in this Action then the Instrument of God Nature or the Vice-roy of God Providence for as the person of God the Son was in the Incarnation so the person of God the Holy Ghost was in this Action though far from that manner of becomming one and the same thing with the waters which was done in the Incarnation of Christ who became therein perfect man That this word the Spirit of God is intended of the Person of the Holy Ghost in other places of Scripture is evident undeniable unquestionable and that therefore it may be so taken here Where it is said The Spirit of God shall rest upon him Esay 11.2 upon the Messiah where it is said by himselfe The Lord and his Spirit is upon me And the Lord and his Spirit hath anointed me there it is certainly and therefore here it may be probably spoken of the Holy Ghost personally It is no impossible sense it implies no contradiction It is no inconvenient sense it offends no other article it is no new sense nor can we assigne any time when it was a new sense Basil The eldest Fathers adhere to it as the ancientest interpretation Saint Basil saies not onely Constantissimè asseverandum est We must constantly maintaine that interpretation for all that might be his owne opinion not onely therefore Quia verius est for that might be but because he found it to be the common opinion of those times but Quia à majoribus nostris approbatum because it is accepted for the true
sense by the Ancients The Ancients saies that ancient Father Basil which reason prevailes upon S. Ambrose too Ambrose Nos cum sanctorum fidelium sententia congruentes We beleeve and beleeve it because the Ancients beleeved it to be so that this is spoken generally of the Holy Ghost Hieron S. Basil and S. Ambrose assume it as granted S. Hierom disputes it argues concludes it Vivificator ergo Conditor ergo Deus This Spirit of God gave life therefore this Spirit was a Creator therefore God S. Augustine prints his seale deepe Secundùm quod ego intelligere possum ita est as far as my understanding can reach it is so and his understanding reached far But he addes Nec ullomodo c. Neither can it possibly be otherwise Tertui Cypt. We cannot tell whether that Poem which is called Genesis be Tertullians or Cyprians It hath beene thought an honour to the learnedest of the Fathers to have beene the Author of a good Poem In that Poem this text is paraphrased thus Immensusque Deus super aequora vastameabat God God personally moved upon the waters Truly the later Schoole is as they have used it a more Poeticall part of divinity then any of the Poems of the Fathers are take in Lactantius his Poem of the Phenix and all the rest and for the Schoole there Aquinas saies Secundùm Sanctos intelligimus Spiritum sanctum As the holy Fathers have done we also understand this personally of the Holy Ghost To end this these words doe not afford such an argument for the Trinity or the third Person thereof the Holy Ghost as is strong enough to convert or convince a Jew because it may have another sense but we who by Gods abundant goodnesse have otherwise an assurance Psal 104.30 Iob 26.13 and faith in this doctrine acknowledge all those other places Thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they are created By his spirit he hath garnished the Heavens and the rest of that kinde to be all but ecchoes from this voyce returnes from Iob and from David and the rest of this doctrine of all comfort first and betimes delivered from Moses that there is a distinct person in the Godhead whose attribute is goodnesse whose office is application whose way is comfort And so we passe from our first That it is not onely the Power of God but the Person of God To the second in this branch His Action Ferebatur The Action of the Spirit of God Ferebatur the Holy Ghost in this place is expressed in a word of a double and very diverse signification for it signifies motion and it signifies rest And therefore Psal 139.2 as S. Augustine argues upon those words of David Thou knowest my downe sitting and my uprising That God knew all that he did betweene his downe sitting and his uprising So in this word which signifies the Holy Ghosts first motion and his last rest we comprehend all that was done in the production and creation of the Creatures Deut. 32.11 Hier. This word we translate As the Eagle fluttereth over her young ones so it is a word of Motion And S. Hierom upon our Text expresses it by Incubabat to sit upon her young ones to hatch them or to preserve them so it is a word of rest And so the Jews take this word to signifie Cyprian properly the birds hatching of eggs S. Cyprian unites the two significations well Spiritus sanctus dabat aquis motum limitem The Holy Ghost enabled the waters to move and appointed how and how far they should move The beginnings and the waies and the ends must proceed from God and from God the Holy Ghost That is by those meanes and those declarations by which God doth manifest himselfe to us for that is the office of the holy Ghost to manifest and apply God to us Now the word in our Text is not truly Ferebatur The Spirit moved which denotes a thing past but the word is Movens Moving a Participle of the present So that we ascribe first Gods manifestation of himself in the creation and then the continuall manifestation of himself in his providence to the holy Ghost for God had two purposes in the creation Vt sint ut maneant That the creature should be and be still August That it should exist at first and subsist after Be made and made permanent God did not mean that Paradise should have been of so small use when he made it he made it for a perpetuall habitation for man God did not mean that man should be the subject of his wrath when he made him he made him to take pleasure in and to shed glory upon him The holy Ghost moves he is the first author the holy Ghost perpetuates settles establishes he is our rest and acquiescence and center Beginning Way End all is in this word Recaph The Spirit of God moved and rested And upon what And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters S. Augustine observing aright That at this time of which this Text is spoken Facies aquarum The waters enwrapped all the whole substance the whole matter of which all things were to be created all was surrounded with the waters all was embowelled and enwombed in the waters And so the holy Ghost moving and resting upon the face of the waters moved and rested did his office upon the whole Masse of the world and so produced all that was produced and this admits no contradiction no doubt but that thus the thing was done and that this this word implies But whether the holy Ghost wrought this production of the severall creatures by himself or whether he infused and imprinted a naturall power in the waters and all the substance under the waters to produce creatures naturally of themselves hath received some doubt It need not for the worke ascribed to the holy Ghost here is not the working by nature but the creating of nature Not what nature did after but how nature her self was created at first In this action this moving and resting upon the face of the waters that is all involved in the waters the Spirit of God the holy Ghost hatched produced then all those creatures For no power infused into the waters or earth then could have enabled that earth then to have produced Trees with ripe fruits in an instant nor the waters to have brought forth Whales in their growth in an instant The Spirit of God produced them then and established and conserves ever since that seminall power which we call nature to produce all creatures then first made by himselfe in a perpetuall Succession And so have you these words And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters literally historically And now these three termes The Spirit of God Moved Vpon the face of the waters You are also to receive in a spirituall sense in the second world the Christian Church The Person the Action
include S. Peters whole Sermon into one branch of one part of one of mine Only I refresh to your memories that which I presume you have often read in this Story and this Chapter that though S. Peter say That God is no such accepter of persons Ver. 35.36 but that in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousnesse is accepted with him yet it is upon this ground Christ Jesus is Lord of all And as it is ver 42. He hath commanded us to preach that is he hath established a Church and therein visible meanes of salvation And then this is our generall text the subject of all our Sermons That through his name Ver. 43 whosoever beleeveth in him shall have remission of sins So that this is all that we dare avow concerning salvation that howsoever God may afford salvation to some in all nations yet he hath manifested to us no way of conveying salvation to them but by the manifeltation of Christ Jesus in his Ordinance of preaching And such a manifestation of Christ had God here ordained for this Centurion Cornelius But why for him I doe not ask reasons of Gods mercy to particular men for if I would do so when should I finde a reason why he hath shewed mercy to me But yet Audite omnes Chrysoft qui in Militia estis Regibus assistitis All that serve in Wars or Courts may finde something to imitate in this Centurion He was a devout man A Souldier and yet devout God forbid they were so incompatible as that courage and devotion might not consist A man that feared God A Souldiers profession is fearlesnesse And only he that feares God feares nothing else He and all his house A Souldier yet kept a house and did not alwayes wander He kept his house in good order and with good meanes He gave much almes Though Armes be an expensive profession for outward splendor yet hereserved for almes much almes And he prayed to God alwayes Though Armes require much time for the duties thereof yet he could pray at those times In his Trenches at the Assault or at the defence of a Breach he could pray All this the holy Ghost testifies of him together ver 2. And this was his generall disposition and then those who came from him to Peter adde this That he had a good report amongst all the Nation of the Iews ver 22. And this to a stranger for the Jews loved not strangers and one that served the State in such a place as that he could not choose but be heavy to the Jews was hard to have And then himself when Peter comes to him addes thus much more That this first mercy of God in having sent his Angel and that farther mercy that that Angel named a man and then that man came was exhibited to him then when he was fasting Ver. 30 And then this man thus humbled and macerated by fasting thus soupled and entendered with the feare of God thus burnt up and calcined with zeal and devotion thus united to God by continuall prayer thus tributary to God by giving almes thus exemplar in himself at home to lead all his house and thus diffusive of himselfe to others abroad to gain the love of good men this man prostrates himselfe to Peter at his comming in such an over-reverentiall manner as Peter durst not accept but took him up Ver. 26. and said I my selfe am also a man Sudden devotion comes quickly neare superstition This is a misery which our time hath been well acquainted with and had much experience of and which grows upon us still That when men have been mellowed with the feare of God and by heavy corrections and calamities brought to a greater rendernesse of conscience then before in that distemper of melancholy and inordinate sadnesse they have been easiliest seduced and withdrawne to a superstitious and Idolatrous religion I speak this because from the highest to the lowest place there are Sentinels planted in every corner to watch all advantages and if a man lose his preferment at Court or lose his childe at home or lose any such thing as affects him much and imprints a deep sadnesse for the losse thereof they work upon that sadnesse to make him a Papist When men have lived long from God they never think they come neare enough to him except they go beyond him because they have never offered to come to him before now when they would come they imagine God to be so hard of accesse that there is no comming to him but by the intervention and intercession of Saints and they thinke that that Church in which they have lived ill cannot be a good Church whereas if they would accustome themselves in a daily performing of Christian duties to an ordinary presence of God Religion would not be such a stranger nor devotion such an Ague unto them But when Peter had rectified Cornelius in this mistaking in this over-valuing of any person and then saw Cornclius his disposition who had brought materials to erect a Church in his house by calling his kinsmen and his friends together to heare Peter Peter spoke those words Which whilest he yet spake the holy Ghost fell upon all them that heard the word And so we are fallen into our second part In this 2. Part. the first Consideration falls upon the person that fell And as the Trinity is the most mysterious piece of our Religion and hardest to be comprehended So in the Trinity the Holy Ghost is the most mysterious person and hardest to be expressed We are called the houshold of God and the family of the faithfull and therefore out of a contemplation and ordinary acquaintance with the parts of families we are apter to conceive any such thing in God himself as we see in a family We seeme not to goe so farre out of our way of reason to beleeve a father and a son because father and son are pieces of families nor in beleeving Christ and his Church because husband and wife are pieces of families We goe not so farre in beleeving Gods working upon us either by ministring spirits from above or by his spirituall ministers here upon earth for master and servants are pieces of families But does there arise any such thing out of any of these couples Father and Son Husband and Wife Master and Servant as should come from them and they be no whit before neither Is there any thing in naturall or civill families that should assist our understanding to apprehend this That in heaven there should be a Holy Spirit so as that the Father and the Son being all Spirit and all Holy and all Holinesse there should be another Holy Spirit which had all their Essentiall holinesse in him and another holinesse too Sanctitatem Sanctificantem a holinesse that should make us holy It was a hard work for the Apostles and their successors at first to draw the Godhead into one into an unity
root and bring that comfort to the fruit and confesse that God who is both is the God of all comfort Follow God in the execution of this good purpose upon thee to thy Vocation and heare him who hath left East and West and North and South in their dimnesse and dumnesse and deafnesse and hath called thee to a participation of himselfe in his Church Go on with him to thy justification That when in the congregation one sits at thy right hand and beleeves but historically It may be as true which is said of Christ as of William the Conquerour and as of Iulius Caesar and another at thy left hand and beleeves Christ but civilly It was a Religion well invented and keeps people well in order and thou betweene them beleevest it to salvation in an applying faith proceed a step farther to feele this fire burning out thy faith declared in works thy justification growne into sanctification And then thou wilt be upon the last staire of all That great day of thy glorification will breake out even in this life and either in the possessing of the good things of this world thou shalt see the glory and in possessing the comforts of this World see the joy of Heaven or else which is another of his wayes in the want of all these thou shalt have more comfort then others have or perchance then thou shouldest have in the possessing of them for he is the God of all comfort and of all the wayes of comfort And therefore Blessed be God even the Father c. SERM. XXXIX Preached upon Trinity-Sunday 1 PET. 1.17 And if ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans works passe the time of your sojourning here in feare YOu may remember that I proposed to exercise your devotions and religious meditations in these exercises with words which might present to you first the severall persons in the Trinity and the benefits which we receive in receiving God in those distinct notions of Father Son and holy Ghost And then with other words which might present those sins and the danger of those sins which are most particularly opposed against those severall persons Of the first concerning the person of the Father we spoke last and of the other concerning sins against the Father these words will occasion us to speak now It is well noted upon those words of David Psal 51.1 Have mercy upon me O God that the word is Elohim which is Gods in the plurall Have mercy upon me O Gods for David though he conceived not divers Gods yet he knew three divers persons in that one God and he knew that by that sin which he lamented in that Psalme that peccatum complicatum that manifold sin that sin that enwrapped so many sins he had offended all those three persons For whereas we consider principally in the Father Potestatem Power and in the Son Sapientiam Wisdome and in the holy Ghost Bonitatem Goodnesse David had sinned against the Father in his notion In potestate in abusing his power and kingly authority to a mischievous and bloody end in the murder of Vriah And he had sinned against the Son in his notion In sapientia in depraving and detorting true wisdome into craft and treachery And he had sinned against the holy Ghost in his notion In bonitate when he would not be content with the goodnesse and piety of Vriah who refused to take the eases of his owne house and the pleasure of his wifes bosome as long as God himselfe in his army lodged in Tents and stood in the face of the Enemy Sins against the Father then we consider especially to be such as are In potestate Either in a neglect of Gods Power over us or in an abuse of that power which we have from God over others and of one branch of that power particularly of Judgement is this Text principally intended If ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth c. In the words we shall insist but upon two parts Divisio First A Counsaile which in the Apostles mouth is a commandement And then a Reason an inducement which in the Apostles mouth is a forcible an unresistible argument The Counsell that is The commandement is If ye call on the Father feare him stand in feare of him And the reason that is the Argument is The name of Father implyes a great power over you therefore feare him And amongst other powers a power of judging you of calling you to an account therefore feare him In which Judgement this Judge accepts no persons but judges his sons as his servants and therefore feare him And then he judges not upon words outward professions but upon works actions according to every mans works and therefore feare him And then as on his part he shall certainly call you to judgement when you goe hence so on your part certainly it cannot be long before you goe hence for your time is but a sojourning here it is not a dwelling And yet it is a sojourning here it is not a posting a gliding through the world but such a stay as upon it our everlasting dwelling depends And therefore that we may make up this circle and end as we begun with the feare of God passe that time that is all that time in fear In fear of neglecting and undervaluing or of over-tempting that great power which is in the Father And in feare of abusing those limnes and branches and beames of that power which he hath communicated to thee in giving thee power and authority any way over others for these To neglect the power of the Father or To abuse that power which the Father hath given thee over others are sinnes against the Father who is power If ye call on the Father c. First then for the first part the Counsell Si invocatis If ye call on the Father In timore 1. Part. Doe it in feare The Counsell hath not a voluntary Condition and arbitrary in our selves annexed to it If you call then feare does not import If you doe not call you need not feare It does not import That if you professe a particular forme of Religion you are bound to obey that Church but if you doe not but have fancied a religion to your selfe without precedent Or a way to salvation without any particular religion Or a way out of the world without any salvation or damnation but a going out like a candle if you can think thus you need not feare This is not the meaning of this If in this place If you call on the Father c. But this If implyes a wonder an impossibility that any man should deny God to be the Father If the author the inventer of any thing usefull for this life be called the father of that invention by the holy Ghost himselfe Gen. 4.20 Iabal was the father of such as dwell in Tents and Tubal his brother
occasion to prove the Deity of Christ this text hath been cited and therefore I take it now when in my course proposed I am to speak of the second Person in the Trinity but as I said of the first Person the Father not as in the Schoole but in the Church not in a Chaire but in a Pulpit not to a Congregation that required proofe in a thing doubted but edification upon a foundation received not as though any of us would dispute whether Jesus Christ were the Lord but that all of us would joyne in that Excommunication If any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be c. Let this then be the frame that this exercise shall stand upon We have three parts The person upon whom our Religious worship is to be directed The Lord Iesus Christ And secondly we have the expression and the limitation of that worship as farre as it is expressed here Love the Lord Iesus Christ And lastly we have the imprecation upon them that doe not If any man doe not let him be Anathema Maranatha In the first we have Verbum naturale verbum innatum As he is the essentiall word The Lord a name proper only to God And then Verbum conceptum verbum illatum Gods Decree upon consideration of mans misery that Christ should be a Redeemer for to that intent he is Christus Anointed to that purpose And lastly Verbum prolatum verbum manifestatum That this Christ becomes Iesus That this Decree is executed that this person thus anointed for this office is become an actuall Saviour So the Lord is made Christ and Christ is made Iesus In the second Part we shall finde another argument for his Deity for there is such a love required towards the Lord Iesus Christ as appertaines to God onely And lastly we shall have the indeterminable and indispensable excommunication of them who though they pretend to love the Lord God in an universall notion yet doe not love the Lord Iesus Christ God in this apprehension of a Saviour and If any man love not c. First then in the first branch of the first part in that name of our Saviour The Lord 1 Part. Dominus we apprehend the eternall Word of God the Son of God the second Person in the Trinity for He is Persona producta Begotten by another and therefore cannot be the first And he is Persona spirans a Person out of whom with the Father another Person that is the Holy Ghost proceeds and therefore cannot be the last Person and there are but three Nazian and so he necessarily the second Shall we hope to comprehend this by reason Quid magni haberet Dei generatio si angusti is intellectus tui comprehenderetur How small a thing were this mystery of Heaven if it could be shut in in so narrow a piece of the earth Idem as thy heart Qui tuam ipsius generationē vel in totum nescis vel dicere sit pudor Thou that knowest nothing of thine owne begetting or art ashamed to speake that little that thou doest know of it wilt not thou be ashamed to offer to expresse the eternall generation of the Son of God It is true De modo How it was done our reason cannot but De facto that it was done our reason may be satisfied We beleeve nothing with a morall faith till something have wrought upon our reason and vanquished that and made it assent and subscribe Our divine faith requires evidence too and hath it abundantly for the works of God are not so good evidence to my reason as the Word of God is to my faith The Sun shining is not so good a proofe that it is day as the Word of God the Scripture is that that which is commanded there is a duty The roote of our beliefe that Christ is God is in the Scriptures but wee consider it spread into three branches 1 The evident Word it selfe that Christ is God 2 The reall declaration thereof in his manifold Miracles 3 The conclusions that arise to our understanding thus illumined by the Scriptures thus established by his miracles In every mouth Ex Scripturis in every pen of the Scriptures that delivers any truth the Holy Ghost speaks and therefore whatsoever is said by any there is the testimony of the Holy Ghost for the Deity of Christ And from the Father we have this testimony that he is his Son Mat. 3. ult Heb. 1.8 This is my beloved Son And this testimony that his Son is God Vnto his Son he saith Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever The Holy Ghost testifies and his Father and himselfe Apoc. 1.8 and his testimony is true I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is which was and which is to come the Almighty Hee testifies with his Father Apoc. 22.16 and then their Angels and his Apostles testifie with him I Iesus have sent mine Angels to testifie unto you these things in the Church That I am the Roote and the Off-spring of David not the off-spring onely but the roote too and therefore was before David God and his Angels in Heaven testifie it And visible Angels upon earth his Apostles Acts 20.28 God hath purchased his Church with his owne blood sayes S. Paul He who shed his blood for his Church was God and no false God no mortall God as the gods of the Nations were 1 Iohn 5.20 Tit. 2.13 but This is the true God and cternall life and then no small God no particular God as the Gods of the Nations were too but We looke for the glorious appearing of our great God our Saviour Christ Iesus God that is God in all the Persons Angels that is Angels in all their acceptations Angels of Heaven Angels of the Church Angels excommunicate from both the fallen Angels Devils themselves testifie his Godhead Mar. 3.11 Vncleane Spirits fell downe before him and cryed Thou art the Sonne of God This is the testimony of his Word Miracula the testimony of his Works are his Miracles That his Apostles did Miracles in his name Acts 3.16 was a testimony of his Deity His name through faith in his Name hath made this man strong sayes S. Peter at the raysing of the Creeple But that he did Miracles in his own Name by his own Power is a nearer testimony Belssed be the Lord God of Israel Psal 72.18 sayes David Qui facit Mirabilia solus Which doth his Miracles alone without deriving power from any other or without using an other instrument for his Power Epipha For Mutare naturam nisi qui Dominus naturae est non potest Whosoever is able to change the course of nature is the Lord of nature And he that is so made it he that made it Tertul. that created it is God Nay Plus est it is more to change the course of Nature
soon as the Christian Church had a constant establishment under Christian Emperours and before the Church had her tympany of worldly prosperity under usurping Bishops in this outward service of God there were particular Scriptures appropriated to particular dayes Particular men have not liked this that it should be so And yet that Church which they use to take for their patterne I meane Geneva as soone as it came to have any convenient establishment by the labours of that Reverend man who did so much in the rectifying thereof admitted this custome of celebrating certaine times by the reading of certaine Scriptures So that in the pure times of the Church without any question and in the corrupter times of the Church without any infection and in the Reformed times of the Church without any suspition of back-sliding this custome hath beene retained which our Church hath retained and according to which custome these words have been appropriated to this day for the celebrating thereof And lo A voice came c. In which words we have pregnant and just occasion to consider first Divisio the necessity of the Doctrine of the Trinity Secondly the way and meanes by which we are to receive our knowledge and understannding of this mystery And thirdly the measure of this knowledge How much we are to know or to inquire in that unsearchable mystery The Quid what it is the Quomodo How we are to learne it and the Quantum How farre we are to search into it will be our three Parts We consider the first of these the necessity of that knowledge to a Christian by occasion of the first Particle in the Text And A Particle of Connexion and Dependance and we see by this Connexion and Dependance that this revealing this manifestation of the Trinity in the text was made presently after the Baptisme of Christ and that intimates and inferres That the first and principall duty of him who hath ingrafted himself into the body of the Christian Church by Baptisme is to informe himselfe of the Trinity in whose name he is Baptized Secondly in the meanes by which this knowledge of the Trinity is to be derived to us in those words Lo a voyce came from heaven saying we note the first word to be a word of Correction and of Direction Ecce Behold leave your blindnesse look up shake off your stupidity look one way or other A Christian must not goe on implicitely inconsiderately indifferently he must look up he must intend a calling And then Ecce againe Behold that is Behold the true way A Christian must not thinke he hath done enough if he have been studious and diligent in finding the mysteries of Religion if he have not sought them the right way First there is an Ecce corrigentis we are chidden if we be lazy And then there is an Ecce dirigentis we are guided if we be doubtfull And from this we fall into the way it selfe which is first A voyce There must be something heard for take the largest Spheare and compasse of all other kinds of proofes for the mysteries of Religion which can be proposed Take it first at the first and weakest kinde of proofe at the book of creatures which is but a faint knowledge of God in respect of that knowledge with which we must know him And then continue this first way of knowledge to the last and powerfullest proofe of all which is the power of miracles not this weake beginning not this powerfull end not this Alpha of Creatures not this Omega of miracles can imprint in us that knowledge which is our saving knowledge nor any other meanes then a voyce for this knowing is beleeving And how should they beleeve except they heare sayes the Apostle It must be Vox A voyce And Vox de coelis A voyce from heaven For we have have had voces de terra voyces of men who have indeed but diminished the dignity of the Doctrine of the Trinity by going about to prove it by humane reason or to illustrate it by weak and low comparisons And we have had voces de Inferis voyces from the Devill himselfe in the mouthes of many Heretiques blasphemously impugning this Doctrine Wee have had voces de profundis voyces fetched from the depth of the malice of the Devill Heretiques And voces de medio voyces taken from the ordinary strength of Morall men Philosophers But this is vox de Excelsis onely that voyce that comes from Heaven belongs to us in this mystery And then lastly it is vox dicens a voyce saying speaking which is proper to man for nothing speaks but man It is Gods voyce but presented to us in the ministery of man And this is our way To behold that is to depart from our own blindnesse and to behold a way that is shewed us but shewed us in the word and in the word of God and in that word of God preached by man And after all this we shall consider the measure of this knowledge in those last words This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased For in that word Meus My there is the Person of the Father In the Filius there is the Person of the Son and in the Hic est This is there is the Person of the Holy Ghost for that is the action of the Holy Ghost in that word He is pointed at who was newly baptized and upon whom the Holy Ghost in the Dove was descended and had tarried But we shall take those words in their order when we come to them First then 1 Part. we noted the necessity of knowing the Trinity to be pregnantly intimated in the first word Et And This connects it to the former part of the history which is Christs Baptisme and presently upon that Baptisme this manifestation of the holy Trinity Consider a man as a Christian his first Element is Baptisme and his next is Catechisme and in his Catechisme the first is to beleeve a Father Son and holy Ghost There are in this man this Christian Tres nativitates sayes S. Gregory three births one Per generationem so we are borne of our naturall mother one Per regenerationem so we are borne of our spirituall Mother the Church by Baptisme and a third Per Resurrectionem and so we are borne of the generall Mother of us all when the earth shall be delivered not of twins but of millions when she shall empty her selfe of all her children in the Resurrection And these three Nativities our Saviour Christ Jesus had Of which three Hodie alter salvator is natalis sayes S. Augustine This day is the day of Christs second birth that is of his Baptisme Not that Christ needed any Regeneration but that it was his abundant goodnesse to sanctifie in his person and in his exemplar action that Element which should be an instrument of our Regeneration in Baptisme the water for ever Even in Christ himselfe Honoratior secunda sayes
power Via miraculorum Miracles no man may ground his beliefe upon that which seems a Miracle to him Moses wrought Miracles and Pharaohs instruments wrought the like we know theirs were no true Miracles and we know Moses were but how do we know this By another voyce by the Word of God who cannot lie for for those upon whom those Miracles were to worke on both sides Moses and they too seemed to the beholders diversly disposed to do Miracles One Rule in discerning and judging a Miracle is to consider whether it be done in confirmation of a necessary Truth otherwise it is rather to be suspected for an Illusion then accepted for a Miracle The Rule is intimated in Deuteronomy where Deut. 13. though a Prophets prophecy do come to passe yet if his end be to draw to other gods he must be slaine What Miracles soever are pretended in confirmation of the inventions of Men are to be neglected God hath not carried us so low for our knowledge as to Creatures to Nature nor so high as to Miracles but by a middle way By a voyce But it is Vox de Coelis A voyce from heaven S. Basil applying indeed with some wresting and derorting those words in the 29 Psalme vers 3. De Coelis The voyce of the Lord is upon the waters the God of glory maketh it to thunder to this Baptisme of Christ he sayes Vox super aquas Ioannes The words of Iohn at Christs Baptisme were this voyce that David intends And then that manifestation which God gave of the Trinity whatsoever it were altogether that was the Thunder of his Majesty so this Thunder then was vox de Coelis A voyce from heaven And in this voyce the person of the Father was manifested as he was in the same voyce at his Transfiguration Since this voyce then is from Heaven and is the Fathers voyce we must looke for all our knowledge of the Trinity from thence For to speake of one of those persons Mat. 11.27 of Christ no man knoweth the Sonne but the Father Who then but he can make us know him If any knew it yet it is an unexpressible mystery no man could reveale it Mat. 16.17 Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in heaven If any could reveale it to us yet none could draw us to beleeve it No man can come to me except the Father draw him Iohn 6.44 So that all our voyce of Direction must be from thence De Coelis from Heaven We have had Voces de Inferis voyces from Hell in the blasphemies of Heretiques De Inferis That the Trinity was but Cera extensa but as a Rolle of Wax spread or a Dough Cake rolled out and so divided unto persons That the Trinity was but a nest of Boxes a lesser in a greater and not equall to one another And then that the Trinity was not onely three persons but three Gods too So far from the truth and so far from one another have Heretiques gone in the matter of the Trinity and Cerinthus so far in that one person in Christ as to say That Jesus and Christ were two distinct persons and that into Jesus who sayes he was the sonne of Ioseph Christ who was the Spirit of God descended here at his Baptisme and was not in him before and withdrew himselfe from him againe at the time of his Passion and was not in him then so that he was not borne Christ nor suffered not being Christ but was onely Christ in his preaching and in his Miracles and in all the rest he was but Jesus sayes Cerinthus We have had Voces de Inferis de profundis from the depth of hell De Medio in the malice of Heretiques And we have had Voces de medio voyces from amongst us Inventions of men to expresse and to make us understand the Trinity in pictures and in Comparisons All which to contract this point are apt to fall into that abuse which we will onely note in one At first they used ordinarily to expresse the Trinity in foure letters which had no ill purpose in it at first but was a religious ease for their memories in Catechismes The letters were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the two last belonged to the last person for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so there was Father Sonne and Holy Ghost as if we should expresse it in F and S and H and G. But this came quickly thus far into abuse as that they thought there could belong but three letters in that picture to the three persons and therefore allowing so many to Father Sonne and Holy Ghost they tooke the last letter P for Petrus and so made Peter head of the Church and equall to the Trinity So that for our knowledge in this mysterious doctrine of the Trinity let us evermore rest in voce de coelis in that voice which came from heaven But yet it is Vox dicens Dicens A voice saying speaking A voice that man is capable of and may be benefited by It is not such a voice as that was which came from heaven too when Christ prayed to God to glorifie his name Iohn 12.28 That the people should say some that it was a Thunder some that it was an Angel that spake They are the sons of Thunder and they are the Ministeriall Angels of the Church from whom we must heare this voice of heaven Nothing can speak but man No voice is understood by man but the voice of man It is not Vox dicens That voyce sayes nothing to me that speaks not And therefore howsoever the voice in the Text were miraculously formed by God to give this glory and dignity to this first manifestation of the Trinity in the person of Christ yet because he hath left it for a permanent Doctrine necessary to Salvation he hath left ordinary means for the conveying of it that is The same voice from heaven the same word of God but speaking in the ministery of man And therefore for our measure of this knowledge which is our third and last Part we are to see how Christian men whose office it hath been to interpret Scriptures that is how the Catholike Church hath understood these words Hic est Filius This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased How we are to receive the knowledge of the Trinity 3 Part. Athanasius hath expressed as far as we can goe Whosoever will be saved hee must beleeve it but the manner of it is not exposed so far as to his beliefe That question of the Prophet Quis
This is my beloved Son this day have I begotten him And with such Copies it seemes both Iustin Martyr and Irenaeus met for they reade these words so and interpret them accordingly But these words are misplaced and mis-transferred out of the second Psalme where they are And as they change the words and in stead of In quo complacui In whom I am well pleased reade This day have I begotten thee S. Cyprian addes other words to the end of these which are Hunc audite Heare him Which words when these words were repeated at the Transfiguration were spoken but here at the Baptisme they were not what Copy soever misled S. Cyprian or whether it were the failing of his own memory But S. Chrysostome gives an expresse reason why those words were spoken at the Transfiguration and not here Because saies he Here was onely a purpose of a Manifestation of the Trinity so farre as to declare their persons who they were and no more At the Trans-figuration where Moses and Elias appeared with Christ there God had a purpose to preferre the Gospel above the Law and the Prophets and therefore in that place he addes that Hunc audite Heare him who first fulfills all the Law and the Prophets and then preaches the Gospel He was so well pleased in him as that he was content to give all them that received him Eph. 1.6 power to become the Sons of God too as the Apostle sayes By his grace he hath made us accepted in his beloved Beloved That you may be so Come up from your Baptisme as it is said that Christ did Rise and ascend to that growth which your Baptisme prepared you to And the heavens shall open as then even Cataractae coeli All the windowes of heaven shall open and raine downe blessings of all kindes in abundance And the Holy Ghost shall descend upon you as a Dove in his peacefull comming in your simple and sincere receiving him And he shall rest upon you to effect and accomplish his purposes in you If he rebuke you as Christ when he promises the Holy Ghost though he call him a Comforter John 16.7 sayes That he shall rebuke the world of divers things yet he shall dwell upon you as a Dove Quae si mordet osculando mordet sayes S. Augustine If the Dove bite it bites with kissing if the Holy Ghost rebuke he rebukes with comforting And so baptized and so pursuing the contract of your Baptisme and so crowned with the residence of his blessed Spirit in your holy conversation hee shall breathe a soule into your soule by that voyce of eternall life You are my beloved Sonnes in whom I am well pleased SERM. XLIV Preached at S. Dunstanes upon Trinity-Sunday 1627. REV. 4.8 And the foure Beasts had each of them sixe wings about him and they were full of eyes within And they rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come THese words are part of that Scripture which our Church hath appointed to be read for the Epistle of this day This day which besides that it is the Lords day the Sabbath day is also especially consecrated to the memory and honour of the whole Trinity The Feast of the Nativity of Christ Christmas day which S. Chrysostome calls Metropolin omnium festorum The Metropolitane festivall of the Church is intended principally to the honour of the Father who was glorified in that humiliation of that Son that day because in that was laid the foundation and first stone of that house and Kingdome in which God intended to glorifie himselfe in this world that is the Christian Church The Feast of Easter is intended principally to the honour of the Son himselfe who upon that day began to lift up his head above all those waters which had surrounded him and to shake off the chaines of death and the grave and hell in a glorious Reserrection And then the Feast of Pentecost was appropriated to the honour of the Holy Ghost who by a personall falling upon the Apostles that day inabled them to propagate this Glory of the Father and this death and Resurrection of the Son to the ends of the world to the ends in Extention to all places to the ends in Duration to all times Now as S. Augustine sayes Nullus eorum extra quemlibet eorum est Every Person of the Trinity is so in every other person as that you cannot think of a Father as a Father but that there falls a Son into the same thought nor think of a person that proceeds from others but that they from whom he whom ye think of proceeds falls into the same thought as every person is in every person And as these three persons are contracted in their essence into one God-head so the Church hath also contracted the honour belonging to them in this kinde of Worship to one day in which the Father and Son and Holy Ghost as they are severally in those three severall dayes might bee celebrated joyntly and altogether It was long before the Church did institute a particular Festivall to this purpose For before they made account that that verse which was upon so many occasions repeated in the Liturgy and Church Service Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost had a convenient sufficiency in it to keep men in a continuall remembrance of the Trinity But when by that extreame inundation and increase of Arians these notions of distinct Persons in the Trinity came to be obliterated and discontinued the Church began to refresh her selfe in admitting into to the formes of Common Prayer some more particular notifications and remembrances of the Trnity And at last though it were very long first for this Festivall of this Trinity-Sunday was not instituted above foure hundred yeares since they came to ordaine this day Which day our Church according to that peacefull wisedome wherewithall the God of Peace of Unity and Concord had inspired her did in the Reformation retaine and continue out of her generall religious tendernesse and holy loathnesse to innovate any thing in those matters which might bee safely and without superstition continued and entertained For our Church in the Reformation proposed not that for her end how shee might goe from Rome but how she might come to the Truth nor to cast away all such things as Rome had depraved but to purge away those depravations and conserve the things themselves so restored to their first good use For this day then were these words appointed by our Church Divisic And therefore we are sure that in the notion and apprehension and construction of our Church these words appertaine to the Trinity In them therefore we shall consider first what these foure creatures were which are notified and designed to us in the names and figures of foure Beasts And then what these foure creatures did Their Persons and their Action will be our two
lesse Idolum Aeternitatis Perpetuity is but an Idol compared to eternity And an Idol is nothing sayes the Apostle Our soules have a blessed perpetuity our soules shall no more see an end then God that hath no Beginning and yet our soules are very far from being eternal But those gods are so far from being eternall as that considered as Gods that is celebrated with Divine worship they are not perpetual Psal 48.14 Psal 102.11 But God is our God for ever and ever ever without beginning and ever without end My dayes are like a shadow that fadeth and I am withered like grasse but thou O Lord dost remaine for ever and thy remembrance from generation to generation It is a remaining and it is a remembrance which words denote a former being So that God our God and onely he is eternall To conclude all with that which must be the conclusion of all at last this Eternity of our God is expressed here in a phrase which designes and presents the last Judgement that is which was and is and is to come For though it be Qui fuit Which was and Qui est Which is yet it is not Qui futurus Which is to be but Qui venturus Which is to come that is to come to Judgement as it is in divers other places of this Book Qui venturus Which is to come For though the last judiciary Power the finall Judgement of the World be to be executed by Christ as he is the Son of Man visibly apparantly in that nature yet Christ is therein as a Delegate of the Trinity It is in the vertue and power of that Commission Data est mihi omnis potestas He hath all Power but that Power that he hath as the Son of man is given him For as the Creation of the World was so the Judgement of the World shal be the Act of the whole Trinity For if we consider the second Person in the Trinity in both his Natures as he redeemed us God and Man so it cannot be said of him that He was that is that he was eternally for there was a time when that God was not that man when that Person Christ was not constituted And therefore this word in our Text which was which is also true of the rest is not appropriated to Christ but intended of the whole Trinity So that it is the whole Trinity that is to come To come to Judgement And therefore let us reverently embrace such provisions and such assistances as the Church of God hath ordained for retaining and celebrating the Trinity in this particular contemplation as they are to come to Judgement And let us at least provide so far to stand upright in that Judgement as not to deny nor to dispute the Power or the Persons of those Judges A man may make a pety larceny high treason so If being called in question for that lesser offence he will deny that there is any such Power any such Soveraigne any such King as can call him in question for it he may turne his whipping into a quartering At that last Judgement we shall be arraigned for not cloathing not visiting not harbouring the poore For our not giving is a taking away our withholding is a withdrawing our keeping to our selves is a stealing from them But yet all this is but a pety larceny in respect of that high treason of infidelity of denying or doubting of the distinct Persons of the holy blessed and glorious Trinity To beleeve in God one great one universall one infinite power does but distinguish us from beasts For there are no men that do not acknowledge such a Power or that do not believe in it if they acknowledge it Even they that acknowledge the devill to be God beleeve in the devill But that which distinguishes man from man that which onely makes his Immortality a blessing for even Immortality is part of their damnation that are damned because it were an ease it were a kind of pardon to them to be mortall to be capable of death though after millions of generations is to conceive aright of the Power of the Father of the Wisdome of the Son of the Goodnesse of the Holy Ghost Of the Mercie of the Father of the Merits of the Son of the Application of the Holy Ghost Of the Creation of the Father of the Redemption of the Son of the Sanctification of the Holy Ghost Without this all notions of God are but confused all worship of God is but Idolatry all confession of God is but Atheisme For so the Apostle argues When you were without Christ you were without God Without this all morall vertues are but diseases Liberality is but a popular baite and not a benefit not an almes Chastity is but a castration and an impotency not a temperance not mortification Active valour is but a fury whatsoever we do and passive valour is but a stupidity whatsoever we suffer Naturall apprehensions of God though those naturall apprehensions may have much subtilty Voluntary elections of a Religion though those voluntary elections may have much singularity Morall directions for life though those morall directions may have much severity are all frivolous and lost if all determine not in Christianity in the Notion of God so as God hath manifested and conveyed himself to us in God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost whom this day we celebrate in the Ingenuity and in the Assiduity and in the Totality recommended in this text and in this acclamation of the text Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come SERM. XLV PREACHED VPON ALL-SAINTS DAY APOC. 7.2 3. And I saw another Angel ascending from the East which had the seale of the living God and he cryed with a loud voyce to the foure Angels to whom power was given to hurt the Earth and the Sea saying Hurt yee not the Earth neither the Sea neither the Trees till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads THe solemnity and festivall with which the sonnes of the Catholique Church of God celebrate this day is much mistaken even by them who thinke themselves the onely Catholiques and celebrate this day with a devotion at least near to superstition in the Church of Rome For they take it for the most part to be a festivall instituted by the Church in contemplation of the Saints in heaven onely and so carry and employ all their devotions this day upon consideration of those Saints and invocation of them onely But the institution of this day had this occasion The heathen Romans who could not possibly house all their gods in severall Temples they were so over-many according to their Law Deos frugi colunto to serve God as cheape as they could made one Temple for them all which they called Pantheon To all the Gods This Temple Boniface the Pope begd of the Emperour Phocas And yet by the way this was some hundreds of
he had meant to doe you good he would never have gone thus farre in heaping of evills upon you Upon what doest thou ground this upon thy selfe Because thou shouldest not deal thus with any man whom thou mean'st well to How poore how narrow how impious a measure of God is this that he must doe as thou wouldest doe if thou wert God! God hath not made a week without a Sabbath no tentation without an issue God inflicts no calamity no cloud no eclipse without light to see ease in it if the patient will look upon that which God hath done to him in other cases or to that which God hath done to others at other times Saul fell to the ground but he fell no lower God brings us to humiliation but not to desperation He fell Caecus Iohn 9.39 he fell to the ground And he fell blinde for so it is evident in the story Christ had said to the Pharisees I came into the world that they which see might be made blinde And the Pharisees ask him Have you been able to doe so upon us Are we blinde Here Christ gives them an example a reall a literall an actuall example Saul a Pharisee is made blinde He that will fill a vessell with wine must take out the water He that will fill a covetous mans hand with gold must take out the silver that was there before sayes S. Chrysostome Christ who is about to infuse new light into Saul withdrawes that light that was in him before That light by which Saul thought he saw all before and thought himselfe a competent Judge which was the onely true Religion and that all others were to be persecuted Ier. 51.17 even to death that were not of his way Stultus factus est omnis homo à scientia sayes God in the Prophet Every man that trusts in his owne wit is a foole 1 Cor. 3.18 But let him become a foole that he may be wise sayes the Apostle Let him be so in his own eyes and God will give him better eyes better light better understanding Saul was struck blinde but it was a blindnesse contracted from light It was a light that struck him blinde as you see in his story This blindnesse which we speak of which is a sober and temperate abstinence from the immoderate study and curious knowledges of this world this holy simplicity of the soule is not a darknesse a dimnesse a stupidity in the understanding contracted by living in a corner it is not an idle retiring into a Monastery or into a Village or a Country solitude it is not a lazy affectation of ignorance not darknesse but a greater light must make us blinde The sight and the Contemplation of God and our present benefits by him and our future interest in him must make us blinde to the world so as that we look upon no face no pleasure no knowledge with such an Affection such an Ambition such a Devotion as upon God and the wayes to him Saul had such a blindnesse as came from light we must affect no other simplicity then arises from the knowledge of God and his Religion And then Saul had such a blindnesse as that he fell with it There are birds that when their eyes are cieled still soare up and up till they have spent all their strength Men blinded with the lights of this world soare still into higher places or higher knowledges or higher opinions but the light of heaven humbles us and layes flat that soule which the leaven of this world had puffed and swelled up That powerfull light felled Saul but after he was fallen his owne sight was restored to him againe Ananias saies to him Brother Saul receive thy sight To those men who imploy their naturall faculties to the glory of God and their owne and others edification God shall afford an exaltation of those naturall faculties In those who use their learning or their wealth or their power well God shall increase that power and that wealth and that learning even in this world You have seene Sauls sicknesse 3 Part. and the exaltation of the disease Then when he breathed threatnings and slaughter Then when he went in his triumph And you have seen his death The death of the righteous His humiliation He fell to the earth And there remaines yet his Resurrection The Angel of the great Counsell Christ Jesus with the Trumpet of his owne mouth rayses him with that Saul Saul why persecutest thou mee First Vox he affords him a call A voyce Saul could not see Therefore he deales not upon him by visions He gives a voyce and a voyce that he might heare God speaks often when we doe not heare He heard it and heard it saying Not a voyce only but a distinct and intelligible voyce and saying unto him that is appliable to himselfe and then that that the voyce said to him was Saul Saul why persecutest thou me We are unequall enemies Thou seest I am too hard for thee Curtu me why wilt thou thou in this weakenesse oppose me And then we might be good friends Thou seest I offer parly I offer treaty Cur tu me Why wilt thou oppose me me that declare such a disposition to be reconciled unto thee In this so great a disadvantage on thy part why wilt thou stirre at all In this so great a peaceablenesse on my part why wilt thou stirre against me Cur tu me Why persecutest thou me First then God speakes For beloved we are to consider God not as he is in himselfe but as he works upon us The first thing that we can consider in our way to God is his Word Our Regeneration is by his Word that is by faith which comes by hearing The seed is the word of God sayes Christ himselfe Even the seed of faith Luke 8.11 Carry it higher the Creation was by the word of God Dixit facta sunt God spoke and all things were made Carry it to the highest of all to Eternity the eternall Generation the eternall Production the eternall Procession of the second Person in the Trinity was so much by the Word as that he is the Word Verbum caro It was that Word that was made Flesh So that God who cannot enter into bands to us hath given us security enough He hath given us his Word His written Word his Scriptures His Essentiall Word his Son Our Principall and Radicall and Fundamentall security is his Essentiall Word his Son Christ Jesus But how many millions of generations was this Word in heaven and never spoke The Word Christ himself hath been as long as God hath been But the uttering of this Word speaking hath been but since the Creation Peter sayes to Christ To whom shall we goe Thou hast the words of eternall life It is not onely Iohn 6.68 Thou art the word of eternall life Christ is so But thou hast it Thou hast it where we may come to thee for it
so you have all that belongs to the Master and his manner of teaching David Catechising And all that belongs to the Doctrine and the Catechisme Blessednesse That is Reconciliation to God notified in those three acts of his mercy And all that belongs to the Disciple that is to be Catechized A docile an humble a sincere heart In whose spirit there is no guile And to these particulars in their order thus proposed we shall now passe That then which constitutes our first part is this That David 1. Part. Catechismus then whom this world never had a greater Master for the next amongst the sonnes of men delivers himselfe by way of Catechising of fundamentall and easie teaching As we say justly and confidently That of all Rhetoricall and Poeticall figures that fall into any Art we are able to produce higher straines and livelier examples out of the Scriptures then out of all the Orators and Poets in the world yet we reade not we preach not the Scriptures for that use to magnifie their Eloquence So in Davids Psalmes we finde abundant impressions and testimonies of his knowledge in all arts and all kinds of learning but that is not it which he proposes to us Davids last words are and in that Davids holy glory was placed That he was not onely the sweet Psalmist That he had an harmonious a melodious 2 Sam. 23.1 a charming a powerfull way of entring into the soule and working upon the affections of men but he was the sweet Psalmist of Israel He employed his faculties for the conveying of the God of Israel into the Israel of God Ver. 2. The spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue Not the spirit of Rhetorique nor the spirit of Poetry Ver. 3. nor the spirit of Mathematiques and Demonstration But The spirit of the Lord the Rock of Israel spake by me sayes he He boasts not that he had delivered himselfe in strong or deepe or mysterious Arts that was not his Rock but his Rock was the Rock of Israel His way was to establish the Church of God upon fundamentall Doctrines Moses was learned in all the wisedome of the Egyptians sayes Stephen Likely to be so Act. 7.22 because being adopted by the Kings daughter he had an extraordinary education Exod. 2.10 And likely also because he brought so good naturall faculties for his Masters to worke upon Vt Reminisci potiùs videretur quà m discere Philo. That whatsoever any Master proposed unto him he rather seemed to remember it then then to learne it but then And yet in Moses books we meet no great testimonies or deepe impressions of these learnings in Moses He had as S. Ambrose notes well more occasions to speak of Naturall philosophy in the Creation of the world and of the more secret and reserved and remote corners of Nature in those counterfeitings of Miracles in Pharaohs Court then he hath laid hold of So Nebuchadnezzar appointed his Officers that they should furnish his Court Dan. 1.4 with some young Gentlemen of good bloud and families of the Jews And as it is added there well favoured youths in whom there was no blemish skilfull in all wisedome and cunning in knowledge and understanding science And then farther To be taught the tongue and the learning of the Chaldeans And Daniel was one of these and no doubt a great Proficient in all these and yet Daniel seemes not to make any great shew of these learnings in his writings S. Paul was in a higher Pedagogy and another manner of University then all this Caught up into the third heavens into Paradise as he sayes 2 Cor. 12.2 and there he learnt much but as he sayes too such things as it was not lawfull to utter That is It fell not within the lawes of preaching to publish them So that not onely some learning in humanity as in Moses and Daniels case but some points of Divinity as in S. Pauls case may be unfit to be preached Not that a Divine should be ignorant of either either ornaments of humane or mysteries of divine knowledge For sayes S. Augustine Every man that comes from Egypt must bring some of the Egyptians goods with him Quanto auro exivit suffarcinatus Cyprianus sayes he How much of the Egyptian gold and goods brought Cyprian and Lactantius and Optatus and Hilary out of Egypt That is what a treasure of learning gathered when they were of the Gentils brought they from thence to the advancing of Christianity when they applied themselves to it S. Augustine confesses that the reading of Cicero's Hortensius Mutavit affectum meum L. 3. c. 4. began in him a Conversion from the world Et ad teipsum Domine mutavit preces meas That booke sayes he converted me to more fervent prayers to thee my God Et surgere jam coeperam ut ad te redirem By that help I rose and came towards thee And so Iustin Martyr had his Initiation and beginning of his Conversion from reading some passages in Plato S. Basil expresses it well They that will dye a perfect colour dip it in some lesse perfect colour before To be a good Divine requires humane knowledge and so does it of all the Mysteries of Divinity too because as there are Devils that will not be cast out but by Fasting and Prayer so there are humours that undervalue men that lacke these helps But our Congregations are not made of such persons not of meere naturall men that must be converted out of Aristotle and by Cicero's words nor of Arians that require new proofes for the Trinity nor Pelagians that must be pressed with new discoveries of Gods Predestination but persons imbracing with a thankfull acquiescence therein Doctrines necessary for the salvation of their soules in the world to come and the exaltation of their Devotion in this This way David calls his a Catechisme And let not the greatest Doctor think it unworthy of him to Catechize thus nor the learnedest hearer to be thus catechized Christ enwraps the greatest Doctors in his Person and in his practise when he sayes Sinite parvulos Suffer little children to come unto me and we do not suffer them to come unto us if when they come we doe not speak to their understanding and to their edification for that is but an absent presence when they heare and profit not And Christ enwraps the learnedest hearers in the persons of his owne Disciples when he sayes Except yee become as these little children yee cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven Except you nourish your selves with Catechisticall and Fundamentall Doctrines you are not in a wholesome diet Now in this Catechisme the first stone that David layes and that that supports all the first object that David presents and that that directs to all is Blessednesse Davids Catechisme Blessed is the man Philosophers could never bring us to the knowledge 2 Part. Beatitudo what this
but is an offer a promise to all which is our other and last Consideration in this first part In this consideration let us stop a little upon this question Te. why the Scriptures of God more then any other booke doe still speake in this singular person and in this familiar person still Tu and Tibi and Te Thou must love God God speaks to thee God hath care of thee Certainly in those passages which are from lower persons to Princes no Author is of a more humble and reverentiall and ceremoniall phrase then the phrase of the Scripture is Who could goe lower then David to Saul that calls himselfe a flea 1 Sam. 24.15 2 Sam. 9.8 Dan. 2.37 and a dead dogge Who could goe higher then Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar O King thou art King of Kings In all places the children of men the beasts of the field the fouls of the ayre are given into thy hand Thy greatnesse reacheth to heaven Dan. 4.19 and thy dominions to the ends of the earth So is it also in persons nearer in nature and nearer in ranke Iacob bowes seaven times to the ground in the presence of his brother Esau and My Lord and My Lord Gen. 33.3 at every word The Scripture phrase is as ceremoniall and as observant of distances as any and yet still full of this familiar word too Tu and Tuus Thou and Thine And we also we who deale most with the Scriptures are more accustomed to the same phrase then any other kinde of speakers are In a Parliament who is ever heard to say Thou must needs grant this Thou mayest be bold to yeeld to this Or who ever speaks so to a Judge in any Court Nay the King himselfe will not speake to the people in that phrase And yet in the presence of the greatest we say ordinarily Amend thy life and God be mercifull to thee and I absolve thee of all thy sinnes Beloved in the Scripture God speaks either to the Church his Spouse and to his children and so he may be boâ—d and would be familiar with them Or els he speaks so as that he would be thought 〈◊〉 thee to speake singularly to thy soule in particular Know then that Christ Jesus haâ— done enough for the salvation of all but know too that if there had been no other name written in the booke of life but thine he would have dyed for Thee Of those which were given him he lost none but if there had been none given him but Thou rather then have lost Thee he would have given the same price for Thee that he gave for the whole world And therefore when thou hearest his mercies distributed in that particular and that familiar phrase Faciam Te I will make Thee understand thou knowest not whether he speake to any other in the Congregation or no Be sure that he speake to Thee which he does if thou hearken to him and answer him If thou canst not find that he means Thee yet that he speaks to thee now if thou thinke he speake rather to some other whose faith and good life thou preferrest before thine own doe but begin to thinke now of the blessednesse of that man to whom thou thinkest he speaks and say to God with thy Saviour Eli Eli My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Why art thou gone to the other side or why to the next on my right or on my left hand and left out me Why speakest thou not comfortably to my soule and he will leave the ninety nine for thee and thou shalt finde Onus amoris such a waight and burden and load of his love upon thee as thou shalt be faine almost to say with S. Peter Exi à me Domine O Lord goe farther from me that is thou shalt see such an obligation of mercy laid upon thee as puts thee beyond all possibility of comprehension much more of retribution or of due and competent thankesgiving Miserere animae tuae Be but mercifull to thine own soule and God will be mercifull to it too If God had never meant to be mercifull to thee he would learne of thee If thou couldest love thy selfe before God love thee God would love thee for loving thy selfe how much more for thy loving his love in thee Love understanding and faciet te intelligere he will make thee understand enough for thy pilgrimage enough for thy transmigration enough for thy eternall habitation As we count them wisest who are most provident and foresee most he will make thee see farther then all they through all generations beyond children and childrens children which is the prospect of the world to all eternity that hath no termination and he will allow thee an understanding for this world too He will bid thee Lift up thine eyes to heaven Esay 51.6 and bid thee Look downe to the earth too He will make thy considerations of this world acceptable to him as well as those of the next He will remember thee that Angels descended as well as ascended that to a religious soule Gen. 28. this world is not out of the way to heaven Faciet te intelligere He will make thee understand enough for both And so we have done with that first Part De credendis Things which we are bound to beleeve That even for those God workes upon the understanding That though God worke all in all yet it is the man that understands and lastly that in the Holy Ghosts choosing this word of singularity Te I will make thee understand there is pregnant intimation of Gods large and diffusive goodnesse to all This word Thee excludes none And so we passe to our second Part Instruction De agendis what we are to doe I will teach thee in the way thou shalt goe If any man lack wisedome 2 Part. Docebo let him aske it of God and Faciet intelligere God shall make him understand God shall I may study and then you may heare me but God onely makes us all understand for the understanding is the doore of faith and that doore he opens and he shuts So by understanding he brings us to beleeve But then he that truly beleeves finds that he hath something to doe too And he saies to himself Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his wayes And he cannot tell himselfe He askes them whom God hath sent to tell him his Ministers Viri fratres Men and brethren what shall we doe to be saved And by their leading he goes to the Spirit of God to God himself and sayes Mat. 19.16 Good Master what good thing shall I do that I may have eternall life And that good Master will teach him what to doe which is the promise of this part of Instruction in our Text Gregor I will teach thee in the way thou shalt goe And Plus est docere quà m instruere God promises more in this that he will Teach thee in the way then in the former
mony is issued that is his Church where his merits should be applied to the discharge of particular consciences Coloss 2.9 So that here is one fulnesse that in this person dwelleth all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily Here is another fulnesse that this person fulfilled all righteousnesse and satisfied the Justice of God by his suffering Thren 1.12 non est dolor sicut there was no sorrow like unto his sorrow It was so full that it exceeded all others And then there is a third fulnesse the Church Eph. 1.23 which is his body the fulnesse of him that filleth all in all perfit God there is the fulnesse of his dignity perfit man there is the fulnesse of his passibility and a perfit Church there is the fulnesse of the distribution of his mercies and merits to us And this is omnis plenitudo all fulnesse which yet is farther extended in the next word Inhabitavit It pleased the Father that all fulnesse should dwell in him The Holy Ghost appeared in the Dove Inhabitavit Remigius but he did not dwell in it The Holy Ghost hath dwelt in holy men but not thus So as that ancient Bishop expresses it Habitavit in Salomone per sapientiam He dwelt in Salomon in the spirit of wisedome in Ioseph in the spirit of chastity in Moses in the spirit of meeknesse but in Christo in plenitudine in Christ in all fulnesse Now this fulnesse is not fully expressed in the Hypostaticall union of the two natures God and Man in the person of Christ For concerning the divine Nature here was not a dram of glory in this union This was a strange fulnesse for it was a fulnesse of emptinesse It was all Humiliation all exinanition all evacuation of himselfe by his obedience to the death of the Crosse But when it was done Ne evacuaretur Crux Christi 1 Cor. 1.17 as the Apostle speaks in another case lest the Crosse of Christ should be evacuated and made of none effect he came to make this fulnesse perfit by instituting and establishing a Church Esay 1. ult The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him saies the Prophet of Christ There is a fulnesse in generall for his qualification The Spirit of the Lord but what kinde of spirit It followes the spirit of wisedome and understanding the Spirit of Counsell and Power the Spirit of knowledge and of the feare of the Lord we see the spirit that must rest upon Christ is the Spirit in those beames in those functions in those operations 〈…〉 as conduce to government that is Wisedome and Counsell and Power So that this is Christs fulnesse that he is in a continuall administration of his Church in which he flowes over upon us his Ministers Joh. 1.16 for of his fulnesse have all we received and grace for grace that is power by his grace to derive grace upon the Congregation And so of his fulnesse all the Congregation receives too and receives in that full measure That they are filled with all the fulnesse of God Eph. 3.19 that is all the fulnesse that was in both his natures united in one person when the fulnesse of the Deity dwelt in him bodily all the merits of that person are derived upon us in his Word Sacraments in his Church which Church being to continue to the end it is most properly said habitavit in him in him as head of the Church all fulnesse all meanes of salvation dwell and are to be had permanently constantly infallibly Now how came Christ by all this fulnesse Complacuit this superlative fulnesse in himselfe this derivative fulnesse upon us That his merits should be able to build and furnish such a house to raise and rectifie such a Church acceptable to God in which all fulnesse should dwell to the worlds end It was onely because complacuit it pleased God for this personall name of the Father It pleased the Father is but added suppletorily by our Translators and is not in the Originall It pleased God to give him wherewithall to enable him so farre for this complacuit is as we say in the Schoole vox beneplaciti it expresses onely the good will and love of God without contemplation or foresight of any goodnesse in man Catharin nam hac posita plenitudine exorta sunt merita First we are to consider this fulnesse to have been in Christ and then from this fulnesse arose his merits we can consider no merit in Christ himselfe before whereby he should merit this fulnesse for this fulnesse was in him before he merited any thing and but for this fulnesse he had not so merited August Ille homo ut in unitatem filii Dei assumeretur unde meruit How did that man sayes St. Augustine speaking of Christ as of the son of man how did that man merit to be united in one person with the eternall Son of God Quid egit ante Quid credidit What had he done nay what had he beleeved Had he eyther faith or works before that union of both natures If then in Christ Jesus himselfe there were no praevisa merita That Gods fore-sight that he would use this fulnesse well did not work in God as a cause to give him this fulnesse but because hee had it of the free gift of God therefore he did use it well and meritoriously shall any of us be so frivolous in so important a matter as to think that God gave us our measure of grace or our measure of Sanctification because he fore-saw that we would heap up that measure and employ that talent profitably What canst thou imagine he could fore-see in thee A propensnesse a disposition to goodnesse when his grace should come Eyther there is no such propensnesse no such disposition in thee or if there be even that propensnesse and disposition to the good use of grace is grace it is an effect of former grace and his grace wrought before he saw any such propensnesse any such disposition Grace was first and his grace is his it is none of thine To end this point and this part non est discipulus supra magistrum The fulnesse of Christ himselfe was rooted in the complacuit It pleased the Father nothing else wrought in the nature of a Cause and therefore that measure of that fulnesse which is derived upon us from him our vocation our justification our sanctification are much more so we have them quia complacuit because it hath pleased him freely to give them God himselfe could see nothing in us till he of his owne goodnesse put it into us And so we have gone as farre as our first part carries us in those two branches and the fruits which we have gathered from thence First those generall doctrines that reason is not to be excluded in matters of religion and then that reason in all those cases is to be limited with the quia complacuit meerly in the good
Belial in this Text. For the adhering of persons born within the Church of Rome to the Church of Rome our law sayes nothing to them if they come But for reconciling to the Church of Rome by persons born within the Allegeance of the King or for perswading of men to be so reconciled our law hath called by an infamous and Capitall name of Treason and yet every Tavern and Ordinary is full of such Traitors Every place from jest to earnest is filled with them from the very stage to the death-bed At a Comedy they will perswade you as you sit as you laugh And in your sicknesse they will perswade you as you lye as you dye And not only in the bed of sicknesse but in the bed of wantonnesse they perswade too and there may be examples of women that have thought it a fit way to gain a soul by prostituting themselves and by entertaining unlawfull love with a purpose to convert a servant which is somewhat a strange Topique to draw arguments of religion from Let me see a Dominican and a Jesuit reconciled in doctrinall papistry for freewill and predestination Let me see a French papist and an Italian papist reconciled in State-papistry for the Popes jurisdiction Let me see the Jesuits and the secular priests reconciled in England and when they are reconciled to one another let them presse reconciliation to their Church To end all Those men have their bodies from the earth and they have their soules from heaven and so all things in earth and heaven are reconciled but they have their Doctrine from the Devill and for things in hell there is no peace made and with things in hell there is no reconciliation to be had by the blood of his Crosse except we will tread that blood under our feet and make a mock of Christ Jesus and crucifie the Lord of Life againe SERMON II. Preached at Pauls upon Christmas Day in the Evening 1624. ESAIAH 7.14 Part of the first Lesson that Evening Therefore the Lord shall give you a signe Behold a Virgin shall conceive and beare a Son and shall call his name Immanuel SAint Bernard spent his consideration upon three remarkable conjunctions this Day First a Conjunction of God and Man in one person Christ Jesus Then a conjunction of the incompatible Titles Maid and Mother in one blessed woman the blessed Virgin Mary And thirdly a conjunction of Faith and the Reason of man that so beleeves and comprehends those two conjunctions Let us accompany these three with another strange conjunction in the first word of this Text Propterea Therefore for that joynes the anger of God and his mercy together God chides and rebukes the King Achaz by the Prophet he is angry with him and Therefore sayes the Text because he is angry he will give him a signe a seale of mercy Therefore the Lord shall give you a signe Behold a Virgin c. This Therefore shall therefore be a first part of this Exercise That God takes any occasion to shew mercy And a second shall be The particular way of his mercy declared here Divisie The Lord shall give you a signe And then a third and last what this signe was Behold a Virgin c. In these three parts we shall walk by these steps Having made our entrance into the first with that generall consideration that Gods mercy is alwaies in season upon that station upon that height we shall look into the particular occasions of Gods mercy here what this King Achaz had done to alien God and to avert his mercy and in those two branches we shall determine that part In the second we shall also first make this generall entrance That God persists in his own waies goes forward with his own purposes And then what his way and his purpose here was he would give them a signe and farther we shall not extend that second part In the third we have more steps to make First what this sign is in generall it is that there is a Redeemer given And then how thus First Virgo concipiet a Virgin shall conceive she shall be a Virgin then And Virgo pariet a Virgin shall bring forth she shall be a Virgin then And Pariet filium she shall beare a Son and therefore he is of her substance not only man but man of her And this Virgin shall call this Son Immanuel God with us that is God and Man in one person Though the Angel at the Conception tell Ioseph That he shall call his name Jesus Mat. 1.21 and tell Mary her selfe that she shall call his name Jesus Luc. 1.31 yet the blessed Virgin her selfe shall have a further reach a clearer illustration She shall call his name Immanuel God with us Others were called Iesus Iosuah was so divers others were so but in the Scriptures there was never any but Christ called Immanuel Though Iesus signifie a Saviour Ioseph was able to call this childe Iesus upon a more peculiar reason and way of salvation then others who had that name because they had saved the people from present calamities and imminent dangers for the Angel told Ioseph that he should therefore be called Iesus because he should save the people from their sins and so no Iosuah no other Iesus was a Iesus But the blessed Virgin saw more then this not only that he should be such a Iesus as should save them from their sins but she saw the manner how that he should be Immanuel God with us God and man in one person That so being Man he might suffer and being God that should give an infinite value to his sufferings according to the contract passed between the Father and him and so he should be Iesus a Saviour a Saviour from sin and this by this way and meanes And then that all this should be established and declared by an infallible signe with this Ecce Behold That whosoever can call upon God by that name Immanuel that is confesse Christ to bee come in the flesh that Man shall have an Ecce a light a sign a token an assurance that this Immanuel this Jesus this Saviour belongs unto him and he shall be able to say Ecce Behold mine eyes have seen thy salvation We begin with that which is elder then our beginning 1 Part. Psal 101.1 and shall over-live our end The mercy of God I will sing of thy mercy and judgement sayes David when we fixe our selves upon the meditation and modulation of the mercy of God even his judgements cannot put us out of tune but we shall sing and be chearefull even in them As God made grasse for beasts before he made beasts and beasts for man before he made man As in that first generation the Creation so in the regeneration our re-creating he begins with that which was necessary for that which followes Mercy before Judgement Nay to say that mercy was first is but to post-date mercy to preferre mercy but so is
not Christ meerly as the Son of God but the Son of Mary too And that generation the Holy Ghost hath told us was in the fulnesse of time When the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth c. In which words Divisio we have these three considerations First the time of Christs comming and that was the fulnesse of time And then the maner of his comming which is expressed in two degrees of humiliation one that he was made of a woman the other that he was made under the Law And then the third part is the purpose of his comming which also was twofold for first he came to redeem them who were under the Law All And secondly he came that we we the elect of God in him might receive adoption When the fulnesse of time was come c. For the full consideration of this fulnesse of time 〈◊〉 we shall first consider this fulnesse in respect of the Jews and then in respect of all Nations and lastly in respect of our selves The Jews might have seen the fulnesse of time the Gentiles did in some measure see it and we must if we will have any benefit by it see it too It is an observation of S. Cyril That none of the Saints of God nor such as were noted to be exemplarily religious and sanctified men did ever celebrate with any festivall solemnity their own birth-day Pharaoh celebrated his own Nativity 〈◊〉 40.22 but who would make Pharaoh his example and besides he polluted that festivall with the bloud of one of his servants Herod celebrated his Nativity but who would think it an honor to be like Herod and besides he polluted that festivall with the blood of Iohn Baptist But the just contemplation of the miseries and calamities of this life into which our birth-day is the doore and the entrance is so far from giving any just occasion of a festivall as it hath often transported the best disposed Saints and servants of God to a distemper to a malediction and cursing of their birth-day 〈…〉 Cursed be the day wherein I was born and let not that day wherein my mother bare me be blessed Let the day perish wherein I was born let that day be darknesse Job 3. and let not God regard it from above How much misery is presaged to us when we come so generally weeping into the world that perchance in the whole body of history we reade but of one childe Zoroaster that laughed at his birth What miserable revolutions and changes what downfals what break-necks and precipitations may we justly think our selves ordained to if we consider that in our comming into this world out of our mothers womb we doe not make account that a childe comes right except it come with the head forward and thereby prefigure that headlong falling into calamities which it must suffer after Though therefore the dayes of the Martyrs which are for our example celebrated in the Christian Church be ordinarily called natalitia Martyrum the birth-day of the Martyrs yet that is not intended of their birth in this world but of their birth in the next when by death their soules were new delivered of their prisons here and they newly born into the kingdome of heaven that day upon that reason the day of their death was called their birth-day and celebrated in the Church by that name Onely to Christ Jesus the fulnesse of time was at his birth not because he also had not a painfull life to passe through but because the work of our redemption was an intire work and all that Christ said or did or suffered concurred to our salvation as well his mothers swathing him in little clouts as Iosephs shrowding him in a funerall sheete as well his cold lying in the Manger as his cold dying upon the Crosse as well the puer natus as the consummatum est as well his birth as his death is said to have been the fulnesse of time First we consider it to have been so to the Jews for this was that fulnesse Indeic in which all the prophecies concerning the Messias were exactly fulfilled Dan. 2. Hagg. 2. Mich. 5. Esay 7. That he must come whilest the Monarchy of Rome flourished And before the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed That he must be born in Bethlem That he must be born of a Virgin His person his actions his passion so distinctly prophecyed so exactly accomplished as no word being left unfulfilled this must necessarily be a fulnesse of time So fully was the time of the Messias comming come that though some of the Jews say now that there is no certain time revealed in the Scriptures when the Messias shall come and others of them say that there was a time determined and revealed and that this time was the time but by reason of their great sins he did not come at his time yet when they examine their own supputations they are so convinced with that evidence that this was that fulnesse of time that now they expresse a kinde of conditionall acknowledgement of it by this barbarous and inhumane custome of theirs that they alwayes keep in readinesse the blood of some Christian with which they anoint the body of any that dyes amongst them with these words if Jesus Christ were the Messias then may the blood of this Christian availe thee to salvation So that by their doubt and their implyed consent in this action this was the fulnesse of time when Christ Jesus did come that the Messias should come It was so to the Jews and it was so to the Gentiles too Gontibus It filled those wise men which dwelt so far in the East that they followed the star from thence to Jerusalem Herod was so full of it that he filled the Countrey with streames of innocent bloud and lest he should spare that one innocent childe killed all The two Emperours of Rome Vespasian and Domitian were so full of it that in jealousie of a Messias to come then from that race they took speciall care for the destruction of all of the posterity of David All the whole people were so full of it that divers false-Messiahs Barcocab and Moses of Crete and others rose up and drew and deceived the people as if they had been the Messiah because that was ordinarily knowne and received to be the time of his comming And the Devill himself was so full of it as that in his Oracles he gave that answer That an Hebrew childe should be God over all gods and brought the Emperour to erect an Altar to this Messiah Christ Jesus though he knew not what he did This was the fulnesse that filled Jew and Gentile Kings and Philosophers strangers and inhabitants counterfaits and devils to the expectation of a Messiah and when comes this fulnesse of time to us that we feele this Messiah born in our selves In this fulnesse in this comming of our Saviour into us Nobis we should
those that were under the law that is all but to Adopt those whom he had chosen us And those are the persons the subjects that he works upon by his comming First then to begin with the persons those of the first kinde Sub lege those that were under the Law for them as we told you before the law must not be so narrowly restrained here as to be intended onely of Moses Law for Christs purpose was not onely upon the Jews for else Naaman the Syrian by whom God fought great battailes 2 Reg. 5. before he was cured of his leprosie and who when he was cured was so zealous of the worship of the true God that he would needs carry holy earth to make Altars of from the place where the Prophet dwelt And else Iob who though he were of the land of Hus hath good testimony of being an upright and just man and one that feared God And else the Widow of Sarepta 1. Reg. 17. whose meale and oyle God preserved unwasted and whose dead sonne God raised againe at the prayer of Eliah All these and all others whom the searching Spirit of God seales to his service in all the corners of the earth because they are strangers in the land of Israel should not be under the Law and so should have no profit by Christs being made under the Law if the Law should be understood onely of the Law of Moses And therefore to be under the Law signifies here thus much To be a debter to the law of nature to have a testimony in our hearts and consciences that there lyes a law upon us which we have no power in our selves to performe that to those lawes To love God with all our powers and to love our neighbour as our selves and to doe as we would be done to we finde our selves naturally bound and yet wee finde our selves naturally unable to performe them and so to need the assistance of another which must be Christ Jesus to performe them for us And so all men Jews and Gentiles are under the Law because naturally they feele a law upon them which they breake And therefore wheresoever our power becomes defective in the performance of this law if our will be not defective too if we come not to say God hath given us an impossible Law and therefore it is lost labour to goe about to performe it or God hath given us another to performe this Law for us and therefore nothing is required at our hands If we abstaine from these quarrels to the law and these murmurings at our owne infirmity wee shall finde that the fulnesse of time is this day come this day Christ is come to all that are under the Law that is to all mankinde to all because all are unable to performe that Law which they all see by the light of nature to lye upon them These then be the persons of the first kinde Redemit All all the world Dilexit mundum God so loved the world that he gave his Son for it for all the world And accordingly venit salvare mundum the obedience of the Son was as large as the love of the Father Hee came to save all the world and he did save all the world God would have all men and Christ did save all men It is therefore fearefully and scarce allowably said that Christ did contrary to his Fathers will when he called those to grace of whom he knew his Fathers pleasure to bee that they should have no grace It is fearefully and dangerously said Absurdum non esse Deum interdum falsa loqui falsum loquenti credendum that it is not absurd to say that is that it may truly be said that God does sometimes speake untruly and that we are bound to beleeve God when he does so for if we consider the soveraigne balme of our soules the blood of Christ Jesus there is enough for all the world if we consider the application of this physick by the Ministers of Christ Jesus in the Church hee hath given us that spreading Commission To goe and preach to every creature we are bid to offer to apply to minister this to all the world Christ hath excommunicated no Nation no shire no house no man Hee gives none of his Ministers leave to say to any man thou art not Redeemed he gives no wounded nor afflicted conscience leave to say to it selfe I am not Redeemed There may be meat enough brought into the house for all the house though some be so weake as they cannot which is the case of the Gentiles some so stubborne as they will not eate which is the case of the carnall man though in the Christian Church He came to all There are the persons and to Redeeme all there is his errand but how to Redeeme S. Hierome saies Gentes non Redimuntur sed emuntur The Gentiles saies hee are not properly Christs by way of Redeeming but by an absolute purchase To which purpose those words are also applied which the Apostle saies to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a price S. Hieroms meaning therein is that if we compare the Jews and the Gentiles though God permitted the Jews in punishment of their rebellions to bee captivated by the devill in Idolatries yet the Jews were but as in a mortgage for they had beene Gods peculiar people before But the Gentiles were as the devils inheritance for God had never claimed them nor owned them for his and therefore God sayes to Christ Ps 2.8 Postula à me Aske of me and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance as though they were not his yet or not his by that title as the Jews were So that in S. Hieromes construction the Jewes which were Gods people before were properly Redeemed the Gentiles to whom God made no title before are rather bought then redeemed But Nullum tempus occurrit Regi against the King of Kings there runnes no prescription no man can devest his Allegeance to his Prince and say he will be subject no longer And therefore since the Gentiles were his by his first title of Creation for it is he that hath made us and not we our selves nor the devill neither when all we by our generall revolt and prevarication as we were all collectively in Adams loynes came to be under that law morte morieris Thou shalt dye the death when Christ came in the fulnesse of time and delivered us from the sharpest and heaviest clause of that Law which is the second death then he Redeemed us properly because though not by the same title of Covenant as the Jews were yet we were his and sold over to his enemy These then were the persons All none can say that he did not need him none can say that he may not have him And this was his first worke to Redeeme to vindicate them from the usurper to deliver them from the intruder to emancipate them
of comming to Church which S. Augustine confesses and laments That they came to make wanton bargaines with their eyes and met there because they could meet no whereelse and that more fearfull occasion of comming when they came onely to elude the Law and proceeding in their treacherous and traiterous religion in their heart and yet communicating with us draw God himselfe into their conspiracies and to mocke us make a mocke of God and his religion too betweene these two this licencious comming and this treacherous comming there are many commings to Church commings for company for observation for musique And all these indispositions are ill at prayers there they are unwholesome but at the Sacrament deadly He that brings any collaterall respect to prayers looses the benefit of the prayers of the Congregation and he that brings that to a Sermon looses the blessing of Gods ordinance in that Sermon hee heares but the Logique or the Retorique or the Ethique or the poetry of the Sermon but the Sermon of the Sermon he heares not but he that brings this disposition to the Sacrament ends not in the losse of a benefit but he acquires and procures his owne damnation All that we consider in Simeon Viderunt oculi and apply from Simeon to a worthy receiver of the Sacrament is how he was fitted to depart in peace All those peeces which we have named conduce to that but all those are collected into that one which remaines yet Viderunt oculi that his eyes had seene that salvation for that was the accomplishment and fulfilling of Gods Word According to thy word All that God had said should be done was done for as it is said v. 26. It was revealed unto him by the holy Ghost that hee should not see death before he had seene the Lords Christ and now his eyes had seene that Salvation Abraham saw this before but but with the eye of faith and yet rejoyced to see it so he was glad even of that Simeon saw it before this time then when he was illustrated with that Revelation he saw it but but with the eye of hope of such hope Abraham had no such ground no particular hope no promise that hee should see the Messiah in his time Simeon had and yet he waited he attended Gods leasure But hope defer'd maketh the heart sick Prov. 13.12 saies Solomon but when the desire comes it is a tree of life His desire was come he saw his salvation Perchance not so as S. Cyprian seemes to take it That till this time Simeon was blinde and upon this presentation of Christ in the Temple came to his sight againe and so saw this Salvation for I thinke no one Author but S. Cyprian saies so that Simeon was blinde till now and now restored to sight And I may ease S. Cyprian too of that singularity for it is enough and abundantly evident that that book in which that is said which is Altercatio Iasonis papisci de Messia cannot possibly be S. Cyprians But with his bodily eyes open to other objects before he saw the Lords Salvation and his Salvation the Lords as it came from the Lord and his as it was appliable to him He saw it according to his word that is so far as God had promised he should see it He saw not how that God which was in this Child which was this child was the Son of God The manner of that eternall Generation he saw not He saw not how this Son of God became man in a Virgins womb whom no man knew The manner of this Incarnation he saw not for this eternall Generation and this miraculous Incarnation fell not within that Secundùm verbum according to thy Word God had promised Simeon nothing concerning those mysteries But Christum Domini the Lords Salvation and his Salvation that is the person who was all that which was all that was within the word and the promise Simeon saw and saw with bodily eyes Beloved in the blessed and glorious and mysterious Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus thou seest Christum Domini the Lords Salvation and thy Salvation and that thus far with bodily eyes That Bread which thou seest after the Consecration is not the same bread which was presented before not that it is Transubstantiated to another substance for it is bread still which is the hereticall Riddle of the Roman Church and satans sophistry to dishonour miracles by the assiduity and frequency and multiplicity of them but that it is severed and appropriated by God in that Ordinance to another use It is other Bread so as a Judge is another man upon the bench then he is at home in his owne house In the Roman Church they multiply and extend miracles til the miracle it selfe crack and become none but vanish into nothing as boyes bubbles which were but bubbles before at best by an overblowing become nothing Nay they constitute such miracles as do not onely destroy the nature of the miracle but destroy him that should doe that miracle even God himselfe for nothing proceeds farther to the destroying of God then to make God do contradictory things for contradictions have falsehood and so imply impotency and infirmity in God There cannot be a deeper Atheisme then to impute contradictions to God neither doth any one thing so overcharge God with contradictions as the Transubstantiation of the Roman Church There must be a Body there and yet no where In no place and yet in every place where there is a consecration The Bread and the Wine must nourish the body nay the bread and the wine may poyson a body and yet there is no bread nor wine there They multiply miracles and they give not over till they make God unable to doe a miracle till they make him a contradictory that is an impotent God And therefore Luther inferres well that since miracles are so easie and cheape and obvious to them as they have induced a miraculous transubstantiation they might have done well to have procured one miracle more a trans-accidentation that since the substance is changed the accidents might have beene changed too and since there is no bread there might be no demensions no colour no nourishing no other qualities of bread neither for these remaining there is rather an annihilation of God in making him no God by being a contradictory God then an annihilation of the Bread by making that which was formerly bread God himselfe by that way of Transubstantiation But yet though this bread be not so transubstantiated we refuse not the words of the Fathers in which they have expressed themselves in this Mystery Not Irenaeus his est corpus that that bread is his body now Not Tertullians fecit corpus that that bread is made his body which was not so before Not S. Cyprians mutatus that that bread is changed Not Damascens supernaturaliter mutatus that that bread is not only changed so in the use as when
bee new every morning too and all that he did in eighty eight in the last Centutry he shall doe if we need it in twenty eight in this Century And though he may be angry with our prayers as they are but verball prayers and not accompanied with actions of obedience yet he will not be angry with us for ever but re-establish at home zeale to our present Religion and good correspondence and affections of all parts to one another and our power and our honour in forraign Nations Amen SERMON VI. Preached at S. Pauls upon Christmas Day 1628. Lord who hath beleeved our report Domine quis credidit auditui nostro I Have named to you no booke no chapter no verse where these words are written But I forbore not out of forgetfulnesse nor out of singularity but out of perplexity rather because these words are written in more then one in more then two places of the Bible In your ordinary conversation and communication with other men I am sure you have all observed that many men have certaine formes of speech certaine interjections certaine suppletory phrases which fall often upon their tongue and which they repeat almost in every sentence and for the most part impertinently and then when that phrase conduces nothing to that which they would say but rather disorders and discomposes the sentence and confounds or troubles the hearer And this which some doe out of slacknesse and in-observance and infirmity many men God knowes do out of impiety many men have certaine suppletory Oathes with which they fill up their Discourse then when they are not onely not the better beleeved but the worse understood for those blasphemous interjections Now this which you may thus observe in men sometimes out of infirmity sometimes out of impiety out of an accommodation and communicablenesse of himselfe to man out of desire and a study to shed himselfe the more familiarly and to infuse himselfe the more powerfully into man you may observe even in the holy Ghost in himselfe in the Scriptures which are the discourse and communication of God with man There are certaine idioms certaine formes of speech certaine propositions which the holy Ghost repeats severall times upon severall occasions in the Scriptures It is so in the instrumentall Authors of the particular Bookes of the Bible There are certaine formes of speech certaine characters upon which I would pronounce That 's Moses and not David that 's Iob and not Solomon that 's Esay and not Ieremy How often does Moses repeat his Vivit Dominus and Ego vivo As the Lord liveth and As I live saith the Lord How often does Solomon repeat his vanitas vanitatum All is vanity How often does our blessed Saviour repeat his Amen Amen and in another sense then others had used that word before him so often as that you may reckon it thirtie times in one Evangelist so often as that that may not inconveniently be thought some reason why S. Iohn called Christ by that name Amen Rev. 3.14 Thus saith Amen He whose name is Amen How often does S. Paul especiallly in his Epistles to Timothy and to Titus repeat that phrase Fidelis Sermo This is a true and faithfull saying And how often his juratory caution Coram Domino before the Lord As God is my witnesse And as it is thus for particular persons and particular phrases that they are often repeated so are there certaine whole sentences certaine intire propositions which the holy Ghost does often repeat in the Scripture And except we except that proposition of which S. Peick makes his use That God is no accepter of persons Act. 10.34 for that is repeated in very many places that every where upō every occasiō every man might be remembred of that that God is no accepter of persons Take heed how you presume upon your own knowledge or your actions for God is no accepter of persons Take heed how you condemne another man for an Heretique because he beleeves not just as you beleeve or for a Reprobate because he lives not just as you live for God is no accepter of persons Take heed how you relie wholly upon the outward means that you are wrapped in the covenant that you are bred in a reformed Church for God is no accepter of persons except you will except this proposition I scarce remember any other that is so often repeated in the Scriptures as this which is our Text Lord who hath beleeved our report For it is first in the Prophet Esay There the Prophet is in holy throws and pangs Esay 53.1 and agonies till he be delivered of that prophecy the comming of the Messiah the incarnation of Christ Jesus and yet is put to this exclamation Domine quis credidit Lord who hath beleeved our report And then you have these words in the Gospell of S. Iohn John 12.38 where we are not put upon the consideration of a future Christ in prophecy but the Evangelist exhibits Christ in person actually really visibly evidently doing great works executing great judgements multiplying great Miracles and yet put to the application of this exclamation Domine quis credidit Lord who hath beleeved this report And then you have these words also in S. Paul Rom. 10.16 where we doe not consider a prophecy of a future Christ nor a history of a present Christ but an application of that whole Christ to every soule in the fetling of a Church in that concatenation of meanes for the infusion of faith expressed in that Chapter sending and preaching and hearing and yet for all these powerfull and familiar assistances Domine quis crodidit Lord who hath beleeved that report So that now beloved you cannot say that you have a Text without a place for you have three places for this Text you have it in the great Prophet in Esay in the great Evangelist in S. Iohn and in the great Apostle in S. Paul And because in all three places the words minister usefull doctrine of edification we shall by yours and the times leave consider the words in all three places In all three the words are a sad and a serious expostulation of the Minister of God with God himselfe that his Meanes and his Ordinances powerfully committed to him being faithfully transmitted by him to the people were neverthelesse fruitlesse and ineffectuall I doe Lord as thou biddest me sayes the Prophet Esay I prophecy I foretell the comming of the Messiah the incarnation of thy Son for the salvation of the world and I know that none of them that heare me can imagine or conceive any other way for the redemption of the world by fatisfaction to thy Justice but this and yet Domine quis credidit Lord who hath beleeved my report I doe Lord as thou biddest me sayes Christ himselfe in S. Iohn I come in person I glorifie thy name I doe thy will I preach thy Gospell I confirm my doctrine with evident Miracles and I seale
swore by himselfe because he could propose no greater thing in himself no clearer notion of himself then life for his life is his eternity and his eternity is himselfe does therefore through all the Law and the Prophets still sweare in that form Vivo ego vivit Dominus As I live saith the Lord and as the Lord liveth still he sweares by his own life As that solemne Oath which is mentioned in Daniel is conceived in that form too He lift up his right hand and his left hand to heaven Dan. 12.7 and swore by him that liveth for ever that is by God and God in that notion as he is life All that the Queen and the Councell could wish and apprecate to the King was but that Life In sempiternum vive vive in aeternum O King live for ever God is life Dan. 5. and would not the death of any We are not sure that stones have not life stones may have life neither to speak humanely is it unreasonably thought by them that thought the whole world to be inanimated by one soule and to be one intire living creature and in that respect does S. Augustine prefer a fly before the Sun 1 Tim. 5.6 because a fly hath life and the Sun hath not This is the worst that the Apostle sayes of the young wanton widow That if she live in pleasure she is dead whilst she lives So is that Magistrate that studies nothing but his own honour and dignity in his place dead in his place And that Priest that studies nothing but his owne ease and profit dead in his living And that Judge that dares not condemne a guilty person And which is the bolder transgression dares condemne the innocent deader upon the Bench then the Prisoner at the Barre God hath included all that is good Dcut. 30.15 in the name of Life and all that is ill in the name of Death when he sayes See I have set before thee Vitam Bonum Life and Good Mortem Malum Death and Evill This is the reward proposed to our faith Hab. 2.4 Iustus fide sua vivit To live by our faith And this is the reward proposed to our works Fac hoc vives to live by our works All is life And this fulnesse this consummation of happinesse Life and the life of life spirituall life and the exaltation of spirituall life eternall life is the end of Christs comming I came that they might have life And first Vt daret ut daret that he might give life bring life into the world that there might be life to be had that the world might be redeemed from that losse which S. Augustine sayes it was falne into Perdidimus possibilitatem boni That we had all lost all possibility of life For the heaven and the earth and all that the Poet would call Chaos was not a deader lump before the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters then Mankind was before the influence of Christs comming wrought upon it But now that God so loved the world as that he gave his Son now that the Son so loved the world as that he gave himselfe Psal 19.6 as David sayes of the Sun of the firmament the father of nature Nihit absconditum there is nothing hid from the heat thereof so we say of this Son of God the Father of the faithfull in a far higher sense then Abraham was called so Nihilabsconditum there is nothing hid from him no place no person excluded from the benefit of his comming The Son hath paid the Father hath received enough for all not in fingle money for the discharge of thy lesser debts thy idle words thy wanton thoughts thy unchast looks but in massie talents to discharge thy crying debts the clamors of those poore whom thou hast oppressed and thy thundring debts those blasphemies by which thou hast torne that Father that made thee that Sonne that redeemed thee that boly Ghost that would comfort thee 1 Reg. 5. There is enough given but then as Hiram sent materials sufficient for the building of the Temple but there was something else to be done for the fitting and placing thereof so there is life enough brought into the world for all the world by the death of Christ but then there is something else to be done for the application of this life to particular persons intended in this word in our Text ut haberent I came that they might have life There is Ayre enough in the world Vt haberent to give breath to every thing though every thing doe not breath If a tree or a stone doe not breathe it is not because it wants ayre but because it wants meanes to receive it or to returne it All egges are not hatched that the hen sits upon Matt. 23.37 neither could Christ himselfe get all the chickens that were hatched to come and to stay under his wings That man that is blinde or that will winke shall see no more sunne upon S. Barnabies day then upon S. Lucies no more in the summer then in the winter solstice Psal 130.7 And therefore as there is copiosa redemptio a plentifull redemption brought into the world by the death of Christ so as S. Paul found it in his particular conversion there is copiosa lux Acts 22.6 a great a powerfull light exhibited to us that we might see and lay hold of this life in the Ordinances of the Church in the Confessions and Absolutions and Services and Sermons and Sacraments of the Church Christ came ut daret that he might bring life into the world by his death and then he instituted his Church ut haberent that by the meanes thereof this life might be infused into us and infused so as the last word of our Text delivers it Abundantiùs I came that they might have life more abundantly Dignaris Domine Abūdantiùs August ut eis quibus debita dimittis te promissionibus tuis debitorem facias This O Lord is thine abundant proceeding First thou forgivest me my debt to thee and then thou makest thy selfe a debter to me by thy large promises and after all performest those promises more largely then thou madest them Indeed God can doe nothing scantly penuriously singly Even his maledictions to which God is ever loth to come his first commination was plurall it was death and death upon death Morte morieris Death may be plurall but this benediction of life cannot admit a singular Chajim which is the word for life hath no singular number This is the difference betweene Gods Mercy and his Judgements that sometimes his Judgements may be plurall complicated enwrapped in one another but his Mercies are alwayes so and cannot be otherwise he gives them abundantiùs more abundantly More abundantly then to whom Illis gentibus The naturall man hath the Image of God imprinted in his soule eternity is God himselfe man hath not
omnibus if it were not for this Therefore for that carries our consideration over the whole Epistle This Epistle particularizing all duties which appertaine ad pietatem erga Deum to our religious worship of God ad charitatem erga proximum to charitable offices towards one another and ad sanctimoniam propriam to a sanctification and holinesse of life in our selves You have seen a list of your debts sayes the Apostle and that men deeply endebted are loath to doe you have seen what you owe God what you owe your selves and what you owe the world Reddite ergo omnibus debita be therefore behinde hand with none of these but render unto all their dues For our debts here are not restrained to those that are mentioned in the following part of this verse Tribute and Custome and Feare and Honour but it is the knot that ties up all and this Text in this verse is the same that begins the next verse also Reddite debita omnibus Render to all men their dues and Nemini quicquam debeas Owe nothing to any man is all one It is farther then many use to come to know what they owe since I have brought you so far sayes our Apostle Render to all men their dues It is one degree of thrift Divisio but for the most part it comes late to bring our debts into as few hands as we can Our debt here we cannot bring into fewer then these three to God to our Neighbour to our selves Consider our debts to God to be our sins and so we dare not come to a reckoning with him but we discharge our selves intirely upon our surety our Saviour Christ Jesus but yet of that debt we must pay an acknowledgement an interest as it were of praise for all that we have and of prayer for all that we would have and these are our debts to God Consider our debts to man and our creditors are persons above us and persons below us superiours and inferiours and to superiours who are the persons of whom this Text or this verse is most literally intended we are debtors first in matter of substance expressed here in those words Tribute and Custome and in matter of ceremony expressed here in those words Feare and Honour And to our inferiours we are debtors for counsell to direct them and for reliefe in compassion of their sufferings And then to come to our third sort of creditors to our selves we owe our selves some debts which are to be tendred at noone which are to be paid in our best strength and prosperity in the course of our lives and some which are to be tendred at night at our Sun-set at our deaths Reddite ergo omnibus Render therefore to all their dues For your first debt to God we bring you to Church this is no place to arrest in but yet the Spirit of God calls upon you for those debts praise him in his holy place and pray to him in his house which is the house of prayer For your debts of the second kinde to other men for those to superiours we send you to Court for those to inferiours we send you to Hospitals and prisons and though Courts and prisons be ill paying places yet pay you your debts of substance and of ceremony of tribute and of honour at Court and your debt of counsell and relief to those that need them in the darkest corners And for you third kinde of debts debts to your selves make eaven with your selves all the way in your lives lest your payment prove too heavy and you break and your hearts breake when you come to see that you cannot doe that upon your death-bed Reddite omnibus Render to all to God to man to your selves their dues To begin then with our beginning our debts to God 1 Part. Deo if we take that definition of of debts which arises out of the sound of the word Debere est de alio habere a man owes all that which he hath received of another we are debtors of all that we have and all that we are to God our well being and our very being is from him If we take that definition of debt Debere est Iure aliquo teneri ad dandum aut faciendum aliquid To owe is to be bound by some Law to give something or to doe something to some person The Law of Nature in our hearts the Law of the Creature in our eyes the Law of the Word in our eares provokes us to give and to doe something to that God who hath given and done all to us and more then giving or doing hath suffered so much for us What then is the paiment which we are to make First Glory Praise For in all his works Laus God still proposed to himselfe his Glory Those men who will needs be of Gods Cabinet Counsell and pronounce what God did first what was his first Decree and the first clause in that Decree those men who will needs know and then publish Gods secrets And by the way that which sometimes it may concerne us to know yet it may be a Libell to publish it Those mysteries which for the opposing and countermining stubborne and perverse Heresies it may concerne us in Councels and Synods and other fit places to argue and to cleare it may be an injury to God and against his Crowne and Dignity in breaking the peace of the Church to publish and divulge to every popular auditory and every itching eare and thereby perplexe the consciences of weak men or offer contentious men that which is their food and delight disputation These men I say though they differ in their order whether Gods Decree of Reprobation and Salvation were before his Decree of Creation for some place it before and some after yet all on all sides agree in this That Gods first purpose was his owne glory that was his first Decree by what degrees soever he proceeded to the execution of that Decree And so in the great and incomprehensible work of our Salvation when that was uttered in the mouth of Angels to the Shepheards that Ambassage began with a Gloria in excelsis There was Peace upon earth and there was good will towards men but first there was Glory to God on high And though to correct Hereticall and Schismaticall men amongst whom some would expresse themselves in Gods service in one manner and some in another to the endangering of Doctrine and to the confusion of Order and thereupon some would say in the Church-Service Gloria Patri in Filio per Spiritum Sanctum Glory be to the Father in the Son by the Holy Ghost And some Gloria Patri per Filium Glory be to the Father by the Son And some Gloria Patri Filio per Spiritum Sanctum Glory be to the Father and the Son by the Holy Ghost Though to prevent the danger of these divers formes of service the Church came to determine all in that one Glory
Judge too I shall not be tried by an arbitrary Court where it may be wisdome enough to follow a wise leader and think as he thinks I shall not be tried by a Jury that had rather I suffered then they fasted rather I lost my life then they lost a meale Nor tryed by Peeres where Honour shall be the Bible But I shall be tryed by the King himselfe then which no man can propose a Nobler tryall and that King shall be the King of Kings too for He V. 5. who in the first of the Revelation is called The faithfull Witnesse is in the same place called The Prince of the Kings of the earth and as he is there produced as a Witnesse so Acts 10 42. Iohn 5.22 He is ordained to be the Iudge of the quick and the dedd and so All Iudgement is committed to him He that is my Witnesse is my Judge and the same person is my Jesus my Saviour my Redeemer He that hath taken my nature He that hath given me his blood So that he is my Witnesse in his owne cause and my Judge but of his owne Title and will in me preserve himselfe He will not let that nature that he hath invested perish nor that treasure which he hath poured out for me his blood be ineffectuall My Witnesse is in Heaven my Judge is in Heaven my Redeemer is in Heaven and in them who are but One I have not onely a constant hope that I shall be there too but an evident assurance that I am there already in his Person Go then in this peace That you alwaies study to preserve this testification of the Spirit of God by outward evidences of Sanctification You are naturally composed of foure Elements and three of those foure are evident and unquestioned The fourth Element the element of Fire is a more litigious element more problematicall more disputable Every good man every true Christian in his Metaphysicks for in a regenerate man all is Metaphysicall supernaturall hath foure Elements also and three of those foure are declared in this text First a good Name the good opinion of good men for honest dealing in the world and religious discharge of duties towards God That there be no injustice in our hands Also that our prayer be pure A second Element is a good conscience in my selfe That either a holy warinesse before or a holy repentance after settle me so in God as that I care not though all the world knew all my faults And a third element is my Hope in God that my Witnesse which is in Heaven will testifie for me as a witnesse in my behalfe here or acquit me as a mercifull Judge hereafter Now there may be a fourth Element an Infallibility of finall perseverance grounded upon the eternall knowledge of God but this is as the Element of fire which may be but is not at least is not so discernable so demonstrable as the rest And therefore as men argue of the Element of fire that whereas the other elements produce creatures in such abundance The Earth such heards of Cattell the Waters such shoales of Fish the Aire such flocks of Birds it is no unreasonable thing to stop upon this consideration whether there should be an element of fire more spacious and comprehensive then all the rest and yet produce no Creatures so if thy pretended Element of Infallibility produce no creatures no good works no holy actions thou maist justly doubt there is no such element in thee In all doubts that arise in thee still it will be a good rule to choose that now which thou wouldst choose upon thy death-bed If a tentation to Beauty to Riches to Honour be proposed to thee upon such and such conditions consider whether thou wouldst accept that upon those conditions upon thy death-bed when thou must part with them in a few minutes So when thou doubtest in what thou shouldst place thy assurance in God thinke seriously whether thou shalt not have more comfort then upon thy death-bed in being able to say I have finished my course I have fought a good fight I have fulfilled the sufferings of Christ in my flesh I have cloathed him when he was naked and fed him when he was poore then in any other thing that thou maiest conceive God to have done for thee And doe all the way as thou wouldst do then prove thy element of fire by the creatures it produces prove thine election by thy sanctification for that is the right method and shall deliver thee over infallibly to everlasting glory at last Amen SERMON XIV Preached at VVhite-hall March 3. 1619. AMOS 5.18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord what have yee to doe with it the day of the Lord is darknesse and not light FOr the presenting of the woes and judgements of God denounced by the Prophets against Judah and Israel and the extending and applying them to others involved in the same sins as Judah and Israel were Solomon seemes to have given us somewhat a cleare direction Prov. 9.8 Reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee Rebuke a wise man and he will love thee But how if the wiseman and this scorner bee all in one man all one person If the wiseman of this world bee come to take S. Paul so literally at his word as to thinke scornefully that preaching is indeed but the foolishnesse of preaching and that as the Church is within the State so preaching is a part of State government flexible to the present occasions of time appliable to the present dispositions of men This fell upon this Prophet in this prophecie Amos 7.10 Amasias the Priest of Bethel informed the King that Amos medled with matters of State and that the Land was not able to beare his words and to Amos himselfe he saies Eate thy bread in someother place but prophecy here no more for this is the Kings Chappell Amos 23. and the Kings Court Amos replies I was no Prophet nor the son of a Prophet but in an other course and the Lord tooke me and said unto me Goe and Prophecie to my People Though we finde no Amasiah no mis-interpreting Priest here wee are farre from that because we are far from having a Ieroboam to our King as he had easie to give eare easie to give credit to false informations yet every man that comes with Gods Message hither brings a little Amasiah of his owne in his owne bosome a little wisperer in his owne heart that tels him This is the Kings Chappell and it is the Kings Court and these woes and judgements and the denouncers and proclaimers of them are not so acceptable here But we must have our owne Amos aswell as our Amasias this answer to this suggestion I was no Prophet and the Lord tooke me and bad me prophecy What shall I doe And besides since the woe in this Text is not S. Iohns wo his iterated his multiplied wo Vae vae
and make him like himself The implicite beleever stands in an open field and the enemy will ride over him easily the understanding beleever is in a fenced town and he hath out-works to lose before the town be pressed that is reasons to be answered before his faith be shaked and he will sell himself deare and lose himself by inches if he be sold or lost at last and therefore sciant omnes let all men know that is endeavour to informe themselves to understand That particular Iesum that generall particular if we may so say for it includes all which all were to know is that the same Jesus whom they Crucified was exalted above them all Suppose an impossibility S. Paul does so when he sayes to the Galatians If an Angell from heaven should preach any other Gospell for that is impossible If we could have been in Paradise and seen God take a clod of red earth and make that wretched clod of contemptible earth such a body as should be fit to receive his breath an immortall soule fit to be the house of the second person in the Trinity for God the Son to dwel in bodily fit to be the Temple for the third person for the Holy Ghost should we not have wondred more then at the production of all other creatures It is more that the same Jesus whom they had crucified is exalted thus to sit in that despised flesh at the right hand of our glorious God that all their spitting should but macerate him and dissolve him to a better mold a better plaister that all their buffetings should but knead him and presse him into a better forme that all their scoffes and contumelies should be prophesies that that Ecce Rex Behold your King and that Rex Iudaeorum This is the King of the Iews which words they who spoke them thought to be lies in their own mouthes should become truths and he be truly the King not of the Jews only but of all Nations too that their nayling him upon the Crosse should be a setling of him upon an everlasting Throne and their lifting him up upon the Crosse a waiting upon him so farre upon his way to heaven that this Jesus whom they had thus evacuated thus crucified should bee thus exalted was a subject of infinite admiration but mixt with infinite confusion too Wretched Blasphemer of the name of Jesus that Jesus whom thou crucifiest and treadest under thy feet in that oath is thus exalted Uncleane Adulterer that Jesus whom thou crucifiest in stretching out those forbidden armes in a strange bed thou that beheadest thy self castest off thy Head Christ Jesus that thou mightst make thy body the body of a Harlot that Jesus whom thou defilest there is exalted Let severall sinners passe this through their severall sins and remember with wonder but with confusion too that that Jesus whom they haue crucified is exalted above all How farre exalted Three steps which carry him above S. Pauls third heaven Factus He is Lord and he is Christ and he is made so by God God hath made him both Lord and Christ We return up these steps as they lie and take the lowest first Fecit Deus God made him so Nature did not make him so no not if we consider him in that Nature wherein he consists of two Natures God and Man We place in the Schoole for the most part the infinite Merit of Christ Jesus that his one act of dying once should be a sufficient satisfaction to God in his Justice for all the sins of all men we place it I say rather in pacto then in persona rather that this contract was thus made between the Father and the Son then that whatsoever that person thus consisting of God and Man should doe should onely in respect of the person bee of an infinite value and extention to that purpose for then any act of his his Incarnation his Circumcision any had been sufficient for our Redemption without his death But fecit Deus God made him that that he is The contract between the Father and him that all that he did should be done so and to that purpose that way and to that end this is that that hath exalted him and us in him If then not the subtilty and curiosity but the wisedome of the Schoole and of the Church of God have justly found it most commodious to place all the mysteries of our Religion in pacto rather then in persona in the Covenant rather then in the person though a person of incomprehensible value let us also in applying to our selves those mysteries of our Religion still adhaerere pactis and not personis still rely upon the Covenant of God with man revealed in his word and not upon the person of any man Not upon the persons of Martyrs as if they had done more then they needed for themselves and might relieve us with their supererogations for if they may work for us they may beleeve for us and Iustus fide sua vivet sayes the Prophet Habak 2.4 The righteous shall live by his owne faith Not upon that person who hath made himself supernumerary and a Controller upon the three persons in the Trinity the Bishop of Rome not upon the consideration of accidents upon persons when God suffers some to fall who would have advanced his cause and some to be advanced who would have throwne downe his cause but let us ever dwell in pacto and in the fecit Deus this Covenant God hath made in his word and in this we rest It is God then not nature not his nature that made him And what Christ Christus Christ is anointed And then Mary Magdalen made him Christ for she anointed him before his death And Ioseph of Arimathea made him Christ for he anointed him and embalmed him after his death But her anointing before kept him not from death nor his anointing after would not have kept him from putrefaction in the grave if God had not in a farre other manner made him Christ anointed him praeconsortibus above his fellows God hath anointed him embalmed him enwrapped him in the leaves of the Prophets That his flesh should not see corruption in the grave That the flames of hell should not take hold of him nor sindge him there so anointed him as that in his Humane nature He is ascended into heaven and set downe at the right hand of God For de eo quod ex Maria est Petrus loquitur sayes S. Basil That making of him Christ that is that anointing which S. Peter speakes of in this place is the dignifying of his humane nature that was anointed that was consecrated that was glorified in heaven But he had a higher step then that God made this Iesus Christ and he made him Lord Dominus He brought him to heaven in his own person in his humane nature so he shall all us but when we shall be all there he onely shall be Lord
the figurative exposition of those places of Scripture which require that way oft to be figuratively expounded that Expositor is not to be blamed who not destroying the literall sense proposes such a figurative sense as may exalt our devotion and advance our edification And as no one of those Expositors did ill in proposing one such sense so neither do those Expositors ill who with those limitations that it destroy not the literall sense that it violate not the analogy of faith that it advance devotion do propose another and another such sense So doth that preacher well also who to the same end and within the same limit makes his use of both of all those expositions because all may stand and it is not evident in such figurative speeches which is the literall that is the principall intention of the Holy Ghost Of these words of this first Resurrection which is not the last of the body but a spirituall Resurrection there are three expositions authorized by persons of good note in the Church Alcazar First that this first Resurrection is a Resurrection from that low estate to which persecution had brought the Church and so it belongs to this whole State and Church August nostri and Blessed are we who have our part in this first Resurrection Secondly that it is a Resurrection from the death of sin of actuall and habituall sin so it belongs to every particular penitent soul and Blessed art thou blessed am I if we have part in this first Resurrection And then thirdly because after this Resurrection it is said That we shall raign with Christ a thousand yeares Ribera which is a certain for an uncertain a limited for a long time it hath also been taken for the state of the soul in heaven after it is parted from the body by death for though the soul cannot be said properly to have a Resurrection because properly it cannot die yet to be thus delivered from the danger of a second death by future sin to be removed from the distance and latitude and possibility of tentations in this world is by very good Expositors called a Resurrection and so it belongs to all them who are departed in the Lord Blessed and holy is he that hath part in this first Resurrection And then the occasion of the day which we celebrate now being the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus invites me to propose a fourth sense or rather use of the words not indeed as an exposition of the words but as a convenient exaltation of our devotion which is that this first Resurrection should be the first fruits of the dead The first Rising is the first Riser Christ Jesus for as Christ sayes of himself that He is the Resurrection so he is the first Resurrection the root of the Resurrection He upon whom our Resurrection all ours all our kindes of Resurrections are founded and so it belongs to State and Church and particular persons alive and dead Blessed and holy is he that hath part in this first Resurrection And these foure considerations of the words A Resurrection from persecution by deliverance a Resurrection from sin by grace a Resurrection from tentation to sin by the way of death to the glory of heaven and all these in the first Resurrection in him that is the roote of all in Christ Jesus These foure steps these foure passages these foure transitions will be our quarter Clock for this houres exercise First then 1. Part. From persecution we consider this first Resurrection to be a Resurrection from a persecution for religion for the profession of the Gospell to a forward glorious passage of the Gospell And so a learned Expositor in the Romane Church carries the exposition of this whole place though not indeed the ordinary way yet truly not incommodiously not improperly upon that deliverance which God afforded his Church from those great persecutions which had otherwise supplanted her in her first planting in the primitive times Then sayes he and in part well towards the letter of the place The devill was chained for a thousand yeares and then we began to raign with Christ for a thousand yeares reckoning the time from that time when God destroyed Idolatry more fully and gave peace and rest and free exercise of the Christian religion under the Christian Emperours till Antichrist in the height of his rage shall come and let this thousand yeares prisoner Satan loose and so interrupt our thousand yeares raign with Christ with new persecutions In that persecution was the death of the Church in the eye of the world In that deliverance by Christian Emperours was the Resurrection of the Church And in Gods protecting her ever since is the chaining up of the devill and our raigning with Christ for those thousand yeares And truly beloved if we consider the low the very low estate of Christians in those persecutions tryed ten times in the fire ten severall and distinct persecutions in which ten persecutions God may seem to have had a minde to deale eavenly with the world and to lay as much upon his people whom he would try then as he had laid upon others for his people before and so to equall the ten plagues of Aegypt in ten persecutions in the primitive Church if we consider that low that very low estate we may justly call their deliverance a Resurrection For as God said to Jerusalem I found thee in thy blood and washed thee so Christ Jesus found the Church the Christian Church in her blood and washed her and wiped her washed her in his own blood which washes white and wiped her with the garments of his own righteousnesse that she might be acceptable in the sight of God and then wiped all teares from her eyes took away all occasions of complaint and lamentation that she might be glorious in the eyes of man and chearefull in her own such was her Resurrection We wonder and justly at the effusion at the pouring out of blood in the sacrifices of the old Law that that little countrey scarce bigger then some three of our Shires should spend more cattle in some few dayes sacrifice at some solemnities and every yeare in the sacrifices of the whole yeare then perchance this kingdome could give to any use Seas of blood and yet but brooks tuns of blood and yet but basons compared with the sacrifices the sacrifices of the blood of men in the persecutions of the Primitive Church For every Oxe of the Jew the Christian spent a man and for every Sheep and Lamb a Mother and her childe and for every heard of cattle sometimes a towne of Inhabitants sometimes a Legion of Souldiers all martyred at once so that they did not stand to fill their Martyrologies with names but with numbers they had not roome to say such a day such a Bishop such a day such a Generall but the day of 500. the day of 5000. Martyrs and the martyrdome of
they have brought it nearer to the understanding nay even to the very sense by producing some such things as even in nature doe not only resemble but as they apprehend evict a resurrection yet when all is done and all the reasons of Athenogaras and the Schoole and of S. Paul himselfe are waighed they determine all in this that they are faire and pregnant and convenient illustrations of that which was beleeved before and that they have force and power to encline to an assent and to create and beget such a probability as a discreet and sad and constant man might rest in and submit to But yet we shall finde also that though no man may speak a word or conceive a thought against the resurrection because for the matter we are absolutely and expresly concluded by the Scriptures yet a man may speak probably and dangerously against any particulur argument that is produced for the resurrection We beleeve it immediately intirely cheafully undisputably because we see it expresly delivered by the Holy Ghost And we embrace thankfully that sweetnesse and that fulnesse of that blessed Spirit that as he laies an obligation upon our faith by delivering the article positively to us so he is also pleased to accompany that Article with reasons and arguments proportionable to our reason and understanding for though those reasons do not so conclude us as that nothing might be said to the contrary or nothing doubted after yet the Holy Ghost having first begotten the faith of this Article Per ea augescit fides pinguescit as Luther speaks in another case By those reasons and arguments and illustrations that faith is nourished and maintained in a good habitude and constitution And of that kind are all the reasons brought by S. Paul here Argumentae Apostols The matter is positively delivered by him and so apprehended by us and his reasons as we said before issue out of two Topiques Be pleased to looke upon both The first is our patterne Christ Jesus He is risen therefore we shall In which though I have a faire illustration and consolation in that The Head is risen therefore the Body shall yet this reaches not to make my Resurrection like his for I shall not rise as he did And then from his other Topique his reasons rise thus If there be no Resurrection we that suffer thus much for the prefession of Christ are the miserablest men in the world Why so have not all Philosophers had Scholars and all Heretiques Disciples and all great Men flatterers and every private man affections And hath there not been as much suffered by occasion of these as S. Paul argues upon here and yet no imagination no expectation of a resurrection Leave out the consideration of Philosophers many of which suffered more then the Turks doe and yet the Turks suffer infinitely more in their Mortifications then the Papists doe Leave out the Heretiques which were so hungry of suffering that if they could not provoke others to kill them they would kill themselves Leave out the pressures of our own affections and concupiscencies and yet the covetous man is in a continuall starving and the licentious man in a continuall Consumption Take onely into your consideration the miserable vexation of the flatterer and humourer and dependant upon great persons that their time is not their owne nor their words their owne their joyes are not their owne nay their sorrowes are not their owne they might not smile if they would nor they may not sigh when they would they must doe all according to anothers mind and yet they must not know his minde consider this and you cannot say but that there is as much suffered in the world as this upon which S. Paul argues by them who place not their consolation nor their retribution in the hope of a resurrection He argues farther Edamus bibamus If there be no resurrection let us dissolve our selves into the pleasures of this world and enjoy them Why so too Have we not stories full of exemplar men that might be our patterns for sobriety and continency and denying themselves the sweetnesses of this life and yet never placed Consolation nor Retribution upon a Resurrection Would not S. Pauls own Pondus gloriae That there is an exceeding waight of eternall glory attending our afflictions serve our turne though that were determined in the salvation of the soule though there were no resurrection of the body It is strongly and wisely said by Aquinas Derogant fidei Christianae rationes non cogentes To offer reasons for any Article of faith which will not convince a man therein derogates from the dignity of that Article Therefore we must consider S. Pauls reasons as they were intended to Christians that had received the Article of the Resurrection into their faith before And then as God gave Adam a body immediately from himself but then maintained and nourished that body by other meanes so the holy Ghost by S. Paul gives the article of the Resurrection to our faith positively and then enables us to declare to our own consciences and to other mens understandings that we beleeve no impossible thing in beleeving the Resurrection for as it is the candle that lights me but yet I take a lanthorne to defend that candle from the wind so my faith assures me of the Resurrection but these reasons and illustrations assist that faith And so we have done with our first part How this assurance accrues unto us and passe in order to the other The consolation which we have from this resurrection of the body not onely in it selfe but as it gives us a sense of the spirituall resurrection of our soules from sinne by Grace We are assured then of a Resurrection and we see how that assurance growes 2. Part. But of what Of all Body and soule too For Quod cadit resurgit sayes S. Hierome All that is falne receives a resurrection and that is suppositum sayes the Schoole that is The person the whole man not taken in pieces soule alone or body alone but both For as Damascen expresses the same that S. Hierome intends Resurrectio est ejus quod cecidit iterata surrectio The Resurrection is a new rising of that which fell and Man fell A man is not saved a sinner is not redeemed I am not received into heaven if my body be left out The soule and the body concurred to the making of a sinner and body and soule must concur to the making of a Saint So it is in the last Resurrection so it is in the first which we consider now by Grace from sin And therefore we receive into comparison Triplicem casum a threefold fall and a threefold resurrection as in the naturall and bodily death so in the spirituall death of the soule also For first in naturall death there is Casus in separationem The man the person falls into a separation a divorce of body and soul and the resurrection from
Ghost in the Lamentations That women eate Palmares silios We translate it Lament 2.20 Their children of a span long that is that they procured abortions and untimely births of those children which were in their bodies that they might have so much flesh to eate As that is proposed for the greatest misery that ever was women to destroy their children so so is this for the highest accumulation of Joy to have dead children brought to life againe When we heare S. Augustine in his Confessions lament so passionately the death of his Son and insist so affectionately upon the Pregnancie and Forwardnesse of that Son though that Son if he had lived must have lived a continuall evidence and monument of his sin for for all his Son S. Augustine was no married man yet what may we thinke S. Augustine would have given though it had been to have beene cut out of his own life to have had that Son restored to life again Measure it but by the Joy which we have in recovering a sick child from the hands and jawes and gates of death Measure it but by that delight which we have when we see our Garden recovered frō the death of Winter Mens curiosities have carried them to unlawfull desires of communication with the Dead as in Sauls case towards Samuel But if with a good conscience and without that horror which is likely to accompanie such a communication with the Dead a man might have the conversation of a friend that had been dead and had seene the other World As Dives thought no Preacher so powerfull to worke upon his Brethren as one sent from the Dead so certainly all the Travailers in the World if we could heare them all all the Libraries in the world if we could read them all could not tell us so much as that friend returned from the dead which had seene the other World But wayving that consideration because as we know not what kind of remembrance of this world God leaves us in the next when he translates us thither so neither do we know what kinde of remembrance of that world God would leave in that man whom he should re-translate into this we fixe onely upon the examples entended in our Text who these joyfull Women were that receiv'd their Dead raised to life againe which is our second Branch of this first part for with those three considerations which constituted our first Branch we have done That God gives us this World as we are generall Christians And as we are Faithfull Christians Miracles And the greatest of Miracles The raising of the Dead In the second Branch Mulieres we have two Considerations first what kind of Women these were and then who they were first their Qualities and then their Persons We have occasion to stop upon the first because Aquinas in his Exposition of this Text tels us there are some Expositors who take this word Women in this place to be entended not of Mothers but of Wives And then because the Apostle saies here that Women received their dead that is say they Wives received their dead Husbands raised to life again and received them as Husbands that is cohabited with them as Husbands therefore they conclude saies Aquinas that Death it selfe does not dissolve the band of Marriage and consequently that all other Marriages all super-inductions even after Death are unlawfull Let me say but one word of the Word and a word or two of the Matter it selfe and I shall passe to the other Consideration The Women whom the Apostle proposes for his examples The word Vxores Women taken alone signifies the whole sex women in generall When it is contracted to a particular signification in any Author it followes the circumstances and the coherence of that place in that Author and by those a man shall easily discerne of what kinde of Women that word is entended in that place In this place the Apostle works upon his Brethren the Hebrews by such examples as were within their owne knowledge and their owne stories throughout all this Chapter And in those stories of theirs we have no example of any Wife that had her dead Husband restored to her but of Mothers that had their Children raised to life we have So that this word Women must signifie here Mothers and not Wives as Aquinas Expositors mis-imagined And for the matter it selfe Nuptiae iteratae that is second or oftner-iterated Marriages the dis-approving of them entred very soone into some Hereticks in the Primitive Church For the eighth Canon of that great Councell of Nice which is one of the indubitable Canons forbids by name Catharos The Puritanes of those Times to be received by the Church except they would be content to receive the Sacrament with persons that had beene twice married which before they would not doe It entred soone into some Hereticks and it entred soone and went far in some holy and reverent Men and some Assemblies that had and had justly the name and forme of Councels For in the Councell of Neo-Caesarea which was before the Nicen Councell in the seventh Canon there are somewhat shrewd aspersions laid upon second Mariages And certainly the Roman Church cannot be denyed to come too neere this dis-approving of second Mariages For though they will not speak plaine they love not that because they get more by keeping things in suspence yet plainly they forbid the Benediction at second Mariages Valeat quantnm valere potest Let them doe as well as they can with their second Marriage Let them marrie De bene esse At all adventures but they will affoord no Blessing to a second as to a first Marriage And though they will not shut the Church doores against all such yet they will shut up all Church functions against all such No such Person as hath married twice or married once one that hath married twice can be received to the dignity of Orders in their Church And though some of the Fathers pared somewhat too neare the quick in this point yet it was not as in the Romane Church to lay snares and spread nets for gain and profit and to forbid only therefore that they might have market for their Dispensations neither was it to fixe and appropriate sanctity only in Ecclesiasticall persons who only must not marry twice but out of a tender sense and earnest love to Continency and out of a holy indignation that men tumbled and wallowed so licentiously so promiscuously so indifferently so inconsiderately in all wayes of incontinency those blessed Fathers admitted in themselves a super-zealous an over-vehement animosity in this point But yet S. Ierome himselfe though he remember with a holy scorn Ep. ad Agers chiam that when he was at Rome in the assistance of Pope Damasus as his word is Cum juvarem he saw a man that had buried twenty wives marry a wife that buried twenty two husbands Apolog. ad Pamnach yet for the matter and
others have thought but that answers not the sicutiest and we know we shall see God not only the body of Christ as he is in his Essence Why did all that are said to have seene God face to face fee his Essence no. In earth God assumed some materiall things to appeare in and is said to have been seene face to face when he was seen in those assumed formes But in heaven there is no materiall thing to be assumed and if God be seen face to face there he is seen in his Essence S. Augustine summes it up fully In Psal 36.10 upon those words In lumine tuo In thy light we shall see light Te scilicet in te we shall see thee in thee that is sayes he face to face And then Vt cognitus what is it to know him as we are knowne First is that it which is intended here That we shall know God so as we are known It is not expressed in the Text so It is only that we shall know so not that we shall know God so But the frame and context of the place hath drawn that unanime exposition from all that it is meant of our knowledge of God then A comprehensive knowledge of God it cannot be To comprehend is to know a thing as well as that thing can be known and we can never know God so but that he will know himselfe better Our knowledge cannot be so dilated nor God condensed and contracted so as that we can know him that way comprehensively It cannot be such a knowledge of God as God hath of himselfe nor as God hath of us For God comprehends us and all this world and all the worlds that he could have made and himselfe But it is Nota similitudinis non aequalitatis As God knowes me so I shall know God but I shall not know God so as God knowes me It is not quantum but sicut not as much but as truly as the fire does as truly shine as the Sun shines though it shine not out so farre nor to so many purposes So then I shall know God so as that there shall be nothing in me to hinder me from knowing God which cannot be said of the nature of man though regenerate upon earth no nor of the nature of an Angell in heaven left to it selfe till both have received a super-illustration from the light of Glory And so it shall be a knowledge so like his knowledge as it shall produce a love like his love and we shall love him as he loves us For as S. Chrysostome and the rest of the Fathers whom Oecumenius hath compacted interpret it Cognoscam practicè idest accurrendo I shall know him Aug. that is imbrace him adhere to him Qualis sine fine festivitas what a Holy-day shall this be which no working day shall ever follow By knowing and loving the unchangeable the immutable God Mutabimur in immutabilitatem we shall be changed into an unchangeablenesse sayes that Father that never said any thing but extraordinarily He sayes more Idem Dei praesentia si in inferno appareret If God could be seene and known in hell hell in an instant would be heaven How many heavens are there in heaven how is heaven multiplied to every soule in heaven where infinite other happinesses are crowned with this this fight and this knowledge of God there And how shall all those heavens be renewed to us every day Qui non mir abimur hodiè Idem that shall be as glad to see and to know God millions of ages after every daies seeing and knowing as the first houre of looking upon his face And as this seeing and this knowing of God crownes all other joyes and glories even in heaven so this very crown is crowned 2 Pet. 1.4 There growes from this a higher glory which is participes erimus Divinae naturae words of which Luther sayes that both Testaments afford none equall to them That we shall be made partakers of the Divine nature Immortall as the Father righteous as the Son and full of all comfort as the Holy Ghost Let me dismisse you with an easie request of S. Augustine Fieri non potest ut seipsum non diligat qui Deum diligit That man does not love God that loves not himself doe but love your selves Imo solus se diligere novit qui Deum diligit Only that man that loves God hath the art to love himself doe but love your selves for if he love God he would live eternally with him and if he desire that and indeavour it earnestly he does truly love himself and not otherwise And he loves himself who by seeing God in the Theatre of the world and in the glasse of the creature by the light of reason and knowing God in the Academy of the Church by the Ordinances thereof through the light of faith indeavours to see God in heaven by the manifestation of himselfe through the light of Glory and to know God himself in himself and by himself as he is all in all Contemplatively by knowing as he is known and Practically by loving as he is loved SERMON XXIV Preached upon Easter-day 1629. JOB 4.18 Rehold he put no trust in his Servants And his Angels he charged with folly WE celebrate this day the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus Blessed for ever and in His all ours All that is the Resurrection of all Persons All that is the Resurrection of all kinds whether the Resurrection from calamities in this world Ezechiels Resurrection where God saies to him Putasne vivent Son of man doest thou thinke Ezek. 8.6 these scattered Bones can live againe or the Resurrection from sin S. Iohns Resurrection Apo. 20.5 1 Cor. 15. Blessed is he that hath his part in the first Resurrection Or of the Resurrection to Glory S. Pauls Resurrection that is more argued and more particularly established by that Apostle then by the rest This Resurrection to glory is the consummation of all the others therefore we looke especially at this and in this our qualification in this state of glory is thus expressed by our Saviour Christ himselfe Erimus sicut Angeli In the Resurrection Luke 20.36 we shall be as the Angels And that we might not flatter our selves in a dreame of a better estate then the Angels have in this text we have an intimation what their state and condition is Behold he put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly In our handling of these words these shall be our two parts De quibus and De quo Divisio Of whom these words are spoken and then of what First what is positively said and then what is consequently inferred what proposed and what concluded what of the Angels and then what of us who shall be like the Angels In the first the Persons of whom these words are spoken because though our Interpreters vary in
opinions yet even from their various opinions there arise good instructions we shall rather Problematically inquire then Dogmatically establish first whether these words were spoken of Angels or no whether this word Angell in this text be not as it is in many other places of Scriptures and in the nature of the Word it selfe communicable to other servants and other messengers then those whom ordinarily we intend when we say Angels and then secondly if the words be spoken of Angels then whether of Good or Bad Angels of those which stand now or those which fell at first and againe if of those that stand then what degree of perfection they have and what that which we use to call their Confirmation is how it accrues to them and how it works in them if even of them it be said Behold he put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly In our second part what was inferd upon these premisses what was concluded out of these propositions what reflected upon us by this assimilation of ours to the Angels because it is a matter of much weight we shall first in our entrance into that part consider the weight of the testimony in the Person that gives it for it is not Iob himselfe that speaks these words It is but one of his friends but Elephaz but the Temanite a Gentile a stranger from the Covenant and the Church of God and yet his words are part of the Word of God And then for the matter that is inferd from our assimilation to the state of Angels will be fairely collected that if those Angels stand but by the support of Grace not by any thing inseparably inhering in their nature when we are at our best in heaven we shall do but so neither much lesse whilst we are upon earth have we in us any impossibility of falling by any thing already done for us Our standing is meerely from the grace of God and therefore let no man ascribe any thing to himselfe and Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall for God hath done no more for the best of us here nor hereafter then for those Angels and of them we heare here He put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly First then 1 Part. An Angeli for our first Disquisition in our first part De quibus the persons of whom these words are spoken Amongst all our Expositors of this book of Iob which are very many and amongst all Authors Ancient and Moderne which have had occasion in their Sermons and Tractates to reflect upon this text which are many more infinite I have never observed more then one that denies these words to be spoken of Angels or that there is any mention any intention any intimation of Angels in these words And which is the greater wonder this one single man who thus departs from all and prefers himselfe above all is no Jesuit neither It is but a Capuccin but Bolduc upon this Book of Iob and yet he adventures to say That that Person of whom it is said in this text He put no trust in his Servants and He charged his Angels with folly is not God and that they of whom it is said He trusted not his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly are not Angels But that all that Eliphaz intended in all this passage of Iob was no more but this That no great Person must trust in any kind of Greatnesse particularly not in great retinues and dependances of many servants and powerfull instruments for that was Iobs owne case and yet he lost them all The doctrine truly is good neither should I sodainly condemne his singularity if it were well grounded For though in the exposition of Scriptures singularity alwaies carry a suspition with it singularity is Indicium as we say in the Law some kind of evidence It is Semi-probatio a kind of halfe-proofe against that man that holds an opinion or induces an interpretation different from all other men yet as these which we call Indicia in the Law worke but so as that they may bring a man to his oath or in some cases to the rack and to torture but are not alone sufficient to condemne him So if we finde this singularity in any man we take from thence just occasion to question and sift him and his Doctrine the more narrowly but not only upon that presently to condemne him For this was S. Augustines case S. Augustine induced new Doctrines in divers very important points different from all that had written before him but upon due examination for all his singularity the Church hath found reason to adhere to him in those points ever since his reasons prevailed In our single Capuccins case here in our text it is not so And therefore here we must continue that complaint which we are often put to make of the iniquity of the Roman Church to us If the Fathers seeme to agree in any point wherein we differ from them they cry out we depart from the Fathers If we adhere to the Fathers in any point in which they differ from them then they cry out we forsake the Church Still they presse us with their Trent-Canon You must interpret Scriptures according to the unanime consent of the Fathers and yet they suffer a single Capuccin of their owne to depart from the Fathers and Sons from the Ancient and Moderne Expositors in their owne Church And I may adde from the Holy Ghost too from the evident purpose and meaning of the place in more places then any Author whom I have seene and in this more then in any other place when he saies with such assurance that in these words He put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly there is no mennon no intention of God or Angels but it is onely spoken of men of the infidelity of servants and of the insecurity of Masters relying upon such dependancies We take this then Ande Angelis Boâ—â— as All do All for this single Capuccin makes no considerable exception more then a mole-hill to the roundnesse of the earth to be spoken of Angels which was our first probleme and disquisition And our second is being spoken of Angels of what Angels they are spoken Good or Bad of those that fell or those that stood Here we meet with the same rub as before singularity For amongst all our Expositors upon this book I have not observed any other then Calvin to interpret this place of the good Angels of those that stand confirmed in grace Not that Calvin is to be left alone in that opinion as though he were the onely man that thought that the good Angels considered in themselves might be defective in the offices committed unto them by God for it is evident that Origen in divers of his Homilies upon the book of Numbers in his twentieth and twentie two and foure and twentie sixt and in his
straite may say to those gates Psal 24.7 Elevamini portae aeternales Be ye lifted up ye eternall gates and be ye enlarged that as the King of glory himself is entred into you for the farther glory of the King of glory not only that hundred and foure and forty thousand of the Tribes of the children of Israel but that multitude which is spoken or in that place which no man can number of all Nations and Kindreds Apoc. 7.19 and People and friends may enter with that acclamation Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever And unto this City of the living God Heb. 12.22 23 24. the heavenly Ierusalem and to the innumerable company of Angels to the generall assembly and Church of the first bâ—â—n which are written in heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Iesus the Mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things then that of Abel Blessed God bring us all for thy Sons sake and by the operation of thy Spirit Amen SERMON XXV Preached at S. Pauls upon Easter-day 1630. MAT. 28.6 He is not here for he is risen as he said Come See the place where the Lord lay THese are words spoken by an Angel of heaven to certain devout Women who not yet considering the Resurrection of Christ came with a pious intention to do an office of respect and civill honour to the body of their Master which they meant to embalme in the Monument where they thought to finde it How great a compasse God went in this act of the Resurrection Here was God the God of life dead in a grave And here was man a dead man risen out of the grave Here are Angels of heaven imployed in so low an office as to catechize Women and Women imployed in so high an office as to catechize the Apostles I chose this verse out of the body of the Story of the Resurrection because in this verse the act of Christs rising which we celebrate this day is expresly mentioned Surrexit enim for he is risen Which word stands as a Candle that shews it self and all about it and will minister occasion of illustrating your understanding of establishing your faith of exalting your devotion in some other things about the Resurrection then fall literally within the words of this verse For from this verse we must necessarily reflect both upon the persons they to whom and they by whom the words were spoken and upon the occasion given I shall not therefore now stand to divide the words into their parts and branches at my first entring into them but handle them as I shall meet them again anon springing out and growing up from the body of the Story for the Context is our Text and the whole Resurrection is the work of the day though it be virtually implicitely contracted into this verse He is not here for he is risen as he said Come and see the place where the Lord lay Our first consideration is upon the persons Mulieres and those we finde to be Angelicall women and Euangelicall Angels Angels made Euangelists to preach the Gospell of the Resurrection Mal. 3.1 Apoc. 1.20 and Women made Angels so as Iohn Baptist is called an Angel and so as the seven Bishops are called Angels that is Instructers of the Church And to recompence that observation that never good Angel appeared in the likenesse of woman here are good women made Angels that is Messengers publishers of the greatest mysteries of our Religion For howsoever some men out of a petulancy and wantonnesse of wit and out of the extravagancy of Paradoxes and such singularities have called the faculties and abilities of women in question even in the roote thereof in the reasonable and immortall soul yet that one thing alone hath been enough to create a doubt almost an assurance in the negative whether S. Ambroses Commentaries upon the Epistles of S. Paul be truly his or no that in that book there is a doubt made whether the woman were created according to Gods Image Therefore because that doubt is made in that book the book it self is suspected not to have had so great so grave so constant an author as S. Ambrose was No author of gravity of piety of conversation in the Scriptures could admit that doubt whether woman were created in the Image of God that is in possession of a reasonable and an immortall soul The faculties and abilities of the soul appeare best in affaires of State and in Ecclesiasticall affaires in matter of government and in matter of religion and in neither of these are we without examples of able women For for State affaires and matter of government our age hath given us such a Queen as scarce any former King hath equalled And in the Venetian Story I remember that certain Matrons of that City were sent by Commission in quality of Ambassadours to an Empresse with whom that State had occasion to treate And in the Stories of the Eastern parts of the World it is said to be in ordinary practise to send women for Ambassadours And then in matters of Religion women have evermore had a great hand though sometimes on the left as well as on the right hand Sometimes their abundant wealth sometimes their personall affections to some Church-men sometimes their irregular and indiscreet zeale hath made them great assistants of great Heretiques as S. Hierome tels us of Helena to Simon Magus Hieror and so was Lucilia to Donatus so another to Mahomet and others to others But so have they been also great instruments for the advancing of true Religion as S. Paul testifies in their behalf at Thessolonica Of the chiefe women not a few Great and Many For Acts 17.4 many times women have the proxies of greater persons then themselves in their bosomes many times women have voices where they should have none many times the voices of great men in the greatest of Civill or Ecclesiasticall Assemblies have been in the power and disposition of women Hence is it that in the old Epistles of the Bishops of Rome when they needed the Court as at first they needed Courts as much as they brought Courts to need them at last we finde as many letters of those Popes to the Emperours Wives and the Emperours Mothers and Sisters and women of other names and interests in the Emperours favours and affections as to the Emperours themselves S. Hierome writ many letters to divers holy Ladies for the most part all of one stocke and kindred and a stock and kindred so religious as that I remember the good old man saies That if Iupiter were their Cousin of their kindred he beleeves Iupiter would be a Christian he would leave being such a God as he was to be their fellow-servant to the true God Now if women were brought up according to S.
own dust It is not an entring into a new state when they dye but a returning to their old They return to dust Psal 104.29 And it is not to that dust which is cast upon them in the grave for that may be another mans dust but to that dust which they carried about them in their bodies They returne and to dust and to their own dust Nor is dust so inglorious a thing but that God gives a dignity to dust when he admits it into comparison to expresse the multiplication the accumulation of his blessings upon Abraham I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth not for weaknesse Gen. 13.16 but for infinitenesse And so to the same purpose of expressing greatnesse Balaam uses this Metaphore of dust Who can count the dust of Iacob and the number of the fourth part of Israel Numb 23.10 Neither does Abraham think it any diminution to lie in the dust of the earth when he is dead for he professes that he walks in the dust of the earth in himself whilst he is aliye Gen. 18.27 I have taken upon me to speak to the Lord being but dust And when David seemes to fear the dust of death lighten mine eyes lest they sleep the sleep of death it is not that he suspects any detriment to himself by death that he shall be the worse by dying Psal 13.1 but that God may lose of his glory when as he addes there the enemy shall say we have prevailed against him For as in the Primitive Church those that seeme prayers for the dead at Funeralls are indeed but thanksgivings to God in their behalf that are departed so as often as David expresses himself in that Patheticall manner Awake O Lord why sleepest thou arise Psal 44.23 and cast us not off for ever it is a thanksgiving that he hath not and a prayer that he would not forget them When he sayes Will God be favourable no more he meanes Psal 77.7 I am sure he will Is his mercy cleane gone for ever Doth his promise faile for ever Hath God forgot to be gracious Hath he shut up his mercy in anger All these imply a kinde of confidence that he hath not And as it is in that Resurrection of which David speaks most literally in those places that is The Resurrection from the calamities and oppressions of this world so is it in the Resurrection from the dust of the grave too Psal 22.15 19. Thou hast brought me to the dust of the grave but be not thou farre from me That is when thou shalt bring me to the dust of the grave thou wilt not be farre from me And when he sayes in apparence by way of expostulation Psal 39.10 and jealousie and suspition Will God shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise him shall his loving kindnesse be declared in the grave or his faishfulnesse in destruction All these passionate interrogatories and vehement expostulations may safely be resolved into these Doctrinall propositions Yes God will shew wonders to the dead The dead shall rise and praise him His loving kindnesse shall be declared in the grave Psal 74.19 and his faithfulnesse in destruction For God will not forget the Congregation of his poore for ever The poore of this world are our poore Gods poore are they that lie in the dust the dust of the grave the dead of whom God hath a greater Congregation under ground then of the living upon the face of the earth And God will not forget the congregation of his poore for ever Finitus est eorum pulvis That which we translate Their Extortioner is at an end Esay 16.4 their Oppressor is at an end is in S. Hierome Their dust is at an end that is there comes a time when the dust of the grave shall oppresse them no longer When Truly that time is virtually and in an infallibility come already as those other words of the same Prophet may admit an accommodation in the person of Christ Esay 26.19 Thy dead men shall live When Together with my dead body they shall rise Consider by occasion of those words a promise long before Christs Resurrection that all they which slept in Christ should rise in him with my dead body they shall rise And then consider the performance of this promise in the Apostle Eph. 2.6 Consurrexerunt together with Christ all that slept in him nay all that fell asleep since he waked all that dyed since he rose did arise Virtually and infallibly they did And for the actuall accomplishment of this Resurrection in every individuall person they that were laid in the grave in the first ages lose no time For there is no time of entring into heaven till the Lord come to fetch us And then they that are dead shall be so farre from being pretermitted as that they shall first be raised before any thing be done upon us But how shall they be raised by what power for that is a second Consideration induced also by this first word of our Text Then when the Lord shall have descended from heaven to raise them Then when they are raised In virtute Christi in the vertue and power of Christ Then In virtute Christi Mat. 13.43 sayes our blessed Saviour speaking of the Resurrection then shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun And wheresoever we are called the Sun compared assimilated to the Sun Christ is our Zodiake In him we move from the beginning to the end of our Circle And therefore as the last point of our Circle our resurrection determines in him in Christ so the first point of our Circle our first adoption began in him in Christ too And if I were adopted in Christ in Christ who is a Redeemer of sinners I was adopted in the condition and in the consideration of a sinner and such a sinner as should as would lay hold upon this Christ this Redeemer Christ is the Resurrection so Christ is the Adoption If there be a Resurrection in him there were some dead before If there bean Adoption in him there are some sinners before The first look that God casts upon us is in Christ and therefore the first consideration that he takes of us is as we are sinners He adopts none but penitent sinners he reproves none but impenitent sinners In him also the dead are raised that is in that power which he was raised by The power of God For still that phrase is ingeminated iterated multiplied Suscitavit Deus Mat. 28.6 suscitatus à Deo God raised Christ from the dead and Christ was raised from the dead by God And when it is said by the Angell to the women Surrexit He is risen risen of himself as the word sounds And when by those two which went with Christ to Emaus Luke 24.34 it is said at their return to Jerusalem to the eleven Apostles surrex it verè Hee
He who onely is head of the whole Church Christ Jesus is this Archangell Heare him It is the voyce of the Archangell that is the trne and sincere word of God that must raise thee from the death of sin to the life of grace If therefore any Angell differ from the Archangell and preach other then the true and sincere word of God Gal. 1.8 Anathema saies the Apostle let that Angell be accursed And take thou heed of over-affecting overvaluing the gifts of any man so as that thou take the voice of an Angell for the voyce of the Archangell any thing that that man saies for the word of God Yet thou must heare this voice of the Archangell in the Trumpet of God In Tuba Dei The Trumpet of God is his loudest Instrument and his loudest Instrument is his publique Ordinance in the Church Prayer Preaching and Sacraments Heare him in these In all these come not to heare him in the Sermon alone but come to him in Prayer and in the Sacrament too For except the voyce come in the Trumpet of God that is in the publique Ordinance of his Church thou canst not know it to be the voyce of the Archangell Pretended services of God in schismaticall Conventicles are not in the Trumpet of God and therefore not the voyce of the Archangell and so not the meanes ordained for thy spirituall resurrection And as our last resurrection from the grave is rooted in the personall resurrection of Christ 1 Cor. 15.17 For if Christ be not raised from the dead we are yet in our sins saies the Apostle But why so Because to deliver us from sin Christ was to destroy all our enemies Now the last enemy is Death and last time that Death and Christ met upon the Crosse Death overcame him and therefore except he be risen from the power of Death we are yet in our sins as we roote our last resurrection in the person of Christ so do we our first resurrection in him in his word exhibited in his Ordinance for that is the voice of the Archangell in the Trumpet of God And as the Apostle saies here Ver. 15. This we say unto you by the word of the Lord that thus the last resurrection shall be accomplished by Christ himselfe so this we say to you by the Word of the Lord by the harmony of all the Scriptures thus and no other way By the pure word of God delivered and applied by his publique Ordinance by Hearing and Beleeving and Practising under the Seales of the Church the Sacraments is your first resurrection from sin by grace accomplished So have you then those three branches which constitute our first part That they that are dead before us shall not be prevented by us but they shall rise first That they shall be raised by the power of Christ that is the power of God in Christ That that power working to their resurrection shall be declared in a mighty voyce the voyce of the Archangell in the Trumpet of God And then then when they who were formerly dead are first raised and raised by this Power and this power thus declared then shall we we who shall be then alive and remaine be wrought upon which is our second and our next generall part When the Apostle sayes here 2. Part. Nos Nos qui vivimus We that are alive and remaine would he not be thought to speake this of himselfe and the Thessalonians to whom he writes Doe not the words import that That he and they should live till Christs comming to Judgement Some certainly had taken him so But he complaines that he was mistaken We beseech you brethren 2 Thes 2.2 be not soone shaken in minde nor troubled by word or letter as from us that the day of the Lord is at hand so at hand as that we determine it in our dayes in our life So that the Apostle speakes here but Hypothetically he does but put a case That if it should be Gods pleasure to continue them in the world till the comming of his Son Christ Jesus thus and thus they should be proceeded withall for thus and thus shall they be proceeded with sayes he that shall then be alive Our blessed Saviour hath such a manner of speech of an ambiguous sense in S. Matthew Mat. 16.28 That there were some standing there that should not taste of death till they saw the Son of man comming in his Kingdome And this might give them just occasion to think that that Kingdome into which the Judgement shall enter us was at hand For the words which Christ spoke immediatly before those were evidently undeniably spoken of that last and everlasting kingdome of glory The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his Angels c. Then follows Some standing here shall live to see this And yet Christ did not speak this of that last kingdome of glory but either he spoke it of that manifestation of that kingdome which was shewed to some of them to Peter and Iames and Iohn in the Transfiguration of Christ for the Transfiguration was a representation of the kingdome of glory or else he spoke it of that inchoation of the kingdome of glory which shined out in the kingdome of grace which all the Apostles lived to see in the personall comming of the Holy Ghost and in his powerfull working in the conversion of Nations in their life time And this is an inexpressible comfort to us That our blessed Saviour thus mingles his Kingdomes that he makes the Kingdome of Grace and the Kingdome of Glory all one the Church and Heaven all one and assures us That if we see him In hoc speculo in this his Glasse in his Ordinance in his Kingdome of Grace we have already begun to see him facie ad faciem face to face in his Kingdome of Glory If we see him Sicuti manifestatur as he looks in his Word and Sacraments in his Kingdome of Grace we have begun to see him Sicuti est As he is in his Essence in the Kingdome of Glory And when we pray Thy Kingdome come and mean but the Kingdome of Grace he gives us more then we ask an inchoative comprehension of the Kingdome of Glory in this life This is his inexpressible mercy that he mingles his Kingdomes and where he gives one gives both So is there also a faire beam of comfort exhibited to us in this Text That the number reserved for that Kingdome of Glory is no small number For though David said The Lord looked down from heaven and saw not one that did good no not one Psal 14.2 there it is lesse then a few though when the times had better means to be better when Christ preached personally upon the earth when one Centurion had but replyed to Christ Sir Mat. 8.10 you need not trouble your self to go to my house if you do but say the word here my servant will
dignity First The Father shall send you another Comforter Another then my selfe For Ver. 16. howsoever Christ were the Fountain of comfort yet there were many drammes many ounces many talents of discomfort mingled in that their Comforter was first to depart from them by death and being restored to them again by a Resurrection was to depart againe by another Transmigration by an Ascension And therefore the second mark by which Christ dignifies this Comforter is That he shall abide with us for ever And in the performance of that promise he is here with you now And therefore as we begun with those words of Esay which our Saviour applyed to himselfe The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me Esay 61.1 to binde up the broken hearted and to comfort all them that mourne So the Spirit of the Lord is upon all us of his Ministery in that Commandement of his in the same Prophet Consolamini Esay 40.1 consolamini Comfort ye comfort yee my people and speak comfortably unto Ierusalem Receive the Holy Ghost all ye that are the Israel of the Lord in that Doctrine of comfort that God is so farre from having hated any of you before he made you as that he hates none of you now not for the sins of your Parents not for the sins of your persons not for the sins of your youth not for your yester-dayes not for your yester-nights sins not for that highest provocation of all your unworthy receiving his Son this day Onely consider that Comfort presumes Sadnesse Sin does not make you incapable of comfort but insensiblenesse of sin does In great buildings the Turrets are high in the Aire but the Foundations are deep in the Earth The Comforts of the Holy Ghost work so as that only that soule is exalted which was dejected As in this place where you stand there bodies lie in the earth whose soules are in heaven so from this place you carry away so much of the true comfort of the Holy Ghost as you have true sorrow and sadnesse for your sins here Almighty God erect this building upon this Foundation Such a Comfort as may not be Presumption upon such a Sorrow as may not be Diffidence in him And to him alone but in three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour c. SERMON XXIX Preached at S. Pauls upon Whitsunday 1628. JOHN 14.26 But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name Hee shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you WE Eipasse from the Person to his working we come from his comming to his operation from his Mission and Commission to his Executing thereof from the Consideration who he is to what he does His Specification his Character his Title Paracletus The Comforter passes through all Therefore our first comfort is Docebimur we shall be Taught He shall teach you As we consider our selves The Disciples of the Holy Ghost so it is a meere teaching for we in our selves are meerly ignorant But wen we consider the things we are to bee taught so it is but a remembring a refreshing of those things which Christ in the time of his conversation in this world had taught before He shall bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you These two then The comfort in the Action we shall be Taught and the comfort in the Way and Manner we shall not be subject to new Doctrines but taught by remembring by establishing us in things formerly Fundamentally laid will be our two parts at this time And in each of these these our steps First in the first we shall consider the persons that is the Disciples who were to learne not onely they who were so when Christ spoke the words but we All who to the end of the world shall seek and receive knowledge from him Vos ye first Vos ignorantes you who are naturally ignorant and know nothing so as you should know it of your selves which is one Discomfort And yet Vos ye Vos appetentes you that by nature have a desire to know which is another Discomfort To have a desire and no meanes to performe it Vos docebimini ye ye that are ignorant and know nothing ye ye that are hungry of knowledge and have nothing to satisfie that hunger ye shall be fed ye shall be taught which is one comfort And then Ille docebit He shall teach you He who cannot onely infuse true and full knowledge in every capacity that he findes but dilate that capacity where he findes it yea create it where he findes none The Holy Ghost who is not onely A Comforter but The Comforter and not onely so but Comfort it selfe He shall teach you And in these we shall determine our first Part. In our second Part The Way and Manner of this Teaching By bringing to our remembrance all things whatsoever Christ had said unto us there is a great largenesse but yet there is a limitation of those things which we are to learne of the Holy Ghost for they are Omnia All things whatsoever Christ hath taught before But then Sola ea Only those things which Christ had taught before and not new Additaments in the name of the Holy Ghost Now this largenesse extending it self to the whole body of the Christian Religion for Christ taught all that all that being not reducible to that part of an houre which will be left for this exercise as fittest for the celebration of the day in which we arenow we shall binde our selves to that particular consideration what the Holy Ghost being come from the Father in Christs Name that is Pursuing Christs Doctrine hath taught us of Himselfe concerning Himselfe That so ye may first see some insolencies and injuries offered to the Holy Ghost by some ancient Heretiques and some of later times by the Church of Rome For truly it is hard to name or to imagine any one sin nearer to that emphaticall sin that superlative sin The sin against the Holy Ghost then some offers of Doctrines concerning the Holy Ghost that have been obtruded though not established and some that have beene absolutely established in that Church And when we shall have delivered the Holy Ghost out of their hands we shall also deliver him into yours so as that you may feele him to shed himselfe upon you all here and to accompany you all home with a holy peace and in a blessed calme in testifying to your soules that He that Comforter who is the holy Ghost whom the Father hath sent in his Sons name hath taught you all things that is awakened your memories to the consideration of all that is necessary to your present establishment And to these divers particulars which thus constitute our two generall parts in their order thus proposed we shall now proceed As when our Saviour Christ received that confession of
concealing which were the pieces that constitute our first Part in the second Part which is the time when this Legacy accrues to us is to be given us In die illo at that day At that day shall yee know c. It is the illumination the illustration of our hearts and therefore well referred to the Day The word it selfe affords cheerefulnesse For when God inflicted that great plague to kill all the first-borne in Aegypt Exod. 12. Luke 20. that was done at Midnight And when God would intimate both deaths at once spirituall and temporall he sayes O foole this night they will fetch away thy soule Against all supply of knowledge he cals him foole and against all sense of comfort in the day he threatens night It was In die Illo and In die illo in the day and at a certaine day and at a short day For after Christ had made his Will at this supper given strength to his Will by his death and proved his Will by his Resurrection and left the Church possest of his estate by his Ascension within ten dayes after that he poured out this Legacy of knowledge For though some take this day mentioned in the Text Calvin to be Tanqnam unius diei tenor à dato Spiritu ad Resurrectionem from the first giving of the Holy Ghost to the Resurrection And others take this day Osiand to bee from his Resurrection to the end of his second Conversation upon earth till his Ascension and S. Augustine referre it Ad perfectam visionem in Coelis to the perfect fruition of the sight of God in Heaven yet the most usefull and best followed acceptation is This Day of the comming of the Holy Ghost That day we celebrate this day and we can never finde the Christian Church so farre as we can judge by the evidence of Story to have been without this festivall day The reason of all Festivals in the Church was and is Ne volumine temporum ingrata subrepat oblivio August Lest after many ages involved and wrapped up in one another Gods particular benefits should bee involved and wrapped up in unthankfulnesse And the benefits received this day were such as should never be forgotten for without this day all the rest had been evacuated and uneffectuall If the Apostles by the comming of the Holy Ghost had not been established in an infallibility in themselves and in an ability to deale with all Nations by the benefit of tongues the benefit of Christs passion had not been derived upon all Nations And therefore to This day and to Easter-day all publike Baptismes in the Primitive Church were reserved None were baptized except in cases of necessity but upon one of these two dayes for as there is an Exaltation a Resurrection given us in Baptisme represented by Easter so there belongs to us a confirmation an establishing of grace and the increase thereof represented in Pentecost in the comming of the Holy Ghost As the Jews had an Easter in the memory of their deliverance from Aegypt and a Pentecost in the memory of the Law given at Mout Sinai So at Easter we celebrate the memory of that glorious Passeover when Christ passed from the grave and hell in his Resurrection and at this Feast of Pentecost we celebrate his giving of the Law to all Nations and his investing and possessing himselfe of his Kingdome the Church for this is Festum Adoptionis as S. Chrysostome cals it The cheerefull feast of our Adoption in which the Holy Ghost convaying the Son of God to us enables us to be the Sons of God and to cry Abba Father This then is that day Acts 2. when the Apostles being with one accord and in one place that is in one faith and in one profession of that faith not onely without Heresie but without Schisme too the Holy Ghost as a mighty winde filled them all and gave them utterance As a winde to note a powerfull working And he filled them to note the abundance And he gave them utterance to inferre that which we spoke of before The Communication of that knowledge which they had received to others This was that Spirit whom it concerned the Apostles so much to have as that Christ himselfe must goe from them to send him to them If I goe not away sayes Christ the Comforter will not come to you How great a comfort must this necessarily be which must so abundantly recompence the losse of such a comfort as the presence of Christ was This is that Spirit who though hee were to be sent by the Father and sent by the Son yet he comes not as a Messenger from a Superiour for hee was alwaies equall to Father and Son But the Father sent him and the Son sent him as a tree sends forth blossomes and as those blossomes send forth a sweet smell and as the Sun sends forth beames by an emanation from it selfe He is Spiritus quem nemo interpretari potest sayes S. Chrysostome hee hath him not that doth not see he hath him nor is any man without him who in a rectified conscience thinks he hath him Illo Prophetae illustrantur Illo idiotae condiuntur sayes the same Father The Prophets as high as their calling was saw nothing without this Spirit and with this Spirit a simple man understands the Prophets And therefore doth S. Basil attribute that to the Holy Ghost which seemes to be peculiar to the Son he cals him Verbum Dei because sayes he Spiritus interpres Filii sicut Filius Patris As the Son hath revealed to us the will of the Father and so is the Word of God to us so the Holy Ghost applies the promises and the merits of the Son to us and so is the Word of God to us too and enables us to come to God in that voyce of his blessed Servant S. Augustine O Deus secretissime patentissime Though nothing be more mysterious then the knowledge of God in the Trinity yet nothing is more manifest unto us then by the light of this person the Holy Ghost so much of both the other Persons as is necessary for our Salvation is Now it is not onely to the Apostles that the Holy Ghost is descended this day but as S. Chrysostom saies of the Annunciation Non ad unam tantùm animam It is not onely to one Person that the Angel said then The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and overshadow thee but sayes he that Holy Ghost hath said Super omnem Ioel 2. I will poure out my selfe upon all men so I say of this day This day if you be all in this place concentred united here in one Faith and one Religion If you be of one accord that is in perfect charity The Holy Ghost shall fill you all according to your measure and his purpose and give you utterance in your lives and conversations Qui ita vacat orationibus Origen ut dignus fiat illo
Church of God celebrates this day the third Person of the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity The Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost is the God the Spirit of Comfort A Comforter not one amongst others but the Comforter not the principall but the intire the onely Comforter and more then all that The Comfort it selfe That is an attribute of the Holy Ghost Comfort And then the office of the Holy Ghost is to gather to establish to illumine to governe that Church which the Son of God from whom together with the Father the Holy Ghost proceeds hath purchased with his blood So that as the Holy Ghost is the Comforter so is this Comfort exhibited by him to us and exercised by him upon us in this especially that he hath gathered us established us illumined us and does governe us as members of that body of which Christ Jesus is the Head that he hath brought us and bred us and fed us with the meanes of salvation in his application of the merits of Christ to our soules in the Ordinances of the Church In this Text is the first mention of this Third Person of the Trinity And it is the first mention of any distinct Person in the God-head In the first verse there is an intimation of the Trinity in that Bara Elohim That Gods Gods in the plurall are said to have made heaven and earth And then as the Church after having celebrated the memory of All Saints together in that one day which we call All Saints day begins in the celebration of particular Saints first with Saint Andrew who first of any applied himself to Christ out of Saint Iohn Baptists Schoole after Christs Baptisme so Moses having given us an intimation of God and the three Persons altogether in that Bara Eloim before gives us first notice of this Person the Holy Ghost in particular because he applies to us the Mercies of the Father and the Merits of the Son and moves upon the face of the waters and actuates and fecundates our soules and generates that knowledge and that comfort which we have in the knowledge of God Now the moving of the Holy Ghost upon the face of the waters in this Text cannot be literally understood of his working upon man for man was not yet made but when man is made that is made the man of God in Christ there in that new Creation the Holy Ghost begins again with a new moving upon the face of the waters in the Sacrament of Baptisme which is the Conception of a Christian in the wombe of the Church Therefore we shall consider these words And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters first literally in the first and then spiritually in the second Creation first how the Holy Ghost moved upon the face of the Waters in making this world for us And then how he moves upon the face of the Waters againe in making us for the other world In which two severall parts we shall consider these three termes in our Text both in the Macrocosme and Microcosme the Great and the Lesser world man extended in the world and the world contracted and abridged into man first Quid Spiritus Dei what this Power or this Person which is here called the Spirit of God is for whether it be a Power or a Person hath been diversly disputed And secondly Quid ferebatur what this Action which is here called a Moving was for whether a Motion or a Rest an Agitation or an Incubation of that Power or that Person hath been disputed too And lastly Quid super faciem aquarum what the subject of this Action the face of the waters was for whether it were a stirring and an awakening of a power that was naturally in those waters to produce creatures or whether it were an infusing a new power which till then those waters had not hath likewise beene disputed And in these three the Person the Action the Subject considered twice over in the Creation first and in our regeneration in the Christian Church after we shall determine all that is necessary for the literall and for the spirituall sense of these words And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters First then 1 Part. Aug Con. 11.2 undertaking the consideration of the literall sense and after of the spirituall we joyne with S. Augustine Sint castae deliciae meae Scripturae tuae Lord I love to be conversant in thy Scriptures let my conversation with thy Scriptures be a chast conversation that I discover no nakednesse therein offer not to touch any thing in thy Scriptures but that that thou hast vouchsafed to unmask and manifest unto me Nec fallar in eis nec fallam ex eis Lord let not me mistake the meaning of thy Scriptures nor mis-lead others Ibid. by imputing a false sense to them Non frustra scribuntur sayes he Lord thou hast writ nothing to no purpose thou wouldst be understood in all But not in all by all men at all times Confiteor tibi quicquid invenero in libris tuis Lord I acknowledge that I receive from thee whatsoever I understand in thy word for else I doe not understand it This that blessed Father meditates upon the word of God he speakes of this beginning of the Book of Genesis and he speaks lamenting Scripsit Moses abiit a little Moses hath said C. 3. and alas he is gone Si hic esset tonerem eum per te rogarem If Moses were here I would hold him here and begge of him for thy sake to tell me thy meaning in his words of this Creation But sayes he since I cannot speake with Moses Te quo plenus vera dixit Veritas rogo I begge of thee who art Truth it selfe as thou enabledst him to utter it enable me to understand what he hath said So difficult a thing seemed it to that intelligent Father to understand this history this mystery of the Creation But yet though he found that divers senses offered themselves he did not doubt of finding the Truth C. 18. For Deus meus lumen oculorum meorum in occulto sayes he O my God the light of mine eyes in this dark inquisition since divers senses arise out of these words and all true Quid mihi obest si alindego sensero quam sensit alius eum sensisse qui scripsit What hurt followes though I follow another sense then some other man takes to be Moses sense for his may be a true fense and so may mine and neither be Moses his C. 30. Hee passes from prayer and protestation to counsell and direction In diversitate sententiarum verarum concordiam pariat ipsa veritas Where divers senses arise and all true that is that none of them oppose the truth let truth agree them But what is Truth God And what is God Charity Therefore let Charity reconcile such differences 1.12 C. 30. Legitimè lege ut amur sayes he let us
the Subject the holy Ghost and him moving and moving upon the waters in our regeneration Here as before our first Terme and Consideration is the name The Spirit of God 2. Part. Spiritus sanctus And here God knows we know too many even amongst the outward professors of the Christian religion that in this name The Spirit of God take knowledge only of a power of God and not of a person of God They say it is the working of God but not God working Mira profunditas eloquiorum tuorum The waters in the creation Aug. Confess 12. c. 14. were not so deep as the word of God that delivers that creation Ecce ante nos superficies blandiens pueris sayes that Father We we that are but babes in understanding as long as we are but naturall men see the superficies the top the face the outside of these waters Sed mira profunditas Deus meus mira profunditas But it is an infinite depth Lord my God an infinite depth to come to the bottome The bottome is to professe and to feele the distinct working of the three distinct persons of the Trinity Father Son and holy Ghost Rara anima quae cum de illa loquitur sciat quid loquatur Not one man C. 30. not one Christian amongst a thousand who when he speaks of the Trinity knows what he himself meanes Naturall men will write of lands of Pygmies and of lands of giants and write of Phoenixes and of Unicornes But yet advisedly they do not beleeve at least confidently they do not know that there are such Giants or such Pygmies such Unicorns or Phoenixes in the world Christians speak continually of the Trinity and the holy Ghost but alas advisedly they know not what they mean in those names The most know nothing for want of consideration They that have considered it enough and spent thoughts enough upon the Trinity to know as much as needs be knowen thereof Contendunt dimicant C. 11. nemo sine pace vidit istam visionem They dispute and they wrangle and they scratch and wound one anothers reputations and they assist the common enemy of Christianity by their uncharitable differences Et sine pace And without peace and mildnesse and love and charity no man comes to know the holy Ghost who is the God of peace Id. l. 11.2 22. and the God of love Da quod amo amo enim nam hoc tu dedisti I am loath to part from this father and he is loath to be parted from for he sayes this in more then one place Lord thou hast enamoured mee made me in love let me enjoy that that I love That is the holy Ghost That as I feele the power of God which sense is a gift of the holy Ghost I may without disputing rest in the beliefe of that person of the Trinity that that Spirit of God that moves upon these waters is not only the power but a person in the Godhead This is the person Ferebatur without whom there is no Father no Son of God to me the holy Ghost And his action his operation is expressed in this word Ferebatur The Spirit of God moved Which word as before is here also a comprehensive word and denotes both motion and rest beginnings and wayes and ends We may best consider the motion the stirring of the holy Ghost in zeale and the rest of the holy Ghost in moderation If we be without zeale we have not the motion If we be without moderation we have not the rest the peace of the holy Ghost The moving of the holy Ghost upon me is as the moving of the minde of an Artificer upon that piece of work that is then under his hand A Jeweller if he would make a jewell to answer the form of any flower or any other figure his minde goes along with his hand nay prevents his hand and he thinks in himself a Ruby will conduce best to the expressing of this and an Emeraud of this The holy Ghost undertakes every man amongst us and would make every man fit for Gods service in some way in some profession and the holy Ghost sees that one man profits most by one way another by another and moves their zeal to pursue those wayes and those meanes by which in a rectified conscience they finde most profit And except a man have this sense what doth him most good and a desire to pursue that the holy Ghost doth not move nor stir up a zeale in him But then if God do afford him the benefit of these his Ordinances in a competent measure for him and he will not be satisfied with Manna but will needs have Quailes that is cannot make one meale of Prayers except he have a Sermon nor satisfied with his Gomer of Manna with those Prayers which are appointed in the Church nor satisfied with those Quailes which God sends the preaching of solid and fundamentall doctrines but must have birds of Paradise unrevealed mysteries out of Gods own bosome preached unto him howsoever the holy Ghost may seem to have moved yet he doth not rest upon him and from the beginning the office and operation of the holy Ghost was double He moved and rested upon the waters in the creation he came and tarried still upon Christ in his Baptisme He moves us to a zeale of laying hold upon the meanes of salvation which God offers us in the Church and he settles us in a peacefull conscience that by having well used those meanes we are made his A holy hunger and thirst of the Word and Sacraments a remorse and compunction for former sins a zeale to promove the cause and glory of God by word and deed this is the motion of the holy Ghost And then to content my self with Gods measure of temporall blessings and for spirituall that I do serve God faithfully in that calling which I lawfully professe as far as that calling will admit for he upon whose hand-labour the sustentation of his family depends may offend God in running after many working dayes Sermons This peace of conscience this acquiescence of having done that that belongs to me this is the rest of the Spirit of God And this motion and this rest is said to be done Super faciem And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters which is our last consideration In the moving of the Spirit of God upon the waters Facies aquarum we told you before it was disputed whether the Holy Ghost did immediatly produce those creatures of himselfe or whether he did fecundate and inanimate and inable those substances the water and all contained under the waters to produce creatures in their divers specifications In this moving of the Spirit of God upon the waters in our regeneration it hath also been much disputed How the Holy Ghost works in producing mans supernaturall actions whether so immediately as that it be altogether without
roome at his owne right hand for that body when that shall be re-united in a blessed Resurrection And so The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters SERM. XXXII Preached upon Whitsunday 1 COR. 12.3 Also no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost WE read that in the Tribe of Benjamin Iudg. 20.16 which is by interpretation Filius dextrae The Son of the right hand there were seven hundred left-handed Men that could sling stones at a haires breadth and not faile S. Paul was of that Tribe and though he were from the beginning in the purpose of God Filius dextrae A man ordained to be a dextrous Instrument of his glory yet he was for a time a left-handed man and tooke sinister wayes and in those wayes a good mark-man a laborious and exquisite persecutor of Gods Church And therefore it is that Tertullian sayes of him Paulum mihi etiam Genesis olim repromisit I had a promise of Paul in Moses Gen 49. Then when Moses said Iacob blessed Benjamin thus Benjamin shall ravin as a Wolfe In the morning he shall devoure the prey and at night he shall divide the spoilc that is At the beginning Paul shall scatter the flocke of Christ but at last he shall gather and re-unite the Nations to his service Acts 9.1 Chrysost As he had breathed threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord so he became Os orbi sufficiens A mouth loud enough for all the world to heare And as he had drawne and sucked the blood of Christs mysticall body the Church so in that proportion that God enabled him to he recompensed that damage Colos 1.14 by effusion of his owne blood He fulfilled the sufferings of Christ in his flesh as himselfe saies to the Colossians And then he bequeathed to all posterity these Epistles which are as S. Augustine cals them Vbera Ecclesia The Paps the Breasts the Udders of the Church Numb 13.24 And which are as that cluster of Grapes of the Land of Canaan which was borne by two for here every couple every paire may have their load Jew and Gentile Learned and Ignorant Man and Wife Master and Servant Father and Children Prince and People Counsaile and Client how distinct soever they thinke their callings to be towards the world yet here every paire must equally submit their necks to this sweet and easie yoake of confessing Jesus to be the Lord and acknowledging that Confession to proceed from the working of the Holy Ghost for No man can say that Iesus is the Lord without the Holy Ghost In which words Divisio these shall be the three things that we will consider now first The generall impotency of man in spirituall duties Nemo potest no man can do this no man can doe any thing secondly How and what those spirituall duties are expressed to be It is a profession of Jesus to be the Lord to say it to declare it And thirdly the meanes of repairing this naturall impotency and rectifying this naturall obliquity in man That man by the Holy Ghost may be enabled to do this spirituall duty to professe sincerely Jesus to be the Lord. In the first we shall see first the universality of this flood the generality of our losse in Adam Nemo none not one hath any any power which notes their blasphemy that exempt any person from the infection of sin And secondly we shall see the impotency the infirmity where it lies It is in homine no man which notes their blasphemy that say Man may be saved by his naturall faculties as he is man And thirdly by just occasion of that word Potest he can he is able we shall see also the lazinesse of man which though he can doe nothing effectually and primarily yet he does not so much as he might doe And in those three we shall determine our first part In the second what this spirituall duty wherein we are all so impotent is It is first an outward act a profession not that an outward act is enough but that the inward affection alone is not enough neither To thinke it to beleeve it is not enough but we must say it professe it And what why first That Jesus is not only assent to the history and matter of fact that Jesus was and did all that is reported and recorded of him but that he is still that which he pretended to be Caesar is not Caesar still nor Alexander Alexander But Jesus is Jesus still and shall be for ever This we must professe That he is And then That he is the Lord He was not sent hither as the greatest of the Prophets nor as the greatest of the Priests His worke consists not only in having preached to us and instructed us nor in having sacrificed himselfe thereby to be an example to us to walk in those wayes after him but he is Lord he purchased a Dominion he bought us with his Blood He is Lord And lastly he is The Lord not only the Lord Paramount the highest Lord but The Lord the only Lord no other hath a Lordship in our soules no other hath any part in the saving of them but he And so far we must necessarily enlarge our second consideration And in the third part which is That this cannot be done but by the holy Ghost we shall see that in that But is first implyed an exclusion of all means but one And therefore that one must necessarily be hard to be compassed The knowledge and discerning of the holy Ghost is a difficult thing And yet as this But hath an exclusion of all meanes but one so it hath an inclusion an admission an allowance of that one It is a necessary duty nothing can effect it but the having of the holy Ghost and therefore the holy Ghost may be had And in those two points The hardnesse of it And the possibility of it will our last consideration be employed For the first branch of the first part The generality that reaches to us all 1. Part. Generalitas and to us all over to all our persons and to all our faculties Perdidimus per peccatum bonum possibilitatis sayes S. Augustine We have lost our possession and our possibility of recovering by Adams sin Adam at his best had but a possibility of standing we are fallen from that and from all possibility of rising by any power derived from him We have not only by this fall broke our armes or our legs but our necks not our selves not any other man can raise us Every thing hath in it as Physitians use to call it Naturale Balsamum A naturall Balsamum which if any wound or hurt which that creature hath received be kept clean from extrinsique putrefaction will heale of it self We are so far from that naturall Balsamum as that we have a naturall poyson in us Originall sin for that originall sin as it hath relation to God
himselfe but not for a Ransome not for a Satisfaction but onely for a lively example thereby to incline us to suffer for Gods glory and for the edification of one another If we call him Dominum A Lord we call him Messiam Vnctum Regem anointed with the oyle of gladnesse by the Holy Ghost to bee a cheerefull conquerour of the world and the grave and sin and hell and anointed in his owne blood to be a Lord in the administration of that Church which he hath so purchased This is to say that Jesus is a Lord To professe that he is a person so qualified in his being composed of God and Man that he was able to give sufficient for the whole world and did give it and so is Lord of it When we say Iesus est That Jesus is There we confesse his eternity and therein Dominus The Lord. his Godhead when we say Iesus Dominus that he is a Lord therein we confesse a dominion which he hath purchased And when we say Iesum Dominum so as that we professe him to be the Lord Then we confesse a vigilancy a superintendency a residence and a permanency of Christ in his Dominion in his Church to the worlds end If he be the Lord in his Church there is no other that rules with him there is no other that rules for him The temporall Magistrate is not so Lord as that Christ and he are Collegues or fellow-Consuls that if he command against Christ he should be as soone obeyed as Christ for a Magistrate is a Lord and Christ is the Lord a Magistrate is a Lord to us but Christ is the Lord to him and to us and to all None rules with him none rules for him Christ needs no Vicar he is no non-resident He is nearer to all particular Churches at Gods right hand then the Bishop of Rome at his left Direct lines direct beames does alwaies warme better and produce their effects more powerfully then oblique beames doe The influence of Christ Jesus directly from Heaven upon the Church hath a truer operation then the oblique and collaterall reflections from Rome Christ is not so far off by being above the Clouds as the Bishop of Rome is by being beyond the Hils Dicimus Dominum Iesum we say that Jesus is the Lord and we refuse all power upon earth that will be Lord with him as though he needed a Coadjutor or Lord for him as though he were absent from us To conclude this second part To say that Iesus is the Lord is to confesse him to bee God from everlasting and to have beene made man in the fulnesse of time and to governe still that Church which he hath purchased with his blood and that therefore hee lookes that we direct all our particular actions to his glory For this voice wherein thou saiest Dominus Iesus The Lord Iesus must be as the voyce of the Seraphim in Esay Esay 6.2 thrice repeated Sanctus sanctus sanctus Holy holy holy our hearts must say it and our tongue and our hands too or else we have not said it For when a man will make Jesus his companion and be sometimes with him and sometimes with the world and not direct all things principally towards him when he will make Jesus his servant that is proceed in all things upon the strength of his outward profession upon the colour and pretence and advantage of Religion and devotion would this man be thought to have said Iesum Dominum Luke 6.46 That Iesus is the Lord Why call ye me Lord Lord and doe not the things I speake to you saies Christ Christ places a tongue in the hands Actions speake and Omni tuba clarior per opera Demonstratio sayes S. Chrysostome There is not onely a tongue but a Trumpet in every good worke When Christ sees a disposition in his hearers to doe according unto their professing Iohn 13.14 then only he gives allowance to that that they say Dicitis me Dominum bene dicitis You call me Lord and you doe well in doing so doe ye therefore as I have done to you To call him Lord is to contemplate his Kingdome of power to feele his Kingdome of grace to wish his Kingdome of glory It is not a Domine usque quò Iohn 11.21 Lord how long before the Consummation come as though we were weary of our warfare It not a Domine si fuisses Lord if thou hadst beene here our brother had not died as Martha said of Lazarus as though as soon as we suffer any worldly calamity we should thinke Christ to be absent from us in his power or in his care of us It is not a Domine vis mandemus Luke 9.54 Lord wilt thou that we command fire from Heaven to consume these Samaritans as though we would serve the Lord no longer then he would revenge his owne and our quarrel for that we may come to our last part to that fiery question of the Apostles Christ answered You know not of what spirit you are It is not the Spirit of God it is not the Holy Ghost which makes you call Jesus the Lord onely to serve your own ends and purposes and No man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost For this Part 3 Part. Difficultas we proposed onely two Considerations first that this But excluding all meanes but one that one must therefore necessarily be difficult and secondly that that But admitting one meanes that one must therefore necessarily be possible so that there is a difficulty but yet a possibility in having this working by the Holy Ghost For the first of those hereticall words of Fanstus the Manichaean That in the Trinity the Father dwelt In illa luce inaccessibili In that light which none can attaine to And the Son of God dwelt in this created light whose fountaine and roote is the Planet of the Sun And the Holy Ghost dwelt in the Aire and other parts illumined by the Sun we may make this good use that for the knowledge of the Holy Ghost wee have not so present so evident light in reason as for the knowledge of the other blessed Persons of the glorious Trinity For for the Son because he assumed our nature and lived and dyed with us we conceive certaine bodily impressions and notions of him and then naturally and necessarily as soon as we heare of a Son we conceive a Father too But the knowledge of the Holy Ghost is not so evident neither doe we bend our thoughts upon the consideration of the Holy Ghost so much as we ought to doe The Arians enwrapped him in double clouds of darknesse when they called him Creaturam Creaturae That Christ himselfe from whom say they the Holy Ghost had his Creation was but a Creature and not God and so the Holy Ghost the Creature of a Creature And Maximus ille Gigas as Saint Bernard cals Plato That Giant in all kinde of
Learning Plato never stopped at any knowledge till he came to consider the holy Ghost Vnum inveni quod cuncta operatur I have saies Plato found One who made all things Et unum per quod cuncta efficiuntur And I have found another by whom all things were made Tertium autem non potui invenire A Third besides those two I could never finde Though all the mysteries of the Trinity be things equally easie to faith when God infuses that yet to our reason even as reason serves faith and presents things to that things are not so equall but that S. Basil himselfe saw that the eternall generation of the Son was too hard for Reason but yet it is in the proceeding of the Holy Ghost that he clearely professes his ignorance Si cuncta putarem nostra cogitatione posse comprehendi vererer fortè ignorantiam profiteri If I thought that all things might bee knowne by man I should bee as much afraid and ashamed as another man to be ignorant but saies he since we all see that there are many things whereof we are ignorant Cur non de Spiritu sancto absque rubore ignorantiam faterer Why should I be ashamed to confesse mine ignorance in many things concerning the Holy Ghost There is then a difficulty no lesse then an impossibility Possibilitas in searching after the Holy Ghost but it is in those things which appertain not to us But in others there is a possibility a facility and easinesse For there are two processions of the holy Ghost Aeterna and Temporaria his proceeding from the Father and the Son and his proceeding into us The first we shall never understand if we reade all the books of the world The other we shall not choose but understand if we study our own consciences In the first the darknesse and difficulty is recompenced in this That though it be hard to finde any thing yet it is but little that we are to seek It is only to finde that there is a holy Ghost proceeding from Father and Son for in searching farther the danger is noted by S. Basil to be thus great Qui quomodo interrogas ubi ut in loco quando ut in tempore interrogabis If thou give thy curiosity the liberty to ask How the holy Ghost proceeded thou wilt ask where it was done as though there were severall roomes and distinct places in that which is infinite And thou wilt ask when it was done as though there were pieces of time in that which is eternall Et quaeres non ut fidem sed ut infidelitatem invenias which is excellently added by that Father The end of thy enquiring will not be that thou mightest finde any thing to establish thy beliefe but to finde something that might excuse thine unbeliefe All thy curious questions are not in hope that thou shalt receive satisfaction but in hope that the weaknesse of the answer may justifie thy infidelity Thus it is if we will be over curious in the first the eternall proceeding of the Holy Ghost In the other the proceeding of the holy Ghost into us we are to consider that as in our naturall persons the body and soul do not make a perfect man except they be united except our spirits which are the active part of the blood do fit this body and soule for one anothers working So though the body of our religion may seem to be determined in these two our Creation which is commonly attributed to the Father Tanquam fonti Deitatis As the fountaine of the Godhead for Christ is God of God And our Redemption which belongs to the Son yet for this body there is a spirit that is the holy Ghost that takes this man upon whom the Father hath wrought by Creation and the Son included within his Redemption and he works in him a Vocation a Justification and a sanctification and leads him from that Esse which the Father gave him in the Creation And that Bene esse which he hath in being admitted into the body of his Son the visible Church and Congregation to an Optimè esse to that perfection which is an assurance of the inhabitation of this Spirit in him and an inchoation of eternall blessednesse here by a heavenly and sanctified conversation without which Spirit No man can say that Iesus is the Lord because he is not otherwise in a perfect obedience to him if he embrace not the means ordained by him in his Church So that this Spirit disposes and dispenses distributes and disperses and orders all the power of the Father and all the wisdome of the Son and all the graces of God It is a Center to all So S. Bernard sayes upon those words of the Apostle We approve our selves as the Ministers of God But by what By watching by fasting by suffering by the holy Ghost by love unfained Vide tanquam omnia ordinantem quomodo in medio virtutum sicut cor in medio corporis constituit Spiritum Sanctum As the heart is in the midst of the body so between these vertues of fasting and suffering before and love unfained after the Apostle places the holy Ghost who only gives life and soule to all Morall and all Theologicall vertues And as S. Bernard observes that in particular men so doth S. Augustine of the whole Church Quod in corpore nostro anima id in corpore Christi Ecclesia Spiritus Sanctus That office which the soule performes to our body the holy Ghost performes in the body of Christ which is the Church And therefore since the holy Ghost is thus necessary and thus neare as at the Creation the whole Trinity was intimated in that plurall word Elohim creavit Dii but no person of the Trinity is distinctly named in the Creation but the holy Ghost The Spirit of God moved upon the waters As the holy Ghost was first conveyed to our knowledge in the Creation so in our Regeneration by which we are new creatures though our Creation and our Redemption be religious subjects of our continuall meditation yet let us be sure to hold this that is nearest us to keep a neare a familiar and daily acquaintance and conversation with the holy Ghost and to be watchfull to cherish his light and working in us Homines docent quaerere solus ipse qui docet invenire habere frui Bernard Men can teach us wayes how to finde somethings The Pilot how to finde a Land The Astronomer how to finde a Star Men can teach us wayes how to finde God The naturall man in the book of creatures The Morall man in an exemplar life The Jew in the Law The Christian in generall in the Gospell But Solus ipse qui docet invenire habere frui Only the holy Ghost enables us to finde God so as to make him ours and to enjoy him 1 Cor. 2.14 First you must get more light then nature gives for The naturall man perceiveth not the things
meditation he had Though in such a person as S. Peter so filled with all gifts necessary for his function and to such persons as Cornelius was who needed but Catechizing in the rudiments of the Gospell much preparation needed not The case was often of the same sort after in the Primitive Church The persons were very able and the people very ignorant and therefore it is easie to observe a far greater frequency of Preaching amongst the Ancient Fathers then ordinarily men that love ease will apprehend We see evidently in S. Augustines hundred forty fourth Sermon De Tempore And in S. Ambroses forty fourth Sermon De sancto Latrone And in S. Bernards twelve Sermons upon one Psalme that all these blessed and Reverend Fathers preached more then one day divers dayes together without intermission And we may see in S. Basils second Homilie upon the six dayes worke that he preached in the after-noone And so by occasion of his often preaching it seemes by his second Homilie De Baptismo that he preached sometimes extemporally But of all this the reason is as evident as the fact The Preachers were able to say much The people were capable but of little And where it was not so the Clergy often assisted themselves with one anothers labours as S. Cyrils Sermons were studied without book and preached over againe to their severall Congregations by almost all the Bishops of the Easterne Church Sometimes we may see Texts extended to very many Sermons and sometimes Texts taken of that extent and largenesse as onely a paraphrase upon the Text would make the Sermon for we may see by S. Augustines tenth Sermon De verbis Apostoli that they tooke sometimes the Epistle and Gospell of the day and the Psalme before the Sermon for their text But in these our times when the curiosity allow it a better name for truly God be blessed for it it deserves a better name when the capacity of the people requires matter of more labour as there is not the same necessity so there is not the same possibility of that assiduous and that sudden preaching No man will think that we have abler Preachers then the Primitive Church had no man will doubt but that we have learneder and more capable auditories and congregations then their were The Apostles were not negligent when they mended their nets A preacher is not negligent if he prepare for another Sermon after he hath made one nor a hearer is not negligent if he meditate upon one Sermon though he heare not another within three houres after S. Peters Sermon was not extemporall neither if it had his person and the quality of the hearers being compared with our times had that been any precedent or patterne for our times to do the like But yet Beloved since our times are such as are overtaken with another necessity that our adversaries dare come Cum locutus est As soon as the Preacher hath done and meet the people comming out of the Church and deride the Preacher and offer an answer to any thing that hath been said since they are come to come to Church with us and Dum locutus est Then when the Preacher is speaking to say to him that sits next him That is false that is heretical since they are come to joyn with us at the Communion so that it is hard to finde out the Iudas and if you do finde him he dares answer Your Minister is no Priest and so your Bread and Wine no Sacrament and therefore I care not how much of it I take since they are come to boast that with all our assiduity of preaching we cannot keep men from them since it is thus as we were alwayes bound by Christs example To gather you as a hen gathers her chickens to call you often to this assembling of your selves so are we now much more bound to hide and cover you as a hen doth her chickens and because there is a Kite hovering in every corner a seducer lurking in every company to defend and arme you with more and more instructions against their insinuations And if they deride us for often preaching and call us fooles for that as David said He would be more vile he would Dance more So let us be more fooles in this foolishnesse of preaching and preach more If they think us mad since we are mad for our soules as the Apostle speakes let us be more mad Let him that hath preached once do it twice and him that hath preached twice do it thrice But yet not this by comming to a negligent and extemporall manner of preaching but we will bee content to take so many hours from our rest that we with you may rest the safelyer in Abrahams bosome and so many more houres from our meat that we with you may the more surely eat and drink with the Lamb in the kingdome of heaven Christ hath undertaken that his word shall not passe away but he hath not undertaken that it shall not passe from us There is a Ne exeas munaum served upon the world The Gospell cannot goe nor be driven out of the world till the end of the world but there is not a Ne exeas regnum The Gospell may go out of this or any Kingdome if they flacken in the doing of those things which God hath ordained for the meanes of keeping it that is a zealous and yet a discreet a sober and yet a learned assiduity in preaching Thus far then we have been justly carried in consideration of this circumstance in the manner of his preaching his preparation In descending to the next which is the matter of his Sermon we see much of that in his Text. S. Peter tooke his Text here Res. ver 34. out of Deuteronomy of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons Where Deut. 10.17 because the words are not precisely the same in Deuteronomy as they are in this Text we finde just occasion to note That neither Christ in his preaching nor the holy Ghost in penning the Scriptures of the new Testament were so curious as our times in citing Chapters and Verses or such distinctions no nor in citing the very very words of the places Heb. 4.4 There is a sentence cited thus indefinitely It is written in a certaine place without more particular note And to passe over many conducing to that purpose if we consider that one place in the Prophet Esay Make the heart of this people fat Esay 6.20 make their eyes heavy and shut them lest they see with their eyes and heare with their eares and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed and consider the same place as it is cited six severall times in the new Testament we shall see that they stood not upon such exact quotations and citing of the very words But to that purpose for which S. Peter had taken that text he follows his text Now Beloved I doe not goe about to
when the Gentiles had been long accustomed to make every power and attribute of God and to make every remarkable creature of God a severall God and so to worship God in a multiplicity of Gods it was a great work to limit and determine their superstitious and superfluous devotion in one God But when all these lines were brought into one center not to let that center rest but to draw lines out of that againe and bring more persons into that one centricall God-head this was hard forreason to digest But yet to have extended that from that unity to a duality was not so much as to a triplicity And thereupon though the Arians would never be brought to confesse an equality between the Son and the Father they were much farther from confessing it in the Holy Ghost They made sayes S. Augustine Filium creaturam Haeres 49. The Son they accounted to be but a creature but they made the Holy Ghost Creaturam Creaturae not onely a Creature and no God but not a Creature of Gods but a Creature a Messenger of the son who was himselfe with them but a Creature But these mysteries are not to be chawed by reason but to be swallowed by faith we professed three persons in one God in the simplicity of our infancy at our baptisme and we have sealed that contract in the other Sacrament often since and this is eternall life to die in that beliefe There are three that beare witnesse in heaven The Father the Word 1 John 5.7 and the Holy Ghost and these three are one And in that testimony we rest that there is a Holy Ghost and in the testimony of this text that this Holy Ghost falls down upon all that heare the word of God Now it is as wonderfull that this Holy Ghost should fall down from heaven Cecidit Esay 14.12 as that he should be in heaven Quomodo cecidisti How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer thou son of the morning was a question asked by the Propher of him who was so fallen as that he shall never returne againe But the Holy Ghost as mysterious in his actions as in his Essentiall or in his Personall beeing fell so from heaven as that he remained in heaven even then when he was fallen This Dove sent from heaven Gen 8.7 did more then that Dove which was sent out of the Arke That went and came but was not in both places at once Noah could not have shewed that Dove to his sons and daughters in the Arke then when the Dove was flowne out But now when this Dove the Holy Ghost fell upon these men at Peters Sermon Stephen who was then come up to heaven saw the same Dove the same Holy Ghost whom they whom he had left upon the earth felt upon the earth then As if the Holy Ghost fall upon any in this Congregation now now the Saints of God see that Holy Ghost in heaven whom they that are here feele falling upon them here In all his workings the Holy Ghost descends for there is nothing above him There is a third heaven but no such third heaven as is above the heaven of heavens above the seat and residence of the Holy Ghost so that whatsoever he doth is a descent a diminution a humiliation and an act of mercy because it is a Communication of himselfe to a person inferiour to himselfe But there is more in this Text then a descent When the Holy Ghost came upon Christ himselfe after his Baptisme there it is said He descended Though Christ as the Son of God were equall to him and so it was no descent for the Holy Ghost to come to him yet because Christ had a nature upon him in which he was not equall to the Holy Ghost here was a double descent in the Holy Ghost That he who dwells with the Father and the Son In luce inaccessibili In light inaccessible and too bright to be seene would descend in a visible form to be seene by men And that he descended and wrought upon a mortall man though that man were Christ Christ also had a double descending too He descended to be a man and he descended to be no man He descended to live amongst us and he descended to die amongst us He descended to the earth and he descended to hell Every operation of every person of the holy and blessed and glorious Trinity is a Descending But here the Holy Ghost is said to have fallen which denotes a more earnest communicating of himselfe a throwing a pouring out of himselfe upon those upon whom he falls He falls as a fall of waters that covers that it falls upon as a Hawk upon a prey it desires and it will possesse that it falls upon as an Army into a Countrey it Conquers and it Governes where it fals The Holy Ghost fals but farre otherwise Mat. 21.44 upon the ungodly Whosoever shall fall upon this stone shall be broken but upon whomsocver this stone shall fall it will grinde him to powder Indeed he fals upon him so as haile fals upon him he fals upon him so as he fals from him and leaves him in an obduration and impenitiblenesse and in an irrecoverable ruine of him that hath formorly despised and despighted the Holy Ghost But when the Holy Ghost fals not thus in the nature of a stone but puts on the nature of a Dove and a Dove with an Olive-branch and that in the Ark that is testimonies of our peace and reconciliation to God in his Church he fals as that kinde of lightning which melts swords and hurts not scabbards the Holy Ghost shall melt thy soule and not hurt thy body he shall give thee spirituall blessings and saving graces under the temporall seales of bodily health and prosperity in this world He shall let thee see that thou art the childe of God in the obedience of thy children to thee And that thou art the servant of God in the faithfulnesse of thy servants to thee And that thou standest in the favour of God bythe favor of thy superiours to thee he shall fall upon thy soul and not wound thy body give thee spirituall prosperity and yet not by worldly adversity and evermore over-shadow and refresh thy soul yet evermore keep thee in his Sunshine and the light of his countenance But there is more then this in this falling of the Holy Ghost in this Text. For it was not such a particular insinuation of the Holy Ghost as that he convaied himselfe into those particular men for their particular good and salvation and determined there but such a powerfull and diffusive falling as made his presence and his power in them to work upon others also So when he came upon Christ it was not to adde any thing to Christ but to informe others that that was Christ So when Christ breathed his spirit into the Apostles it was not meerly to infuse salvation into them but it was especially
castration in cutting off the eares There are certain veines behinde the eares which if they be cut disable a man from generation The Eares are the Aqueducts of the water of life and if we cut off those that is intermit our ordinary course of hearing this is a castration of the soul the soul becomes an Eunuch and we grow to a rust to a mosse to a barrennesse without fruit without propagation If then God have placed thee under such a Pastor as presents thee variety blesse God who enlarges himselfe to afford thee that spirituall delight in that variety even for the satisfaction of that holy curiosity of thine If he have placed thee under one who often repeates and often remembers thee of the same things blesse God even for that that in that he hath let thee see that the Christian Religion is Verbum abbreviatum A contracted doctrine and that they are but a few things which are necessary to salvation and therefore be not loath to heare them often Our errand hither then is not to see but much lesse not to be able to see to sleep Verbum It is not to talk but much lesse to snort It is to heare and to heare all the words of the Preacher but to heare in those words the Word that Word which is the soule of all that is said and is the true Physick of all their soules that heare The Word was made flesh that is assumed flesh but yet the Godhead was not that flesh The Word of God is made a Sermon that is a Text is dilated diffused into a Sermon but that whole Sermon is not the word of God But yet all the Sermon is the Ordinance of God Delight thy self in the Lord and he will give thee thy hearts desire Take a delight in Gods Ordinance in mans preaching and thou wilt finde Gods Word in that To end all in that Metaphor which we mentioned at beginning As the word of God is as hony so sayes Solomon Pleasant words are as the hony combe Prov. 16.24 And when the pleasant words of Gods servants have conveyed the saving word of God himselfe into thy soule then maist thou say with Christ to the Spouse I have caten my hony combe with my hony Cant. 5.1 mine understanding is enlightned with the words of the Preacher and my faith is strengthned with the word of God I glorifie God much in the gifts of the man but I glorifie God much more in the gifts of his grace I am glad I have heard him but I am gladder I have heard God in him I am happy that I have heard those words but thrice happy that in those words I have heard the Word Blessed be thou that camest in the name of the Lord but blessed be the Lord that is come to me in thee Let me remember how the Preacher said it but let me remember rather what he said And beloved all the best of us all all that all together all the dayes of our life shall be able to say unto you is but this That if ye will heare the same Jesus in the same Gospell by the same Ordinance and not seeke an imaginary Jesus in an illusory sacrifice in another Church If you will heare so as you have contracted with God in your Baptisme The holy Ghost shall fall upon you whilest you heare here in the house of God and the holy Ghost shall accompany you home to your own houses and make your domestique peace there a type of your union with God in heaven and make your eating and drinking there a type of the abundance and fulnesse of heaven and make every dayes rising to you there a type of your joyfull Resurrection to heaven and every nights rest a type of your eternall Sabbath and your very dreames prayers and meditations and sacrifices to Almighty God SERM. XXXIV Preached upon Whitsunday ROM 8.16 The Spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God I Take these words to take occasion by them to say something of the holy Ghost Our order proposed at first requires it and our Text affords it Since we speak by Him let us love to speak of Him and to speak for Him but in both to speak with Him that is so as he hath spoken of himselfe to us in the Scriptures God will be visited but he will not be importuned He will be looked upon but he will not be pryed into A man may flatter the best man If he do not beleeve himself when he speaks well of another and when he praises him though that which he sayes of him be true yet he flatters So an Atheist that temporises and serves the company and seemes to assent flatters A man may flatter the Saints in heaven if he attribute to them that which is not theirs and so a Papist flatters A man may flatter God himself If upon pretence of magnifying Gods mercy he will say with Origen That God at last will have mercy upon the devill he flatters So though God be our businesse we may be too busie with God and though God be infinite we may go beyond God when we conceive or speak otherwise of God then God hath revealed unto us By his own light therefore we shall look upon him and with that reverence and modesty that That Spirit may beare witnesse to our spirit that we are the children of God That which we shall say of these words Divisio will best be conceived and retained best if we handle them thus That whereas Christ hath bidden us to judge our selves that we be not judged to admit a triall here lest we incurre a condemnation hereafter This text is a good part of that triall of that judiciall proceeding For here are first two persons that are able to say much The Spirit it self and Our spirit And secondly their office their service They beare witnesse And thirdly their testimony That we are the children of God And these will be our three parts The first will have two branches because there are two persons The Spirit and Our spirit And the second two branches They witnesse and They witnesse together for so the word is And the third also two branches They testifie of us their testimony concernes us and they testifie well of us That we are the children of God The persons are withour exception the Spirit of God cannot be deceived and the spirit of man will not deceive himself Their proceeding is Legall and faire they do not libell they do not whisper they do not calumniate They testifie and they agree in their testimony And lastly the case is not argued so as amongst practisers at the Law that thereby by the light of that they may after give Counsell to another in the like but the testimony concernes our selves it is our own case The verdict upon the testimony of the Spirit and our spirit is upon our selves whatsoever it bee And blessed be the
because the Son is the second and the holy Ghost the third person but the second was not before the third in time nor is above him in dignity There is processio corporalis such a bodily proceeding as that that which proceeds is utterly another thing then that from which it proceeds frogs proceed perchance of ayre and mise of dust and worms of carkasses and they resemble not that ayre that dust those carkasses that produced them There is also processio Metaphysica when thoughts proceed out of the minde but those thoughts remaine still in the mind within and have no separate subsistence in themselves And then there is processio Hyperphysica which is this which we seek and finde in our soules but not in our tongues a proceeding of the holy Ghost so from Father and Son as that he remaines a subsistence alone a distinct person of himselfe This is as far as the Schoole can reach Ortu qui relationis est non est à se Actu qui personae est per se subsistit Consider him in his proceeding so he must necessarily have a relation to another Consider him actually in his person so he subsists of himselfe And De modo for the manner of his proceeding we need we can say but this As the Son proceeds per modu intellectus so as the mind of man conceives a thought so the holy Ghost proceeds per modum voluntatis when the mind hath produced a thought that mind and that discourse and ratiocination produce a will first our understanding is setled and that understanding leads our will And nearer then this though God knows this be far off we cannot goe to the proceeding of the holy Ghost This then is The Spirit The third person in the Trinity but the first person in our Text Spiritus noster The other is our spirit The Spirit beareth witnesse with our spirit I told you before that amongst the manifold acceptations of the word spirit as it hath relation particularly to man it is either the soul it self or the vitall spirits the thin and active parts of the bloud or the superiour faculties of the soul in a regenerate man that is our spirit in this place So S. Paul distinguishes soul and spirit Heb. 4.12 The word of God pierces to the dividing asunder soule and spirit where The soule is that which inanimates the body and enables the organs of the senses to see and heare The spirit is that which enables the soule to see God and to heare his Gospel The samephrase hath the same use in another place 1 Thes 5.25 Calvin I pray God your spirit and soule and body may be preserved blamelesse Where it is not so absurdly said though a very great man call it an absurd exposition That the soule Anima is that qua animales homines as the Apostle calls them that by which men are men naturall men carnall men And the spirit is the spirit of Regeneration by which man is a new creature a spirituall man But that that Expositor himselfe hath said enough to our present purpose The soule is the seat of Affections The spirit is rectified Reason It is true this Reason is the Soveraigne these Affections are the Officers this Body is the Executioner Reason authorizes Affections command the Body executes And when we conceive in our mind desire in our heart performe in our body nothing that displeases God then have we had benefit of S. Pauls prayer That in body and soule and spirit we may be blamelesse In summe we need seek no farther for a word to expresse this spirit but that which is familiar to us The Conscience Rem 9.1 A rectified conscience is this spirit My conscience bearing me witnesse sayes the Apostle And so we have both the persons in this judiciall proceeding The Spirit is the holy Ghost Our spirit is our Conscience And now their office is to testifie to beare witnesse which is our second generall part The Spirit bears witnesse c. To be a witnesse 2 Part. is not an unworthy office for the holy Ghost himselfe Heretiques in their pestilent doctrines Tyrans in their bloody persecutions call God himselfe so often so far into question as that he needs strong and pregnant testimony to acquit him First against Heretiques we see the whole Scripture is but a Testament and Testamentum is Testatio ment is it is but an attestation a proofe what the will of God is And therefore when Tertullian deprehended himselfe to have slipped into another word and to have called the Bible Instrumentum he retracts and corrects himselfe thus Magìs usui est dicere Testamentum quà m Instrumentum It is more proper to call the Scripture a Testament then a Conveyance or Covenant All the Bible is Testament Attestation Declaration Proofe Apoc. 11.2 Evidence of the will of God to man And those two witnesses spoken of in the Revelation are very conveniently very probably interpreted to be the two Testaments And to the Scriptures Christ himselfe refers the Jews Iohn 5.39 Search them for they beare witnesse of me The word of God written by the holy Ghost is a witnesse and so the holy Ghost is a witnesse against Heretiques Against Tyrans and Persecuters the office of a witnesse is an honourable office too for that which we call more passionately and more gloriously Martyrdome is but Testimony A Martyr is nothing but a Witnesse He that pledges Christ in his own wine in his own cup in bloud He that washes away his sins in a second Baptisme and hath found a lawfull way of Re-baptizing even in bloud He that waters the Prophets ploughing and the Apostles sowing with bloud He that can be content to bleed as long as a Tyran can foame or an Executioner sweat He that is pickled nay embalmed in bloud salted with fire and preserved in his owne ashes He that to contract all nay to enlarge beyond all suffers in the Inquisition when his body is upon the rack when the rags are in his throat when the boots are upon his legs when the splinters are under his nailes if in those agonies he have the vigour to say I suffer this to shew what my Saviour suffered must yet make this difference He suffered as a Saviour I suffer but as a witnesse But yet to him that suffers as a Martyr as a witnesse a crowne is reserved It is a happy and a harmonious meeting in Stephens martyrdome Proto-martyr and Stephanus that the first Martyr for Christ should have a Crown in his name Such a blessed meeting there is in Ioash his Coronation Posuit super eum Diadema Testimonium 2 King 11.12 They put the Crowne upon his head and the Testimony that is The Law which testified That as he had the Crowne from God so he had it with a witnesse with an obligation that his Government his life and if need were his death should testifie his zeale to him
Abrahams taske was an easie taske to tell the stars of Heaven so it were to tell the sands or haires or atomes in respect of telling but our owne sins And will God say to me Confide Fili My Son be of good cheere thy sins are forgiven thee Mat. 9.2 Does he meane all my sins He knowes what originall sin is and I doe not and will he forgive me sin in that roote and sin in the branches originall sin and actuall sin too He knowes my secret sins and I doe not will he forgive my manifest sins and those sins too He knowes my relapses into sins repented and will he forgive my faint repentances and my rebellious relapses after them will his mercy dive into my heart and forgive my sinfull thoughts there and shed upon my lips and forgive my blasphemous words there and bathe the members of this body and forgive mine uncleane actions there will he contract himselfe into himselfe and meet me there and forgive my sins against himselfe And scatter himselfe upon the world and forgive my sins against my neighbour and emprison himselfe in me and forgive my sins against my selfe Will he forgive those sins wherein my practise hath exceeded my Parents and those wherein my example hath mis-led my children Will he forgive that dim sight which I have of sin now when sins scarce appeare to be sins unto me and will he forgive that over-quick sight when I shall see my sins through Satans multiplying glasse of desperation when I shall thinke them greater then his mercy upon my death bed In that he said all he left out nothing Heb. 2.8 is the Apostles argument and he is not almighty if he cannot his mercy endures not for ever if he doe not forgive all Sin and all sin even blasphemy now blasphemy is not restrained to God alone Blasphemia other persons besides God other things besides persons may be blasphemed 1 Tim. 6.1 Iude 8 10. The word of God the Doctrine Religion may be blasphemed Magistracy and Dignities may be blasphemed Nay Omnia quae ignorant saies that Apostle They blaspheme all things which they know not And for persons the Apostle takes it to his owne person 1 Cor. 4.13 Being blasphemed yet we intreat and he communicates it to all men Neminem blasphemate Tit. 3.2 Blaspheme no man Blasphemy as it is a contumelious speech derogating from any man that good that is in him or attributing to any man that ill that is not in him may be fastned upon any man For the most part it is understood a sin against God and that directly and here by the manner of Christ expressing himselfe it is made the greatest sin All sin even blasphemy And yet a drunkard that cannot name God will spue out a blasphemy against God A child that cannot spell God will stammer out a blasphemy against God If we smart we blaspheme God and we blaspheme him if we be tickled If I lose at play I blaspheme and if my fellow lose he blasphemes so that God is alwayes sure to be a loser An Usurer can shew me his bags and an Extortioner his houses the fruits the revenues of his sinne but where will the blasphemer shew mee his blasphemy or what hee hath got by it The licentious man hath had his love in his armes and the envious man hath had his enemy in the dust but wherein hath the blasphemer hurt God In the Schoole we put it for the consummation of the torment of the damned Aquin. 221. q. 13. ar 4. that at the Resurrection they shall have bodies and so be able even verbally to blaspheme God herein we exceed the Devill already that we can speake blaspemously There is a rebellious part of the body that Adam covered with figge leaves that hath damned many a wretched soule but yet I thinke not more then the tongue And therefore the whole torment that Dives suffered in hell Luke 16.24 is expressed in that part Father Abraham have mercy upon me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and coole my tongue The Jews that crucified God will not sound the name of God and we for whom he was Crucified belch him out in our surfets and foame him out in our fury An Impertinent sin without occasion before and an unprofitable sin without recompence after and an incorrigible sin too for almost what Father dares chide his son for blasphemy that may not tell him Sir I learnt it of you or what Master his servant that cannot lay the same recrimination upon him How much then do we need this extent of Gods mercy that he will forgive sin and all sin and even this sin of blasphemy and which is also another addition blasphemy against the Son This emphaticall addition arises out of the connexion in the next verse In filium A word that is a blasphemous word against the Son shall be forgiven And here wee carry not the word Son so high as that the Son should be the eternall Son of God Though words spoken against the eternall Son of God by many bitter and blasphemous Heretiques have beene forgiven God forbid that all the Photinians who thought that Christ was not at all till he was borne of the Virgin Mary That all the Nativitarians that thought he was from all eternity with God but yet was not the Son of God That all the Arians that thought him the Son of God but yet not essentially not by nature but by grace and adoption God forbid that all these should be damned and because they once spoke against the Son therefore they never repented or were not received upon repentance We carry not the word Son so high as to be the eternall Son of God for it is in the text Filius hominis The Son of Man And in that acceptation we doe not meane it of all blasphemies that have beene spoken of Christ as the Son of man that is of Christ invested in the humane nature though blasphemies in that kind have beene forgiven too God forbid that all the Arians that thought Christ so much the Son of Man as that he tooke a humane body but not so much as that he tooke a humane soule but that the Godhead it selfe such a Godhead as they allowed him was his soule God forbid that all the Anabaptists that confesse he tooke a body but not a body of the substance of the Virgin That all the Carpocratians that thought onely his soule and not his body ascended into Heaven God forbid all these should be damned and never called to repentance or not admitted upon it There were fearfull blasphemies against the Son as the Son of God and as the Son of Man against his Divine and against his Humane Nature and those in some of them by Gods grace forgiven too But here we consider him onely as the Son of Man meerely as Man but as such a Man so good a
repentance and so is thereby irremissible yet there arise no markes by which I can say This man is such a sinner not though hee himselfe would sweare to me that he were so now and that he would continue so till death The other places that doe not so directly concerne this sin and yet are sometimes used in this affaire 1 Iohn 5.16 are one in S. Iohn and this text another That in S. Iohn is There is a sin unto death I doe not say that he shall pray for it It is true that the Master of the Sentences and from him many of the Schoole and many of our later Interpreters too doe understand this of the sin against the Holy Ghost because we are almost forbidden to pray for it but yet we are not absolutely forbidden in that we are not bidden And if we were forbidden when God sayes to Ieremy Pray not thou for this people neither lift up cry Ier. 7.16 nor prayer for them neither make intercession to me for I will not heare thee And againe Ier. 11.14 Pray not for them for I will not heare them Not them though they should come to pray for themselves God forbid that we should therefore say that all that people had committed the sin against the Holy Ghost And for this particular place of S. Iohn that answer may suffice which very good Divines have given Pray not for them is indeed pray not with them admit them to no part in the publique prayers of the Congregation but if they sin a sin unto death a notorious an inexcusable sin let them be persons excommunicated to thee For the words in this text which seeme to many appliable to that great sin it is not cleare it is not much probable that they can be so applied Take the words invested in their circumstance in the context and coherence and it will appeare evident Christ speaks this to the Pharisees upon occasion of that which they had said to him and of him before and he carries it intends it no farther That appeares by the first word of out text Propterea Therefore I say unto you Therefore that is Because you have used such words unto me And S. Marke makes it more cleare He said this to them because they said Marke 3.30 He had an uncleane spirit because they said he did his Miracles by the power of the Devill Now this was certainely a sin against the Holy Ghost so far as that it was distinguished from the sins against the Son of Man But it was not the sin against the Holy Ghost for Christ being a mixt person God and Man did some things in which his Divinity had nothing to doe but were onely actions of a meere naturall man and when they slandered him in these they blasphemed the Son of Man Some things he did in the power of his God head in which his humanity contributed nothing as all his Miracles and when they attributed these works to the Devill they blasphemed the Holy Ghost And therefore S. Augustine sayes That Christ in this place did not so much accuse the Pharisees that they had already incurred the sin of the Holy Ghost they might at last fall into The sin that impenitible and therfore irremissible sin But that sin this could not be because the Pharisees had not embraced the Gospel before and so this could not be a falling from the Gospel in them Neither does it appeare to have continued to a finall impenitence so far from it as that S. Chrysost makes no doubt but that some of these Pharisees did repent upon Christs admonition Now beloved since we see by this collation of places that it is not safe to say of any man he is this sinner nor very constantly agreed upon what is this sin but yet we are sure that such a sin there is that captivates even God himself and takes from him the exercise of his mercy and casts a dumnesse a speechlesnesse upon the Church it selfe that she may not pray for such a sinner and since we see that Christ with so much earnestnesse rebukes the Pharisees for this sin in the text because it was a limbe of that sin and conduced to it let us use all religious diligence to keep our selves in a safe distance from it To which purpose be pleased to cast a particular but short and transitory glaunce upon some such sins as therefore because they conduce to that are sometimes called sins against the holy Ghost Sins against Power that is the Fathers Attribute sins of infirmity are easily forgiven sins against Wisdome that is the Sons Attribute sins of Ignorance are easily forgiven but sins against Goodnesse that is the Holy Ghosts Attribute sins of an hard and ill nature are hardly forgiven Not at all when it comes to be The sin not easily when they are Those sins those that conduce to it and are branches of it For branches the Schoolemen have named three couples which they have called sins against the Holy Ghost because naturally they shut out those meanes by which the Holy Ghost might work upon us The first couple is presumption and desperation for presumption takes away the feare of God and desperation the love of God And then they name Impenitence and hardnesse of heart for Impenitence removes all sorrow for sins past and hardnesse of heart all tendernesse towards future tentations And lastly they name The resisting of a truth acknowledged before and the envying of other men who have made better use of Gods grace then we have done for this resisting of a Truth is a shutting up of our selves against it and this envying of others is a sorrow that that Truth should prevaile upon them And truly to reflect a very little upon these three couples again To presume upon God that God cannot damne me eternally in the next world for a few half-houres in this what is a fornication or what is an Idolatay to God what is a jest or a ballad or a libel to a King Or to despaire that God will not save me how well soever I live after a sin what is a teare what is a sigh what is a prayer to God what is a petition to a King To be impenitent senslesse of sins past I past yesterday in riot and yesternight in wantonnesse and yet I heare of some place some office some good fortune fallen to me to day To be hardned against future sins shall I forbeare some company because that company leads me into tentation Why that very tentation wil lead me to preferment To forsake the truth formerly professed because the times are changed and wiser men then I change with them To envy and hate another another State another Church another man because they stand out in defence of the truth for if they would change I might have the better colour the better excuse of changing too al these are shrewd and slippery approaches towards the sin against the Holy Ghost and therefore
the Schoolemen have called all these six not without just reason and good use by that heavy name And some of the Fathers have extended it farther then to these six S. Bernard in particular sayes Nolle obedire To resist lawfull Authority And another Simulata poenitentia To delude God with relapses counterfait repentances and another also Omne schisma All schismaticall renting of the peace of the Church All these they call in that sense Sins against the Holy Ghost Now all sins against the Holy Ghost are not irremissible Stephen told his persecutors Acts 7.51.60 They resisted the Holy Ghost and yet he prayed for them But because these sins may and ordinarily doe come to that sin stop betimes David was far from the murder of Vriah when he did but looke upon his Wife as she was bathing A man is far from defying the holy Ghost when he does but neglect him and yet David did come and he will come to the bottome quickly It may make some impression in you to tell and to apply a short story In a great Schisme at Rome Ladislaus tooke that occasion to debauch and corrupt some of the Nobility It was discerned and then to those seven Governors whom they had before whom they called Sapientes Wise men they added seven more and called them Bonos Good men honest men and relied and confided in them Goodnesse is the Attribute of the Holy Ghost If you have Greatness you may seeme to have some of the Father for Power is his If you have Wisdome you may seeme to have some of the Son for that is his If you have Goodnesse you have the Holy Ghost who shall lead you into all truth And Goodnesse is To be good and easie in receiving his impressions and good and constant in retaining them and good and diffusive in deriving them upon others To embrace the Gospel to hold fast the Gospel to propagate the Gospel this is the goodnesse of the Holy Ghost And to resist the entrance of the Gospel to abandon it after we have professed it to forsake them whom we should assist and succour in the maintenance of it This is to depart from the goodnesse of the Holy Ghost and by these sins against him to come too neare the sin the irremissible sin in which the calamities of this world shall enwrap us and deliver us over to the everlasting condemnation of the next This is as much as these words do justly occasion us to say of that sin and into a more curious search thereof it is not holy sobriety to pierce SERM. XXXVI Preached upon Whitsunday JOHN 16.8 9 10 11. And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousnesse and of judgement Of sin because ye belceve not on me Of righteousnesse because I goe to my Father and ye see me no more Of judgement because the Prince of this world is judged OUr Panis quotidianus Our daily bread is that Iuge sacrificium That daily sacrifice of meditating upon God Our Panis hodiernus This dayes bread is to meditate upon the holy Ghost To day if ye will heare his voice to day ye are with him in Paradise For wheresoever the holy Ghost is Luk. 23.43 he creates a Paradise The day is not past yet As our Saviour said to Peter Hodie in nocte hac Mar. 14.10 This day even in this night thou shalt deny me so Hodie in nocte hac Even now though evening the day-spring from on high visits you Esay 38.8 God carries back the shadow of your Sun-dyall as to Hezechias And now God brings you to the beginning of this day if now you take knowledge that he is come who when he comes Reproves the world of sin c. The solemnity of the day requires Divisio and the method of the words offers for our first consideration the Person who is not named in our text but designed by a most emphaticall denotation Ille He He who is all and doth all But the word hath relation to a name proper to the holy Ghost for in the verse immediatly preceding our Saviour tels his disciples That he will send them the Comforter So forbearing all other mysterious considerations of the holy Ghost we receive him in that notion and function in which Christ sends him The Comforter And therefore in this capacity as The Comforter we must consider his action Arguet He shall reprove Reprove and yet Comfort nay therefore comfort because reprove And then the subject of his action Mundum The world the whole world no part left unreproved yet no part left without comfort And after that what he reproves the world of That multiplies Of sin of righteousnesse of judgement Can there be comfort in reproofe for sin Or can there lie a reproofe upon righteousnesse or upon judgement Very justly Though the evidence seem at first as strange as the crime for though that be good evidence against the sin of the world That they beleeve not in Christ Of sin because ye beleeve not on me yet to be Reproved of righteousnesse because Christ goes to his Father and they see him no more And to be Reproved of judgement because the Prince of this world is judged this seemes strange and yet this must be done and done to our comfort For this must be done Cum venerit Then when the holy Ghost and he in that function as the Comforter is come is present is working Beloved Reproofes upon others without charity rather to defame them then amend them Reproofes upon thy selfe without shewing mercy to thine own soule diffidences and jealousies and suspitions of God either that he hated thee before thy sin or hates thee irremediably irreconciliably irrecoverably irreparably for thy sin These are Reproofes but they are Absente spiritu In the absence of the holy Ghost before he comes or when he is gone When he comes and stayes He shall reprove and reprove all the world and all the world of those errours sin and righteousnesse and judgement and those errours upon those evidences Of sin because ye beleeve not on me c. But in all this proceeding he shall never devest the nature of a Comforter In that capacity he is sent in that he comes and works I doubt I shall see an end of my houre and your patience before I shall have passed those branches which appertaine most properly to the celebration of this day the Person the Comforter his action Reproofe the subject thereof the world and the Time Cum venerit When he comes The inditement of what the accusation is and the evidence how it is proved may exercise your devotion at other times Acts 2.2 This day the holy Ghost is said to have come suddenly and therefore in that pace we proceed and make haste to the consideration of the Person Ille When he He the holy Ghost the Comforter is come Ille Spiritus sanctus Gen. 3.15 Ille alone He is
is not onely sent by God but is God Therefore does the Apostle inlarge and dilate and delight his soule upon this comfort Blessed be God 2 Cor. 1.3 even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulations that we may be able to comfort them which are in any affliction by that comfort wherewith our selves are comforted of God The Apostle was loath to depart from the word Comfort And therefore as God because he could sweare by no greater Heb. 6.13 sware by himselfe So because there is no stronger adjuration then the comfort it selfe to move you to accept this comfort as the Apostle did so we intreat you by that If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellow ship of the Spirit if any bowels Phil. 2.1 and mercie Lay hold upon this true comfort the comming of the Holy Ghost and say to all the deceitfull comforts of this world not onely Vanè consolati est is Zach. 10.2 Job 16.2 Your comforts are frivolous but Onerosi consolatores Your comforts are burdensome there is not onely a disappointing of hopes but an aggravating of sin in entertaining the comforts of this world As Barnabas that is Filius consolationis The son of consolation that he might bee capable of this comfort devested himselfe of all worldly possessions so as such sons Acts 4.36 Suck and be satisfied at the breasts of this consolation that you may milke out Esay 66.11 Ver. 13. and be delighted with the abundance of his glory And as one whom his mother comforteth so will I comfort you and you shall be comforted in Ierusalem Heaven is Glory and heaven is Joy we cannot tell which most we cannot separate them and this comfort is joy in the Holy Ghost This makes all Iobs states alike as rich in the first Chapter of his Booke where all is suddenly lost as in the last where all is abundantly restored This Consolation from the Holy Ghost makes my mid-night noone mine Executionera Physitian a stake and pile of Fagots a Bone-fire of triumph this consolation makes a Satyr and Slander and Libell against me a Panegyrique and an Elogy in my praise It makes a Tolle an Ave a Va an Euge a Crucifige an Hosanna It makes my death-bed a mariage-bed And my Passing-Bell an Epithalamion In this notion therefore we receive this Person and in this notion we consider his proceeding Ille He He the Comforter shall reprove This word that is here translated To reprove Arguere Arguet hath a double use and signification in the Scriptures First to reprehend to rebuke to correct with Authority with Severity So David Ne in furore arguas me O Lord rebuke me not in thine dnger Psal 6.1 And secondly to convince to prove to make a thing evident by undeniable inferences and necessary consequences So in the instructions of Gods Ministers the first is To reprove 2 Tiâ— and then To rebuke So that reproving is an act of a milder sense then rebuking is Auguâ—â— S. Augustine interprets these words twice in his Works and in the first place he followes the first signification of the word That the Holy Ghost should proceed when he came by power by severity against the world But though that sense will stand well with the first act of this Reproofe That he shall Reprove that is reprehend the world of sin yet it will not seeme so properly said To reprehend the world of Righteousnesse or of Judgement for how is Righteonsnesse and Judgement the subject of reprehension Therefore S. Augustine himselfe in the other place where he handles these words imbraces the second sense Hoc est arguere mundum ostendere vera esse quae non credidit This is to reprove the world to convince the world of her errours and mistakings And so scarce any excepted doe all the Ancient Expositors take it according to that All things are reproved of the light Ephes 5.13 and so made manifest The light does not reprehend them not rebuke them not chide not upbraid them but to declare them to manifest them to make the world see clearely what they are this is to reprove That reproving then Elenchus which is warrantable by the Holy Ghost is not a sharp increpation a bitter proceeding proceeding onely out of power and authority but by inlightning and informing and convincing the understanding The signification of this word which the Holy Ghost uses here for reproofe Elenchos is best deduced and manifested to us by the Philosopher who had so much use of the word who expresses it thus Elenchus est Syllogismus contra contraria opinantem A reproofe is a proofe a proofe by way of argument against another man who holds a contrary opinion All the pieces must be laid together For first it must be against an opinion and then an opinion contrary to truth and then such an opinion held insisted upon maintained and after all this the reproofe must lie in argument not in force not in violence First it must come so farre Opinio as to be an opinion which is a middle station betweene ignorance and knowledge for knowledge excludes all doubting all hesitation opinion does not so but opinion excludes indifferency and equanimity I am rather inclined to one side then another Lactant. Bernard when I am of either opinion Id opinatur quisque quod nescit A man may have an opinion that a thing is so and yet not know it S. Bernard proposes three wayes for our apprehending Divine things first understanding which relies upon reason faith which relies upon supreme Authority and opinion which relies upon probability and verisimilitude Now there may arise in some man some mistakings some mis-apprehensions of the sense of a place of Scripture there may arise some scruple in a case of conscience there may arise some inclinations to some person of whose integrity and ability I have otherwise had experience there may arise some Paradoxicall imaginations in my selfe and yet these never attaine to the setlednesse of an opinion but they float in the fancy and are but waking dreames and such imaginations and fancies and dreames receive too much honour in the things and too much favour in the persons if they be reproved or questioned or condemned or disputed against For often times even a condemnation nourishes the pride of the author of an opinion and besides begets a dangerous compassion in spectators and hearers and then from pitying his pressures and sufferings who is condemned men come out of that pity to excuse his opinions and from excusing them to incline towards them And so that which was but straw at first by being thus blown by vehement disputation sets fire upon timber and drawes men of more learning and authority to side and mingle themselves in these impertinencies Every fancy should not be so
house and deprehends himselfe in that sinfull purpose now This is his Advent this is his Pentecost As he came this day with a Manifestation so if he come into thee this evening he comes with a Declaration a Declaration in operation Pater meus usque modo operatur ego operor John 5.17 My Father works even now and I work was Christs answer when he was accused to have broken the Sabbath day that the Father wrought that day as well as he So also Christ assignes other reasons of working upon the Sabbath Luke 14.5 Cujus Bos Whose Oxe is in danger Mat. 12.3 5. and the owner will not relieve him Nonne legistis Have ye not read how David ate the Shew-bread And Annon legistis Did not the Priests breake the Sabbath in their service in the Temple But the Sabbath is the Holy Ghosts greatest working day The Holy Ghost works more upon the Sunday then all the week In other dayes he picks and chooses but upon these dayes of holy Convocation I am surer that God speakes to me Tertul. then at home in any private inspiration For as the Congregation besieges God in publique prayers Agmine facto so the Holy Ghost casts a net over the whole Congregation in this Ordinance of preaching and catches all that break not out If he be come into thee he is come to reprove thee to make thee reprove thy selfe But doe that Cum vencrit when the Holy Ghost is come If thou have beene slack in the outward acts of Religion and findest that thou art the worse thought of amongst men for that respect the more open to some penall Laws for those omissions and for these reasons onely beginnest to correct and reprove thy selfe this is a reproofe Antequam Spiritus vener it before the Holy Ghost is come into thee or hath breathed upon thee and inanimated thine actions If the powerfulnesse and the piercing of the mercies of thy Saviour have sometimes in the preaching thereof entendered and melted thy heart and yet upon the confidence of the readinesse and easinesse of that mercy thou returne to thy vomit to the re-pursuite of those halfe-repented sins and thinkest it time enough to goe forward upon thy death-bed this is a reproofe Postquam abierit Spiritus After the Holy Ghost is departed from thee If the burden of thy sins oppresse thee if thou beest ready to cast thy selfe from the Pinacle of the Temple from the participation of the comforts afforded thee in the Absolution and Sacraments of the Church If this appeare to thee in a kinde of humility and reverence to the Majesty of God That thou darest not come into his sight not to his table not to speake to him in prayer whom thou hast so infinitely offended this is a reproofe Cum Spiritus Sanctus simulatur when the Holy Ghost is counterfaited when Satan is transformed into an Angel of light and makes thy dismayed conscience beleeve that that affection which is truly a higher Treason against God then all thy other sins which is a diffident suspecting of Gods mercy is such a reverend feare and trembling as he looks for Reprove thy selfe but doe it by convincing not by a downe-right stupefaction of the conscience but by a consideration of the nature of thy sin and a contemplation of the infinite proportion between God and thee and so between that sin and the mercy of God for thou canst not be so absolutely so intirely so essentially sinfull as God is absolutely and intirely and essentially mercifull Doe what thou canst there is still some goodnesse in thee that nature that God made is good still Doe God what hee will hee cannot strip himselfe not devest himselfe of mercy If thou couldst doe as much as God can pardon thou wert a Manichaean God a God of evill as infinite as the God of goodnesse is Doe it Cum venerit Spiritus when the Holy Ghost pleads on thy side not cum venerit homo not when mans reason argues for thee and sayes It were injustice in God to punish one for another the soule for the body Much lesse Cum venerit inimicus homo when the Devill pleads and pleads against thee that thy sins are greater then God can forgive Reprove any over-bold presumption that God cannot forsake thee with remembring who it was that said My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Even Christ himselfe could apprehend a dereliction Reprove any distrust in God with remembring to whom it was said Hodiè mecum eris in Paradiso Even the thiefe himselfe who never saw him never met him but at both their executions was carryed up with him the first day of his acquaintance If either thy cheerefulnesse or thy sadnesse bee conceived of the Holy Ghost there is a good ground of thy Noli timere feare neither So the Angel proceeded with Ioseph Feare not to take Mary for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost Feare not thou that a chearefulnesse and alacrity in using Gods blessings feare not that a moderate delight in musique in conversation in recreations shall be imputed to thee for a fault for it is conceived by the Holy Ghost and is the off-spring of a peacefull conscience Embrace therefore his working Qui omnia opera nostra operatus est nobis Thou O Lord hast wrought all our works in us Esay 26.12 And whose working none shall be able to frustrate in us Operabitur quis avertit Esay 43.13 I will worke and who shall let it And as the Son concurred with the Father and the Holy Ghost with the Son in working in our behalfe so Operemur nos let us also worke out our Salvation with feare and trembling by reproving the errors in our understanding and the perversenesses of our conversation that way in which the Holy Ghost is our guide by reproving that is chiding and convincing the conscience but still with comfort that is stedfast application of the merits of Christ Jesus SERM. XXXVII Preached upon Whitsunday JOHN 16.8 9 10 11. And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousnesse and of judgement Of sin because ye beleeve not on me Of righteousnesse because I goe to my Father and ye see me no more Of judgement because the Prince of this world is judged IN a former Sermon upon these words we have established this That the Person whom our Saviour promises here being by himselfe promised in the verse before the text in the name and quality of The Comforter All that this Person is to do in this text is to be done so as the World upon which it is to be done may receive comfort in it Therfore this word Reproof admitting a double signification one by way of authority as it is a rebuke an increpation the other as it is a convincing by argument by way of instruction and information because the first way cannot be applied to all the
one or few such fooles but emphaticall because that foole that any way denies God is the foole the veryest foole of all kinds of foolishnesse Now as God himselfe so his religion amongst us hath many enemies Enemies that deny God as Atheists And enemies that multiply gods that make many gods as Idolaters And enemies that deny those divers persons in the Godhead which they should confesse The Trinity as Jews and Turks So in his Religion and outward worship we have enemies that deny God his House that deny us any Church any Sacrament any Priesthood any Salvation as Papists And enemies that deny Gods house any furniture any stuffe any beauty any ornament any order as non-Conformitans And enemies that are glad to see Gods house richly furnished for a while that they may come to the spoile thereof as sacrilegious usurpers of Gods part But for Atheisticall enemies I call not upon them here to answer me Let them answer their own terrors and horrors alone at mid-night and tell themselves whence that proceeds if there be no God For Papisticall enemies I call not upon them to answer me Let them answer our Laws as well as our Preaching because theirs is a religion mixt as well of Treason as of Idolatry For our refractary and schismaticall enemies I call not upon them to answer me neither Let them answer the Church of God in what nation in what age was there ever seen a Church of that form that they have dreamt and beleeve their own dream And for our sacrilegious enemies let them answer out of the body of Story and give one example of prosperity upon sacriledge But leaving all these to that which hath heretofore or may hereafter be said of them I have bent my meditations for those dayes which this Terme will afford upon that which is the character and mark of all Christians in generall The Trinity the three Persons in one God not by way of subtile disputation as to persons that doubted but by way of godly declaration as to persons disposed to make use of it not as though I feared your faith needed it nor as though I hoped I could make your reason comprehend it but because I presume that the consideration of God the Father and his Power and the sins directed against God in that notion as the Father and the consideration of God the Son and his Wisedome and the sins against God in that apprehension the Son and the consideration of God the Holy Ghost and his Goodnesse and the sins against God in that acceptation may conduce as much at least to our edification as any Doctrine more controverted And of the first glorious person of this blessed Trinity the Almighty Father is this Text Blessed be God c. In these words Divisio the Apostle having tasted having been fed with the sense of the power and of the mercies of God in his gracious deliverance delivers a short Catechisme of all our duties So short as that there is but one action Benedicamus Let us blesse Nor but one object to direct that blessing upon Benedicamus Deum Let us blesse God It is but one God to exclude an Idolatrous multiplicity of Gods But it is one God notified and manifested to us in a triplicity of persons of which the first is literally expressed here That he is a Father And him we consider In Paternitate aeterna As he is the eternall Father Even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ sayes our Text And then In Paternitate interna as we have the Spirit of Adoption by which we cry Abba Father As he is Pater miserationum The Father of mercies And as he expresses these mercies by the seale and demonstration of comfort as he is the God of comfort and Totius consolationis Of all comfort Receive the summe of this and all that arises from it in this short Paraphrase The duty required of a Christian is Blessing Praise Thanksgiving To whom To God to God onely to the onely God There is but one But this one God is such◠tree as hath divers boughs to shadow and refresh thee divers branches to shed fruit upon thee divers armes to spread out and reach and imbrace thee And here hee visits thee as a Father From all eternity a Father of Christ Iesus and now thy Father in him in that which thou needest most A Father of mercy when thou wast in misery And a God of comfort when thou foundest no comfort in this world And a God of all comfort even of spirituall comfort in the anguishes and distresses of thy conscience Blessed bee God even the Father c. First then 1 Part. Benedictus the duty which God by this Apostle requires of man is a duty arising out of that which God hath wrought upon him It is not a consideration a contemplation of God sitting in heaven but of God working upon the earth not in the making of his eternall Decree there but in the execution of those Decrees here not in saying God knowes who are his and therefore they cannot faile but in saying in a rectified conscience God by his ordinary marks hath let me know that I am his and therefore I look to my wayes that I doe not fall S. Paul out of a religious sense what God had done for him comes to this duty to blesse him There is not a better Grammar to learne then to learne how to blesse God and therefore it may be no levity to use some Grammar termes herein God blesses man Dativè He gives good to him man blesses God Optativè He wishes well to him and he blesses him Vocativè He speaks well of him For though towards God as well as towards man 1 Sam. 25.27 2 King 5.15 reall actions are called blessings so Abigail called the present which she brought to David A blessing and so Naaman called that which he offered to Elisha A blessing though reall sacrifices to God and his cause sacrifices of Almes sacrifices of Armes sacrifices of Money sacrifices of Sermons advancing a good publique cause may come under the name of blessing yet the word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is properly a blessing in speech in discourse in conference in words in praise in thanks The dead doe not praise thee sayes David The dead men civilly dead allegorically dead dead and buryed in an uselesse silence in a Cloyster or Colledge may praise God but not in words of edification as it is required here and they are but dead and doe not praise God so and God is not the God of the dead but of the living of those that delight to praise and blesse God and to declare his goodnesse We represent the Angels to our selves and to the world with wings they are able to flie and yet when Iacob saw them aseending and descending Gen. 28.12 even those winged Angels had a Ladder they went by degrees There is an immediate blessing of God by the heart but God
The naturall and essentiall word of God He hath his first name in the text He is the Lord As he is verbum illatum and Conceptum A person upon whom there is a Decree and a Commission that he shall be a person capable to redeem Man by death he hath this second name in the text He is Christ As he is The Lord he cannot die As he is Christ under the Decree he cannot chuse but die But as he is Iesus He is dead already and that is his other his third his last name in this Text If any man love not c. We have inverted a little the order of these names or titles in the Text Iesus because the Name of Christ is in the order of nature before the name of Iesus as the Commission is before the Execution of the Commission And in other places of Scripture to let us see how both the capacity of doing it and the actuall doing of it belongs onely to this person the Holy Ghost seems to convey a spirituall delight to us in turning and transposing the Names every way sometimes Iesus alone and Christ alone sometimes Iesus Christ and sometimes Christ Iesus that every way we might be sure of him Now we consider him as Iesus a reall an actuall Saviour And this was his Name The Angel said to his Mother Thou shalt call his name Iesus for he shall save his people And we say to you Call upon this name Iesus for he hath saved his people for Rom. 8.1 Now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus As he was verbum conceptum and illatum The word which the Trinity uttered amongst themselves so he was decreed to come in that place The Lord of the vineyard that is Almighty God seeing the misery of Man Luk. 20.13 to be otherwise irremediable The Lord of the vineyard said what shall I doe I will send my beloved Sonne it may be they will reverence him when they see him But did they reverence him when they saw him This sending made him Christ a person whom though the Sonne of God they might see They did see him but then says that Gospell they drew him out and killed him And this he knew before he came and yet came and herein was Iesus a reall an actuall a zealous Saviour even of them that slew him And in this with piety and reverence we may be bold to say that even the Son of God was filius prodigus that powred out his blood even for his Enemies but rather in that acclamation of the prodigall childs Father This my sonne was dead and is alive againe he was lost and is found For but for this desire of our salvation why should he who was the Lord be ambitious of that Name the name of Iesus which was not Tam expectabile apud Iudaeos nomen Tertull. no such name as was in any especiall estimation amongst the Iews for we see in Ioscphus divers men of that name of no great honour of no good conversation But because the name implyes salvation Iosua who had another name before Idem Cum in hujus sacramenti imagine parabatur when he was prepared as a Type of this Iesus to be a Saviour a Deliverer of the people Etiam nominis Dominici inaugur atus est figurae Iesus cognominatus then he was canonized with that name of salvation and called Iosuae which is Iesus The Lord then the Son of God had a Sitio in heaven as well as upon the Crosse He thirsted our salvation there and in the midst of the fellowship of the Father from whom he came and of the Holy Ghost who came from him and the Father and all the Angels who came by a lower way from them all he desired the conversation of Man for Mans sake He that was God The Lord became Christ a man and he that was Christ became Iesus no man a dead man to save man To save man all wayes in all his parts And to save all men in all parts of the world To save his soule from hell where we should have felt pains and yet been dead then when we felt them and seen horrid spectacles and yet been in darknes and blindnes then when we saw them And suffered unsufferable torments yet have told over innumerable ages in suffering them To save this soule from that hell and to fill that capacity which it hath and give it a capacity which it hath not to comprehend the joyes and glory of Heaven this Christ became Iesus To save this body from the condemnation of everlasting corruption where the wormes that we breed are our betters because they have a life where the dust of dead Kings is blowne into the street and the dust of the street blowne into the River and the muddy River tumbled into the Sea and the Sea remaunded into all the veynes and channels of the earth to save this body from everlasting dissolution dispersion dissipation and to make it in a glorious Resurrection not onely a Temple of the holy Ghost but a Companion of the holy Ghost in the kingdome of heaven This Christ became this Iesus To save this man body and soule together from the punishments due to his former sinnes and to save him from falling into future sinnes by the assistance of his Word preached and his Sacrrments administred in the Church which he purchased by his bloud is this person The Lord the Christ become this Iesus this Saviour To save so All wayes In soule in body in both And also to save all men For to exclude others from that Kingdome is a tyrannie an usurpation and to exclude thy selfe is a sinfull and a rebellious melancholy But as melancholy in the body is the hardest humour to be purged so is the melancholy in the soule the distrust of thy salvation too Flashes of presumption a calamity will quench but clouds of desperation calamities thicken upon us But even in this inordinate dejection thou exaltest thy self above God and makest thy worst better then his best thy sins larger then his mercy Christ hath a Greek name and an Hebrew name Christ is Greeke Iesus is Hebrew He had commission to save all nations and he hath saved all Thou givest him another Hebrew name and another Greek Apoc. 9.11 when thou makest his name Abaddon and Apollyon a Destroyer when thou wilt not apprehend him as a Saviour and love him so which is our second Part in our order proposed at first If any man love not c. In the former part 2 Part. we found it to be one argument for the Deitie of Christ That he was Iehovah The Lord we have another here That this great branch nay this very root of all divine worship due to God is required to be exhibited to this person That is Love Cicero If any man love not c. If any man could see Vertue with his eye he would be
of excommunication That others should esteem them so and avoid them as such persons is sometimes debated amongst us in our books If the Apostle say it by way of Imprecation if it sound so you are to remember first That many things are spoken by the Prophets in the Scriptures which sound as imprecations as execrations which are indeed but prophesies They seeme to be spoken in the spirit of anger when they are in truth but in the spirit of prophesie So in very many places of the Psalmes David seemes to wish heavy calamities upon his and Gods enemies when it is but a declaration of those judgements of God which hee prophetically foresees to be imminent upon them They seeme Imprecations and are but Prophesies and such wee who have not this Spirit of Prophesie nor foresight of Gods wayes may not venture upon If they be truly Imprecations you are to remember also that the Prophets and Apostles had in them a power extraordinary and in execution of that power might doe that which every private man may not doe So the Prophets rebuked so they punished Kings So a 2 King 2.24 Elizeus called in the Beares to devoure the boyes And so b 2 Kings 1. Elias called downe fire to devoure the Captaines So S. Peter killed c Acts 5. Ananias and Sapphira with his word And d Acts 13.8 so S. Paul stroke Elymas the Sorcerer with blindnesse But upon Imprecations of this kinde wee as private men or as publique persons but limited by our Commission may not adventure neither But take the Prophets or the Apostles in their highest Authority yet in an over-vehement zeale they may have done some things some times not warrantable in themselves many times many things not to be imitated by us In Moses his passionate vehemency Dele me Exod. 32.32 If thou wilt not forgive them blot me out of thy booke And in the Apostles inconfiderate zeale to his brethren Optabam Anathema esse I could wish that my selfe were accursed from Christ Rom. 9.3 In Iames and Iohns impatience of their Masters being neglected by the Samaritans when they drew from Christ that rebuke You know not of what spirit you are In these Luke 9.55 and such as these there may be something wherein even these men cannot be excused but very much wherein we may not follow them nor doe as they did nor say as they said Since there is a possibility a facility a proclivity of erring herein and so many conditions and circumstances required to make an Imprecation just and lawfull the best way is to forbeare them or to be very sparing in them But we rather take this in the Text Excommunicatio to be an Excommunication denounced by the Apostle then an Imprecation So Christ himselfe If he will not heare the Chruch let him be to thee as a Heathen or a Publican That is Have no conversation with him So sayes the Apostle speaking of an Angel Anathema If any man if we our selves Gal. 1.9 if an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel let him be accursed Now the Excommunication is in the Anathema and the aggravating thereof in the other words Maranatha The word Anathema had two significations They are expressed thus Quod Deo dicatum Just Mart. Quod à Deo per vitium alienatum That which for some excellency in it was separated from the use of man to the service of God or that which for some great fault in it was separated from God and man too Ab illo abstinebant tanquam Deo dicatum Ab hoc recedebant Chrysost tanquam à Deo abalienatum From the first kinde men abstained because they were consecrated to God and from the other because they were aliened from God and in that last sense irreligious men such as love not the Lord Jesus Christ are Anathema aliened from God Amongst the Druides with the Heathen they excommunicated Malefactors and no man might relieve him in any necessity no man might answer him in any action And so amongst the Jews the Esseni who were in speciall estimation for sanctity excommunicated irreligious persons and the persons so excommunicated starved in the streets and fields By the light of nature by the light of grace we should separate our selves from irreligious and from idolatrous persons and that with that earnestnesse which the Apostle expresses in the last words Maran Atha In the practise of the Primitive Church Maran Atha by those Canons which we call The Apostles Canons and those which we call The penitentiall Canons we see there were different penances inflicted upon different faults and there were very early relaxations of penances Indulgences and there were reservations of cases in some any Priest in some a Bishop onely might dispense It is so in our Church still Impugners of the Supremacy are excommunicated and not restored but by the Archbishop Impugners of the Common prayer Booke excommunicated too but may bee restored by the Bishop of the place Impugners of our Religion declared in the Articles reserved to the Archbishop Impugners of Ceremonies restored when they repent and no Bishop named Authors of Schisme reserved to the Archbishop maintainers of Schismatiques referred but to repentance And so maintainers of Conventicles to the Archbishop maintainers of Constitutions made in Conventicles to their repentance There was ever there is yet a reserving of certaine cases and a relaxation or aggravating of Ecclesiasticall censures for their waight and for their time and because Not to love the Lord Iesus Christ was the greatest the Apostle inflicts this heaviest Excommunication Maran Atha The word seemes to be a Proverbiall word amongst the Jews after their returne and vulgarly spoken by them and so the Apostle takes it out of common use of speech Maran is Dominus The Lord and Athan is Venit He comes Not so truly in the very exactnesse of Hebrew rules and terminations but so amongst them then when their language was much depraved Dan. 4.16 Deut. 33.2 but in ancienter times we have the word Mara for Dominus and the word Atha for Venit And so Anathema Maran Atha will be Let him that loveth not the Lord Iesus Christ be as an accursed person to you even till the Lord come S. Hierom seems to understand this Dominus venit That the Lord is come come already come in the flesh Superfluum sayes he odiis pertinacibus contendere adversus eum qui jam venit It is superabundant perversnesse to resist Christ now Now that he hath appeared already and established to himselfe a Kingdome in this world And so S. Chrysostome seemes to take it too Christ is come already sayes he Et jam nulla potest excusatio non diligentibus eum If any excuse could be pretended before yet since Christ is come none can be Si opertum sayes the Apostle If our Gospel be hid now it is hid from them who are lost that is they are lost from
of Election or no by examining my selfe whether the marks of the Elect be upon me or no and so I appropriate the wisdome of the Scripture to my selfe A stupid negligence in the practicall things of this World To do nothing and an implicite credulity in doctrinall things To beleeve all and so also a crafty preventing and circumventing in the Practicall part and a subtile and perplexing intricacy in the Doctrinall part The first on this side The other beyond do both transgresse from that Wisdome of God which is the Sonne and in such a respect are sins especially against the second Person in the Trinity SERM. XLII Preached at Lincolns Inne upon Trinity-Sunday 1620. GEN. 18.25 Shall not the Iudge of all the Earth do right THese words are the entrance into that prayer and expostulation which Abraham made to and with God in the behalfe of Sodome and the other Cities He that is before Abraham was Christ Jesus himselfe in that prayer which he hath proposed to us hath laid such a foundation as this is such a religious insinuation into him to whom we make that prayer Before we aske any thing we say Our Father which art in heaven If he be our Father A Father when his sonne asks bread will not give him a stone Luk. 11.12 God hath a fatherly disposition towards us And if he be our Father in Heaven If evill fathers know how to give good things unto their children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Spirit to them that aske him Shall your Father which is in heaven deny you any good thing sayes Christ there It is impossible Shall not the Iudge of all the Earth do right sayes Abraham here It is as impossible The history which occasioned and induced these words I know you know The Holy Ghost by Moses hath expressed plainly and your meditations have paraphrased to yourselves this history That God appeared to Abraham in the plaine of Mamre in the persons of three men three men so glorious as that Abraham gave them a great respect That Abraham spoke to those three as to one person That he exhibited all offices of humanity and hospitality unto them That after they had executed the first part of their Commission which was to ratifie and to reduce to a more certainty of time the promise of Isaac and consequently of the Messias though Abraham and Sara were past hope in one another that they imparted to Abraham upon their departure the indignation that God had conceived against the sins of Sodome and consequently the imminent destruction of that City That this awakened Abrahams compassion and put him into a zeale and vehemence for all the while he is said to have been with him that spoke to him and yet now it is said Abraham drew near he came up close to God and he sayes Ver. 23.24 Peradventure I am not sure of it but peradventure there may be some righteous in the City and if there should be so it should be absolutely unjust to destroy them but since it may be so it is too soone to come to a present execution Absit a te sayes Abraham Be that far from thee And he repeats it twice And upon the reason in our text Shall not the iudge of all the Earth do right First then The person who is the Iudge of all the Earth submits us to a necessity of seeking Divisis who it is that Abraham speaks to and so who they were that appeared to him whether they were three men or three Angels or two Angels and the third to whom Abraham especially addressed himselfe were Christ Or whether in these three persons whatsoever they were there were any intimation any insinuation given or any apprehension taken by Abraham of the three blessed Persons of the glorious Trinity And then in the second part in the expostulation it selfe we shall see first The descent and easinesse of God that he vouchfafes to admit an expostulation an admonition from his servant He is content that Abraham remember him of his office And the Expostulation lyes in this That he is a Iudge And shall not a Iudge do right But more in this That he is Iudge of all the Earth and if he do wrong there is no Appeal from him And shall not the Iudge of all the Earth do right And from thence we shall fall upon this consideration What was that Right which Abraham presses upon God here And we shall finde it twofold for first he thinks it unjust that God should wrap up just and unjust righteous and unrighteous all in one condemnation in one destruction Absit be this far from God And then he hath a farther ayme then that That God for the righteous sake should spare the unrighteous and so forbeare the whole City And though this Judge of the whole Earth might have done right though he had destroyed the most righteous persons amongst them much more though he had not spared the unrighteous for the righteous sake yet we shall see at last the abundant measure of Gods overflowing mercy to have declared it selfe so far as if there had been any righteous he had spared the whole City Our parts then are but two but two such as are high parts and yet growing rich and yet emproving so far as that the first is above Man and the extent of his Reason The mystery of the Trinity And the other is above God so as that it is above all his works The infinitenes of his Mercy To come to the severall branches of these two maine parts first in the first we aske 1. Part. An viri An viri whether these three that appeared to Abraham were men or no. Now between Abrahams apprehension who saw this done and ours who know it was done because we read it here in Moses relation there is a great difference Moses who informes us now what was done then sayes expresly Apparuit Dominus The Lord appeared and therefore we know they were more then ordinary men But when Moses tels us how Abraham apprehended it Ecce tres viri He lift up his eyes and he saw three men he took them to be but men and therefore exhibited to them all offices of humanity and curtesie Where we note also that even by the Saints of God civill behaviour and faire language is conveniently exercised A man does not therefore meane ill because he speaks well A man must not therefore be suspected to performe nothing because he promises much Such phrases of humilitie and diminution and undervaluing of himselfe as David utters to Saul such phrases of magnifying and glorifying the Prince as Daniel uses to the King perchance no secular story perchance no moderne Court will afford Neither shall you finde in those places more of that which we call Complement 1 Sam. 25. then in Abigails accesse to David in the behalfe of her foolish husband when she comes to intercede for him and to deprecate his
of that so that that be no occasion of neglecting due respects to others This being then thus fixed An Trinitas that Abraham received them as men that they were in truth no other then Angels there remaines for the shutting up of this Part this Consideration whether after Abraham came to the knowledge that they were Angels he apprehended not an intimation of the three Persons of the Trinity by these three Angels Whether Gods appearing to Abraham which Moses speaks of in the first verse were manifested to him Ver. 13. Ver. 17. when Sarah laughed in her selfe and yet they knew that she laughed Or whether it were manifested when they imparted their purpose concerning Sodome for in both these places they are called neither men nor Angels but by that name The Lord and that Lord which is Jehovah whether I say when Abraham discerned them to be such Angels as God appeared in them and spoke and wrought by them whether then as he discerned the Divinity he discerned the Trinity in them too is the question I know the explicite Doctrine of the Trinity was not easie to be apprehended then as it is not easie to be expressed now It is a bold thing in servants to inquire curiously into their Masters Pedigree whether he be well descended or well allied It is a bold thing too to inquire too curiously into the eternall generation of Christ Jesus or the eternall procession of the Holy Ghost When Gregory Nazianzen was pressed by one to assigne a difference between those words Begotten and Proceeding Dic tu mihi sayes he quid sit Generatie ego dicam tibi quid sit Processio ut ambo insaniamus Doe thou tell me what this Begetting is and then I will tell thee what this Proceeding is and all the world will finde us both mad for going about to expresse inexpressible things And as every manner of phrase in expressing or every comparison does not manifest the Trinity so every place of Scripture which the Fathers and later men have applied to that purpose does not prove the Trinity And therefore those men in the Church who have cryed downe that way of proceeding to goe about to prove the Trinty out of the first words of Genesis Creavit Dii That because God in the plurall is there joyned to a Verb in the singular therefore there is a Trinity in Unity or to prove the Trinity out of this place that because God who is but one appeared to Abraham in three Persons therefore there are three Persons in the God-head those men I say who have cryed downe such manner of arguments have reason on their side when these arguments are imployed against the Jews for for the most part the Jews have pertinent and sufficient answers to those arguments But yet betweene them who make this place a distinct and a literall and a concluding argument to prove the Trinity and them who cry out against it that it hath no relation to the Trinity our Church hath gone a middle and a moderate way when by appointing this Scripture for this day when we celebrate the Trinity it declares that to us who have been baptized and catechised in the name and faith of the Trinity it is a refreshing it is a cherishing it is an awakening of that former knowledge which we had of the Trinity to heare that our onely God thus manifested himselfe to Abraham in three Persons Luther sayes well upon this text If there were no other proofe of the Trinity but this I should not believe the Trinity but yet sayes he This is Singulare testimonium de articule Trinitatis Though it be not a concluding argument yet it is a great testimony of the Trinity Fateor saies he historico sensu nihil concludi praeter hospitalitatem I confesse in the literall sense there is nothing but a recommendation of hospitality and therefore to the Jews I would urge no more out of this place Sed non sic agendum cum auditoribus ac cum adversariis We must not proceed alike with friends and with enemies There are places of Scriptures for direct proofes and there are places to exercise our meditation and devotion in things for which we need not nor aske not any new proofe And for exercise sayes Luther Rudi ligne ad formam gladii utimur We content our selves with a foyle or with a stick and we require not a sharpe sword To cut off the enemies of the Trinity we have two-edged swords that is undeniable arguments but to exercise our owne devotions we are content with similitudinary and comparative reasons He pursues it farther to good use The story doth not teach us That Sarah is the Christian Church and Hagar the Synagogue But S. Paul proves that from that story he proves it from thence Gal. 4.24 though he call it but an Allegory It is true that S. Augustine sayes Figuranihil probat A figure an Allegory proves nothing yet sayes he addit lucem ornat It makes that which is true in it selfe more evident and more acceptable And therefore it is a lovely and a religious thing to finde out Vestigia Trinitatis Impressions of the Trinity in as many things as we can and it is a reverent obedience to embrace the wisdome of our Church in renewing the Trinity to our Contemplation by the reading of this Scripture this day for even out of this Scripture Philo Iudaeus although hee knew not the true Trinity aright found a threefold manifestation of God to man in this appearing of God to Abraham for as he is called in this Story Iehova he considers him Fontem Essentiae To be the fountaine of all Being As hee is called Deus God he considers him in the administration of his Creatures in his providence As he is called Dominus Lord and King he considers him in the judgement glorifying and rejecting according to their merits So though hee found not a Trinity of Persons he found a Trinity of Actions in the Text Creation Providence and Judgement If he who knew no Trinity could finde one shall not we who know the true one meditate the more effectually upon that by occasion of this story Let us therefore with S. Bernard consider Trinitatem Creatricem and Trinitatem Creatam A Creating and a Created Trinity A Trinity which the Trinity in Heaven Father Son and Holy Ghost hath created in our soules Reason Memory and Will and that we have super-created added another Trinity Suggestion and Consent and Delight in sin And that God after all this infuses another Trinity Faith Hope and Charity by which we returne to our first for so far that Father of Meditation S. Bernard carries this consideration of the Trinity Since therefore the confession of a Trinity is that which distinguishes us from Jews and Turks and al other professions let us discerne that beame of the Trinity which the Church hath shewed us in this text and with the words of the Church
enarrabit who shall declare this carries the answer with it Nemo enarrabit No man shall declare it But a manifestation of the Beeing of the Trinity they have alwayes apprehended in these words Hic est Filius This is my beloved Son To that purpose therefore we take first the words to be expressed by this Euangelist S. Matthew as the voyce delivered them rather then as they are expressed by S. Marke and S. Luke both which have it thus Tu es Thou art my beloved Son and not Hic est This is They two being onely carefull of the sense and not of the words as it fals out often amongst the Euangelists who differ oftentimes in recording the words of Christ and of other persons But where the same voice spake the same words againe in the Transfiguration there all the Euangelists expresse it so 2 Pet. 1.17 Hic est This is and not Tu es Thou art my beloved Son And so it is where S. Peter makes use by application of that history it is Hic est and not Tu es So that this Hic est This man designs him who hath that marke upon him that the holy Ghost was descended upon him and tarried upon him for so far went the signe of distinction given to Iohn The holy Ghost was to descend and tarry Manet sayes S. Hierome The holy Ghost tarryes upon him because he never departs from him sed operatur quando Christus vult quomodo vult The holy Ghost works in Christ when Christ will and as Christ will and so the holy Ghost tarryed not upon any of the Prophets They spoke what hee would but he wrought not when they would S. Gregory objects to himselfe that there was a perpetuall residence of the holy Ghost upon the faithfull out of those words of Christ The Comforter shall abide with you for ever But as S. Gregory answers himselfe This is not a plenary abiding and secundùm omnia dona in a full operation according to all his gifts as he tarried upon Christ Neither indeed is that promise of Christs to particular persons but to the whole body of the Church Now this residence of the holy Ghost upon Christ was his unction properly it was that by which he was the Messias That he was anointed above his fellowes And therefore S. Hierome makes account that Christ received his unction and so his office of Messias at this his Baptisme and this descending of the holy Ghost upon him And he thinks it therefore because presently after Baptisme he went to preach in the Synagogue and he took for his Text those words of the Prophet Esay Esay 61.1 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me that I should preach the Gospel to the poore And when he had read the Text he began his Sermon thus This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your eares But we may be bold to say that this is mistaken by S. Hierome for the unction of Christ by the holy Ghost by which he was anointed and sealed into the office of Messias was in the over-shadowing of the holy Ghost in his conception in his assuming our nature This Descending now at his baptisme and this Residence were onely to declare That there was a holy Ghost and that holy Ghost dwelt upon this person It is Hic Est This person And it is Hic est This is my Son It is not onely Fuit He was my Son when he was in my bosome Nor onely Erit He shall be so when he shall return to my right hand againe God does not onely take knowledge of him in Glory But Est He is so now now in the exinanition of his person now in the evacuation of his Glory now that he is preparing himselfe to suffer scorne and scourges and thornes and nailes in the ignominious death of the Crosse now he is the Son of the glorious God Christ is not the lesse the Son of God for this eclipse Hic est This is he who for all this lownesse is still as high as ever he was Filius and that height is Est Filius He is the Son He is not Servus The Servant of God or not that onely for he is that also Behold my servant Esay 41.1 sayes God of him in the Prophet I will stay upon him mine elect in whom my soule delighteth I have put my Spirit upon him and he shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles But Christ is this Servant and a Son too And not a Son onely for so we observe divers filiations in the Schoole Filiationem vestigii That by which all creatures even in their very being are the sons of God as Iob cals God Pluviae patrem The father of the raine And so there are other filiations other wayes of being the sons of God But Hic est This person is as the force of the Article expresses it and presses it Ille Filius The Son That Son which no son else is neither can any else declare how he is that which he is This person then is still The Son And Meus Filius sayes God My Son Meus He is the sonne of Abraham and so within the Covenant as well provided by that inheritance as the son of man can be naturally He is the Son of a Virgin conceived without generation and therefore ordained for some great use He is the son of David and therefore royally descended But his dignity is in the Filius meus that God avows him to be his Son for Vnto which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my sonne Heb. 1.5 But to Christ he sayes in the Prophet I have called thee by thy name And what is his name Meus es tu Thou art mine Quem à me non separat Deitas sayes Leo non dividit potestas non discernit aeternitas Mine so as that mine infinitenesse gives me no roome nor space beyond him hee reaches as far as I though I be infinite My Almightinesse gives me no power above him he hath as much power as I though I have all My eternity gives me no being before him though I were before all In mine Omnipotence in mine Omnipresence in mine Omniessence he is equall partner with me and hath all that is mine or that is my selfe and so he is mine My Son And My beloved Son but so we are all who are his sons Deliciae ejus Dilectus Prov. 8.31 sayes Solomon His delight and his contentment is to be with the sons of men But here the Article is extraordinarily repeated againe Ille dilectus That beloved Son by whom those who were neither beloved nor Sons became the beloved Sons of God For there is so much more added in the last phrase In quo complacui In whom I am well pleased Now these words are diversly read S. Augustine sayes In quo some Copies that he had seen read them thus Ego hodie genui te
to need most Pleni for their wings are limited but their eyes are not Six wings but full of eies sayes our Text. They must have eyes in their tongues They must see that they apply not blindly and inconsiderately Gods gracious promises to the presumptuous nor his heavy judgements to the broken hearted They must have eyes in their eares They must see that they harken neither to a superstitious sense from Rome nor to a seditious sense of Scriptures from the Separation They must have eyes in their hands They must see that they touch not upon any such benefits or rewards as might bind them to any other master then to God himselfe They must have eyes in their eyes spirituall eyes in their bodily eyes They must see that they make a charitable construction of such things as they see other men do and this is that fulnesse of eyes which our Text speaks of But then especially Intus sayes our Text They were full of eyes Within The fulnesse the abundance of eyes that is of providence and discretion in the Ministers of God was intimated before In the 6. verse it was said That they were full of eyes before and behind that is circumspect and provident for all that were about them and committed to them But all is determined and summed up in this that They were full of eyes within For as there is no profit at all none to me none to God if I get all the world and lose mine own soul so there is no profit to me if I win other mens soules to God and lose mine owne All my wings shall doe me no good all mine eyes before and behind shall doe me no good if I have no prospect inward no eyes within no care of my particular and personall safety And so we have done with our first generall part the Persons denoted in these foure creatures and the duties of their ministery in which we have therefore insisted thus long that having so declared and notified to you our duties you also might be the more willing to heare of your owne duties as well as ours and to joyne with us in this Open and Incessant and Totall profession of your Religion which is the celebration of the Trinity in this acclamation Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which is which was and which is to come To come therefore now to the second Part 2 Part. and taking the foure Euangelists to be principally intended here but secundarily the Preachers of the Gospel too and not onely they but in a faire extension and accommodation the whole Church of God first we noted their Ingenuitie and opennesse in the profession of their Religion they did it Dicentes Saying declaring publishing manifesting their devotion without any disguise any modification In that song of the three Children in the Fornace Dicentes O all ye works of the Lord c. there is nothing presented speechlesse To every thing that is there there is given a tongue Not onely all those creatures which have all a Beeing but even Privations Privations that have no Beeing that are nothing in themselves as the Night and Darknesse are there called upon to blesse the Lord to praise him and magnifie him for ever But towards the end of that song you may see that service drawne into a narrower compasse You may see to whom this speech and declaration doth principally appertaine For after he had called upon Sun and Moone and Earth and Sea and Fowles and Fishes and Plants and Night and Darknesse to praise the Lord to blesse him and magnifie him for ever Then he comes to O ye children of men Primogeniti Dei Gods beloved creatures his eldest sons and first-borne in his intention And then Domus Israel O ye house of Israel you whom God hath not onely made men but Christian men not onely planted in the World but in the Church not onely indued with Reason but inspired with Religion And then again O ye Priests of the Lord O ye Servants of the Lord those of Gods portion not onely in the Church but of the Church and appointed by him to deale between him and other men And then also O ye spirits and soules of the righteous those whom those instruments of God had powerfully and effectually wrought upon upon those especially those men those Christian men those Priests those sanctified men upon those he calls to blesse the Lord to praise him and magnifie him for ever This obligation the holy Ghost laies upon us all that the more God does for us the more we should declare it to other men God would have us tell him our sins God would have us tell other men his mercies It was no excuse for Moses that he was of uncircumcised lips Exod. 5.12 Ier. 1.6 No excuse for Ieremy to say O Lord God behold I cannot speak for I am a child Credidi propterea locutus sum is Davids forme of argument I beleeved and therefore I spake If thou dost not love to speak of God and of his benefits thou dost not beleeve in God nor that those benefits came from him Remember that when thou wast a child and presented to God in Baptisme God gave thee a tongue in other mens mouthes and inabled thee by them to establish a covenant a contract between thy soule and him then And therefore since God spake to thee when thou couldst not heare him in the faith of the Church since God heard thee when thou couldst not speak to him in the mouth of thy sureties Since that God that created thee was Verbum The Word for Dixit facta sunt God spake and all things were made Since that God that redeemed thee was Verbum The Word for The Word was made flesh Since that God that sanctified thee is Verbum The Word for therefore S. Basil calls the holy Ghost Verbum Dei quia interpres Filii He calls the holy Ghost the Word of God because as the Son is the Word because he manifests the Father unto us so the holy Ghost is the Word because he manifests the Son unto us and enables us to apprehend and apply to our selves the promises of God in him since God in all the three Persons is Verbum The Word to thee all of them working upon thee by speaking to thee Be thou Verbum too A Word as God was A Speaking and a Doing Word to his glory and the edification of others If the Lord open thy lips and except the Lord open them it were better they were luted with the clay of the grave let it be to shew forth his praise and not in blasphemous not in scurrile not in prophane language If the Lord open thy hand and if the Lord open it not better it were manacled with thy winding sheet let it be as well to distribute his blessings as to receive them Let thy mouth let thy hand let all the Organs of thy body all the faculties of thy soule concurre
sayes Let us us in the plurall make man we are glad to finde such a plurall manner of expressing God by the Holy Ghost as may concurre with that which we believed before that is divers persons in one God To the same purpose also is that of the Prophet Esay where God sayes Esay 6.8 Whom shall I send or who shall goe for us There we discerne a singularity one God Whom shall I send and a plurality of persons too Who shal go for us But what man that had not been catachized in that Doctrine before would have conceived an opinion or established a faith in the Trinity upon those phrases in Moses or in Esay without other evidence Certainly it was the Divine purpose of God to reserve and keep this mystery of the Trinity unrevealed for a long time even from those who were generally to have their light and instruction from his word They had the Law and the Prophets and yet they had no very clear notions of the Trinity For this is evident that in Trismegistus and in Zoroaster and in Plato and some other Authors of that Ayre there seeme to be clearer and more literall expressings of the Trinity then are in all the Prophets of the old Testament We take the reason to be that God reserved the full Manifestation of this mystery for the dignifying and glorifying of his Gospel And therefore it is enough that we know that they of the old Testament were saved by the same faith in the Trinity that we are How God wrought that faith in them amongst whom he had established no outward meanes for the imprinting of such a faith let us not too curiously inquire Let us be content to receive our light there where God hath been pleased to give it that is in those places of the new Testament which admit no contradiction nor disputation As where Christ saies Mat. 28.19 Goe and teach all Nations baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost And where it is said There are three that beare witnesse in heaven The Father 1 Iohn 5.7 the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one There are Obumbrations of the Trinity in Nature and Illustrations of the Trinity in the old Testament but the Declaration the Manifestation thereof was reserved for the Gospel Now this place this Text is in both It is in the old and it is in the new Testament here and in Esay And in both places agreed by all Expositors to be a confession of the Trinity in that three-fold repetition Holy holy holy Where by the way you may have use of this note that in the first place in the Prophet Esay we have a faire intimation that that use of Subalternation in the service of God of that which we have called Antiphones and Responsaries in the Church of God when in that service some things are said or sung by one side of the Congregation and then answered by the other or said by one man and then answered by the whole Congregation that this manner of serving God hath a pattern from the practise of the Triumphant Church For there the Seraphim cryed to one another or as it is in the Originall this Seraphim to this Holy Holy Holy so that there was a voice given and an answer made and a reply returned in this service of God And as the patterne is in the Triumphant Church for this holy manner of praising God so in the practise therof the Militant prescribes for it hath been alwaies in use And therefore that religious vehemence of Damascen speaking of this kind of service in the Church in his time may be allowed us Hymnum dicemus etsi Daemones disrumpantur How much soever it anger the devil or his devilish instruments of schisme and sedition we wil serve God in this manner with holy cheerefulness with musique with Antiphones with Responsaries of which we have the patterne from the Triumphant and the practise from the Primitive Church Now as this Totality and Integrity of their Religion which they professe first with an Ingenuity openly then with an Assiduity incessantly hath as it were this dilatation this extention of God into three Persons which is the character and specification of the Christian Religion for no Religion but the Christian ever inclined to a plurality of Persons in one God so hath it also such a contracting of this infinite Power into that one God as could not agree with any other Religion then the Christian in either of those two essentiall circumstances first that that God should be Omnipotent and then that he should be Eternall The Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come All the Heathen gods were ever subordinate to one another Omnipotens That which one god could not or would not do another would and could And this oftentimes rather to anger another god then to please the party And then there was a Surveyor a Controller over them all which none of them could resist nor intreat which was their Fatum their Destiny And so in these subsidiary gods these occasional gods there could be no Omnipotence no Almightinesse Our God is so Omnipotent Almighty so as that his Power hath no limitation but his owne Will Tertul. Nihil impossibile nisi quod non vult He can do whatsoever he will do And he can do more then that For he could have raised sons to Abraham out of stones in the street And as their gods were not Omnipotent Aeternus so neither were they Eternall They knew the history the generation the pedegree of all their gods They knew where they were born and where they went to schoole as Iustin Martyr sayes that Esculapius and Apollo their gods of Physick learnt their Physick of Chiron so that the Scholars were gods and their Masters none and they knew where their gods were buried They knew their Parents and their Uncles their Wives and their Children yea their Bastards and their Concubines so far were they from being eternall gods But if we remit and slacken this consideration of Eternity which is never to have had beginning consider only Perpetuity which is never to have end these gods were not capable of a perpetuall Honour an Honour that should never end For we see that of those three hundred several Iupiters which were worshiped in the World before Christ came though the World abound at this day with Idolatry yet there is not one of those Idols not one of those three hundred Iupiters celebrated with any solemnity no not knowne in any obscure corner of the World They were mortall before they were Gods They are dead in their Persons and they were mortall when they were Gods They are dead in their Worship In respect of Eternity which is necessary in a God Perpetuity is but Mobilis Imago as Plato cals it a faint and transitory shadow of Eternity and Pindarus makes it
not good to take knowledge of enemies Manifestat inimicos many times that is better forborne yet in all cases it is good to know them Especially in our case in the Text Eph. 6.12 because our enemies intended here are of themselves Princes of darknesse They can multiply clouds and disguisings their kingdome is in the darknesse Sagittant in obscuro Psal 11.2 Psal 143.3 They shoot in the darke I am wounded with a tentation as with the plague and I know not whence the arrow came Collocavit me in obscuris The enemy hath made my dwelling darknesse I have no window that lets in light but then this Angel of light shews me who they are But then Inimici Angeli if we were left to our selves it were but a little advantage to know who our enemies were when we knew those enemies to be Angels persons so far above our resistance Eph. 6.12 For but that S. Paul mollifies and eases it with a milder word Est nobis colluctatio That we wrestle with enemies that thereby we might see our danger is but to take a fall not a deadly wound if we look seriously to our worke we cannot avoyd falling into sins of infirmity but the death of habituall sin we may Quare moriemini domus Israel He does not say why would ye fall but why will ye die ye house of Israel it were a consideration inough to make us desperate of victory to heare him say that this though it be but a wrestling is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and spirituall wickednesses in high places None of us hath got the victory over flesh and blood and yet we have greater enemies then flesh and blood are Some disciplines some mortifications we have against flesh and blood we have S. Pauls probatum est his medicine if we will use it Castigo corpus 1 Cor. 9.27 I keep under my body and bring it into subjection for that we have some assistance Even our enemies become our friends poverty or sicknesse will fight for us against flesh and blood against our carnall lusts but for these powers and principalities I know not where to watch them how to encounter them I passe my time sociably and merrily in cheerful conversation in musique in feasting in Comedies in wantonnesse and I never heare all this while of any power or principality my Conscience spies no such enemy in all this And then alone between God and me at midnight some beam of his grace shines out upon me and by that light I see this Prince of darknesse and then I finde that I have been the subject the slave of these powers and principalities when I thought not of them Well I see them and I try then to dispossesse my selfe of them and I make my recourse to the powerfullest exorcisme that is I turne to hearty and earnest prayer to God and I fix my thoughts strongly as I thinke upon him and before I have perfected one petition one period of my prayer a power and principality is got into me againe Esay 29.10 Spiritus soporis The spirit of slumber closes mine eyes and I pray drousily Esa 19.14 Or spiritus vertiginis the spirit of deviation and vaine repetition and I pray giddily and circularly and returne againe and againe to that I have said before Luk. 9.55 and perceive not that I do so and nescio cujus spiritus sim as our Saviour said rebuking his Disciples who were so vehement for the burning of the Samaritans you know not of what spirit you are I pray and know not of what spirit I am I consider not mine own purpose in prayer And by this advantage this doore of inconsideration enters spiritus erroris 1 Tim. 4.1 The seducing spirit the spirit of error and I pray not onely negligently but erroniously dangerously for such things as disconduce to the glory of God and my true happinesse Hosea 4.12.5.4 if they were granted Nay even the Prophet Hosea's spiritus fornicationum enters into me The spirit of fornication that is some remembrance of the wantonnesse of my youth some mis-interpretation of a word in my prayer that may beare an ill sense some unclean spirit some power or principality hath depraved my prayer and slackned my zeale And this is my greatest misery of all that when that which fights for me and fights against me too sicknesse hath laid me upon my last bed then in my weakest estate these powers and principalities shall be in their full practise against me And therefore it is one great advancement of thy deliverance to be brought by this Angel that is by the Ministery of the Gospel of Christ to know that thou hast Angels to thine enemies And then another is to know their number and so the strength of their confederacy for in the verse before the Text they are expressed to be foure I saw foure Angels c. Foure legions of Angels foure millions nay Quatuor Angeli foure Creations of Angels could do no more harme then is intended in these foure for as it is said in the former verse They stood upon the foure corners of the earth they bestrid they cantoned the whole world Thou hast opposite Angels enow to batter thee every where and to cut off and defeat all succours all supplies that thou canst procure or propose to thy selfe absolute enemies to one another will meet and joyne to thy ruine and even presumption will induce desperation We need not be so literall in this as S. Hierome who indeed in that followed Origen to thinke that there is a particular evill Angel over every sin That because we finde that mention of the spirit of error and the spirit of slumber and the spirit of fornication we should therefore thinke that Christ meant by Mammon Mat. 6.24 a particular spirit of Covetousnesse and that there be severall princes over severall sins This needs not when thou art tempted never aske that Spirits name his name is legio for he is many Mar. 5.9 Take thy selfe at the largest as thou art a world there are foure Angels at thy foure corners Let thy foure corners be thy worldly profession thy calling and another thy bodily refection thy eating and drinking and sleeping and a third thy honest and allowable recreations and a fourth thy religious service of God in this place which two last that is recreation and religion God hath been pleased to joyn together in the Sabbath in which he intended his own glory in our service of him and then the rest of the Creature too let these foure thy calling thy sleeping thy recreation thy religion be the foure corners of thy world and thou shalt find an Angel of tentation at every corner even in thy sleep even in this house of God thou hast met them The Devill is no Recusant he will come to Church and he will lay his snares there When that day
and dignity and outward splendor The Church of God requires also besides unanimity in fundamentall Doctrines an equanimity and a mildnesse and a charity in handling problematicall points and also requires order and comelinesse in the outward face and habit thereof And so we preach a Kingdome So we preach a Kingdome as that we banish from thence all imaginary fatality and all decretory impossibility of concurrence and cooperation to our owne salvation And yet we banish all pride and confidence that any naturall faculties in us though quickned by former grace can lead us to salvation without a continuall succession of more and more grace And so we preach a Kingdome So as that we banish all spirituall treason in setting up new titles or making any thing equall to God or his Word And we banish all spirituall felony or robbery in despoyling the Church Psal 45.13 either of Discipline or of Possessions either of Order or of Ornaments Be the Kings Daughter all glorious within Yet all her glory is not within For Her cloathing is of wrought gold sayes that text Still may she glory in her internall glory in the sincerity and in the integrity of Doctrinall truths and glory too in her outward comelinesse and beauty So pray we and so preach we the Kingdome of God And so we have done with our first Part. Our second Part 2 Part. to which in our order we are now come is a passionate valediction Now I know that all you shall see my face no more where first we inquire how he knew it But why doe we inquire that They that heard him did not so They heard it and beleeved it Acts 17.10 and lamented it When S. Paul preached at Berea his story sayes that he was better beleeved there then at Thessalonica And the reason is given That there were Nobler persons there Persons of better quality of better natures and dispositions and of more ingenuity and so as it is added They received the word with all readinesse of minde Prejudices and disaffections and under-valuations of the abilities of the Preacher in the hearer disappoint the purpose of the Holy Ghost frustrate the labours of the man and injure and defraud the rest of the Congregation who would and would justly like that which is said if they were not mis-led and shaked by those hearers And so worke also such jealousies and suspitions that though his abilities be good yet his end upon his Auditory is not their edification but to work upon them to other purposes Though we require not an implicite faith in you that you beleeve because we say it yet we require a holy Noblenesse in you A religious good nature a conscientious ingenuity that you remember from whom we come from the King of heaven and in what quality as his Ambassadors And so be apt to beleeve that since we must returne to him that sent us and give him a relation of our negotiation we dare not transgresse our Commission The Bereans are praised for this That they searched the Scriptures daily whether those things that Paul said were so But this begun not at a jealousie or suspition in them that they doubted that that which he said was not so nor proceeded not to a gladnesse or to a desire that they might have taken him in a lie or might have found that that which he said was not so But they searched the Scriptures whether those things were so that so having formerly beleeved him when he preached they might establish that beliefe which they had received by that which was the infallible rocke and foundation of all The Scriptures They searched but they searched for confirmation and not upon suspition In our present case they to whom S. Paul said this doe not aske S. Paul how hee knew that they should see his face no more they beleeved as we doe that he had it by revelation from God and such knowledge is faith Tricubitalis er at coelum attingit sayes S. Chrysostome S. Paul was a man of low stature but foure foot and a halfe high sayes he and yet his head reached to the highest heaven and his eyes saw and his eares heard the counsels of God Scarce any Ambassadour can shew so many Letters of his Masters owne hand as S. Paul could produce Revelations His King came to him as often as other Kings write to their Ambassadours Acts 9.4 Gal. 1.1 Gal. 2. Acts 13. Acts 16. Acts 18. Acts 17. He had his first calling by Revelation He had his Commission his Apostle-ship by Revelation So hee was directed to Jerusalem And so to Rome to both by Revelation and so to Macedonia also So hee was confirmed and comforted in the night by Vision by Revelation And so he was assured of the lives of all them that suffered shipwrack with him at Malta All his Cate chismes in the beginning all his Dictats in his proceeding all his incouragements at his departing were all Revelation Every good man hath his conversation in heaven and heaven it self had a conversation in S. Paul And so even the book of the Acts of the Apostles is as it were a first Part of the book of Revelation Revelations to S. Paul as the other was to S. Iohn This is the way that Christ promised to take with him I will shew him Acts 9.16 Acts 20.11 how great things he must suffer for my sake And this way Christ pursued At Caesarea Agabus a Prophet came from Iudaea to Paul and took Pauls girdle and bound his own hands and feet and said Thus saith the Holy Ghost So shall the Iews binde the man that owes the girdle and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles This then was his case in our text for that revelation by Agabus his Prophesie of his suffering was after this he had a revelation that he should never be seen by them more but when or how or where he should dye he had not had a particular revelation then He sayes a little before our text Ver. 12. I goe bound in the Spirit to Ierusalem That is so bound by the Spirit that if I should not goe I should resist the Spirit But sayes he I know not the things that shall befall me there not at Jerusalem much lesse the last and bitterest things which were farther off the things that should befall him at Rome where he died But from the very first he knew enough of his death to shake any soule that were not sustained by the Spirit of God which is another Branch in this Part That no revelations no apprehensions of death removed him from his holy intrepidnesse and religious constancy We have a story in an Author of S. Hieromes time Palladius Non perterritus that in a Monastery of S. Isidors every Monk that dyed in that house was able and ever did tell all the society that at such a time he should die God does extraordinary things for extraordinary
15. That some men were baptized Pro mortuis for dead that is as good as dead past all hope of recovery So he dyed then Now beloved who hath seene a Father or a friend or a neighbour or a malefactor dye Luke 16.30 and hath not beene affected with his dying words Nay Father Abraham sayes Dives that will not serve That they have Moses and the Prophets Sermons will not serve their turnes But if one went to them from the Dead they would repent And the nearest to this is if one speake to them that is going to the dead If he had beene a minute in Heaven thou wouldst beleeve him and wilt thou not beleeve him a minute before Did not Iacob observe the Angels ascending as well as descending upon that ladder Trust a good soule going to God as well as comming from God And then as our Casuists say That whatsoever a man is bound to do In articulo mortis at the point of death by way of Confession or otherwise he is bound to doe when he comes to the Sacrament or when he undertakes any action of danger because then he should prepare himselfe as if he were dying so when you come to heare us here who are come from God heare us with such an affection as if we were going to God as if you heard us upon our death-beds The Pulpit is more then our death-bed for we are bound to the same truth and sincerity here as if we were upon our death-bed and then Gods Ordinance is more expresly executed here then there He that mingles falshood with his last dying words deceives the world inexcusably because he speakes in the person of an honest man but he that mingles false informations in his preaching does so much more because he speaks in the person of God himselfe They to whom S. Paul spake there are said all to have wept and to have fallen on Pauls necke and to have kissed him But it is added they sorrowed most of all for those words That they should see his face no more When any of those men to whom for their holy calling and their religious paines in their calling you owe and pay a reverence are taken from you by death or otherwise there is a godly sorrow due to that and in a great proportion In the death of one Elisha King Ioash apprehended a ruine of all He wept over his face 2 King 13.14 and said O my father my father the Charet of Israel and the horsemen thereof He lost the solicitude of a father he lost the power and strength of the Kingdome in the losse of one such Prophet But when you have so sorrowed for men upon whom your devotion hath put and justly put such a valuation remember that a greater losse then the losse of a thousand such men may fall upon you Consider the difference betweene the Candle and the Candlestick betweene the Preacher of the Gospel and the Gospel it selfe betweene a religious man and Religion it selfe The removing of the Candlestick and the withdrawing of the Gospel and the prophaning of Religion is infinitely a greaten losse then if hundreds of the present labourers should be taken away from us Mat. 8.12.21.43 Apoc. 2.5 The children of the kingdome may be cast into utter darknesse and That kingdome may be given to others which shall bring forth the fruits thereof and The Lord may come and come quickly and remove our Candlestick out of his place pray we that in our dayes he may not And truly where God threatens to doe so in the Revelation it is upon a Church of which God himselfe gives good testimony The Church of Ephesus of her Labours that is Preaching Ver. 2. of her Patience that is suffering of her Impatience her not suffering the evill that is her integrity and impartiality without connivence or toleration And of her not fainting that is perseverance and of her having the Nicolaitans that is sincerity in the truth Ver. 6. and a holy animosity against all false Doctrines And yet sayes he I have something to say against thee When thou hast testified their assiduity in Preaching their constancy in suffering their sincerity in beleeving their integrity in professing their perseverance in continuing their zeale in hating of all error in others when thou thy selfe hast given this evidence in their behalfe canst thou Lord Jesu have any thing to say against them what then shall we we that faile in all these look to heare from thee what was their crime Because they had left their first love Left the fulnesse of their former zeale to Gods cause Now if our case be so much worse then theirs as that we are not onely guilty of all those sins of which Christ discharges them and have not onely left our first love but in a manner lost all our love all our zeale to his glory and be come to a luke warmnesse in his service and a generall neglect of the meanes of grace how justly may we feare not onely that he will come and come quickly but that he may possibly be upon his way already to remove our Candlestick and withdraw the Gospel from us And if it be a sad thing to you to heare a Paul a holy man say You shall see my face no more on this side the Ite maledicti Go ye accursed into hell fire there cannot be so sad a voyce as to heare Christ Jesus say You shall see my face no more Facies Dei est qua Deus nobis innotescit sayes S. Augustin That is the face of God to us by which God manifests himselfe to us God manifests himselfe to us in the Word and in the Sacraments If we see not them in their true lines and colours the Word and Sacraments sincerely and religiously preached and administred we doe not see them but masks upon them And if we do not see them we do not see the face of Christ And I could as well stand under his Nescio vos which he said to the negligent Virgins I know you not or his Nescivi vos which he said to those that boast of their works Mat. 7.22 I never knew you as under this fearfull thunder from his mouth You shall see my face no more I will absolutely withdraw or I will suffer prophanenesse to enter into those meanes of your salvation Word and Sacraments which I have so long continued in their sincerity towards you and you have so long abused Blessed God say not so to us yet yet let the tree grow another yeare before thou cut it downe And as thou hast digged about it by bringing judgements upon our neighbours so water it with thy former raine the dew of thy grace and with thy later raine the teares of our contrition that we may still seethy face here and hereafter here in thy kingdome of Grace hereafter in thy kingdome of Glory which thou hast purchased for us with the inestimable price of thine
Life or that I should bee separated from Christ though all the world beside were to be blotted out and separated if I staid in The benefit that we are to make of the errors of holy men is not that That man did this therefore I may doe it but this God suffered that holy man to fall and yet loved that good soule well God hath not therefore cast me away though he have suffered me to fall too Bread is mans best sustenance yet there may be a dangerous surfet of bread Charity is the bread that the soule lives by yet there may be a surfet of charity I may mis-lead my selfe shrewdly if I say surely my Father is a good man my Master a good man my Pastor a good man men that have the testimony of Gods love by his manifold blessings upon them and therefore I may be bold to doe whatsoever I see them doe Be perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect Mat. 5.48 1 Cor. 11.1 is the example that Christ gives you Be yee followers of mee as I am of Christ is â—he example that the Apostle gives you Good Examples are good Assistances but no Example of man is sufficient to constitute a certaine and constant rule All the actions of the holiest man are not holy Hence appeares the vanity and impertinency of that calumny with which our adversaries of the Roman perswasion labour to oppresse us That those points in which we depart from them cannot be well established because therein we depart from the Fathers As though there were no condemnation to them that pretended a perpetuall adhering to the Fathers nor salvation to them who suspected any Father of any mistaking And they have thought that one thing enough to discredit and blast and annihilate that great and usefull labour which the Centuriators the Magdeburgenses tooke in compiling the Ecclesiasticall Story that in every age as they passe those Authors have laid out a particular section a particular Chapter De navis Patrum to note the mistakings of the Fathers in every age This they thinke a criminall and a hainous thing inough to discredit the whole worke As though there were ever in any age any Father that mistook nothing or that it were blasphemy against the Holy Ghost to note such a mistaking And yet if those blessed Fathers now in possession of heaven be well affected with our celebrating or ill with our neglecting their works certainly they finde much more cause to complaine of our adversaries then of us Never any in the Reformation hath spoken so lightly nay so heavily so negligently nay so diligently so studiously in diminution of the Fathers as they have done One of the first Jesuits proceeds with modesty and ingenuity and yet sayes Quaelibet aetas antiquitati detulit Salmeron Every age hath been apt to ascribe much to the Ancient Fathers Hoc autem asserimus sayes he Iuniores Doctores perspicaciores This we must necessarily acknowledge that our later Men have seen farther then the elder Fathers did His fellow Jesuit goes farther Hoc omnes dicunt Maldon sed non probant sayes he speaking of one person in the Genealogy of Christ This the Fathers say sayes he and later men too Catholiques and Heretiques All But none of them prove it He will not take their words not the whole Churches though they all agree But a Bishop of as much estimation and authority in the Council of Trent as any Cornel. Mussuâ— goes much farther Being pressed with S. Augustins opinion he sayes Nec nos tantillum moveat Augustinus Let it never trouble us which way S. Augustine goes Hoc enim illi peculiare sayes he ut alium errorem expugnans alteri ansam praebeat for this is inseparable from S. Augustine That out of an earnestnesse to destroy one error he will establish another Nor doth that Bishop impute that distemper onely to S. Augustine but to S. Hierome too Of him he sayes In medio positus certamine ar dore feriendi adversarios premit socios S. Hierome laies about him and rather then misse his enemy he wounds his friends also But all that might better be borne then this Turpiter errarunt Patres The Fathers fell foully into errors And this better then that Eorum opinio opinio Haereticorum The Fathers differ not from the Heretiques concurre with the Heretiques Who in the Reformation hath charged the Fathers so farre and yet Baronius hath If they did not oppresse us with this calumny of neglecting or undervaluing the Fathers we should not make our recourse to this way of recrimination for God knowes if it be modestly done and with the reverence in many respects due to them it is no fault to say the Fathers fell into some faults Yet it is rather our Adversaries observation then ours That all the Ancient Fathers were Chiliasts Millenarians and maintained that error of a thousand yeares temporall happinesse upon this earth betweene the Resurrection and our actuall and eternall possession of Heaven It is their observation rather then ours That all the Ancient Fathers denied the dead a fruition of the sight of God till the day of Judgement It is theirs rather then ours That all the Greek Fathers and some of the Latin assigned Gods foreknowledge of mans works to be the cause of his predestination It is their note That for the first six hundred yeares the generall opinion and generall practise of the Church was To give the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to Infants newly baptized as a thing necessary to their salvation They have noted That the opinion of the Ancient Fathers was contrary to the present opinion in the Church of Rome concerning the conception of the blessed Virgin without Originall sin These notes and imputations arise from their Authors and not from ours and they have told it us rather then we them Indeed neither we nor they can dissemble the mistakings of the Fathers The Fathers themselves would not have them dissembled Hieron De me sayes S. Hierom ubicunque de meo sensu loquor arguat me quilibet August For my part wheresoever I deliver but mine owne opinion every man hath his liberty to correct me It is true S. Augustine does call Iulian the Pelagian to the Fathers but it is to vindicate and redeeme the Fathers from those calumnies which Iulian had laid upon them that they were Multitudo caecorum a herd a swarme of blinde guides and followers of one another And that they were Conspiratio perditorum Damned Conspirators against the truth To set the Fathers in their true light and to restore them to their lustre and dignity and to make Iulian confesse what reverend persons they were S. Aug. cals him to the consideration of the Fathers but not to try matters of faith by them alone Lactant. For Sapientiam sibi adimit qui sine judicio majorum inventa probat That man devests himselfe of all discretion who
Divisio first the person upon whom David turned for his succour and then what succour he seeks at his hands First his word and then his end first to whom and then for what he supplicates And in the first of these the Person we shall make these three steps first that he makes his first accesse to God onely O Lord rebuke me not doe not thou and though I will not say I care not yet I care the lesse who doe And secondly that it is to God by Name not to any universall God in generall notions so naturall men come to God but to God whom he considers in a particular name in particular notions and attributes and manifestations of himselfe a God whom he knowes by his former workes done upon him And then that name in which hee comes to him here is the name of Iehovah his radicall his fundamentall his primarie his essentiall name the name of being Iehovah For he that deliberately and considerately beleeves himselfe to have his very being from God beleeves certainely that he hath his well being from him too He that acknowledges that it is by Gods providence that he breathes beleeves that it is by his providence that he eates too So his accesse is to God and to God by name that is by particular considerations and then to God in the name of Iehovah to that God that hath done all from his first beginning from his Being And in these three we shall determine our first part First 1. Part. To God in this first branch of this part David comes to God but without any confidence in himselfe Here is Reus ad rostra sine patrono here is the prisoner at the Barre and no Counsell allowed him He confesses Indictments faster then they can be read If he heare himselfe indicted that he looked upon Bathsheba that he lusted after Bathsheba he cryes Alas I have done that and more dishonored her and my selfe and our God and more then that I have continued the act into a habit and more then that I have drowned that sinne in bloud lest it should rise up to my sight and more then all that I have caused the Name of God to be blasphemed and lest his Majesty and his greatnesse should be a terrour to me I have occasioned the enemy to undervalue him and speake despightfully of God himselfe And when he hath confest all all that he remembers he must come to his Ab occultis meis Lord cleanse me from my secret sinnes for there are sins which we have laboured so long to hide from the world that at last they are hidden from our selves from our own memories our own consciences As much as David stands in feare of this Judge he must intreat this Judge to remember his sinnes Remember them O Lord for els they will not fall into my pardon but remember them in mercy and not in anger for so they will not fall into my pardon neither Whatsoever the affliction then was temporall or spirituall we take it rather to be spirituall Davids recourse is presently to God 1 Sam. 16.14 He doth not as his predecessour Saul did when he was afflicted send for one that was cunning upon the Harp to divert sorrow so If his Subjects rebell he doth not say Let them alone let them goe on I shall have the juster cause by their rebellion of confiscations upon their Estates of executions upon their persons of revocations of their lawes and customes and priviledges which they carry themselves so high upon If his sonne lift up his hand against him he doth not place his hope in that that that occasion will cut off his sonne and that then the peoples hearts which were bent upon his sonne will returne to him againe David knew he could not retyre himselfe from God in his bedchamber Guards and Ushers could not keepe him out He knew he could not defend himselfe from God in his Army for the Lord of Hosts is Lord of his Hosts If he fled to Sea to Heaven to Hell he was sure to meet God there and there thou shalt meet him too if thou fly from God to the reliefe of outward comforts of musicke of mirth of drinke of cordialls of Comedies of conversation Not that such recreations are unlawfull the minde hath her physick as well as the body but when thy sadnesse proceeds from a sense of thy sinnes which is Gods key to the doore of his mercy put into thy hand it is a new and a greater sin to goe about to overcome that holy sadnesse with these prophane diversions to fly Ad consolatiunculas creaturulae as that elegant man Luther expresses it according to his naturall delight in that elegancy of Diminutives with which he abounds above all Authors to the little and contemptible comforts of little and contemptible creatures And as Luther uses the physick Iob useth the Physitian Luther calls the comforts Miserable comforts and Iob calls them that minister them Onerosos consolatores Miserable comforters are you all David could not drowne his adultery in blood never thinke thou to drowne thine in wine The Ministers of God are Sonnes of Thunder they are falls of waters trampling of horses and runnings of Chariots and if these voyces of these Ministers cannot overcome thy musick thy security yet the Angels trumpet will That Surgite qui dermitis Arise yee that sleepe in the dust in the dust of the grave is a Treble that over-reaches all That Ite maledicti Goe yee accursed into Hell fire is a Base that drowns all There is no recourse but to God no reliefe but in God and therefore David applied himselfe to the right method to make his first accesse to God It is to God onely and to God by name and not in generall notions To God by Name for it implies a nearer a more familiar and more presentiall knowledge of God a more cheerfull acquaintance and a more assiduous conversation with God when we know how to call God by a Name a Creator a Redeemer a Comforter then when we consider him onely as a diffused power that spreads it selfe over all creatures when we come to him in Affirmatives and Confessions This thou hast done for me then when we come to him onely in Negatives and say That that is God which is nothing els God is come nearer to us then to others when we know his Name For though it be truly said in the Schoole that no name can be given to God Ejus essentiam adaequatè repraesentans No one name can reach to the expressing of all that God is And though Trismegistus doe humbly and modestly and reverently say Non spere it never fell into my thought nor into my hope that the maker and founder of all Majesty could be circumscribed or imprisoned by any one name though a name compounded and complicated of many names as the Rabbins have made one name of God of all his names in the Scriptures Gen.
32.29 Though Iacob seeme to have been rebuked for asking Gods name when he wrastled with him And so also the Angel which was to doe a miraculous worke Judg. 13.18 a worke appertaining onely to God to give a Childe to the barren because he represented God and had the person of God upon him would not permit Manoah to enquire after his name Because as he sayes there that name was secret and wonderfull And though God himselfe Exod. 23.20 to dignifie and authorize that Angel which he made his Commissioner and the Tutelar and Nationall Guide of his people sayes of that Angel to that people Feare him provoke him not for my Name is in him and yet did not tell them what that name was Yet certainly we could not so much as say God cannot be named except we could name God by some name we could not say God hath no name except God had a name for that very word God is his name God calls upon us often in the Scriptures To call upon his Name and in the Scriptures he hath manifested to us divers names by which we may call upon him Doest thou know what name to call him by when thou callest him to beare false witnesse to averre a falshood Hath God a name to sweare by Doest thou know what name to call him by when thou wouldest make him thy servant thy instrument thy executioner to plague others upon thy bitter curses and imprecations Hath God a name to curse by Canst thou wound his body exhaust his bloud teare off his flesh breake his bones excruciate his soule and all this by his right name Hath God a name to blaspheme by and hath God no name to pray by is he such a stranger to thee Dost thou know every faire house in thy way as thou travellest whose that is and dost thou not know in whose house thou standest now Beloved to know God by name and to come to him by name is to consider his particular blessings to thee to consider him in his power and how he hath protected thee there and in his wisedome and how he hath directed thee there and in his love and how he hath affected thee there and exprest all in particular mercies He is but a darke but a narrow a shallow a lazy man in nature that knows no more but that there is a heaven and an earth and a sea He that will be of use in this world comes to know the influences of the heavens the vertue of the plants and mines of the earth the course and divisions of the Sea To the naturall man God gives generall notions of himselfe a God that spreads over all as the heavens a God that sustaines all as the earth a God that transports and communicates all to all as the sea But to the Christian Church God applies himselfe in more particular notions as a Father as a Son as a holy Ghost And to every Christian soule as a Creator a Redeemer a Benefactor that I may say This I was not born to and yet this I have from my God this a potent adversary sought to evict from me but this I have recovered by my God sicknesse had enfeebled my body but I have a convalescence calumnie had defamed my reputation but I have a reparation malice in other men or improvidence in my selfe had ruined my fortune but I have a redintegration from my God And then by these which are indeed but Cognomina Dei his sir-names names of distinction names of the exercise of some particular properties and attributes of his to come to the root of all to my very Being that my present Being in this world and my eternall Being in the next is made knowne to me by his name of Iehovah which is his Essentiall name to which David had recourse in this exinanition when his affliction had even annihilated and brought him to nothing he fled to Iehovah the God of all Being which is the foundation of all his other Attributes and includes all his other names and is our next and last branch in this first Part. This name then of Iehovah that is here translated Lord Iehovah is agreed by all to be the greatest name by which God hath declared and manifested himselfe to man This is that name which the Jews falsly but peremptorily for falshood lives by peremptorinesse and feeds and armes it selfe with peremptorinesse deny ever to have been attributed to the Messias in the Scriptures This is that name in the vertue and use whereof those Calumniators of our Saviours miracles doe say that he did his miracles according to a direction and schedule for the true and right pronouncing of that name which Solomon in his time had made and Christ in his time had found and by which say they any other man might have done those miracles if he had had Solomons directions for the right sounding of this name Iehovah This is that name which out of a superstitious reverence the Jews alwayes forbore to found or utter but ever pronounced some other name either Adonai or Elohim in the place thereof wheresoever they found Iehovah But now their Rabbins will not so much as write that name but still expresse it in foure other letters So that they dare not not onely not sound it not say it but not see it How this name which we call Iehovah is truly to be sounded because in that language it is exprest in foure Consonants onely without Vowels is a perplext question we may well be content to be ignorant therein since our Saviour Christ himselfe in all those places which he cited out of the Old Testament never sounded it he never said Iehovah Nor the Apostles after him nor Origen nor Ierome all persons very intelligent in the propriety of language they never sounded this name Iehovah For though in S. Ieromes Exposition upon the 8. Psalme we finde that word Iehovah in some Editions which we have now yet it is a cleare case that in the old Copies it is not so in Ieroms mouth it was not so from Ieroms hand it came not so Neither doth it appeare to me that ever the name of Iehovah was so pronounced till so late as in our Fathers time for I think Petrus Gallatinus was the first that ever called it so But howsoever this name be to be sounded that which falls in our consideration at this time is That David in his distresses fled presently to God and to God by name that is in consideration and commemoration of his particular blessings and to a God that had that name the name of Iehovah the name of Essence and Being which name carryed a confession that all our wel-being and the very first being it selfe was and was to be derived from him David therefore comes to God In nomine totali in nomine integrali He considers God totally entirely altogether Not altogether that is confusedly but altogether that is in such a Name as
consider the two termes in which it is expressed what this is which is translated Transgression and then what this Forgiving imports The Originall word is Pashang and that signifies sin in all extensions The highest the deepest the waightiest sin It is a malicious and a forcible opposition to God It is when this Herod and this Pilat this Body and this soule of ours are made friends and agreed that they may concurre to the Crucifying of Christ When not onely the members of our bodies but the faculties of our soul our will and understanding are bent upon sin when we doe not only sin strongly and hungerly and thirstily which appertain to the body but we sin rationally we finde reasons and those reasons even in Gods long patience why we should sin We sin wittily we invent new sins and we thinke it an ignorant a dull and an unsociable thing not to sin yea we sin wisely and make our sin our way to preferment Then is this word used by the Holy Ghost when he expresses both the vehemence and the waight and the largenesse and the continuance all extensions all dimensions of the sins of Damascus Amos 1.3 Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Damascus and for foure I will not turne to it because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of Iron So then we consider sin here not as a staine such as Originall sin may be nor as a wound such as every actuall sin may be but as a burden a complication a packing up of many sins in an habituall practise thereof This is that waight that sunke the whole world under water in the first floud and shall presse downe the fire it selfe to consume it a second time It is a waight that stupifies and benums him that beares it August so as that the sinner feeles not the oppression of his owne sins Et quid miserius miscro non miserante seipsum What misery can be greater then when a miserable man hath not sense to commiserate his owne misery Our first errors are out of Levity and S. Augustin hath taught us a proper ballast and waight for that Amor Dei pondus animae The love of God would carry us evenly and steadily if we would embarke that But as in great tradings they come to ballast with Merchandise ballast and fraight is al one so in this habituall sinner all is sin plots and preparations before the act gladnesse and glory in the act sometimes disguises sometimes justifications after the act make up one body one fraight of sin So then Transgression in this place in the naturall signification of the word is a waight a burden and carrying it as the word requires to the greatest extension it is the sin of the whole World And that sinne is forgiven which is the second Terme The Prophet does not say here Forgiven Blessed is that man that hath no transgression for that were to say Blessed is that man that is no man All people all Nations did ever in Nature acknowledge not onely a guiltinesse of sin but some meanes of reconciliation to their Gods in the Remission of sins for they had all some formall and Ceremoniall Sacrifices and Expiations and Lustrations by which they thought their sins to be purged and washed away Whosoever acknowledges a God acknowledges a Remission of sins and whosoever acknowledges a Remission of sins acknowledges a God And therefore in this first place David does not mention God at all he does not say Blessed is he whose transgression the Lord hath forgiven for he presumes it to be an impossible tentation to take hold of any man that there can be any Remission of sin from any other person or by any other meanes then from and by God himselfe and therefore Remission of sins includes an Act of God But what kinde of Act is more particularly designed in the Originall word which is Nasa then our word forgiving reaches to for the word does not onely signifie Auferre but ferre not onely to take away sin by way of pardon but to take the sin upon himselfe and so to beare the sin and the punishment of the sin in his owne person And so Christ is the Lambe of God Qui tollit not onely that takes away Esay 53.4 but that takes upon himselfe the sins of the world Tulit portavit Surely he hath borne our griefes and carried our sorrowes Those griefes those sorrowes which we should he hath borne and carried in his owne person So that as it is all one never to have come in debt and to have discharged the debt So the whole world all mankinde considered in Christ is as innocent as if Adam had never sinned And so this is the first beame of Blessednesse that shines upon my soule That I beleeve that the justice of God is fully satisfied in the death of Christ and that there is enough given and accepted in the treasure of his blood for the Remission of all Transgressions And then the second beame of this Blessednesse is in The covering of sins Now to benefit our selves by this part of Davids Catechisme Sinne. we must as we did before consider the two termes of which this part of this Blessednesse consists sin and covering Sin in this place is not so heavy a word as Transgression was in the former for that was sin in all extensions sinne in all formes all sin of all men of all times of all places the sin of all the world upon the shoulders of the Saviour of the world In this place the word is Catah and by the derivation thereof from Nata which is to Decline to step aside or to be withdrawne and Kut which is filum a thread or a line that which we call sin here signifies Transilire lineam To depart or by any tentation to be withdrawne from the direct duties and the exact straightnesse which is required of us in this world for the attaining of the next So that the word imports sins of infirmity such sins as doe fall upon Gods best servants such sins as rather induce a cofession of our weaknesse and an acknowledgement of our continuall need of pardon for some thing passed and strength against future invasions then that induce any devastation or obduration of the conscience which Transgression in the former branch implied For so this word Catah hath that signification as in many other places there where it is said Iudg â—â— 16 That there were seven hundred left-handed Benjamits which would sling stones at a haires breadth and not faile that is not misse the marke a haires breadth And therefore when this word Catah sin is used in Scripture to expresse any weighty hainous enormous sin it hath an addition Peccatum magnum peccaverunt sayes Moses Exod. 32.31 when the people were become Idolaters These people have sinned a great sin otherwise it signifies such sin as destroyes not the foundation such as in the nature
thereof does not wholly extinguish Grace nor grieve the Spirit of God in us And such sinnes God covers saies David here Now what is his way of covering these sins As Sin in this notion is not so deepe a wound upon God as Transgression in the other Covering so Covering here extends not so far as Forgiving did there There forgiving was a taking away of sin by taking that way That Christ should beare all our sins it was a suffering a dying it was a penall part and a part of Gods justice executed upon his one and onely Son here it is a part of Gods mercy in spreading and applying the merits and satisfaction of Christ upon all them whom God by the Holy Ghost hath gathered in the profession of Christ and so called to the apprehending and embracing of this mantle this garment this covering the righteousnesse of Christ in the Christian Christ In which Church and by his visible Ordinances therein the Word and Sacraments God covers hides conceales even from the inquisition of his owne justice those smaller sins which his servants commit and does not turne them out of his service for those sins So the word the word is Casah which we translate Covering is used Prov. 12.23 A wise man concealeth knowledge that is Does not pretend to know so much as indeed he does So our mercifull God when he sees us under this mantle this covering Christ spread upon his Church conceales his knowledge of our sins and suffers them not to reflect upon our consciences in a consternation thereof So then as the Forgiving was Auferre ferendo a taking away of sin by taking all sin upon his owne person So this Covering is Tegere attingendo To cover sin by comming to it by applying himselfe to our sinfull consciences in the meanes instituted by him in his Church for they have in that language another word Sacac which signifies Tegere obumbrando To cover by overshadowing by refreshing This is Tegere obumbrando To cover by shadowing when I defend mine eye from the offence of the Sun by interposing my hand betweene the Sun and mine eye at this distance a far off But Tegere attingendo is when thus I lay my hand upon mine eye and cover it close by that touching In the knowledge that Christ hath taken all the sins of all the world upon himselfe that there is enough done for the salvation of all mankinde I have a shadowing a refreshing But because I can have no testimony that this generall redemption belongs to me who am still a sinner except there passe some act betweene God and me some seale some investiture some acquittance of my debts my sins therefore this second beame of Davids Blessednesse in this his Catechisme shines upon me in this That God hath not onely sowed and planted herbs and Simples in the world medicinall for all diseases of the world but God hath gathered and prepared those Simples and presented them so prepared to me for my recovery from my disease God hath not onely received a full satisfaction for all sinne in Christ but Christ in his Ordinances in his Church offers me an application of all that for my selfe and covers my sin from the eye of his Father not onely obumbrando as hee hath spread himselfe as a Cloud refreshing the whole World in the value of the satisfaction but Attingendo by comming to me by spreading himself upon me as the Prophet did upon the dead Child Mouth to mouth Hand to hand In the mouth of his Minister he speaks to me In the hand of the Minister he delivers himselfe to me and so by these visible acts and seales of my Reconciliation Tegit attingendo He covers me by touching me He touches my conscience with a sense and remorse of my sins in his Word and he touches my soule with a faith of having received him and all the benefit of his Death in the Sacrament And so he covers sin that is keepes our sins of infirmity and all such sins as do not in their nature quench the light of his grace from comming into his Fathers presence or calling for vengeance there Forgiving of transgressions is the generall satisfaction for all the world and restoring the world to a possibility of salvation in the Death of Christ Covering of sin is the benefit of discharging and easing the conscience by those blessed helps which God hath afforded to those whom he hath gathered in the bosome and quickned in the wombe of the Christian Church And this is the second beame of Blessedness cast out by David here and then the third is The not imputing of iniquity Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity In this also Impute as in the two former we did we consider this Imputing and then this Iniquity in the roote and Original signification of the two words When in this place the Lord is said not to impute sinne it is meant That the Lord shall not suffer me to impute sinne to my selfe The word is Cashab and Cashab imports such a thinking such a surmising as may be subject to error and mistaking To that purpose we finde the word where Hannah was praying 1 Sam. 1.12 and Eli the Priest who saw her lips move and heard no prayer come from her thought she had been drunke Imputed drunkennesse unto her and said How long wilt thou be drunke put away thy wine So that this Imputing is such an Imputing of ours as may be erronious that is an Imputing from our selves in a diffidence and jealousie and suspition of Gods goodnesse towards us To which purpose we consider also that this word which we translate here Iniquity Gnavah is oftentimes in the Scripture used for punishment as well as for sinne and so indifferently for both as that if we will compare Translation with Translation and Exposition with Exposition it will be hard for us to say Gen. 4.13 whether Cain said Mine iniquity is greater then can be pardoned or My punishment is greater then I can beare and our last Translation which seems to have been most carefull of the Originall takes it rather so My punishment in the Text and lays the other My sinne aside in the Margin So then this Imputing being an Imputing which arises from our selves and so may be accompanied with error and mistaking that we Impute that to our selves which God doth not impute And this mis-imputing of Gods anger to our selves arising out of his punishments and his corrections inflicted upon us That because we have crosses in the world we cannot beleeve that we stand well in the sight of God or that the forgiving of Transgressions or Covering of sinnes appertains unto us we justly conceive that this not Imputing of Iniquity is that Serenitas Conscientiae That brightnesse that clearnesse that peace and tranquillity that calme and serenity that acquiescence and security of the Conscience in which I am delivered from all scruples and
with an outward sanctity and call God to witnesse and testifie to the Congregation that we are saints when we are devils for this is a suborning of God and a drawing of God himselfe into a perjury We hide our sinnes in his house by hypocrisie all our lives and we hide them at our deaths perchance with an Hospitall And truely wee had need doe so when we have impoverished God in his children by our extorsions and wounded him and lam'd him in them by our oppressions wee had need provide God an Hospitall As men that rob houses thrust in a child at the window and he opens greater doores for them so lesser sins make way for greater De minimis non curat Lex The law is faine to passe over small faults but De minimis cur at lux That light of grace by which a sinner disposes himselfe to confession must discover every sinne and hide none suffer none to hide it selfe nor lie hidden under others When God speaks so much of Behemoth and Leviathan Iob 40. 41. the great land and seaoppressors he calls us to the consideration of the insupportablenesse of great sinnes but in the plaines of Egypt by haile and locusts and lice little and contemptible things hee calls us to the consideration of these vermine of the soule lesser and unconsidered sins David had not accomplished his work upon himselfe his reflected his preparatory Act till he had made both those steps notum feci non operui first I tooke knowledge of my sinfull condition and then I proceeded to a particular inquisition of my Conscience I tooke knowledge of my sinne and mine iniquity I have not hid and then he was fit to thinke of an accesse to God by confession Dixi confiteber c. This word Dixi meditando Dixi Amar I said is a word that implies first meditation deliberation considering and then upon such meditation a resolution too and execution after all When it is said of God dixit and dixit God said this and said that in the first Creation Cave ne cogites strepitum Basil Doe not thinke that God uttered any sound His speaking was inward his speaking was thinking So David uses this word in the person of another Dixit insipiens Psal 14.1 The foole hath said that is In corde said in his heart that is thought that there is no God There speaking is thinking and speaking is resolving too So Davids son Solomon uses the word 1 King 5.5 Behold I purpose to build a house unto the Lord where the word is I say I will doe it Speaking is determining and speaking is executing too Dixi custodiam I said I will take heed to my wayes Psal 39.1 that is I will proceed and goe forward in the paths of God And such a premeditation such a preconsideration doe all our approaches and accesses to God and all our acts in his service require God is the Rocke of our salvation God is no Occasionall God no Accidentall God neither will God be served by Occasion nor by Accident but by a constant Devotion Our communication with God must not be in Interjections that come in by chance nor our Devotions made up of Parentheses that might be left out They erre equally that make a God of Necessity and that make a God of Contingency They that with the Manichees make an ill God a God that forces men to doe all the ill that they doe And they that with the Epicures make an idle God an indifferent God that cares not what is done God is not Destiny Then there could be no reward nor punishment but God is not Fortune neither for then there were no Providence If God have given reason onely to Man it were strange that Man should exercise that reason in all his Morall and Civill actions and onely do the acts of Gods worship casually To go to Court to Westminster to the Exchange for ends and to come to Church by chance or for company or for some collaterall respects that have no relation to God Not to thinke of our Confession till the Priest have called upon us to say after him We have erred and straied from thy wayes like lost sheepe To come for Absolution Dan. 2.3 as Nebuchadnezzar came to Daniel for the interpretation of his Dreame who did not onely not understand his Dreame but not remember it Somnium ejus fugit ab eo He did not onely not know what his Dreame meant but hee did not know what his Dreame was Not to consider the nature of Confession and Absolution not to consider the nature of the sins we should confesse and be absolved of is a stupidity against Davids practise here Dixit He said he meditated he considered Gods service is no extemporall thing But then Dixit He resolved too for so the word signifies Consideration but Resolution upon it And then that he Resolved he Executed This is not only Davids dixit in corde Dixi statuendo Luke 15.12 where speaking is thinking nor only Solomons dixi adificabo I resolved how I might build but it is also the Prodigals Dixi revertar I said I will go to my Father A resolving and executing of that Resolution for that that execution crownes all How many thinke to come hither when they wake and are not ready when the houre comes And even this mornings omission is an abridgement or an essay of their whole lives They thinke to repent every day and are not ready when the bell tolls Cajetan It is well said of Gods speaking in the Creation It was Dictio practica diffinitiva Imperativa Ambrose It was an Actuall speaking a Definitive an Imperative speaking And Dicto absolvit negotium His saying he would doe it that is his meaning to doe it was the very doing of it Our Religious duties require meditations for God is no extemporall God Those produce determinations for God must not be held in suspence And they flow into executions for God is not an illusible God to be carried with promises or purposes onely And all those linkes of this religious Chaine Consideration Resolution Execution Thought Word and Practise are made out of this golden word Amar Dixi I said I will doe it And then Dixi confitebor I considered that my best way was to confesse and I resolved to doe so and I did it Dixi confitebor It is but a homely Metaphor Confitebor Origen but it is a wholesome and a usefull one Confessio vomitus Confession works as a vomit It shakes the frame and it breakes the bed of sin and it is an ease to the spirituall stomach to the conscience to be thereby disburdened It is an ease to the sinner to the patient but that that makes it absolutely necessary is that it is a glory to God for in all my spirituall actions Apprecations or Deprecations whether I pray for benefits or against calamities still my Alpha and Omega my first and
but Himselfe so as if they be lost he is lost How long will a Medall a piece of Coine lie in the water before the stampe be washed off and yet how soone is the Image of God of his patience his longanimity defaced in us by every billow every affliction But for the Saints of God it shall not be so Surely it shall not They shall stand against the waters Psal 11 43. And the Sea shall see it and fly and Iordan shall be turned backe And the world shall say What ayled thee O Sea that thou fleddest O Iordan that thou turnedst back For they that know not the power of the Almighty though they envy yet shall wonder and stand amazed at the deliverance of the righteous Sto pulso sayes God of himselfe I stand at the doore and knocke Rev. 3.22 God will not breake open doores to give thee a blessing as well as he loves thee and as well as he loves it but will have thee open to him much more will he keepe Tentations at the doore They shall not breake in upon thee except thou open This then was that which David elsewhere apprehended with feare The sorrowes of the grave compassed me about Psal 1â— 5. and the snares of death overtooke mee Here they were neare him but no worse Psal 69 15. This is that that hee prayes deliverance from Let not the water flood drowne mee neither let the deepe swallow me up And this is that God assures us all that are his Isâ—y 43.2 When thou passest through the waters I will bee with thee and through the floods that they doe not overflow thee Maintaine therefore a holy patience in all Gods visitations Accept your waters though they come in teares for hee that sends them Christ Jesus had his flood his inundation in Blood and whatsoever thou sufferest from him thou sufferest for him and glorifiest him in that constancy Upon those words Tres sunt There are three that beare witnesse That Spirit and water and blood Bernard S. Bernard taking water there by way of allusion for affliction saith Though the Spirit were witnesse enough without water or blood yet Vix aut nunquam inveniri arbitror Spiritum sine aqua sanguine we lack one of the seales of the Spirit if we lack Gods corrections We consider three waters in our blessed Saviour He wept over Jerusalem Doe thou so over thy finfull soule He sweat in the garden Doe thou so too in eating thy bread in the sweat of thy browes in labouring fincerely in thy Calling And then hee sent water and blood out of his side Argust being dead which was fons utriusque Sacramenti the spring head of both Sacraments Doe thou also refresh in thy soule the dignity which thou receivedst in the first Sacrament of Baptisme and thereby come worthily to the participation of the second and therein the holy Ghost shall give thee the seale of that security which he tenders to thee in this Text Non approximabunt How great water floods soever come they shall not come nigh thee not nigh that which is Thou that is thy faith thy soule and though it may swallow that by which thou art a man thy life it shall not shake that by which thou art a Christian thy Religion Amen SERM. LX. Preached upon the Penitentiall Psalmes PSAL. 32.7 Thou art my hiding place Thou shalt preserve mee from trouble Thou shalt compasse me about with songs of deliverance AS Rhetorique is said to bee a fist extended and displayed into an open Hand And Logique a Hand recollected and contracted into a fist So the Church of God may be said to be a soule dilated and diffused into many Congregations and a soule may be said to be the Church contracted and condensed into one bosome So not onely the Canticle of Solomon is taken indifferently by the ancient and later Expositors by some for an Epithalamion and marriage Song betweene Christ and his Church by others for the celebration of the same union between every Christian soule and him but also many other places of Scripture have received such an indifferent interpretation and are left in suspence whether they be to be understood of the Church in generall or of particular soules And of this nature and number is this Text Thou art my hiding place c. For S. Hierom takes these words and the whole Psalme to be spoken collectively others distributively He in the person of the Church Hieron They of every or at least of some particular soules To examine their reasons is unnecessary and would bee tedious It will aske lesse time and afford more profit to consider the words both wayes In them therefore considered twice over wee shall see a threefold state of the Christian Church and a threefold mercy exhibited by God to every Christian soule First we shall see the Church under the clouds in her low estate in her obscurity in her inglorious state of contempt and persecution and yet then supported by an assurance that God overshadowed her Tu absconsio Tu latibulum Thou art my hiding place And in that first part wee shall consider the state of a timorous soule a soule that for feare of tentations dares scarce looke into the world or embrace a profession Secondly we shall see the Church emancipated enfranchised unfettered unmanacled delivered from her obscure and inglorious state and brought to splendor and beauty and peace blessing God in that acknowledgement Thou shalt preserveme from trouble And in that part wee shall consider the state of that soule exalted to a holy confidence and assurance that though she come into the world and partake of the dangers thereof in opening herselfe to such tentations as do necessarily and inseparably accompany every calling yet the Lord will preserve her from trouble And thirdly and lastly we shall see a kinde of Triumphant state in the Church in this world a holy exultation God shall compasse her with songs of deliverance In which part we shall also see the blessed state of that soule which is come not to a presumptuous security but to modest certainty of continuing in the same state still And these will bee our three parts in these words as they receive a publike accommodation to the Church and a more particular application to our selves Wee enter into these considerations with this observation 1 Part. That as God himselfe is eternall and cannot bee considered in the distinction of times so hath that language in which God hath spoken in his written word the Hebrew the least consideration of Time of any other language Evermore in expressing the mercies of God to man it is an indifferent thing to the holy Ghost whether he speak in the present or in the future or in the time that is past what mercies soever he hath given us he will give us over againe And whatsoever he hath done and will doe hee is alwayes ready to doe at
may drive him from us Pray we therefore our Lord of everlasting goodnesse That he will be our Hiding-place That hee will protect us from tentations incident to our severall Callings That hee will preserve us from troubles preserve us from them or preserve us in them preserve us that they come not or preserve us that they overcome not And that hee will compasse us so as no enemy find overture unto us and compasse us with songs with a joyfull sense of our perseverance but yet with cries too with a solicitous feare that that multiplicity and hainousnesse of our sins may weary even the incessant and indefatigable Spirit of comfort himselfe and chase him from us SERM. LXI Preached upon the Penitentiall Psalmes PSAL. 32.8 I will Instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt goe I will guide thee with mine eye THis verse more then any other in the Psalme answers the Title of the Psalme The title is Davids Instruction and here in the Text it is said I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way thou shalt goe There are eleven Psalmes that have that Title Psalmes of Instruction The whole booke is Sepher Tehillim The booke of prayses and it is a good way of praysing God to receive Instruction Instruction how to praise him Therefore doth the holy Ghost returne so often to this Catechisticall way Instruction Institution as to propose so many Psalmes expresly under that Title purposely to that use In one of those The manner how Instruction should be given is expressed also Psal 45. Bernard It must be in a loving maner for the Title is Canticum Amorum A song of love for Instruction For Absque prudentia benevolentia non sunt perfecta consilia True Instruction is a making love to the Congregation and to every soule in it but it is but to the soule And so when S. Paul said He was mad for their sakes Insanivit Amatoriam insaniam sayes Theophylact S. Paul was mad for love of them to whom he writ his holy love-letters his Epistles And thereupon doe the Rabbins call this Psalme Leb David Cor Davidis The opening and powring out of Davids heart to them whom he instructs Wee have no way into your hearts but by sending our hearts The Poets counsell is Vt ameris ama If thou wouldst be truely loved doe thou love truely The holy Ghosts precept upon us is Vt credaris crede That if we would have you beleeve wee beleeve our selves It is not to our Eloquence that God promises a blessing but to our sincerity not to our tongue but to our heart All our hope of bringing you to love God is in a loving and hearty maner to propose Gods love to you The height of the Spouses love to Christ came but to that Cant. 2.5 I am sicke of love The love of Christ went farther To die for love Love is as strong as death Cant. 8.6 but nothing else is as strong as either and both Love and Death met in Christ How strong and powerfull upon you then should that Instruction be that comes to you from both these The Love and Death of Christ Jesus and such an Instruction doth this text exhibite I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way in which thou shalt goe I will guide thee with mine eye God so loved the world as that he sent his Sonne to die The Sonne being dead so loved the world as that he returned to that world againe and being ascended sent the holy Ghost to establish a Church and in that Church Vsque ad consummationem till the end of the world shall that holy Spirit execute this Catechisticall Office He shall instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt goe He shall guide thee with his eye Though then some later Expositors have doubted of the person who doth this Office Divisio To Instruct who this I in our Text is because the Hebrew word Le David is as well Davidis as Davidi An Instruction from David as an Instruction to David and so the Catechist may seeme to be David and no more yet since this Criticisme upon the word Le David argues but a possibility that it may and not a necessity that it must be so wee accompany S. Hierome and indeed the whole body of the Fathers in accepting this Instruction from God himselfe it is no other then God himselfe that sayes I will instruct thee c. No other then God himselfe can undertake so much as is promised in this text For here is first a rectifying of the understanding I will instruct thee and in the Originall there is somewhat more then our Translation reaches to It is there Intelligere faciam te I will moke thee understand Man can instruct God onely can make us understand And then it is Faciam te I will make Thee Thee understand The worke is the Lords The understanding is the mans for God does not worke in man as the Devill did in Idols and In Pythonissis and In Ventriloquis in possest persons who had no voluntary concurrence with the action of the Devill but were meerely Passive God works so in man as that he makes man worke too Faciam Te I will make Thee understand That that shall be done shall be done by mee but in Thee the Power that rectifies the act is Gods the Act is mans Faciam te sayes God I will make thee thee every particular person for that arises out of this singular and distributive word Thee which threatens no exception no exclusion I wil make every person to whom I present Instruction capable of that Instruction and if he receive it not it is onely his and not my fault And so this first part is an Instruction De credendis of such things as by Gods rectifying of our understanding we are bound to beleeve And then in a second part there followes a more particular Instructing Docebo I will teach thee And that In via In the way It is not onely De via To teach thee which is the way that thou maiest finde it but In via How to keepe the way when thou art in it He will teach thee not onely Vt gradiaris That thou maiest walke in it and not sleepe but Quo modo gradieris How thou mayest walke in it and not stray And so this second part is an Institution De agendis of those things which thine understanding being formerly rectified and deduced into a beliefe thou art bound to do And then in the last words of the text I will guide thee with mine eye there is a third part an establishment a confirmation by an incessant watchfulnesse in God He will consider consult upon us for so much the Originall word imports He will not leave us to Contingencies to Fortune no nor to his owne generall Providence by which all Creatures are universally in his protection and administration but he will ponder us
you were so well as the Horse and the Mule who though they have no understanding have no forfeiture no losse no abuse of understanding to answer for First then the Horse Superbus The proud man hath no understanding He hath forgot his letters his Alphabet how he was spelled and put together and made of body and soule You may as well call him an Anatomist that knowes how to pare a naile or cut a corne or him a Surgeon that knowes how to cut and curle haire as allow him understanding that knowes how to gather riches or how to buy an Office or how to hurt and oppresse others when he hath those meanes That absurdity that height of strange ignorance that the Prophet observes in an Idolatrous Image-maker Esay 44.16 is in this proud man He burnes halfe in the fire and the residue he makes a god He hath seene as great estates as his burne to ashes as great persons as himselfe ruined and destroyed burne out and vanish into sparks and stinking smoake He hath seene halfe his owne time burnt out and wasted and yet hee dreames of an eternity in himselfe He sayes I am and none else hee will not say so to me in expresse words but does hee not say so to the whole world in his manifest actions The Horse then Mulus The proud man hath no understanding and the Mule the licentious man as little The Ancients had a purpose to expresse that when they placed by their Goddesse of Licentiousnesse Venus A Tortoyse A Creature that had no heart capable of no understanding Gen. 19. And it is better expressed in those licentious persons who pursued Lots guests Their blindnesse brought them to an impossibility of finding the doore They were weary in seeking the doore And if they had found it they had sound it shut A man that hath wallowed long in that sin when he seekes a doore to repentance he will quickly be weary for there lie hard conditions upon him and he is in danger of finding the doore so shut as his understanding and that is all his key cannot open Hee will make shift for reasons why he should continue in that sin and he will call it ill nature or falshood or breach of promise and inconstancy to depart from the Conversation that nourishes that sin The doore will be shut and his Reason cannot nay his Reason would not open it but rather plead in the sins behalfe Thus far our first reason hath carried us Doe it not least you loose your understanding The field of that blessed seed The tree of that fruitfull graft The materials for that glorious building Faith For the understanding is the receptacle of Faith But doe it not the rather because if ye do it God will be brought to a necessity In chamo fraeno maxillas constringere to hold in your mouths with bit and bridle to come to hard usage when as he would faine have you reduced by faire and gentle meanes But to this way God is often brought and by this way of affliction the cure is sometimes wrought upon us S. Augustine proposes to himselfe a wonder why the first woman was called at first Gen. 2.23 and in her best state but Isha Virago which was a name of diminution as she was taken from the man for Isha is but a shee-man And then in her worse state when she had sinned Gen. 3.20 she was called Eva Mater viventium The Mother of all living she had a better name in her worst estate But this was not in respect of her sin sayes that Father but in respect of her punishment Now that she was become mortall by a sentence of death pronounced upon her and knew that she must dye and resolve to dust now sayes he there was no danger in her of growing proud by any glorious title affliction had tamed her and rectified her now and to that purpose sometimes does God bit and bridle us with afflictions that our corrupt affections might not transport us 2 Sam. 14. Wee finde that Absolom sent for Ioab The Kings Son for the Kings servant There was coldnesse some drinesse betweene Absolom and his Father Absolom was under a cloud at Court and so Ioab neglected him he would not come Absolom sent againe and againe Ioab refused But then Absolom sent his servants to burne Ioabs Corne fields and then Ioab came apace Affliction and calamity are the bit and the bridle that God puts into our mouth sometimes to turne us to him Behold we put bits into the horses mouthes that they should obey us Iam. 3.3 and we turne all the body about And to this belongs that A whip for the Horse a bridle for the Asse and a rod for the fooles back When we are become fooles made like the Horse and Mule that we have no understanding then God bits and bridles us he whips and scourges us sometimes lest our desires should mislead us a wrong way sometimes if they have to turne us into the right way againe But here in our text it is Ne approximent te Their mouths must be held with bit and bridle lest they come neere unto thee When God by their incorrigibility have given over all care of them Ne approximent yet hee takes care of us of his Servants of his Church and he bits and bridles his and our enemies so as that they shall not come neare us they shall not hurt us So God said to Senacherib Because thou ragest against me God was far enough out of Senacheribs reach 2 King 19.28 but God accounts his Jerusalem as Heaven and his Hezekias as himselfe Because thy rage is against me I will put my hooke into thy nose and my bridle in thy lips and will turne thee back by the way by which thou camest When man is become as the Horse proud of his strength In chamo et fraeno God shall bit him and bridle him so as that he shall be able to doe no harme and certainely the godly have not a greater joy when they are able to do good to others then the wicked have sorrow when having power in their hands yet they are not able to execute their mischievous purposes upon them that they hate Satan was glad of any Commission upon Iob because God made a hedge about him and about his house Ne approximaret That Satan could not come neare him He was glad God gave him power to annoy him any way but sorry that he exempted his person in that first Commission Onely upon himselfe put not forth thy hand He was glad that in a second Commission God did lay open his person to his power but sorry that he excepted his life Iob 2.6 Behold he is in thy hand but save his life For till the wicked come to an utter destruction of their enemies they thinke it no approximation They are never come neare enough to them And In chamo fraeno therfore God bits
perplexities and scruples in understanding and conscience and into desperation at last And this is the Greatnesse Solutis doloribus inferni In another sense then David speaks that of Christ There it is that the sorrowes of hell were loosed that is were slacked dissolved by him But here it is that the sorrowes of hell are loosed that is let loose upon thee and when thou shalt heare Christ say from the Crosse Behold and see if ever there were any sorrow like my sorrow thou shalt finde thy sorrow like his in the Greatnesse and nothing like his in the Goodnesse Christ bore that sorrow that every man might rejoyce and thou wouldest be the more sorry if every man had not as much cause of desperate sorrow as thou hast Many and great are the sorowes of the wicked and then eternall too which is more then intimated in that the Originall hath neither of those particles of supplement which are in our Translations no such shall come no such shall be nor no shall at all but onely Many sorrowes to the wicked Many and great now more and greater hereafter All for ever if they amend not It is not Eternall They have had sorrowes but they are overblown nor that they have them but patience shall outweare them nor that they shall have them but they have a breathing time to gather strength before hand But as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be Sorrowes upon them and upon them for ever Whatsoever any man conceives for ease in this case Esay 33.11 it is a false conception You shall conceive chaffe and bring forth stubble And this stubble is your vaine hope of a determination of this sorrow But the wicked shall not be able to lodge such a hope though this hope if they could apprehend it would be but an aggravating of their sorrowes in the end It is eternall no determination of time afforded to it Ibid. ver 14. For They shall bee as the burning of lime and as thornes cut up shall they bee burnt in the fire Who amongst us shall dwell with the devouring fire Who amongst us shall dwell with that everlasting burning It is a devouring fire and yet it is an everlasting burning The Prophet asks Who can dwell there In that intensenesse who can last Deut. 32.22 They that must and that is All the wicked Fire is kindled in my wrath saith God Yet may not teares quench it Teares might if they could be had But It shall burne to the bottome of hell saith God there And Dives that could not procure a drop of water to coole his tongue there can much lesse procure a repentant teare in that place There as S. Iohn speakes Revel 18.8 Plagues shall come in one day Death and Sorrow and Famine But it is in a long day Short for the suddennesse of comming for that is come already which for any thing we know may come this minute before we be at an end of this point or at a period of this sentence So it is sudden in comming but long for the enduring For it is that day Ibid. when They shall be burnt with fire for strong is the Lord God that will condemne them That is argument enough of the vehemence of that fire that the Lord God who is called the strong God makes it a Master-piece of his strength to make that fire Art thou able to dispute out this Fire and to prove that there can be no reall no materiall fire in Hell after the dissolution of all materiall things created If thou be not able to argue away the immortality of thine owne soule but that that soule must last nor to argue away the eternity of God himselfe but that that must last thou hast but little ease in making shift to give a figurative interpretation to that fire and to say It may be a torment but it cannot be a fire since it must be an everlasting torment nor to give a figurative signification to the Worme and to say It may bee a paine a remorse but it can bee no worme after the generall dissolution since that Conscience in which that remorse and anguish shall ever live must live ever If there bee a figure in the names and words of Fire and Wormes there is an indisputable reality in the sorrow in the torment and in the manifoldnesse and in the weightinesse and in the everlastingnesse thereof For in the inchoation of these sorrowes in this life and in the consummation of them in the life to come The sorrowes of the wicked are many and great and eternall This then is the portion prepared here The Person Psal 50.18 Thy portion was with the Adulterers as our last Translators have exprest that place in their Margin Thy portion was with them here in this world and thy portion shall be with them for ever for God expresses all kind of wickednesse carnall and spirituall in that name of Adultery throughout the body of the Scriptures And therefore when you meet judgements denounced against Adulterers never thinke that those judgements concerne not you if you have forborne that one sin and yet even that sinne may have beene committed in a looke in a letter in a word in a wish in a dreame when S. Iames saith Yee Adulterers and Adulteresses Iam. 4 4. know you not this Thinke not that S. Iames cals not upon you if you be but Covetous but Ambitious but Superstitious and no Adulteters for every aversion from the Creatour every converting to the creature is Adultery Even in nature you are made for that marriage In the covenant of God you were betroathed and affianced for that marriage In the Sacrament of Baptisme you were actually personally married and in the other Sacrament there is a consummation of that marriage And every departing from that contract which you made with God at your Baptisme and renewed at your receiving the other Sacrament is an Adultery Thus a Hermite is a husband and a Nun a wife and thus both may bee adulterers though in a Wildernesse though in a Cloyster August Si deseris Deum qui te fecit amas illa quae fecit adultera es If thou turne from God that made thee to those things that he made this is an adultery Therefore Christ calls them An evill and adulterous generation because they sought a signe Matt. 12.39 because they turned upon other wayes of satisfaction then he had ordained for them that was adultery And as David saith Thy portion was with adulterers here so as theirs is said to be Revel 21.8 Thy portion also shall be in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death Thou art this person if thou be this adulterer which is intended in this emphaticall word The wicked So then as these Sorrowes in our Text are an inchoative Hell The wicked they are such wounds as induce such pangs as precede
even the second death sorrowes that flow into desperation and impenitiblenesse and impenitiblenesse is hell As the torment is an inchoative hell so is the person the Wicked here an inchoated Devill It is S. Chrysostoms spontaneus daemon and voluntarius daemon He that is a devill to himselfe that could be and would be ambitious in a Spittle licentious in a Wildernesse voluptuous in a Famine and abound with tentations in himselfe though there were no devill Most of the names of the devill in the Scripture denote some action of his upon us As he is called The Prince of the power of the Ayre there he is called so because as it is added there Ephes 2.2 Hee works in the children of disobedience As the ayre works upon our bodies this Prince of the Ayre works upon our minds how works he hee deceives Revel 12.9 Hee deceived the whole world saith S. Iohn from this infinuation hee hath those other names there the great Dragon and the old Serpent When hee hath crept in as a Serpent then hee growes A roaring Lyon He professes his power he disguises not a tentation then he growes Satan an Adversary an Enemy he opposes all good endeavors in us then he growes Diabolus an Accuser an accuser to God an accuser to our owne conscience and when he hath made our sinne as great as it can be in our practise when by age or sicknesse or poverty he cannot multiply our sinnes for the present then by his multiplying glasse he multiplies the sins of our former times and presents them greater then even the mercies of God or the merits of Christ Jesus So he growes in mischievous names according to his mischievous actions and practises upon us but then out of himselfe arises the most vehement and the most collective name that is given him in all the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that with the emphaticall article The wicked one One that is all wickednesse one that is the wickednesse of all One who if he had no object to direct his wickednesse upon no subject to exercise his wickednesse in If God should proclaime so generall a Pardon That all men All should effectually be saved and so all hope to have enlarged his Kingdome be withdrawne yet would still be as wicked and as opposite to God as he is So then by this character of Multiplicity Plurality this emphaticall note of the wicked in our Text the person whose portion this sorrow is this sorrow which is a brand of Hell at least a match by which Hell fire it selfe is kindled is not hee that is an Adulterer or that is a Murtherer not hee that hath fallen into some particular sinnes though great and continued those great sinnes in habits though long for David fell so and yet found a holy sorrow a medicinall sorrow but it is the wicked he that runnes headlong into all wayes of wickednesse and usque ad finem precludes or neglects all wayes of recovery That is glad of a tentation and afraid of a Sermon that is dry wood and tinder to Satans fire if he doe but touch him and is ashes it selfe to Gods Spirit if he blow upon him That from a love of sinne at first because it is pleasing comes at last to a love of sinne because it is sinne because it is liberty because it is a deliverance of himselfe from the bondage as he thinks it of the law of God and from the remorse and anguish of considering sinne too particularly This is the person in whom at first by this emphaticall note the wicked we designe a Plurality as we called it that is a Complicated a Multiplied a Compact sinner a Body rather a Carkasse of Many of All sins all that have fallen within his reach And then in the word we noted also a Singularity That upon such a sinner upon every such sinner these Many these Great these Eternall sorrowes shall fall and tarry As in the former Circumstance Singularity we noted that it was the They that aggravated it it was not an An an Adulterer an Ambitious man but a The The wicked whom God enwrapped in this irrecoverable this undeterminable sorrow so here it is not a This or That This wicked or that wicked man but The wicked every wicked man is surrounded with this sorrow He can propose no comfort in a decimation as in popular Rebellions where nine may be spared and the tenth man hanged No nor so much hope as to have nine hanged and the tenth spared He is not in Sodoms case That a few righteous might have saved the wicked Ezek. 14.20 But he feeles a necessity of applying to himselfe that If Noah Daniel and Iob were in the midst of them as I live saith the Lord God they should deliver neither Son August nor Daughter Iussisti Domine sic est ut poena sit sibi omnis inordinatus animus It is thy pleasure O God and thy pleasure shall be infallibly accomplished that every wicked person should be his owne Executioner He is Spontaneus Daemon as S. Chrysostome speaks an In-mate an in-nate Devill a bosome devill a selfe-Devill That as he could be a tempter to himselfe though there were no Devill so he could be an Executioner to himselfe though there were no Satan and a Hell to himselfe though there were no other Torment Sometimes he staies not the Assises but prevents the hand of Justice he destroies himselfe before his time But when he staies he is evermore condemned at the Assises Let him sleepe out as much of the morning as securelyas he can embellish and adorne himselfe as gloriously as he can dine as largely and as delicately as he can weare out as much of the afternoone in conversation in Comedies in pleasure as hee can sup with as much distension and inducement of drousinesse as he can that he may scape all remorse by falling asleepe quickly and fall asleepe with as much discourse and musicke and advantage as he can he hath a conscience that will survive and overwatch all the company he hath a sorrow that shall joyne issue with him when he is alone and both God and the devill who doe not meet willingly shall meet in his case and be in league and be one the sorrowes side against him The anger of God and the malice of the devill shall concurre with his sorrow to his farther vexation No one wicked person by any diversion or cunning shall avoid this sorrow for it is in the midst and in the end of all his forced contentments Prov. 14.13 Even in laughing the heart is sorrowfull and the end of that mirth is heavinesse The person is The wicked Communication Every wicked person He hath no reliefe in a decimation that some may scape Nor reliefe in the communication of the torment It is no ease to him that so many beare a part with him In some afflictions in the world men lay hold
an idle God which is as great an Atheisme as the other But because it goes thus with them that they have many and great sorrowes they conclude that all have so But The heart knoweth his owne bitternesse Prov. 14.10 They know their own case Ibid. the case of the godly they know not The stranger shall not meddle with their Ioy He that is a stranger to this trust in God understands nothing of the joy that appertaines to them that have it Esth 14.19 Let that be thy prayer which was the prayer of Esther Thy handmaid hath had no joy but in thee O Lord God of Abraham O thou mightie God above all heare thou the voyce of them that have no other hope Our Adversaries of Rome charge us that we have but a negative Religion If that were true it were a heavy charge if we did onely deny and establish nothing But we deny all their new additions so as that we affirme all the old foundations The Negative man that trusts in nothing in the world may be but a Philosopher but an Atheist but a stupid and dead carcasse The Affirmative man that does acknowledge all blessings spirituall and temporall to come from God that prepares himselfe by holinesse to be fit to receive them from God that comes for them by humble prayer to God that returnes for them humble thankes to God this man hath the first marke of this person upon him He trusts in God But he that trusts not in the world nor in God neither is worse then he that trusts in the world and not in God because he is farther removed from all humility that attributes all to himselfe He pretends to be an Atheist and to beleeve in no God and yet he constitutes a new Idolatry he sacrifices to himselfe and makes himselfe his God The second Character Righteous and specification of this Person is that he is Righteous And this word we shall doe best to containe here within a legall Righteousnesse that Righteousnesse in which S. Paul protested and proclaimed himselfe to be unblamable For howsoever this apparant Righteousnesse Righteousnesse in the eyes of the world be not enough alone yet no other Righteousnesse is enough without this The hypocrite by being an hypocrite may aggravate his own condemnation when he comes to reckon with God But to the Church who knows him not to be an hypocrite he does good by his exemplar and outward Righteousnesse He that does good for vaine-glory may lead another man to good upon good grounds And the prayers of those poore soules whom he may have benefited by his vain-glorious good worke may prevaile so with God in his behalfe as that his vaine-glory here may become true glory even in the Kingdome of Heaven So then we carry this word Righteous no farther but to the doing of those honest things which we are bound to doe in the sight of men The word is Tzadok which is often used for the exaltation and perfection of all true holinesse But as it is very often in the old Testament taken for Verax and Aequus when a mans word and worke answer one another towards men so in the New Testament in the Syriake Translation where the word is the same as in the Hebrew it is Oportuit It behoved Christ to suffer and in such a sense in very many places to be Righteous is to doe that which it behoved us to doe became us to doe concerned us to doe in the sight of men Which can be exprest in no one thing more fully then in this To embrace a lawfull Calling and to walke honestly in that Calling That is Righteousnesse For Iustus sua fide vivit The Righteous lives by his owne faith Not without faith nor with the faith of another so Iustus suo sudore vescitur The Righteous eats his Bread in the sweat of his owne browes He labours in an honest Calling and drinks not the sweat of others labours And this is that Righteousnesse in this Text the second marke upon this Person who is partaker of this Portion And the third is Vpright in heart that he is Rectus corde Vpright in heart That he direct even all the works of his Calling all the actions of his life upon the glory of God If you carry a Line from the Circumference to the Circumference againe as a Diameter it passes the Center it flowes from the Center it looks to the Center both wayes God is the Center The Lines above and the Lines below still respect and regard the Center Whether I doe any action honest in the sight of men or any action acceptable to God whether I doe things belonging to this life or to the next still I must passe all through the Center and direct all to the glory of God and keepe my heart right without variation towards him For as I doe no good action here meerly for the interpretation of good men though that be one good and justifiable reason of my good actions so I must doe nothing for my Salvation hereafter meerly for the love I beare to mine owne soule though that also be one good and justifiable reason of that action But the primary reason in both as well the actions that establish a good name as the actions that establish eternall life must be the glory of God Distortum lignum semper nutat August A wry and crooked planke in the floore will alwayes shake and kicke up and creake under a mans foote A wry and a crooked heart will alwayes shake distrustfully and kicke rebelliously and creake repiningly under the hand of God Non potest collineari rectitudine Dei Idem sayes the same Father He is not paralleld with God he is not leveld with God if he use not his blessings if he accept not his corrections as God intends them First To trust in God and then to deale Righteously with men and all the way to keepe the heart straight upon God these three make up the Person And these three his Portion That he shall be glad and he shall rejoyce and jubilabit he shall shout for joy Now as three great summes of gold put into one bagge Mercy these three branches of this Portion of the Righteous are fixt in one roote raised upon one foundation Mercy shall compasse him about But then this mercy this Compassing mercy reaches not so farre as that thou shalt have no affliction though thou trust in God David had been an unfit person to have delivered such a Doctrine who sayes of himselfe Psal 73.14 Daily have I been punished and chastned every morning He had it every day it was his daily bread and it was the first thing that he had he had it in the morning Here is mention of a morning early sorrowes even to the godly and mention of a Day continuing sorrowes even to the godly But he speaks of no Night here the Son of grace the Son of God does not
flatterer shall condense a yeoman into a Worshipfull person and the Worshipfull into Honorable and so that which duly was intended for distinction shall occasion confusion But that which we purpose in noting this Tu is rather the singularity the particularity then the familiarity That the Holy Ghost in this collects Man abridges Man summes up Man in an unity Clem Alex. in the consideration of one of himselfe Oportet hominem fieri unum Man must grow in his consideration till he be but one man one individuall man If he consider himselfe in Humanitate in the whole mankinde a glorious creature an immortall soule he shall see this immortall soule as well in Goats at the left hand as in Sheepe at the right hand of Christ at the Resurrection Men on both sides If he consider himselfe in Qualitate Mat. 7.22 in his quality in his calling he shall heare many then plead their Prophetavimus we have prophecied and their Ejecimus we have exercised and their Virtutes secimus we have done wonders and all in thy Name and yet receive that answer Nunquam cognovi I doe not know you now I never did know you Oportet unum fieri he must consider himselfe in individuo that one man not that man in nature not that man in calling Origen Homil. unica in lib. râ—g but that man in actions Origen makes this use of those words as he found them Erat vir unus There was one man which was Elkanah He addes Nomen ejus possessio Dei this one man sayes he was in his Name Gods possession Nam quem Daemones possident non unus sed mulii for he whom the Devill possesses is not one The same sinner is not the same thing still he clambers in his ambitious purposes there he is an Eagle yet lies still groveling and trodden upon at any greater mans threshold there he is a worme He swells to all that are under him there he is a full Sea and his dog that is above him may wade over him there he is a shallow an empty River In the compasse of a few dayes he neighes like a horse in the rage of his lust over all the City and groanes in a corner of the City in an hospitall A sinner is as many men as he hath vices he that is Elkanah Possessio Dei possessed by God and in possession of God he is unus homo one and the same man And when God calls upon man so particularly he intends him some particular good It is S. Hieromes note Hieron That when God in the Scriptures speakes of divers things in the singular number it is ever in things of grace And it is S. Augustins note that when he speaks of any one thing in the plurall Number it is of heavy and sorrowfull things as Ieptha was buryed In civitatibus Gilead Judg. 12.7 in the Cities but he had but one grave And so that is they made Aureos vitulos Golden Calves when it was but one Calfe When Gods voyce comes to thee in this Text in particular Tu Hast thou found he would have thee remember how many seeke and have sought with teares with sweat with blood and lacke that that thou aboundest in That whereas his Evidence to them whom he loves not in the next world shall be Esurivi I was hungry Mat. 25.42 and yee gave me no meate And his proceeding with them whom he loves not in this world is Si esuriero If I be hungry I will not tell thee I will not awaken thee not remember thy conscience Psal 50.12 wherein thou mayest doe me a service He does call upon thee in particular and ask thee Nonne tu Hast thou not fortune enough to let fall some crums upon him that starves and Nonne tu hast not thou favour enough to shed some beams upon him that is frozen in disgrace There is a squint eye that lookes side-long to looke upon riches and honor on the left hand and long life here on the right is a squint eye There is a squint eye that lookes upwards and downwards to looke after God and Mammon is a squint eye There are squint eyes that looke upon one another to looke upon ones own beauty or wisedome or power is a squint eye The direct looke is to looke inward upon thine own Conscience Not with Nabuchadnezzar Is not this great Babylon Dan. 4.30 which I have built by the might of my power and for the honor of my Majesty But with David Quid retribuam for if thou looke upon them with a cleare eye thou wilt see that though thou hast them thou hast but found them which is our next step Now if you have but found them thou hast them but by chance by contingency Invenisti Co. l. 10. Pand. by fortune The Emperour Leo he calls money found Dei beneficium It is a benefit derived from God but the great Lawyer Triphonius calls it Donum fortunae too An immediate gift of fortune They consist well enough together God and fortune S. Augustine in his Retract makes a conscience of having named her too oft lest other men should be scandalized and so the Prophet complaines of that Esa 65.11 as the Vulgat reads it Ponitis mensam fortunae You sacrifice to fortune you make fortune a god that you should not doe but yet you should acknowledge that God hath such a servant such an instrument as fortune too Gods ordinary working is by Nature these causes must produce these effects and that is his common Law He goes sometimes above that by Prerogative and that is by miracle and sometimes below that as by custome and that is fortune that is contingency Fortune is as far out of the ordinary way as miracle no man knows in Nature in reason why such or such persons grow great but it falls out so often as we do not call it miracle and therefore rest in the Name of Fortune We need not quarrell the words of the Poet Tu quamcunque Deus tibi fortunaverit horam Grata sume manu Thanke God for any good fortune since the Apostle sayes too that Godlinesse hath the promise of this life The godly man shall be fortunate God will blesse him with good fortune here but still it is fortune and chance in the sight and reason of man and therefore he hath but found whatsoever he hath in that kinde It is intimated in the very word which we use for all worldly things It is Inventarium an Inventory we found them here and here our successors finde them when we are gone from hence 2 King 9.30 Iezabel had an estimation of beauty and she thought to have drawne the King with that beauty but she found it she found it in her box and in her wardrope she was not truly fayre Achitophel had an estimation of wisedome in Counsell I know not how he found it he counselled by an example which no man would follow he
and in the Cup of Salvation in the Sacrament for so much as concernes him is but spilt upon the ground as though his honey his worldly greamesse were his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Prince and friends and all when that is lost by this vomit he mournes for all in a sad and everlasting mourning in such a disconsolate dejection of spirit as ends either in an utter inconsideration of God or in a desperation of his mercies This is that Incipiamte evomere as the Vulgat reads it in this vomit of worldly things Revel 3.16 God does begin to vomit him out of his mouth and then God does not returne to his vomit but leaves this impatient patient to his impenitiblenesse But we must not lanch into these wide Seas now to consider the scorne or the danger of this vomit but rather draw into the harbor and but repeat the text transferred from this world to the text from temporall to spirituall things Thus far we have beene In melle In honey upon honey but now Super mel Conclusio above honey Psal 19.10 The judgements of the Lord are Dulcia prae melle Sweeter then honey and the honey combe And the judgements of the Lord are that by which the Lord will judge us and this world it is his word His word the sincerity of the Gospel the truth of his Religion is our honey and honey combe our honey and our waxe our Covenant and our Seale we have him not if we have not his truth if we require other honey and wee trust him not if we require any other Seale if we thinke the word of God needs the traditions of men And Invenisti tu Hath God manifested to thee the truth of his Gospell Blesse thou the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever whose day-spring from an high hath visited thee and left so many Nations in darknesse who shall never heare of Christ till they heare himselfe nor heare other voyce from him then then the Ite maledicti Pity them that have not this honey and confesse for thy selfe that though thou have it thou hast but found it couldst thou bespeake Christian Parents beforehand and say I will be borne of such Parents as shall give me a title to the Covenant to Baptisme or couldst thou procure Sureties that should bind themselves for thee at the entring into the Covenant in Baptisme Thou foundest thy selfe in the Christian Church and thou foundest meanes of salvation there thou broughtest none hither thou boughtest none here the Title of S. Andrew the first of the Apostles that came to Christ was but that Invenimus Mesiam We have found the Mesias It is onely Christ himselfe that sayes of himselfe Cant. 5.1 Comedi mel meum I have eat my honey his owne honey We have no grace no Gospel of our owne we find it here But since thou hast found it Comede Eat it do not drinke the cup of Babylon lest thou drink the cup of Gods wrath too but make this Honey Christs true Religion thy meate digest that assimilate that incorporate that and let Christ himself and his merit be as thy soul let the cleere and outward profession of his truth Religion be as thy body If thou give away that body be flattered out of thy Religion or threatned out of thy Religion If thou sell this body be bought and bribed out of thy Religion If thou lend this body discontinue thy Religion for a yeare or two to see how things will fall out if thou have no body thou shalt have no Resurrection and the cleere and undisguised profession of the truth is the body Eat therefore this honey Ad sufficientiam so much as is enough To beleeve implicitly as the Church beleeves and know nothing is not enough know thy foundations and who laid them Other foundations can no man lay then are laid Christ Jesus neither can other men lay those foundations otherwise then they are laid by the Apostles but eat Ad sufficientiam tuam that which is enough for thee for so much knowledge is not required in thee in those things as in them whose profession it is to teach them be content to leave a roome stil for the Apostles Aemulamini charismata meliora desire better gifts and ever think it a title of dignity which the Angel gave Daniel to be Vir desideriorum To have still some farther object of thy desires Do not thinke thou wantest all because thou hast not all for at the great last day we shall see more plead Catechismes for their salvation then the great volumes of Controversies more plead their pockets then their Libraries If S. Paul so great an Argosie held no more but Christum crucifixum what can thy Pinnace hold Let humility be thy ballast and necessary knowledge thy fraight for there is an over-fulnesse of knowledge which forces a vomit a vomit of opprobrious and contumelious speeches a belching and spitting of the name of Heretique and Schismatique and a losse of charity for matters that are not of faith and from this vomiting comes emptiness The more disputing Psal 90.14 the lesse beleeving but Saturasti nos benignitate tua Domine Thou hast satisfied us early with thy mercy Thou gavest us Christianity early and thou gavest us the Reformation early and therefore since in thee we have found this honey let us so eat it Levit. 18.25 and so hold it That the land do not vomit her Inhabitants nor spew us out as it spewed out the Nations that were before us Levit. 18.29 but that our dayes may be long in this land which the Lord our God hath given us and that with the Ancient of dayes we may have a day without any night in that land which his Son our Saviour hath purchased for us with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood To which glorious Son of God c. SERM. LXXI At the Haghe Decemb. 19. 1619. I Preached upon this Text. Since in my sicknesse at Abrey-hatche in Essex 1630. revising my short notes of that Sermon I digested them into these two MAT. 4.18 19 20. And Iesus walking by the Sea of Galile saw two brethren Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the Sea for they were fishers And he saith unto them Follow me and I will make you fishers of men And they straightway left their nets and followed him SOLOMON presenting our Saviour Christ in the name and person of Wisdome in the booke of Proverbs puts by instinct of the Holy Ghost these words into his mouth Prov. 8.30 Deliciae meae esse cum filiis hominum Christs delight is to be with the children of men And in satisfaction of that delight he sayes in the same verse in the person of Christ That he rejoyced to be in the habitable parts of the Earth that is where he might converse with men Ludens in orbe terrarum so the Vulgat reads
Princes shall rule in judgement be to be understood of an Hezekias or a Iosias or any other good King which was to succeed and to induce vertuous times in the temporall State and government Or whether this were a prophecy of Christs time and of the exaltation of all vertues in the Christian Religion hath divided our Expositors in all those three Classes In all three though in all three some particular men are peremptory and vehement upon some one side absolutely excluding the other exposition as amongst our Authors in the Reformation one sayes Dubium non est It can admit no doubt Calvin but that this is to be understood of Hezekias and his reigne And yet another of the same side sayes too Heshusius Qui Rabbinos secuti They that adhere too much to the Jewish Rabbins and will needs interpret this prophecy of a temporall King obscure the purpose of the Holy Ghost and accommodate many things to a secular Prince which can hold in none but Christ himselfe yet I say though there be some peremptory there are in all the three Classes Ancients Romans Reformed moderate men that apply the prophecy both wayes and finde that it may very well subsist so That in a faire proportion all these blessings shall be in the reignes of those Hezekiasses and those Iosiasses those good Kings which God affords to his people But the multiplication the exaltation of all these blessings and vertues is with relation to the comming of Christ and the establishing of his Kingdome And this puts us if not to a necessity yet with conveniency to consider these words both wayes What this civill liberality is that is here made a blessing of a good Kings reigne And what this spirituall liberality is that is here made a testimony of Christs reigne and of his Gospel And therefore since we must passe twice thorough these words it is time to begin The liberall man deviseth liberall things and by liberall things he shall stand From these two armes of this tree that is from the civill and from the spirituall accommodation of these words be pleased to gather and lay up these particular fruits In each of these you shall taste first what this Liberality thus recommended is And secondly what this devising and studying of liberall things is And againe how this man is said to stand by liberall things The liberall man deviseth liberall things and by liberall things he shall stand And because in the course of this Prophecy in this Chapter we have the King named and then his Princes and after persons of lower quality and condition we shall consider these particulars This Liberality this Devising this Standing First in the first accommodation of the words In the King in his Princes or great persons the Magistrate and lastly in his people And in the second accommodation the spirituall sense we shall consider these three termes Liberality Devising Standing First in the King of Kings Christ Jesus And then in his Officers the Ministers of his Gospel And lastly in his people gathered by this Gospel In all which persons in both sorts Civill and Spirituall we shall see how the liberall man deviseth liberall things and how by liberall things he stands First then in our first part In the civill consideration of this vertue Liberality 1 Part. Liberality It is a communication of that which we have to other men and it is the best character of the best things that they are communicable diffusive Light was Gods first childe Light opened the wombe of the Chaos borne heire to the world and so does possesse the world and there is not so diffusive a thing nothing so communicative and self-giving as light is And then Gold is not onely valued above all things but is it selfe the value of all things The value of every thing is Thus much gold it is worth And no metall is so extensive as gold no metall enlarges it selfe to such an expansion such an attenuation as gold does nor spreads so much with so little substance Sight is the noblest and the powerfullest of our Senses All the rest Hearing onely excepted are determined in a very narrow distance And for Hearing Thunder is the farthest thing that we can heare and Thunder is but in the ayre but we see the host of Heaven the starres in the firmament All the good things that we can consider Light Sight Gold all are accompanied with a liberality of themselves and are so far good as they are dispensed and communicated to others for their goodnesse is in their use It is Virtus prolifica a generative a productive vertue a vertue that begets another vertue another vertue upon another man Thy liberality begets my gratitude and if there be an unthankfull barrennesse in me that thou have no children by me no thankfulnesse from me God shall raise thee the more children for my barrennesse Thy liberality shall be the more celebrated by all the world because I am unthankfull God hath given me a being and my liberall Benefactor hath given me such a better being as that without that even my first being had been but a paine and a burden unto me He that leaves treasure at his death left it in his life Then when he locked it up and forbad himselfe the use of it be left it He that locks up may be a good Jaylor but he that gives out is his Steward The saver may be Gods chest The giver is Gods right hand But the matter of our Liberality what we give is but the body of this vertue The soule of this Liberality that that inanimates it is the manner intended more in the next word He deviseth He studieth The liberall deviseth liberall things Here the Holy Ghosts word is Iagnatz Deviseth and Iagnatz carries evermore with it a denotation of Counsell and Deliberation and Conclusions upon premisses He Devises that is Considers what liberality is discourses with himselfe what liberall things are to be done And then upon this determines concludes that he will doe it and really actually does it Therefore in our first Translation the first since the Reformation we reade this Text thus The liberall man imagineth honest things Though the Translator have varied the word Liberall and Honest the Originall hath not It is the same word in both places Liberall man Liberall things but the Translator was pleased to let us see that if it be truly a liberall it is an honest action Therefore the liberall man must give that which is his own for els the receiver is but a receiver of stollen goods And the Curse of the oppressed may follow the gift not onely in his hands through which it passed but into his hands where it remains We have a convenient Embleme of Liberality in a Torch that wasts it selfe to enlighten others But for a Torch to set another mans house on fire to enlighten me were no good Embleme of Liberality But Liberality being made up of
be diffusive that the object of our affections be the Publique To depart with nothing which we call our owne Nothing in our goods nothing in our opinions nothing in the present exercise of our liberty is not to be liberall To presse too farre the advancing of one part to the depressing of another especially where that other is the Head is not liberall dealing Therefore said Christ to Iames and Iohn Mat. 20.23 August Non est meum dare vobis It is not mine to give to set you on my right and on my left hand Non vobis quia singuli separatim ab aliis rogatis not to you because you consider but your selves and petition for your selves to the prejudice and exclusion of others Joh. 4.16 Chrysost Therefore Christ bad the Samaritan woman call her husband too when shee desired the water of life Ne sola gratiam acciperet saith S. Chrysostome That he might so doe good to her as that others might have good by it too For Adpatriam quâitur August Which way think you to goe home to the heavenly Jerusalem Per ipsum mare sed in ligno You must passe thorow Seas of difficulties and therefore by ship and in a ship you are not safe except other passengers in the same ship be safe too Cant. 1.4 The Spouse saith Trahe me post te Draw me after thee When it is but a Me in the singular but one part considered there is a violence a difficulty a drawing But presently after when there is an uniting in a plurall there is an alacrity a concurrence a willingnesse Curremus post te We We will runne after thee If we would joyne in publique considerations we should runne together This is true Liberality in Gods people to depart with some things of their owne though in goods though in opinions though in present use of liberty for the publique safety These Liberall things these Liberall men King Magistrate and People shall devise and by Liberall things they shall stand The King shall devise Liberall things Cogitabit Rex that is study and propose Directions and commit the execution thereof to persons studious of the glory of God and the publique good Magistratus And that is his Devising of Liberall things The Princes Magistrates Officers shall study to execute aright those gracious Directions received from their royall Master and not retard his holy alacrity in the wayes of Justice by any slacknesse of theirs nor by casting a dampe or blasting a good man or a good cause in the eyes or eares of the King And that is their Devising of Liberall things The people shall devest all personall respects and ill affections towards other men and all private respects of their owne and spend all their faculties of mind of body of fortune upon the Publique And that is their Devising of Liberall things And by these Liberall things Stabit Rex Magistratus these Liberall men shall stand The King shall stand stand in safety at home and stand in triumph abroad The Magistrate shall stand stand in a due reverence of his place from below and in safe possession of his place from above neither be contemned by his Inferiours nor suspiciously and guiltily inquired into by his Superiours Populus neither feare petitions against him nor commissions upon him And the People shall stand stand upon their right Basis that is an inward feeling and an outward declaration that they are safe onely in the Publique safety And they shall all stand in the Sunshine and serenity of a cleere conscience which serenity of conscience is one faire beame even of the glory of God and of the joy of heaven upon that soule that enjoyes it This is Esays Prophecie of the times of an Hezekias of a Iosias the blessing of this civill and morall Liberality in all these persons And it is time to passe to our other generall part from the civill to the spirituall and from applying these words to the good times of a good King to that which is evidently the principall purpose of the Holy Ghost That in the time of Christ Jesus and the reigne of his Gospel this and all other vertues should bee in a higher exaltation then any civill or morall respect can carry them to As an Hezekias 2 Part. Liberalitas a Iosias is a Type of Christ but yet but a Type of Christ so this civill Liberality which we have hitherto spoken of is a Type but yet but a Type of our spirituall Liberality For here we doe not onely change termes the temporall to spirituall and to call that which we called Liberality in the former part Charity in this part nor do we onely make the difference in the proportion measure that that which was a Benefit in the other part should be an Almes in this But we invest the whole consideration in a meere spirituall nature and so that Liberality which was in the former acceptation but a relieving but a refreshing but a repairing of defects and dilapidations in the body or fortune is now in this second part in this spirituall acceptation the raising of a dejected spirit the redintegration of a broken heart the resuscitation of a buried soule the re-consolidation of a scattered conscience not with the glues and cements of this world mirth and inusique and comedies and conversation and wine and women miserable comforters are they all nor with that Meteor that hangs betweene two worlds that is Philosophy and morall constancy which is somewhat above the carnall man but yet far below the man truly Christian and religious But this is the Liberality of which the Holy Ghost himselfe is content to be the Steward of the holy blessed and glorious Trinity and to be notified and qualified by that distinctive notion and specification The Comforter To finde a languishing wretch in a sordid corner not onely in a penurious fortune but in an oppressed conscience His eyes under a diverse suffocation sinothered with smoake and smothered with teares His eares estranged from all salutations and visits and all sounds but his owne sighes and the stormes and thunders and earthquakes of his owne despaire To enable this man to open his eyes and see that Christ Jesus stands before him and sayes Behold and see if ever there were any sorrow like my sorrow and my sorrow is overcome why is not thine To open this mans eares and make him heare that voyce that sayes I was dead and am alive and behold I live for evermore Amen Revel 1.18 and so mayest thou To bow downe those Heavens and bring them into his sad Chamber To set Christ Jesus before him to out-sigh him out-weepe him out-bleed him out-dye him To transferre all the fasts all the scornes all the scourges all the nailes all the speares of Christ Jesus upon him and so making him the Crucified man in the sight of the Father because all the actions and passions of the
Son are appropriated to him and made his so intirely as if there were never a soule created but his To enrich this poore soule to comfort this sad soule so as that he shall beleeve and by beleeving finde all Christ to be his this is that Liberality which we speake of now in dispensing whereof The liberall man deviseth liberall things and by liberall things shall stand Now you may be pleased to remember that when wee considered this word Cogitabit in our former part he shall Devise we found this Devising Originally to signifie a studying a deliberation a concluding upon premisses upon which we inferred pregnantly and justly that as to support a mans expense he must Vivere de proprio Live upon his owne so to relieve others he must Dare de suo Be liberall of that which is his Now what is ours Ours that are Ministers of the Gospell As wee are Christs so Christ is ours Puer datus nobis filius natus nobis There is a Child given unto us a Son borne unto us Esay 9. Even in that sense Christ is given to us that we might give him to others So that in this kind of spirituall liberality we can be liberall of no more but our owne we can give nothing but Christ we can minister comfort to none farther then he is capable and willing to receive and embrace Christ Jesus When therefore some of the Fathers have said Ratio pro fide Graecis Barbaris Just Mar. Rectified reason was accepted at the hands of the Gentiles as faith is of the Christians Philosophia per se justificavit Graecos Philosophie alone without faith justified the Grecians Clemens Satis fuit Gentibus abstinuisse ab Idololatria It was enough for the Gentiles Chrysost if they did not worship false Gods though they knew not the true truly Andrad when we heare Andradius in the Roman Church poure out falvation to all the Gentiles that lived a good morall life and no more when we heare their Tostatus sweepe away Tostatus blow away Originall sin so easily from all the Gentiles In prima operatione bona in charitate In the first good Morall worke that they doe Originall sin is as much extinguished in them by that as by Baptisme in us When we see some Authors in the Reformation afford Heaven to persons that never professed Christ this is spirituall prodigality and beyond that liberality which we consider now for Christ is ours and where we can apply him we can give all comforts in him But none to others Not that we manacle the hands of God or say God can save no man without the profession of Christ But that God hath put nothing else into his Churches hands to save men by but Christ delivered in his Scripture applied in the preaching of the Gospell and sealed in the Sacraments And therefore if we should give this comfort to any but those that received him and received him so according to his Ordinance in his Church we should be over-liberall for we should give more then our owne But to all that would be comforted in Christ we devise liberall things that is wee spend our studies our lucubrations our meditations to bring Christ Jesus home to their case and their conscience And by these liberall things we shall stand In our former part in that Civill liberality Stabit wee did not content our selves with that narrow signification of the word which some gave That the liberall man would stand to it abide by it that is continue liberall still habitually but that he should stand by it and prosper the better for it If this Liberality which we consider now in this second Part were but that branch of Charity which is bodily reliefe by bountifull Almes and no more yet wee might be so liberall in Gods behalfe as to pronounce that the charitable man should stand by it prosper for it and have a plentifull harvest for any sowing in that kinde The Holy Ghost in the 112. Psalme and 9. verse hath taken a word which may almost seeme to taste of a little inconsideration in such a charitable person a little indiscretion in giving in flinging in casting away for it is He hath dispersed Dispersed A word that implies a carelesse scattering But that which followes justifies it He hath dispersed he hath given to the poore Let the manner or the measure be how it will so it be given to the poore it will not be without excuse not without thanks And therefore wee have this liberall charity expressed by S. Paul in the same word too 2 Cor. 9 9. He hath dispersed but dispersed as before Dispersed by giving to the poore For there is more negligence more inconsideration allowed us in giving of Almes then in any other expense Neither are we bound to examine the condition and worthinesse of the person to whom we give too narrowly too severely Hee that gives freely shall stand by doing so Prov. 17.19 for He that pitieth the poore lendeth to the Lord And the Lord is a good Debtor and never puts Creditor to sue And if that bee not comfort enough S. Hicrom gives more in his-translation of that place foeneratur Domino he that pitieth the poore puts his money to use to God and shall receive the debt and more But the liberality which we consider here in this part is more then that more then any charity how large soever that is determined or conversant about bodily reliefe for as you have heard it is consolation applied in Christ to a distressed soule to a disconsolate spirit And how a liberall man shall stand by this liberality by applying such consolation to such a distressed soule I better know in my selfe then I can tell any other that is not of mine owne profession for this knowledge lyes in the experience of it For the most part men are of one of these three sorts Either inconsiderate men and they that consider not themselves consider not us they aske not they expect not this liberality from us or else they are over-confident and presume too much upon God or diffident and distrust him too much And with these two wee meet often but truly with seven diffident and dejected for one presuming soule So that we have much exercise of this liberality of raising dejected spirits And by this liberality we stand For when I have given that man comfort that man hath given me a Sacrament hee hath given me a seale and evidence of Gods favour upon me I have received from him in his receiving from me I leave him comforted in Christ Jesus and I goe away comforted in my selfe that Christ Jesus hath made me an instrument of the dispensation of his mercy And I argue to my selfe and say Lord when I went I was sure that thou who hadst received me to mercy wouldst also receive him who could not be so great a sinner as I And now when I come
same thing againe I beleeve in the Holy Ghost but doe not finde him if I seeke him onely in private prayer But in Ecclesia when I goe to meet him in the Church when I seeke him where hee hath promised to bee found when I seeke him in the execution of that Commission which is proposed to our faith in this Text in his Ordinances and meanes of salvation in his Church instantly the savour of this Myrrhe is exalted and multiplied to me not a dew but a shower is powred out upon me and presently followes Communio Sanctorum The Communion of Saints the assistance of Militant and Triumphant Church in my behalfe And presently followes Remissio peceatorum The remission of sins the purifying of my conscience in that water which is his blood Baptisme and in that wine which is his blood the other Sacrament and presently followes Carnis resurrectio A resurrection of my body My body becomes no burthen to me my body is better now then my soule was before and even here I have Goshen in my Egypt incorruption in the midst of my dunghill spirit in the midst of my flesh heaven upon earth and presently followes Vita aeterna Life everlasting this life of my body shall not last ever nay the life of my soul in heaven is not such as it is at the first For that soule there even in heaven shall receive an addition and accesse of Joy and Glory in the resurrection of our bodies in the consummation When a winde brings the River to any low part of the banke instantly it overflowes the whole Meadow when that winde which blowes where he will The Holy Ghost leads an humble soule to the Article of the Church to lay hold upon God as God hath exhibited himselfe in his Ordinances instantly he is surrounded under the blood of Christ Jesus and all the benefits thereof The communion of Saints the remission of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting are poured out upon him And therefore of this great worke which God hath done for man in applying himselfe to man in the Ordinances of his Church S. Augustine sayes Obscuriùs dixerunt Prophetae de Christo August quà m de Ecclesia The Prophets have not spoken so clearely of the person of Christ as they have of the Church of Christ Hieron for though S. Hierom interpret aright those words of Adam and Eve Erunt duo in carnem unam They two shall be one flesh to be applyable to the union which is betweene Christ and his Church Ephes 5. for so S. Paul himselfe applies them that Christ and his Church are all one as man and wife are all one yet the wife is or at least it had wont to be so easilier found at home then the husband wee can come to Christs Church but we cannot come to him The Church is a Hill and that is conspicuous naturally but the Church is such a Hill as may be seene every where August S. Augustine askes his Auditory in one of his Sermons doe any of you know the Hill Olympus and himselfe sayes in their behalfe none of you know it no more sayes he do those that dwell at Olympus know Giddabam vestram some Hill which was about them trouble not thy selfe to know the formes and fashions of forraine particular Churches neither of a Church in the lake nor a Church upon seven hils but since God hath planted thee in a Church where all things necessary for salvation are administred to thee and where no erronious doctrine even in the confession of our Adversaries is affirmed and held that is the Hill and that is the Catholique Church and there is this Commission in this text meanes of salvation sincerely executed So then such a Commission there is and it is in the Article of the Creed that is the ubi We are now come in our order to the third circumstantiall branch the Vnde Vnde from whence and when this Commission issued in which we consider that since we receive a deepe impression from the words which our friends spake at the time of their death much more would it worke upon us if they could come and speake to us after their death You know what Dives said Si quis ex mortuis Luke 16. If one from the dead might goe to my Brethren he might bring them to any thing Now Primitiae mortuorum The Lord of life and yet the first borne of the dead Christ Jesus returnes againe after his death to establish this Commission upon his Apostles It hath therefore all the formalities of a strong and valid Commission Christ gives it Ex mero motu meerely out of his owne goodnesse He foresaw no merit in us that moved him neither was he moved by any mans solicitations for could it ever have fallen into a mans heart to have prayed to the Father that his Son might take our Nature and dye and rise again and settle a course upon earth for our salvation if this had not first risen in the purpose of God himself Would any man ever have solicited or prayed him to proceed thus It was Ex mero motu out of his owne goodnesse and it was Ex certa scientia He was not deceived in his grant he knew what he did he knew this Commission should be executed in despight of all Heretiques and Tyrans that should oppose it And as it was out of his owne Will and with his owne knowledge so it was Ex plenitudine potestatis He exceeded not his Power for Christ made this Commission then Mat. 28.18 when as it is expressed in the other Euangelist he produced that evidence Data est mihi All power is given to me in Heaven and in earth where Christ speakes not of that Power which he had by his eternall generation though even that power were given him for he was Deus de Deo God of God nor he speakes not of that Power which was given him as Man which was great but all that he had in the first minute of his conception in the first union of the two Natures Divine and Humane together but that Power from which he derives this Commission is that which he had purchased by his blood and came to by conquest Ego vici mundum sayes Christ I have conquered the world and comming in by conquest I may establish what forme of Government I will and my will is to governe my Kingdome by this Commission and by these Commissioners to the Worlds end to establish these meanes upon earth for the salvation of the world And as it hath all these formalities of a due Commission made without suite made without error made without defect of power so had it this also that it was duely and authentically testified for though this Euangelist name but the eleven Apostles to have beene present and they in this case might be thought Testes domestici Witnesses that witnesse to their owne
thunder a fearefull apprehension of Gods Judgements upon you And when you have had your contrition too that you have purged your soule in an humble confession and have let your soule blood with a true and sharpe remorse and compunction for all sinnes past and put that bleeding soule into a bath of repentant teares and into a bath of blood the blood of Christ Jesus in the Sacrament and feele it faint and languish there and receive no assurance of remission of sinnes so as that it can levy no fine that can conclude God but still are afraid that God will still incumber you with yesterdayes sinnes againe to morrow If this be their way they doe not preach the Gospell because they doe not preach all the Gospell for the Gospell is repentance and remission of sinnes that is the necessity of repentance and then the assurednesse of remission goe together Thus farre then the Crediderit is carried Baptizate wee must beleeve that there is a way upon earth to salvation and that Preaching is that way that is the manner and the matter is the Gospell onely the Gospell and all the Gospell and then the seale is the administration of the Sacraments as we said at first of both Sacraments of the Sacrament of Baptisme there can be no question for that is literally and directly within the Commission Goe and Baptize and then Qui non crediderit Hee that beleeves not not onely he that beleeves not when it is done but he that beleeves not that this ought to be done shall bee damned wee doe not joyne Baptisme to faith tanquam dimidiam solatii causam as though Baptisme were equall to faith in the matter of salvation for salvation may bee had in divers cases by faith without Baptisme but in no case by Baptisme without faith neither doe wee say that in this Commission to the Apostles the administration of Baptisme is of equall obligation upon the Minister as preaching that he may be as well excusable if hee never preach as if hee never Baptize Wee know S. Peter commanded Cornelius and his family to be Baptized Acts 10. ult wee doe not know if hee Baptized any of them with his owne hand So S. Paul sayes of himselfe that Baptizing was not his principall function 1 Cor. 1.17 Christ sent not me to Baptize but to preach the Gospell saith he In such a sense as God said by Ieremy Jer. 7.22 I spake not unto your fathers nor commanded them concerning burnt offerings but I said obey my voyce so S. Paul saith hee was not sent to Baptize God commanded our fathers obedience rather then sacrifice but yet sacrifice too and hee commands us preaching rather then Baptizing but yet Baptizing too For as that is true Hiero. In adultis in persons which are come to yeares of discretion which S. Hierome sayes Fieri non potest It is impossible to receive the Sacrament of Baptisme except the soule have received Sacramentum fidei the Sacrament of faith that is the Word preached except he have been instructed and chatechized before so there is a necessity of Baptisme after for any other ordinary meanes of salvation that God hath manifested to his Church and therefore Quos Deus conjunxit those things which God hath joyned in this Commission Ioh. 3.5 let no man separate Except a man bee borne againe of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven Let no man reade that place disjunctively Of Water or the Spirit for there must bee both S. Peter himselfe knew not how to separate them Acts 2. Repent and bee baptized every one of you saith he for for any one that might have beene and was not Baptized S. Peter had not that seale to plead for his salvation The Sacrament of Baptisme then Eucharistia is within this Crediderit it must necessarily be beleeved to be necessary for salvation But is the other Sacrament of the Lords Supper so too Is that within this Commission Certainly it is or at least within the equity if not within the letter pregnantly implyed if not literally expressed For thus it stands they are commanded Matt. 28. ult 1 Cor. 11.23 To teach all things that Christ had commanded them And then S. Paul sayes I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you That the Lord Iesus tooke bread c. and so hee proceeds with the Institution of the Sacrament and then he addes that Christ said Doe this in remembrance of mee which is not onely remember me when you doe it but doe it that you may remember me As well the receiving of the Sacrament as the worthy receiving of it is upon commandment In the Primitive Church there was an erronious opinion of such an absolute necessity in taking this Sacrament as that they gave it to persons when they were dead a custome which was growne so common as that it needed a Canon of a Councell Carthag 3. c. 6. to restraine it But the giving of this Sacrament to children newly baptized was so generall even in pure times as that we see so great men as Cyprian and Augustine scarce lesse then vehement for the use of it Musculus and some learned men in the Reformed Church have not so far declined it but that they call it Catholicam consuetudinem a Catholique an universall custome of the Church But there is a farre greater strength both of naturall and spirituall faculties required for the receiving of this Sacrament of the Lords Supper then the other of Baptisme But for those who have those faculties that they are now or now should be able to discerne the Lords body and their owne soules besides that inestimable and inexpressible comfort which a worthy receiver receives as often as he receives that seale of his reconciliation to God since as Baptisme is Tessera Christianorum I know a Christian from a Turke by that Sacrament so this Sacrament is Tessera orthodoxorū I know a Protestant from a Papist by this Sacrament it is a service to God and to his Church to come frequently to this Communion for truly not to shake or afright any tender conscience I scarce see how any man can satisfie himselfe that he hath said the Lords Prayer with a good conscience if at the same time he were not in such a disposition as that he might have received the Sacrament too for if he be in charity he might receive and if he be not he mocked Almighty God and deluded the Congregation in saying the Lords Prayer There remaines one branch of that part Docete servare Preach the Gospell Docete servare administer the Sacraments and teach them to practise and doe all this how comes matter of fact to be matter of faith Thus Qui non crediderit he that does not beleeve that he is bound to live aright is within the penalty of this text It is so with us and it is so
with you too Amongst us he that sayes well presents a good text but he that lives well presents a good Comment upon that text As the best texts that we can take to make Sermons upon are as this text is some of the words of Christs owne Sermons so the best arguments we can prove our Sermons by is our owne life The whole weekes conversation is a good paraphrase upon the Sundayes Sermon It is too soone to aske when the clocke stroke eleven Is it a good Preacher for I have but halfe his Sermon then his owne life is the other halfe and it is time enough to aske the Saterday after whether the Sundayes Preacher preach well or no for he preaches poorely that makes an end of his Sermon upon Sunday He preaches on all the weeke if he live well to the edifying of others If we say well and doe ill we are so far from the example of Gods children which built with one hand and fought with the other as that if we doe build with one hand in our preaching we pull down with the other in our example and not only our own but other mens buildings too for the ill life of particular men reflects upon the function and ministery in generall And as it is with us if we divorce our words and our works so it is with you if you doe divorce your faith and your workes God hath given his Commission under seale Preach and Baptize God lookes for a returne of this Commission under seale too Believe and bring forth fruits worthy of beliefe The way that Iacob saw to Heaven was a ladder It was not a faire and an easie staire case that a man might walke up without any holding But manibus innitendum sayes S. Augustine August in the way to salvation there is use of hands of actions of good works of a holy life Servate omnia doe then all that is commanded all that is within the Commission If that seeme impossible doe what you can and you have done all for then is all this done Cum quod non fit ignoscitur August When God forgives that which is left undone But God forgives none of that which is left undone out of a wilfull and vincible ignorance And therefore search thy conscience and then Christs commandement enters Scrutamini Scripturas then search the Scriptures for till then as long as thy conscience is foule it is but an illusion to apprehend any peace or any comfort in any sentence of the Scripture in any promise of the Gospell search thy conscience empty that and then search the Scriptures and thou shalt finde abundantly enough to fill it with peace and consolation for this is the summe of all the Scriptures Qui non crediderit hoc He that believes not this that he must be saved by hearing the word preached by receiving the Sacraments and by working according to both is within the penalty of this text Damnabitur He shall be damned How know we that many persons have power to condemne 2 Part. which have not power to pardon but Gods word is evidence enough for our pardon and absolution whensoever we repent we are pardoned much more then for our condemnation here we have Gods word for that if that were not enough we have his oath for it is in another place God hath sworne Heb. 4.3 that there are some which shall not enter into his rest and to whom did he sweare that sayes S. Paul but to them that beleeved not God cannot lye much lesse be forsworne and God hath said and sworne Damnabitur he that beleeveth not shall be damned He shall be but when does any man make hast though that be enough that S. Chrysostome sayes Chrysot It is all one when that begins which shall never end yet the tense is easily changed in this case Iohn 3.18 from damnabitur to damnatur for he that beleeveth not is condemned already But why should he be so condemned for a negative for a privative here is no opposition no affirming the contrary no seducing or disswading other men that have a mind to beleeve 1 Iohn 5.10 that is not enough for He that beleeveth not God hath made God a lyar because he beleeveth not the record that God gave of his Son Here is the condemnation we speake of Iohn 1. as S. Iohn sayes Light was presented and they loved darknesse so that howsoever God proceed in his unsearchable judgements with the Heathen to whom the light and name of Christ Jesus was never presented certainely we to whom the Gospell hath beene so freely and so fully preached fall under the penalty of this text if we beleeve not for we have made God a lyar in not beleeving the record he gives of his Son That then there is damnation and why it is and when it is is cleare enough but what this damnation is neither the tongue of good Angels that know damnation by the contrary by fruition of salvation nor the tongue of bad Angels who know damnation by a lamentable experience is able to expresse it A man may saile so at sea as that he shall have laid the North Pole flat that shall be fallen out of sight and yet he shall not have raised the South Pole he shall not see that So there are things in which a man may goe beyond his reason and yet not meet with faith neither of such a kinde are those things which concerne the locality of hell and the materiality of the torments thereof for that hell is a certaine and limited place beginning here and ending there and extending no farther or that the torments of hell be materiall or elementary torments which in naturall consideration can have no proportion no affection nor appliablenesse to the tormenting of a spirit these things neither settle my reason nor binde my faith neither opinion that it is or is not so doth command our reason so but that probable reasons may be brought on the other side neither opinion doth so command our faith but that a man may be saved though hee thinke the contrary for in such points it is alwaies lawfull to thinke so as we finde does most advance and exalt our owne devotion and Gods glory in our estimation but when we shall have given to those words by which hell is expressed in the Scriptures the heaviest significations that either the nature of those words can admit or as they are types and representations of hell as fire and brimstone weeping and gnashing and darknesse and the worme and as they are laid together in the Prophet Esay 30.33 Tophet that is hell is deepe and large there is the capacity content roome enough It is a pile of fire and much wood there is the durablenesse of it and the breath of the Lord to kindle it like a streame of Brimstone there is the vehemence of it when all is done the hell of hels the torment of
say there Domine credo Lord I beleeve this report I beleeve that I cannot be saved without beleeving nor beleeve without hearing And therefore whatsoever thou hast decreed to thy selfe above in heaven give me a holy assiduity of indevor and peace of conscience in the execution of thy Decrees here And let thy Spirit beare witnesse with my spirit that I am of the number of thine elect because I love the beauty of thy house because I captivate mine understanding to thine Ordinances because I subdue my wil to obey thine because I find thy Son Christ Jesus made mine in the preaching of thy word and my selfe made his in the administration of his Sacraments And keep me ever in the armes and bosome of that Church which without any tincture any mixture any leaven of superstition or Idolatry affords me all that is necessary to salvation and obtrudes nothing enforces nothing to be beleeved by any Determination or Article of hers that is not so And be this enough for the Explication and Application and Complication of these words in all these three places SERMON VII Preached upon Christmas day JOHN 10.10 I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly THe Church celebrates this day the Birth of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus blessed for ever And though it fall amongst the shortest dayes in the yeere yet of all the Festivals in the yeere it is the longest It is a day that consists of twelve dayes A day not measured by the naturall and ordinary motion of the Sun but by a supernaturall and extraordinary Star which appeared to the Wisemen of the East this day and brought them to Christ at Bethlem upon Twelfe day That day Twelfe day the Church now calls the Epiphany The ancient Church called this day Christmas day the Epiphany Both dayes together and all the dayes betweene This day when Christ was manifested to the Jews in the Shepheards by the Angels and Twelfe day when Christ was manifested to the Gentiles in those Wisemen of the East make up the Epiphany that is the manifestation of God to man And as this day is in such a respect a longer day then others so if we make longer houres in this day then in other dayes if I extend this Sermon if you extend your Devotion or your Patience beyond the ordinary time it is but a due and a just celebration of the Day and some accommodation to the Text for I am come as he in whose Name and Power I came came and he tels you that He came that you might have life and might have it more abundantly God who vouchsafed to be made Man for man for man vouchsafes also to doe all the offices of man toward man Mal. 2.10 He is our Father for he made us Of what Of clay So God is Figulus Esay 45.9 Rom. 9.21 Gen. 1.27 Gen. 3.21 Gen. 1.29 so in the Prophet so in the Apostle God is our Potter God stamped his Image upon us and so God is Statuarius our Minter our Statuary God clothed us and so is vestiarius he hath opened his wardrobe unto us God gave us all the fruits of the earth to eate and so is oeconomus our Steward God poures his oyle and his wine into our wounds Luke 10. 1 Cor. 3.6 Acts 20.32 Psal 127.1 Mat. 4.19 and so is Medicus and Vicinus that Physitian that Neighbour that Samaritan intended in the Parable God plants us and waters and weeds us and gives the increase and so God is Hortulanus our Gardiner God builds us up into a Church and so God is Architectus our Architect our Builder God watches the City when it is built and so God is Speculator our Sentinell God fishes for men for all his Iohns and his Andrews and his Peters are but the nets that he fishes withall God is the fisher of men And here in this Chapter God in Christ is our Shepheard The book of Iob is a representation of God in a Tragique-Comedy lamentable beginnings comfortably ended The book of the Canticles is a representation of God in Christ as a Bridegroom in a Marriage-song in an Epithalamion God in Christ is represented to us in divers formes in divers places and this Chapter is his Pastorall The Lord is our Shepheard and so called in more places then by any other name and in this Chapter exhibits some of the offices of a good Shepheard Be pleased to taste a few of them First he sayes The good Shepheard comes in at the doore Joh. 10.1 the right way If he come in at the window that is alwayes clamber after preferment If he come in at vaults and cellars that is by clandestin and secret contracts with his Patron he comes not the right way When he is in the right way Ver. 3. His sheep heare his voyce first there is a voyce He is heard Ignorance doth not silence him nor lazinesse nor abundance of preferment nor indiscreet and distempered zeale does not silence him for to induce or occasion a silencing upon our selves is as ill as the ignorant or the lazie silence There is a voyce and sayes that Text is is his voyce not alwayes another in his roome for as it is added in the next verse The sheep know his voyce which they could not doe if they heard it not often V. 4. if they were not used to it And then for the best testimony and consummation of all he sayes The good Shepheard gives his life for his sheep Every good Shepheard gives his life V. 11. that is spends his life weares out his life for his sheep of which this may be one good argument That there are not so many crazie so many sickly men men that so soon grow old in any profession as in ours But in this Christ is our Shepheard in a more peculiar and more incommunicable way that he is Pastor humani generis esca first Maxinus that he feeds not one Parish nor one Diocesse but humanum genus all Mankinde the whole world and then feeds us so as that he is both our Pastor and our Pasture he feeds us and feeds us with himselfe for His flesh is meat indeed and his bloud is drink indeed Joh. 6. Lro. And therefore Honor telebratur totius gregis per annua festa pastoris As often as wecome to celebrate the comming of this Shepheard in giving that honour we receive an honour because that is a declaration that we are the sheepe of that pasture and the body of that head And so much being not impertinently said for the connexion of the words and their complication with the day passe we now to the more particular distribution and explication thereof I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly In these words our parts will be three for first we must consider the Persons Divisie The Shepheard and the
sheep God and Man Him and Them Them indefinitely all them all men I came sayes Christ I alone that they all they might have life And secondly we consider the action it self as it is wrapped up in this word veni I came for that is first that he who was alwaies omnipresent every where before did yet study a new way of comming communicating himself with man veni I came that is novo modo veni I came by a new way And then that he who fed his former stock but with Prophesies and promises that he would come feeds us now with actuall performances with his reall presence and the exhibition of himself And lastly we shall consider the end the purpose the benefit of his comming which is life And first ut daret that he might give life bring life offer life to the world which is one mercy and then ut haberent that we might have it embrace it possesse it which is another and after both a greater then both that we might have this life abundantiùs more abundantly which is first abundantiùs illis more abundantly then other men of this world and then abundantiùs ipsis more abundantly then we our selves had it in this world in the world to come for therefore he came that we might have life and might have it more abundantly First then in our first part we consider the Persons The Shepheard and the Sheepe 1 Part. Persone Him and Them God and Man of which Persons the one for his Greatnesse God the other for his littlenesse man can scarce fall under any consideration What eye can fixe it self upon East and West at once And he must see more then East and West that sees God for God spreads infinitely beyond both God alone is all not onely all that is but all that is not all that might be if he would have it be God is too large too immense and then man is too narrow too little to be considered for who can fixe his eye upon an Atome and he must see a lesse thing then an Atome that sees man for man is nothing First for the incomprehensiblenesse of God the understanding of man Deus hath a limited a determined latitude it is an intelligence able to move that Spheare which it is fixed to but could not move a greater I can comprehend naturam naturatam created nature but for that natura naturans God himselfe the understanding of man cannot comprehend I can see the Sun in a looking-glasse but the nature and the whole working of the Sun I cannot see in that glasse I can see God in the creature but the nature the essence the secret purposes of God I cannot see there There is defatigatio in intellectualibus sayes the saddest and soundest of the Hebrew Rabbins R. Moses the soule may be tired as well as the body and the understanding dazeled as well as the eye It is a good note of the same Rabbi upon those words of Solomon fill not thy selfe with hony lest thou vomit it that it is not said that if thou beest cloyd with it thou maist be distasted Pro. 25.16 disaffected towards it after but thou maist vomit it and a vomit works so as that it does not onely bring up that which was then but that also which was formerly taken Curious men busie themselves so much upon speculative subtilties as that they desert and abandon the solid foundations of Religion and that is a dangerous vomit To search so farre into the nature and unrevealed purposes of God as to forget the nature and duties of man this is a shrewd surfet though of hony and a dangerous vomit It is not needfull for thee to see the things that are in secret sayes the wife man nonindiges Ecclus. 3.23 thou needest not that knowledge Thou maist doe well enough in this world and bee Gods good servant and doe well enough in the next world and bee a glorious Saint and yet never search into Gods secrets Ps 65.1 Te decet Hymnus so the vulgar reades that place To thee O Lord belong our Hymnes our Psalmes our Prayses our cheerefull acclamations and conformably to that we translate it Praise waiteth for thee O God in Sion But if we will take it according to the Originall it must be Tibi silentium laus est Thy praise O Lord consists in silence That that man praises God best that sayes least of him of him that is of his nature of his essence of his unrevealed will and secret purposes O that men would praise the Lord is Davids provocation to us all but how O that men would praise the Lord and declare his wondrous works to the sons of men but not to goe about to declare his unrevealed Decrees or secret purposes is as good a way of praising him as the other And therefore O that men would praise the Lord so forbeare his Majesty when he is retired into himselfe in his Decrees and magnifie his Majesty as he manifests himselfe to us in the execution of those Decrees of which this in our Text is a great one that he that is infinitely more then all descended to him that is infinitely lesse then nothing which is the other person whom we are to consider in this part ille illis I to them God to us The Hebrew Doctors almost every where repeat that adage of theirs lex loquitur linguam filiorum hominum Illis God speakes mens language that is the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures descends to the capacity and understanding of man and so presents God in the faculties of the minde of man and in the lineaments of the body of man But yet say they there is never braine nor liver nor spleene nor any other inward part ascribed to God but onely the heart God is all heart and that whole heart that inexhaustible fountaine of love is directed wholly upon man And then though in the Scriptures those bodily lineaments head and feet and hands and eyes and eares be ascribed to God God is never said to have shoulders for say they shoulders are the subjects of burdens and therein the figures of patience and so God is all shoulder all patience he heares patiently he sees patiently he speakes patiently he dyes patiently And is there a patience beyond that In Christ there is he suffers patiently a quotidian Crucifying we kill the Lord of Life every day every day we make a mock of Christ Jesus and tread the blood of the Covenant under our feet every day And as though all his passion and blood and wounds and heart were spent by our former oathes and blasphemies we crucifie him dayly by our dayly sins that we might have new blood and heart and wounds to sweare by and all this hee suffers patiently and after all this ille illis to this man this God comes He to us God to man all to nothing for upon that we insist first as the first
the annointing Oyle and powre it upon his head The Mitre as you may see there was upon his head then but then there was a Crowne upon the Mitre There is a power above the Priest the regall power not above the function of the Priest but above the person of the Priest 1 Sam. 10.1 24. But Unction was the Consecration of Kings too Samuel saluted Saul with a kisse and all the people shouted and sayd God save the King but Is it not sayes Samuel because the Lord hath annointed thee to be captaine over his inheritance Kings were above Priests and in extraordinary cases God raysed Prophets above Kings for there is no ordinary power above them But Unction was the Consecration of these Prophets too Elisha was annointed to be Prophet in Elias roome and such a Prophet as should have use of the Sword 1 Reg. 19.16 17. Him that scapes the Sword of Hazael Hazael was King of Syria shall the Sword of Iehu slay and him that scapes the Sword of Iehu Iehu was King of Israel shall the Sword of Elisha slay In all these in Priests who were above the people in Kings who in matter of Government were above the Priests in Prophets who in those limited cases expressed by God and for that time wherein God gave them that extraordinary employment were above Kings The Unction imprinted their Consecration they were all Christs and in them all thereby was that Nuncupatio potestatis which Lactantius mentions Unction Annointing was an addition and title of honour Psal 109. Psal 2.6 Deut. 18. Much more in our Christ who alone was all three A Priest after the Order of Melchizedek A King set upon the holy hill of Sion And a Prophet The Lord thy God will rayse up a Prophet unto him shall yee harken And besides all this threefold Unction Humanitas uncta Divinitate He had all the unctions that all the other had and this which none other had In him the Humanity was Consecrated anointed with the Divinity it selfe So then Nazian Cyrill Psal 95.7 unio unctio The hypostaticall union of the Godhead to the humane nature is his Conception made him Christ for oleo laetitia perfusus in unione Then in that union of the two natures did God annoint him with the oyle of gladnes above his fellows There was an addition something gained something to be glad of and to him as he was God The Lord so nothing could be added If he were glad above his fellows it was in that respect wherein he had fellows and as God as The Lord he had none so that still as he was made Man he became this Christ In which his being made Man if we should not consider the last and principall purpose which was to redeem man if we leave out his part yet it were object inough for our wonder and subject inough for our praise and thankesgiving to consider the dignity that the nature of man received in that union wherin this Lord was thus made this Christ for the Godhead did not swallow up the manhood but man that nature remained still The greater kingdom did not swallow the lesse but the lesse had that great addition which it had not before and retained the dignities and priviledges which it had before too Damasc Christus est nomen personae non naturae The name of Christ denotes one person but not one nature neither is Christ so composed of those two natures as a man is composed of Elements for man is thereby made a third thing and is not now any of those Elements you cannot call mans body fire or ayre or earth or water though all foure be in his composition But Christ is so made of God and Man as that he is Man still for all the glory of the Deity and God still for all the infirmity of the manhood Idem Divinum miraculis lucet humanum contumeliis afficitur In this one Christ both appear The Godhead bursts out as the Sun out of a cloud and shines forth gloriously in miracles even the raysing of the dead and the humane nature is submitted to contempt and to torment even to the admitting of death in his own bosome sed tamen ipsius sunt tum miraculae Idem tum supplicia but still both he that rayses the dead and he that dyes himself is one Christ his is the glory of the Miracles and the contempt and torment is his too This is that mysterious person who is singularis and yet not individuus singularis There never was never shall be any such but we cannot call him Individuall Idem as every other particular man is because Christitatis non est Genus there is no genus nor species of Christs it is not a name which so as the name belongs to our Christ that is by being annointed with the divine nature can be communicated to any other as the name of Man may to every Individuall Man Christ is not that Spectrum that Damascene speaks of nor that Electrum that Tertullian speakes of not Spectrum so as that the two natures should but imaginarily be united and only to amaze and astonish us that we could not tell what to call it what to make of it a spectre an apparition a phantasma for he was a Reall person Neither was he Tertullians Electrum a third metall made of two other metals but a person so made of God and Man as that in that person God and Man are in their natures still distinguished He is Germen Davidis Iere. 23.5 Isa 4.2 in one Prophet The branch the Off-spring of David And he is Germen Iehovae The Branch the Off-spring of God of the Lord in another When this Germen Davidis the Sonne of Man would do miracles then he was Germen Iehovae he reflected to that stock into which the Humanity was engrafted to his Godhead And when this Germen Iehovae the Son of God would indure humane miseries he reflected to that stock to that humanity in which he had invested and incorporated himself This person 1 Cor. 15.3 Tertul. this Christ dyed for our sins says S. Paul but says he He dyed according to the Scriptures Non sine onere pronunciat Christum mortuum The Apostle thought it a hard a heavy an incredible thing to say that this person this Christ this Man and God was dead And therefore Vt duritiam molliret scandalum auditoris everteret That he might mollifie the hardnes of that saying and defend the hearer from being scandalized with that saying Adjecit secundùm scripturas He adds this Christ is dead according to the Scriptures If the Scriptures had not told us that Christ should die and told us againe that Christ did die it were hard to conceive how this person in whom the Godhead dwelt bodily should be submitted to death But therein principally is he Christus as he was capable of dying As he was Verbum naturale and innatum
conclude this part O holy blessed and glorious Trinity three Persons and one God have mercy upon us miserable sinners We are descended now to our second part 2 Part. Expostulatio Iob 31.13 what past between God and Abraham after he had thus manifested himselfe unto him Where we noted first That God admits even expostulation from his servants almost rebukes and chidings from his servants We need not wonder at Iobs humility that he did not despise his man nor his mayd when they contended with him for God does not despise that in us God would have gone from Iacob when he wrestled Gen. 32.26 and Iacob would not let him go and that prevailed with God If we have an apprehension when we beginne to pray that God doth not heare us not regard us God is content that in the fervor of that prayer we say with David Evigila Domine and Surge Domine Awake O Lord and Arise O Lord God is content to be told that he was in bed and asleepe when he should heare us If we have not a present deliverance from our enemies God is content that we proceed with David Eripe manum de sinu Pluck out thy hand out of thy bosome God is content to be told that he is slack and dilatory when he should deliver us If we have not the same estimation in the world that the children of this world have God is content that we say with Amos Pauperem pro calceamentis Amos 2.6 that we are sold for a paire of shooes And with S. Paul that we are the off-scouring of the world God is content to be told that he is unthrifty and prodigall of his servants lives and honours and fortunes Now Offer this to one of your Princes says the Prophet and see whether he will take it Bring a petition to any earthly Prince and say to him Evigila and Surge would your Majesty would awake and reade this petition and so insimulate him of a former drowsinesse in his government say unto him Eripe manum pull thy hand out of thy bosome and execute Justice and so insimulate him of a former manacling and slumbring of the Lawes say unto him we are become as old shooes and as off-scourings and so insimulate him of a diminution and dis-estimation faln upon the Nation by him what Prince would not and justly conceive an indignation against such a petitioner which of us that heard him would not pronounce him to be mad to ease him of a heavier imputation And yet our long-suffering and our patient God must we say our humble and obedient God endures all this He endures more for when Abraham came to this expostulation Shall not the Iudge of all the earth do right God had said never a word of any purpose to destroy Sodom but he said only He would go see whether they had done altogether according to that cry which was come up against them and Abraham comes presently to this vehemency And might not the Supreme Ordinary God himselfe goe this visitation might not the supreme Judge God himselfe go this Circuit But as long as Abraham kept himselfe upon this foundation It is impossible that the Iudge of all the earth should not do right God mis-interpreted nothing at Abrahams hand but received even his Expostulations heard him out to the sixt petition Almost such an Expostulation as this Moses uses towards God He asks God a reason of his anger Iudex Exod. 32.11 Lord why doth thy wrath waxe hot against thy people He tels him a reason why he should not doe so For thou hast brought them forth with a great power and with a mighty hand And he tels him the inconveniences that might follow The Egyptians will say He brought them out for mischiefe to slay them in the mountaine He imputes even perjury to God himselfe and breach of Covenant to Abraham Isaac and Iacob which were Feffees in trust betweene God and his people and he sayes Thou sware'st to them by thine owne selfe that thou wouldst not deale thus with them And therefore he concludes all with that vehemence Turne from thy fierce wrath and repent this evill purpose against them But we finde a prayer or expostulation of much more exorbitant vehemence in the stories of the Roman Church towards the blessed Virgin towards whom they use to bee more mannerly and respective then towards her Son or his Father when at a siege of Constantinople they came to her statue with this protestation Looke you to the drowning of our Enemies ships or we will drowne you Si vis ut imaginem tuam non mergamus in mari merge illos The farthest that Abraham goes in this place is That God is a Iudge and therefore must doe right Iob 32.10 for Far be wickednesse from God and iniquity from the Almighty surely God will not do wickedly neither will the Almighty pervert judgement An Usurer an Extortioner an Oppressor a Libeller a Thiefe and Adulterer yea a Traytor makes shift to finde some excuse some flattery to his Conscience they say to themselves the Law is open and if any be grieved they may take their remedy and I must endure it and there is an end But since nothing holds of this oppressor and manifold malefactor but the sentence of the Judge shall not the Judge doe right how must this necessarily shake the frame of all An Arbitrator or a Chancellor that judges by submission of parties or according to the Dictates of his owne understanding may have some excuse He did as his Conscience led him But shall not a Iudge that hath a certaine Law to judge by do right Especially if he be such a Judge as is Iudge of the whole earth which is the next step in Abrahams expostulation Now as long as there lies a Certiorari from a higher Court Omnem terram or an Appeale to a higher Court the case is not so desperate if the Judge doe not right for there is a future remedy to be hoped If the whole State be incensed against me yet I can finde an escape to another Country If all the World persecute me yet if I be an honest man I have a supreame Court in my selfe and I am at peace in being acquitted in mine owne Conscience But God is the Judge of all the earth of this which I tread and this earth which I carry about me and when he judges me my Conscience turnes on his side and confesses his judgement to be right And therefore S. Pauls argument seconds and ratifies Abrahams expostulation Is God unrighteous God forbid for then sayes the Apostle Rom. 3.6 how shall God judge the World The Pope may erre but then a Councell may rectifie him The King may erre but then God in whose hands the Kings heart is can rectifie him But if God that judges all the earth judge thee there is no error to be assigned in his judgement no appeale from God not throughly