whole parishes whom thou hast depopulated thy soule may goe confidently home too if thou bribe God then with an Hospitall or a Fellowship in a Colledge or a Legacy to any pious use in apparance and in the eye of the world Pay thy selfe therefore this debt that is make up thine account all the way for when that voyce comes Luk. 16.2 Redde rationem Give up an account of thy Stewardship it is not goe home now and make up thy account perfect but now now deliver up thine account if it be perfect it is well if it be not here is no longer day for Iam non poteris villicare now thou canst be no lenger Steward Esay 38.1 now thou hast no more to doe with thy selfe Here the voyce is not in the word to Ezekiah Dispone domui put thy house in order for morieris thou shalt die For there God had a gracious purpose to give him a longer terme but here it is foole this night repetunt not they shall but they doe fetch away thy soule and then what is become of that To morrow which thou hadst imagined and promised to thy selfe for the paiment of this debt of this repentance Be just therefore to thy selfe all the way pay thy selfe and take acquittances of thy selfe all the way which is onely done under the seale and in the testimony of a rectified conscience Let thine owne conscience be thine evidence and thy Rolls and not the opinion of others Non tutum planè sed stultum ibi thesaurum tuum recondere ubi non vales resumere cum volueris sayes Saint Bernard It is not providently done to lock thy treasure in a chest of which thou hast no key and to which thou hast no accesse Si ponis in os meum jam non in tua sed mea potestate est ut te laudare vel tibi derogare possim If thou build thy reputation upon my report it is now in my power not in thine whether thou shalt be good or bad honourable or infamous Sanum vas inconcussum conscientia a good conscience is a sweet vessell and a strong Quicquid in ea reposueris servabit vivo defuncto restituet Whatsoever thou laiest up in that shall serve thee all thy life and after and that shall be thine acquittance and discharge atthy last paiment in manustuas when thou returnest thy spirit into his hands that gave it And then reddidisti debita omnibus thou shalt have rendred to all their dues when thou hast given the King Honour the poore almes thy selfe peace and God thy soule SERMON X. Preached upon Candlemas Day ROM 12.20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coales of fire on his head IT falls out I know not how but I take it from the instinct of the Holy Ghost and from the Propheticall spirit residing in the Church of God that those Scriptures which are appointed to be read in the Church all these dayes for I take no other this Terme doe evermore afford and offer us Texts that direct us to patience as though these times had especial need of those instructions And truly so they have for though God have so farre spared us as yet as to give us no exercise of patience in any afflictions inflicted upon our selves yet as the heart akes if the head doe nay if the foote ake the heart akes too so all that professe the name of Christ Jesus aright making up but one body we are but dead members of that body if we be not affected with the distempers of the most remote parts thereof That man sayes but faintly that he is heart-whole that is macerated with the Gout or lacerated with the Stone It is not a heart but a stone growne into that forme that feeles no paine till the paine seize the very substance thereof How much and how often S. Paul delights himselfe with that sociable syllable Syn Con Conregnare and Convificare and Consedere of Raigning together 2 Tim. 2.12 Eph. 2.1 6. and living and quickning together As much also doth God delight in it from us when we expresse it in a Conformity and Compunction and Compassion and Condolency and as it is but a little before the Text in weeping with them that weepe Our patience therefore being actually exercised in the miseries of our brethren round about us and probably threatned in the aimes and plots of our adversaries upon us though I hunt not after them yet I decline not such Texts as may direct our thoughts upon duties of that kinde This Text does so for the circle of this Epistle of S. Paul this precious ring being made of that golden Doctrine That Justification is by faith and being enameled with that beautifull Doctrine of good works too in which enameled Ring as a precious stone in the midst thereof there is set the glorious Doctrine of our Election by Gods eternall Predestination our Text falls in that part which concernes obedience holy life good works which when both the Doctrines that of Justification by faith and that of Predestination have suffered controversie hath been by all sides embraced and accepted that there is no faith which the Angels in heaven or the Church upon earth or our own consciences can take knowledge of without good works Of which good works and the degrees of obedience of patience it is a great one and a hard one that is enjoyned in this Text for whereas S. Augustine observes sixe degrees sixe steps in our behaviour towards our enemies whereof the first is nolle laedere to be loth to hurt any man by way of provocation not to begin And a second nolle amplius quam laesus laedere That if another provoke him yet what power soever he have he would returne no more upon his enemy then his enemy had cast upon him he would not exceed in his revenge And a third velle minus not to doe so much as he suffered but in a lesse proportion onely to shew some sense of the injury And then another is nolle laedere licet laesus to returne no revenge at all though he have been provoked by an injury And a higher then that par atum se exhibere ut amplius laedatur to turne the other cheeke when he is smitten and open himselfe to farther injuries That which is in this Text is the sixt step and the highest of all laedenti benefacere to doe good to him of whom we have received evill If thine enemy hunger to feed him if he thirst to give him drinke for in so c. The Text is a building of stone and that bound in with barres of Iron Divisio fundamentall Doctrine in point of manners in it selfe and yet buttressed and established with reasons too therefore and for Therefore feed thine enemy For in so doing thou shalt heape coales This therefore confirmes the precedent Doctrine and this For confirmes
in a disease very little capable of cure then when he had so farre resolved and slackned his sinewes that he could endure no posture but his bed he suffered himselfe to be put to so many incommodities It was good evidence of a strength of faith in them that they could beleeve that Christ would not reject them for that importunity of troubling him and the congregation in the midst of a Sermon That when they saw that they who came onely to heare could not get neare the doore they should thinke to get in with that load that offensive spectacle That they should ever conceive or goe about to execute or be suffered to execute such a plot as without the leave of Christ if Christ preached this Sermon in his owne house as some take it to have been done or without the Masters leave in whose house soever it was they should first untile or open and then break through the floore and so let downe their miserable burden That they should have an apprehension that it was not fit for them to stay till the Sermon were done and the company parted but that it was likeliest to conduce to the glory of God that Preaching and working might goe together this was evidence this was argument of strength of faith in them Take therefore their example not to defer that assistance which thou art able to give to another Ne dic as assistam cr as sayes S. Gregory doe not say I will help thee to morrow Ne quid inter propositum beneficium intercedat Perchance that poore soule may not need thee to morrow perchance thou maist have nothing to give to morrow perchance there shall be no such day as to morrow and so thou hast lost that opportunity of thy charity which God offered thee to day Vnica beneficentia est quae moram non admittit onely that is charity that is given presently But yet when all was done when there was faith and faith in them all Cum non quiae and faith declared in their outward works yet Christ is not said to have done this miracle quia sides but cum fides not Because he saw but onely When he saw their faith Let us transferre none of that which belongs to God to our selves when we doe our duties but when doe we goe about to begin to doe any part of any of them we are unprofitable servants When God does work in us are we saved by that work as by the cause when there is another cause of the work it selfe When the ground brings forth good corne yet that ground becomes not fit for our food When a man hath brought forth good fruits yet that man is not thereby made worthy of heaven Not faith it selfe and yet faith is of somewhat a deeper dye and tincture then any works is any such cause of our salvation A beggars beleeving that I will give him an almes is no cause of my charity My beleeving that Christ will have mercy upon me is no cause of Christs mercy for what proportion hath my temporary faith with my everlasting salvation But yet though it work not as a cause though it be not qui a vidit because he saw it yet cum videt when Christ findes this faith according to that gracious Covenant and Contract which he hath made with us that wheresoever and whensoever he findes faith he will enlarge his mercy finding that in this patient he expressed his mercy in that which constitutes our second part Fili confide my son be of good cheare thy sins are forgiven thee Where we see first 2 Part. our Saviour Christ opening the bowels of compassion to him and receiving him so as if he had issued out of his bowels and from his loynes in that gracious appellation Fili my Son He does not call him brother for greater enmity can be no where then is often expressed to have beene betweene brethren for in that degree and distance enmity amongst men began in Cain and Abel and was pursued in many paires of brethren after in Sacred and in secular story Hee does not call him friend that name even in Christs owne mouth is not alwaies accompanied with good entertainment Amice Mat. 22.12 quomodo intrasti saies he Friend how came you in and he bound him hand and foote and cast him into outer darknesse He does not call him son of Abraham which might give him an interest in all the promises but he gives him a present Adoption and so a present fruition of all Fili my Son His Son and not his Son in law he loads him not with the encumbrances and halfe-impossibilities of the Law but he seales to him the whole Gospell in the remission of sinnes His Son and not his dis-inherited son as the Jewes were but his Son upon whom he setled his ancient Inheritance his eternall election and his new purchase which he came now into the world to make with his blood His Son and not his prodigall son to whom Christ imputes no wastfulnesse of his former graces but gives him a generall release and Quietus est in the forgivenesse of sinnes All that Christ asks of his Sons is Fili da mihi cor My Son give me thy heart and till God give us that we cannot give it him and therefore in this Son he creates a new heart he infuses a new courage he establishes a new confidence in the next word Fili confide My Son be of good cheere Christ then does not stay so long wrastling with this mans faith Confide and shaking it and trying whether it were fast rooted as he did with that Woman in the Gospell who came after him Mat. 15.22 in her daughters behalfe crying Have mercy upon me O Lord thou Son of David for Christ gave not that woman one word when her importunity made his Disciples speake to him he said no more but that he was not sent to such as she This was far very far from a Confide filia Daughter be of good cheere But yet this put her not oft but as it followes She followed and worshipped him and said O Lord helpe me And all this prevailed no farther with him but to give such an answer as was more discomfortable then a silence It is not fit to take the childrens bread and cast it unto dogs She denies not that she contradicts him not she saies Truth Lord It is not fit to take the childrens bread and to cast it unto dogs and Truth Lord I am one of those dogs but yet she persevers in her holy importunity and in her good ill-manners and saies Yet the Dogs eate of the crums which fall from the Masters table And then and not till then comes Jesus to that O Woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt and her Daughter was healed But all this at last was but a bodily restitution here was no Dimittuntur peccata in the case no declaration of forgivenesse
thought or said or done any thing offensive to him It is therefore onely in the third sense of this word as it is Verbum Ecclesiasticum A word which S. Paul and the other Scriptures and the Church and Ecclesiasticall Writers have used to expresse our Righteousnesse our Justification by And that is onely by the way of pardon and remission of sins sealed to us in the blood of Christ Jesus that what kinde of sinners soever we were before yet that is applied to us Such and such you were before But ye are justified by the name of the Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6 11. Now the reproofe of the World the convincing of the World the bringing of the World to the knowledg that as they are all sub peccato under sin by the sin of another so there is a righteousnesse of another that must prevaile for all their Pardons this reproof this convincing this instruction of the World is thus wrought That the whole World consisting of Jews and Gentiles when the Holy Ghost had done enough for the convincing of both these enough for the overthrowing of all arguments which could either be brought by the Jew for the righteousnesse of the Law or by the Gentile for the righteousnesse of Works all which is abundantly done by the Holy Ghost in the Epistles of S. Paul and other Scriptures when the Holy Ghost had possessed the Church of God of these all-sufficient Scriptures Then the promise of Christ was performed and then though all the world were not presently converted yet it was presently convinced by the Holy Ghost because the Holy Ghost had provided in those Scriptures of which he is the Author that nothing could be said in the Worlds behalfe for any other Righteousnesse then by way of pardon in the blood of Christ Thus much the Holy Ghost tels us And if we will search after more then hee is pleased to tell us that is to rack the Holy Ghost to over-labour him to examine him upon such Intergatories as belongs not to us to minister unto him Curious men are not content to know That our debt is paid by Christ but they will know farther whether Christ have paid it with his owne hands or given us money to pay it our selves whether his Righteousness before it do us any good be not first made ours by Imputation or by Inhesion They must know whose money and then what money Gold or Silver whether his active obedience in fulfilling the Law or his passive obedience in shedding his blood But all the Commission of the Holy Ghost here is To reprove the World of righteousnesse To convince all Sects in the World that shall constitute any other righteousnesse then a free pardon by the incorruptible and invaluable and inexhaustible blood of Christ Jesus By that pardon his Righteousnesse is ours How it is made so or by what name we shall call our title or estate or interest in his Righteousnesse let us not enquire The termes of satisfaction in Christ of acceptation in the Father of imputation to us or inhesion in us are all pious and religious phrases and something they expresse but yet none of these Satisfaction Acceptation Imputation Inhesion will reach home to satisfie them that will needs inquire Quo modo by what meanes Christs Righteousnesse is made ours This is as far as we need go Ad eundem modum justi sumus coram Deo quo cor am eo Christus fuit peccator So as God made Christ sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 we are made the righteousnesse of God in him so but how was that He that can finde no comfort in this Doctrine till he finde How Christ was made sin and we righteousnesse till he can expresse Quo modo robs himself of a great deale of peacefull refreshing which his conscience might receive in tasting the thing it selfe in a holy and humble simplicity without vexing his owne or other mens consciences or troubling the peace of the Church with impertinent and inextricable curiosities Those questions are not so impertinent but they are in a great part unnecessary which are moved about the cause of our righteousnesse our justification Alas let us be content that God is the cause and seeke no other We must never slacken that protestation That good works are no cause of our justification But we must alwaies keepe up a right signification of that word Cause For Faith it selfe is no cause no such cause as that I can merit Heaven by faith What doe I merit of the King by beleeving that he is the undoubted Heire to all his Dominions or by beleeving that he governes well if I live not in obedience to his Laws If it were possible to beleeve aright and yet live ill my faith should doe me no good The best faith is not worth Heaven The value of it grows Ex pacto That God hath made that Covenant that Contract Crede vives onely beleeve and thou shalt be safe Faith is but one of those things which in severall senses are said to justifie us It is truly saîd of God Deus solus justificat God only justifies us Efficienter nothing can effect it nothing can worke towards it but onely the meere goodnesse of God And it is truly said of Christ Christus solus justificat Christ onely justifies us Materialiter nothing enters into the substance and body of the ransome for our sins but the obedience of Christ It is also truly said Sola fides justificat Onely faith justifies us Instrumentaliter nothing apprehends nothing applies the merit of Christ to thee but thy faith And lastly it is as truly said Sola opera justificant Onely our works justifie us Declaratoriè Only thy good life can assure thy conscience and the World that thou art justified As the efficient justification the gracious purpose of God had done us no good without the materiall satisfaction the death of Christ had followed And as that materiall satisfaction the death of Christ would do me no good without the instrumentall justification the apprehension by faith so neither would this profit without the declaratory justification by which all is pleaded and established God enters not into our materiall justification that is onely Christs Christ enters not into our instrumentall justification that is onely faiths Faith enters not into our declaratory justification for faith is secret and declaration belongs to workes Neither of these can be said to justifie us alone so as that we may take the chaine in pieces and thinke to be justified by any one link thereof by God without Christ by Christ without faith or by faith without works And yet every one of these justifies us alone so as that none of the rest enter into that way and that meanes by which any of these are said to justifie us Consider we then our selves as men fallen downe into a darke and deepe pit and justification as a chaine consisting of
faith apply thy selfe to both Regulate thy faith by the Rule that is the Word and by Example that is Beleeve those things which the Saints of God have constantly and unanimely beleeved to be necessary to salvation The Word is the Law and the Rule The Church is the Practise and the Precedent that regulates thy faith And if thou make imaginary revelations and inspirations thy Law or the practise of Sectaries thy Precedent thou doest but call Fancie and Imagination by the name of Reason and Understanding and Opinion by the name of Faith and Singularity and Schisme by the name of Communion of Saints The Law of thy faith is That that that thou beleevest be Universall Catholique beleeved by all And then that the Application be particular To beleeve that as Christ dyed sufficiently for all so he dyed effectually for thee And of this effectuall dying for thee there arises an evidence from thy selfe in thy conformity to him Thy conformity consists in this That thou art willing to live according to his Gospell and ready to dye for him that dyed for thee For till a man have resisted unto blood he cannot know experimentally what degrees towards perfection his faith hath And though he may conceive in himselfe a holy purpose to dye for Christ yet till he have dyed for Christ or dyed in Christ that is as long as we are in this valley of tentations there is nothing no not in spirituall things not in faith it selfe perfect It is not In credendis in our embracing the object of faith we doe not that perfectly Spes It is not In petendis in our directing our prayers faithfully neither we doe not that our faith is not perfect nor our hope is not perfect for so argues the Apostle Ye aske Iames 4.3 and receive not because ye aske amisse you cannot hope constantly because you doe not pray aright And to make a Prayer a right Prayer there go so many essentiall circumstances as that the best man may justly suspect his best Prayer for since Prayer must bee of faith Prayer can be but so perfect as the faith is perfect and the imperfections of the best faith we have seene Christ hath given us but a short Prayer and yet we are weary of that Some of the old Heretiques of the Primitive Church abridged that Prayer and some of our later Schismatiques have annihilated evacuated that Prayer The Cathari then left out that one Petition Dimitte nobis Forgive us our trespasses for they thought themselves so pure as that they needed no forgivenesse and our new men leave out the whole Prayer because the same Spirit that spake in Christ speakes in their extemporall prayers and they can pray as well as Christ could teach them And to leave those whom we are bound to leave those old Heretiques those new Schismatiques which of us ever ever sayes over that short Prayer with a deliberate understanding of every Petition as we passe or without deviations and extravagancies of our thoughts in that halfe-minute of our Devotion We have not leasure to speake of the abuse of prayer in the Roman Church where they wil antidate and postdate their prayers Say to morrows prayers to day and to dayes prayers to morrow if they have other uses and employments of the due time betweene where they will trade and make merchandise of prayers by way of exchange My man shall fast for me and I will pray for my man or my Atturney and Proxy shall pray for us both at my charge nay where they will play for prayers and the loser must pray for both To this there belongs but a holy scorne and I would faine passe it over quickly But when we consider with a religious seriousnesse the manifold weaknesses of the strongest devotions in time of Prayer it is a sad consideration I throw my selfe downe in my Chamber and I call in and invite God and his Angels thither and when they are there I neglect God and his Angels for the noise of a Flie for the ratling of a Coach for the whining of a doore I talke on in the same posture of praying Eyes lifted up knees bowed downe as though I prayed to God and if God or his Angels should aske me when I thought last of God in that prayer I cannot tell Sometimes I finde that I had forgot what I was about but when I began to forget it I cannot tell A memory of yesterdays pleasures a feare of to morrows dangers a straw under my knee a noise in mine eare a light in mine eye an any thing a nothing a fancy a Chimera in my braine troubles me in my prayer So certainely is there nothing nothing in spirituall things perfect in this world Not In credendis Charitas In things that belong to Faith not In petendis In things that belong to Hope nor In agendis In things that belong to Action to Workes to Charity there is nothing perfect there neither I would be loath to say That every good work is a sin That were to say That every deformed or disordered man were a beast or that every corrupt meat were poyson It is not utterly so not so altogether But it is so much towards it as that there is no worke of ours so good as that wee can looke for thanks at Gods hand for that worke no worke that hath not so much ill mingled with it as that wee need not cry God mercy for that worke There was so much corruption in the getting or so much vaine glory in the bestowing as that no man builds an Hospitall but his soule lies though not dead yet lame in that Hospitall no man mends a high-way but he is though not drowned yet mired in that way no man relieves the poore but he needs reliefe for that reliefe In all those workes of Charity the world that hath benefit by them is bound to confesse and acknowledge a goodnesse and to call them good workes but the man that does them and knows the weaknesses of them knows they are not good works It is possible to Art to purge a peccant humour out of a sick bodie but not possible to raise a dead bodie to life God out of my Confession of the impuritie of my best actions shall vouchsafe to take off his eyes from that impurity as though there were none but no spirituall thing in us not Faith not Hope not Charitie have any puritie any perfection in themselves which is the generall Doctrine wee proposed at first And our next Consideration is how this weakenesse appeares in the Action and in the Words of Martha in our Text Lord if thou hadst beene here my brother had not dyed Now lest we should attribute this weakenesse Marthae fides onely to weake persons upon whom we had a prejudice to Martha alone we note to you first that her sister Mary to whom in the whole Story very much is ascribed when she comes to Christ comes also
first end of letting our light to shine before men is that they may know Gods proceedings but the last end to which all conduces is that God may have glory Whatsoever God did first in his own bosome in his own decree what that was contentious men will needs wrangle whatsoever that first act was Gods last end in that first act of his was his own glory And therefore to impute any inglorious or ignoble thing to God comes too neare blasphemy And be any man who hath any sense or taste of noblenesse or honour judge whether there be any glory in the destruction of those creatures whom they have raised till those persons have deserved ill at their hands and in some way have damnified them or dishonoured them Nor can God propose that for glory to destroy man till he finde cause in man Now this glory to which Christ bends all in this Text that men by seeing your good works might glorifie your Father consists especially in these two declarations Commemoration and Imitation a due celebration of former founders and benefactors and a pious proceeding according to such precedents is this glorifying of God When God calls himself so often The God of Abraham of Isaac and of Iacob Gloria ex Commemoratione Ezech. 14.14 God would have the world remember that Abraham Isaac and Iacob were extraordinary men memorable men When God sayes Though these three men Noah Daniel and Iob were here they should not deliver this people God would have it knowne that Noah Daniel and Iob were memorable men and able to doe much with him When the Holy Ghost is so carefull to give men their additions Gen. 4.20 That Iabal was the father of such as dwell in Tents keep Cattell Iubal the father of Harpers and Organists and Tubal-Cain of all Gravers in Brasse and Iron And when he presents with so many particularities every peece of worke that Hiram of Tyre wrought in Brasse for the furnishing of Solomons Temple 1 Reg. 7.13 God certainly is not afraid that his honour will be diminished in the honourable mentioning of such men as have benefited the world by publique good works The wise man seemes to settle himselfe upon that meditation let us now praise famous men sayes he Ecclus. 44.1 and our fathers that begot us and so he institutes a solemne commemoration and gives a catalogue of Enoch and Abraham and Moses and Aaron and so many more as possesse six Chapters nor doth he ever end the meditation till he end his booke so was he fixt upon the commemoration of good men Heb. 11. as S. Paul likewise feeds and delights himselfe in the like meditation even from Abel It is therefore a wretched impotency not to endure the commemoration and honourable mentioning of our Founders and Benefactors God hath delivered us and our Church from those straights in which some Churches of the Reformation have thought themselves to be when they have made Canons That there should be no Bell rung no dole given no mention made of the dead at any Funerall lest that should savour of superstition The Holy Ghost hath taught us the difference between praising the dead and praying for the dead betweene commemorating of Saints and invocating of Saints We understand what David meanes when he sayes This honour have all his Saints and what S. Paul meanes Psal 149.9 1 Tim. 1.17 when he sayes Vnto the only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever God is honoured in due honour given to his Saints and glorified in the commemoration of those good men whose light hath so shined out before men that they have seen their good workes But then he is glorified more in our imitation then in our commemoration Herein is my Father glorified sayes Christ that ye beare much fruit Gloria ex Imitatione Iohn 15.8 Mar. 4.20 The seed sowed in good ground bore some an hundred fold the least thirty The seed in this case is the example that is before you of those good men whose light hath shined out so that you have seene their good workes Let this seed these good examples bring forth hundreds and sixties and thirties in you much fruit for herein is your Father glorified that you beare much fruit Of which plentifull encrease I am afraid there is one great hinderance that passes through many of you that is that when your Will lyes by you in which some little lamp of this light is set up something given to God in pious uses if a Ship miscarry if a Debtor break if your state be any way empaired the first that suffers the first that is blotted out of the Will is God and his Legacy and if your estates encrease portions encrease and perchance other legacies but Gods portion and legacy stands at a stay Christ left two uses of his passion application and imitation He suffered for us 1 Pet. 2.22 sayes the Apostle for us that is that we might make his death ours apply his death and then as it follows there he left us an example So Christ gives us two uses of the Reformation of Religion first the doctrine how to doe good works without relying upon them as meritorious and then example many very many men and more by much in some kindes of charity since the Reformation of Religion then before even in this City whose light hath shined out before you and you have seen their good works That as this noble City hath justly acquired the reputation and the testimony of all who have had occasion to consider their dealings in that kinde that they deale most faithfully most justly most providently in all things which are committed to their trust for pious uses from others not only in a full employment of that which was given but in an improvement thereof and then an employment of that emprovement to the same pious use so every man in his particular may propose to himselfe some of those blessed examples which have risen amongst your selves and follow that and exceed that That as your lights are Torches and not petty Candles and your Torches better then others Torches so he also may be a larger example to others then others have been to him for Herein is your Father glorified if you beare much fruit and that is the end of all that we all doe That men seeing it may glorifie our Father which is in heaven SERMON IX Preached upon Candlemas day ROM 13.7 Render therefore to all men their dues The Text being part of the Epistle of that day that yeare THe largenesse of this short Text consists in that word Therefore therefore because you have been so particularly taught your particular duties therefore perform them therefore practise them Reddite omnibus debita Render therefore to every man his due The Philosopher might seem to have contracted as large a law into a few words in his suum cuique as the Holy Ghost had done in his Reddite
God and for the instruction of Iob himselfe What was it we see ver 17. Shall mortall man be more just then God Quid. shall a man be more pure then his Maker Why Did this Doctrine need this solemnity this preparation that Eliphaz gives it v. 8. That it was a thing told him in secret and such a secret that he was able to comprehend but a little at once of it Is there any such incomprehensiblenesse any such difficulty in this Doctrine That no mortall man is more just then God no man more pure then his Maker but that the shallowest capacity may receive it and the shortest memory retaine it Needs this a Revelation an extraordinary conveyance For the generall knowledge it does not Every man will say he knowes mortall man cannot be more just then God nor any man purer then his Maker But for the particular consideration it does Every justifying a sin is a making mortall man more just then God when I come to say With what justice can God punish a nights or an houres sin with everlasting torments Every murmuring at Gods corrections is a making man purer then God when I come to say Does not God depart farther from the purity of his nature when he is an angry and a vindicative God then I from mine when I am an amorous or wanton man We that are but mortall men must not think sayes Eliphaz to make our selves purer then our Maker for they who in their nature are much purer then we the Angels are farre short of that for God put no trust in those servants and those Angells he charged with folly So then though Eliphaz his premisses reach to the Angels and their state his inference and his last purpose fals upon us who by Gods goodnesse become capable of succession into the place of the Angels that are fallen and of an association and assimilation to those Angels that stand And our assimilation is this That as they have in their station we also shall have in ours a faithfull certitude that we shall never fall out of the armes and bosome of our gracious God But then there arises to us a sweeter rellish in considering this stability this perpetuity this infallibility to consist in the continuall succession and supply of grace then in any one act which God hath done for them or us I conceive a more effectual delight when I consider God to have so wrought the confirmation of Angels that he hath taken them into a state of glory and a fruition of his sight and to perpetuate that state unto them perpetually superinfuses upon them more and more beames of that glory then if I should consider God to have confirmed them with such a measure of grace at once as that he could not withdraw or they could forfeit that grace For as there is no doubt made by the Fathers nor by the Schoole but that that light which the Apostles saw at the Transfiguration of Christ was that very light of glory which they see now in Heaven and yet they lost the sight of that light againe so is there no violation of any Article of our Faith if we concurre in opinion with them who say That S. Paul in his extasie in his rapture into the third heaven did see that very light of glory which constitutes the Beatificall Vision and yet did lose that light againe Truly to me this consideration That as his mercy is new every morning so his grace is renewed to me every minute That it is not by yesterdaies grace that I live now but that I have Panem quotidianum and Panem horarium My daily bread my hourely bread in a continuall succession of his grace That the eye of God is open upon me though I winke at his light and watches over me though I sleep That God makes these returnes to my soule and so studies me in every change this consideration infuses a sweeter verdure and imprints a more cheerefull tincture upon my soule then any taste of any one Act done at once can minister unto me God made the Angels all of one naturall condition in nature all alike and God gave them all such grace as that thereby they might have stood and to them that used that grace aright he gave a farther a continuall succession of grace and that is their Confirmation Not that they cannot but that they shall not fall not that they are safe in themselves but by Gods preservation safe for otherwise He puts no trust in those Servants and those Angels he charges with folly This is our case too ours that are under the blessed Election and good purpose of God upon us if we do not fall from him it is not of our selves for left to our selves we should For Iohn 5. so S. Augustine interprets those words of our Saviour Pater operatur My Father worketh still God hath not accomplished his worke upon us in one Act though an Election but he works in our Vocation and he works in our Justification and in our Sanctification he works still And if God himselfe be not so come to his Sabbath and his rest in us but that he works upon us still for all that Election shall any man thinke to have such a Sabbath such a rest in that Election as shall slacken our endeavour to make sure our Salvation and not worke as God works to his ends in us Hence then we banish all self-subsistence all attributing of any power to any faculty of our own either by preoperation in any naturall or morall disposing of our selves before Gods preventing grace dispose us or by such a cooperation as should put God and man in Commission together or make grace and nature Collegues in the worke or that God should do one halfe and man the other or any such post-operation That I should thinke to proceed in the waies of godlinesse by vertue of Gods former grace without imploring and obtaining more in a continuall succession of his concomitant grace for every particular action In Christ I can do all things I need no more but him without Christ I can doe nothing not onely not have him but not know that I need him for I am not better then those Angels of whom it is said He put no trust in those Servants and those Angels hee charged with folly And as we banish from hence all self-subsistence all opinion of standing by our selves so doe we also all impeccability and all impossibility of falling in our selves or in any thing that God hath already done for us if he should discontinue his future grace and leave us to our former stock They that were raised from death to life againe Dorcas Lazarus and the rest were subject to sin in that new life which was given them They that are quickned by the soule of the soule Election it selfe are subject to sin for all that God sees the sins of the Elect and sees their sins to be sins and in his
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
of the state of the Christian Church There by the ordinary meanes exhibited there our Scarlet sins are made as white as Snow And the whitenesse of Snow is a whitenesse that no art of man can reach to So Christs garments in his Transfiguration are expressed to have beene as white as Snow Marke 9.3 so as no Fuller on earth could white them Nothing in this world can send me home in such a whitenesse no morall counsaile no morall comfort no morall constancy as Gods Absolution by his Minister as the profitable hearing of a Sermon the worthy receiving of the Sacrament do This is to be as white as snow In a good state for the present But David begs a whitenesse above Snow for Snow melts and then it is not white our present Sanctification withers and we lose that cheereful verdure the testimony of an upright conscience And Snow melted Snow water is the coldest water of all Devout men departed from their former fervor are the coldest and the most irreducible to true zeale true holinesse Therefore David who was metall tried seven times in the fire and desired to be such gold as might be laid up in Gods Treasury might consider that in transmutation of metals it is not enough to come to a calcination or a liquefaction of the metall that must be done nor to an Ablution to sever drosse from pure nor to a Transmutation to make it a better metall but there must be a Fixion a fettling thereof so that it shall not evaporate into nothing nor returne to his former nature Therefore he saw that he needed not only a liquefaction a melting into teares nor only an Ablution a Transmutation those he had by this purging and this washing this station in the Church of God and this present Sanctification there but he needed Fixionem an establishment which the comparison of Snow afforded not That as he had purged him with Hyssop and so cleansed him that is enwrapped him in the Covenant and made him a member of the true Church and there washed him so as that he was restored to a whitenesse that is made his Ordinances so effectuall upon him as that then he durst deliver his soule into his hands at that time So he would exalt that whitenesse above the whitenesse of Snow so as nothing might melt it nothing discolour it but that under the seale of his blessed Spirit he might ever dwell in that calme in that assurance in that acquiescence that as he is in a good state this minute he shall be in no worse whensoever God shall be pleased to translate him We end all the Psalmes in our service Conclusio those of Praise and those of Prayer too with a Gloria Patri Glory be to the Father c. For our conclusion of this Prayer in this Psalme we have reserved a Gloria Patri too This consideration for the glory of God that though in the first Part The Persons the persons were varied God and man yet in our second Part where we confider the worke the whole worke is put into Gods hand and received from Gods hand Let God be true and every man a liar Let God be strong and every man infirme Let God give and man but receive What man that hath no propriety therein can take a penny out of another mans house or a roote out of his Garden but the Law will take hold of him Hath any man a propriety in Grace what had he to give for it Nature Is Nature equivalent to Grace No man does refine and exalt Nature to the height it would beare but if naturall faculties were exalted to their highest is Nature a fit exchange for Grace and if it were is Nature our owne Why should we be loath to acknowledge to have all our ability of doing good freely from God and immediately by his grace when as even those faculties of Nature by which we pretend to do the offices of Grace we have from God himselfe too For that question of the Apostle involves all What hast thou that thou hast not received Thy naturall faculties are no more thine owne then the grace of God is thine owne I would not be beholden to God for Grace and I must be as much beholden to him for Nature if Nature do supply Grace Because he hath made thee to be a man he hath given thee naturall faculties because he hath vouchsafed thee to be a Christian he hath given thee meanes of Grace But as thy body conceived in thy Mothers wombe could not claime a soule at Gods hand nor wish a soule no nor know that there was a soule to be had So neither by being a man indued with naturall faculties canst thou claime grace or wish grace nay those naturall faculties if they be not pre-tincted with some infusion of Grace before cannot make thee know what Grace is or that Grace is To a child rightly disposed in the wombe God does give a soule To a naturall man rightly disposed in his naturall faculties God does give Grace But that Soule was not due to that child nor that grace to that man Therefore as we said at first David does not bring the Hyssop and pray God to make the potion but Doe thou purge me with Hyssop All is thine owne There was no pre-existent matter in the world when God made the world There is no pre-existent merit in man when God makes him his David does not say Do thou wash me and I will perfect thy worke Give me my portion of Grace and I will trouble thee for no more but deale upon that stocke But Qui sanctificatur sanctificetur adhuc Let him that is holy be more holy but accept his Sanctification from him of whom he had his Justification and except he can think to glorifie himself because he is sanctified let him not think to sanctifie himself because he is justified God does all Yet thus argues S. Augustin upon Davids words Tuus sum Domine Lord I am thine and therefore safer then they that thinke themselves their owne Every man can and must say I was thine Thine by Creation but few can say I am thine few that have not changed their Master But how was David his so especially sayes S. Augustine Quia quaesivi justificationes tuas as it followes there Because I sought thy Righteousnesse thy Justification But where did he seeke it Hee sought it and he found it in himselfe In himselfe as himselfe there was no good thing to be found how far soever he had sought But yet he found a Justification though of Gods whole making yet in himselfe So then this is our Act of Recognition we acknowledge God and God onely to doe all But we doe not so make him Soveraigne alone as that we leave his presence naked and empty Nor so make him King alone as that we depopulate his Country and leave him without Subjects Nor so leave all to Grace as that the naturall faculties