aquarum by the power of waters many waters and in this verse this witnesse is delivered in the plurall spirit and waters and so waters in that signification which signification they have often in the Scriptures that is affliction and tribulation be good testimonies that our Lord Jesus doth visit us though the waters of Coâ—trition and repentant teares be another good testimony of that too yet that water which testifies the presence of Jesus so as that it doth always infallibly bring Jesus with it for the Sacraments are never without Grace whether it be accepted or no there it is â— That water which is made equall with the preaching of the Word so farre as to be a fellow-witnesse with the Spirit that is onely the Sacrament of baptisme without which in the ordinary dispensation of God no soule can be surer that Jesus is come to him then if he had never heard the Word preached he mistakes the spirit the first witnesse if he refuse the water the second The third witnesse upon earth is bloud and that is briefly the Communion of the body and bloud of Iesus in the Lords Supper But how is that bloud upon earth I am not ashamed to confesse that I know not how but the bloud of Christ is a witnesse upon earth in the Sacrament and therefore upon the earth it is Now this Witnesse being made equall with the other two with preaching and with baptisme it is as necessary that he that will have an assuranceâ— that Iesus is come into him doe receive this Sacrament as that he doe heare Sermâ—nâ— and that he be baptized An over vehement urging of this necessity brought in an erroneous custome in the Primitive Church That they would give the Sacrament of the body of Christ to Children as soon as they were baptized yea and to dead man too But because this Sacrament is accompanied with precepts which can belong onely to Men of understanding for they must doe it in Remembrance and they must discerne the Lords body therefore the necessity lies onely upon such as are come to those graces and to that understanding For they that take it and doe not discerne it not know what they do they take it dangerously But else for them to whom this Sacrament belongs if they take it not their hearing of Sermons and their baptisme doth them no good for what good can they have done them if they have not prepared themselves for it And therefore as the Religion of the Church holds a stubborne Recusant at the table at the Communion bord as farre from her as a Recusant at the Pew that is a Non-communicant as ill as a not commer or a not hearer so I doubt not but the wisdome of the state weighs them in the same balance For these three agree in one says the text that is first they meet in one Man and then they testifie the same thing that is Integritatem Iesu that Iesus is come to him in outward Meanes to save his soule If his conscience find not this testimony all these availe him nothing If we remaine vessells of anger and of dishonour still we are under the Vae vâ—bis Hypocritis woe unto you Hypocrites that make cleane onely the outside of your cuppes and Platters That baptize and wash your owne and your childrens bodies but not their mindes with instructions When we shall come to say Docuisti in plateis we have heard thee preach in our streets we have continued our hearing of thy Word when we say Manducavimus coram te we have eate in thy presence at thy table yea Manducavimus tâ— we have eaten thee thy selfe yet for all this outward show of these three witnesses of Spirit and Water and bloud Preaching and Baptisme and Communion we shall heare that fearfull disclaiming from Christ Jesus Nescio vos I know not whence you are But these witnesses he will always heare if they testifie for us that Jesus is come unto us for the Gospell and the preaching thereof is as the deed that conveys Iesus unto us the water the baptisme is as the Seale that assures it and the bloud the Sacrament is the delivery of Christ into us and this is Integritas Iesu the entire and full possession of him To this purpose therefore as we have found a Trinity in heaven and a Trinity in earth so we must make it up a Trinity of Trinities and finde a third Trinity in our selves God created one Trinity in us the observation and the enumeration is Saint Bernards which are those three faculties of our soule the reason the memory the will That Trinity in us by another Trinity too by suggestion towards sin by delight in sinne by consent to sinne is fallen into a third Trinity The memory into a weaknesse that that comprehends not God it glorifies him not for benefits received The reasen to a blindnesse that that discernes not what is true and the will to a perversnesse that that wishes not what 's good But the goodnesse of God by these three witnesses on earth regenerates and reestablishes a new Trinity in us faith and hope and charity Thus farre that devout Man carries it And if this new Trinity faith and hope and charity witnesse to us Integritatem Christi all the worke of Christ If my faith testifie to me that Christ is sealed to my soule and my hope testifie that at the Resurection I shall have a perfect fruition in soule and body of that glory which he purchased for every beleever and my charity testifies to the world that I labour to make sure that salvation by a good life then there 's a Trinity of Trinities and the six are made nine witnesses There are three in heaven that testifie that this is done for all Mankinde Three in the Church that testifie this may be done for me and three in my soule that testifie that all this is applied to me and then the verdict and the Judgement must necessarily goe for me And beloved this Judgement will be grounded upon this intirenesse of Jesus and therefore let me dismisse you with this note That Integritas is in continuitate not in contignitate It is not the touching upon a thing nor the comming neare to a thing that makes it intire a fagot where the sticks touch a peece of cloth where the threds touch is not intire To come as neare Christ as we can conveniently to trie how neare we can bring two Religions together this is not to preserve Integritatem Iesu In a word Intirenesse excludes deficiency and redundancy and discontinuance we preserve not intirenesse if we preserve not the dignity of Christ in his Church and in his discipline and that excludes the defective Separatist we doe not preserve that entirenesse if we admit traditions and additions of Men in an equality to the word of God and that excludes the redundant Papist neither doe we preserve the entirenesse if we admit a discontinuance
and fetch it againe And then it was rotten and good for nothing for says he as the girdle cleaveth to the loines so have I tyed to me the house of Israel and Iudah that they might be my people that they might have a name and a praise and a glory but they would not heare Therefore say unto them Every bottle shall be filled with wine Here was a promise of plenty and they shall say unto thee Doe not we know that every bottle shall be filled with wineâ— that God is bound to give us this plenty because he hath tyed himselfe by oath and covenunt and promise But behold I fill all the inhabitants with drunkennesse since they trust in their plenty that shall be an occasion of sinne to them and I will dash them against one another even the father and sonnes together I will not spare I will not pity I will not have compassion but destroy them God could not promise more then he did in this place at first he could not depart farther from that promise then by their occasion he came to at last Gods promise goes no farther with Moses himselfe My presence shall goe with thee and I will give thee rest If we will steale out of Gods presence into darke and sinfull corners there is no rest promised Receive my words says Solomon and the years of thy life shall be many Trust in the Lord says David and doe good performe both stand upon those two leggs faith and works not that they are alike there is a right and a left legge but stand upon both upon one in the sight of God upon the other in the sight of Man Trust in the Lord and doe good and then shall dwell in the land and be fed assuredly That paradise that peace of Conscience which God establishes in thee by faith hath a condition of growth and encrease from faith to faith heaven it selfe in which the Angells were had a condition they might they did fall from thence The land of Canaan was their own land and the rest of that land their Rest by Gods oath and covenant and yet here was not their rest not here nor for any thing expressed or intimated in the word any where else Here was a Nunc dimittis but not in pace The Lord lets them depart and makes them depart but not in peace for their eyes saw no salvation they were sent away to a heavy captivity Beloved we may have had a Canaan an inheritance a comfortable assurance in our bosomes in our consciences and yet heare that voice after that here is not our rest except as Gods goodnesse at first moved him to make one oath unto us of a conditionall rest as our sins have put God to his second oath that he sware we should not have his rest so our repentance bring him to a third oath as I live I would not the death of a sinner that so he doe not onely make a new contract with us but give us withall an ability to performe the conditions which he requires SERMON X. Preached at the Churching of the Countesse of Bridgewater MICAH 2â— 10. second Sermon THus far we have proceeded in the first acceptation of these words according to their principall and literall sense as they appertain'd to the Iewes and their staâ—e so they were a Commination As they appertain to all succeeding Ages and to us so they are a Commonition an alarm to raise us from the sleep and death of sin And then in a third acceptation they are a Consolation that at last we shall have a rising and a departing into such a state in the Resurrection as we shall no more need this voice Arise and depart because we shall be no more in danger of falling no more in danger of departing from the presence and contemplation and service and fruition of God And in both these latter senses the words admit a just accommodation to this present occasion God having rais'd his honorable servant and hand-maid here present to a sense of the Curse that lyes upon women for the transgression of the first woman which is painfull and dangerous Child-birth and given her also a sense of the last glorious resurrection in having rais'd her from that Bed of weaknesse to the ability of coming into his presence here in his house First then to consider them in the first of these two latter senses as a Commonition to them that are in the state of sin first there is an increpation implied in this word Arise when we are bid arise we are told that we are faln sin is an unworthy descent and an ignoble fall Secondly we are bid to doe something and therefore we are able to doe something God commands nothing impossible so as that that degree of performance which he will accept should be impossible to the man whom his grace hath affected That which God will accept is possible to the godly And thirdly that which he commands here is deriv'd into two branches We are bidden to riseâ— that is to leave our bed our habit of sin and then not to be idle when we are up but to depart not onely to depart from the Customâ— but from tentations of Recidiâ—ation and not onely that but to depart into another way a habit of Actions contrary to our former Sins And then all this is press'd and urged upon us by a Reason The Holy Ghost appears not like a ghost in one sodain glance or glimmering but he testifies his presence and he presses the businesse that he comes for And the reason that he uses here is Quia non requies because otherwise we lose the Pondus animae the weight the ballast of our soule rest and peace of Conscience for howâ—ever there may be some rest some such shew of Rest as may serve a carnall man a little while yet sayes our Text it is not your Rest it conduces not to that Rest which God hath ordained for you whom he would direct to a better Rest. That Rest your Rest is not here not in that which is spoken of here not in your lying still you must rise from it not in your standing still you must depart from it your Rest is not here but yet since God sends us away because our Rest is not here he does tacitly direct â—s thereby where there is Rest And that will be the third acceptation of these words to which we shall come anone For that then which rises first the increpation of our fall implied in the word Arise there is nothing in which that which is the mother of all vertues discretion is more tryed then in the conveying and imprinting profitably a rebuke an increpation a knowledge and sense of sinne in the conscience of another The rebuke of sin is like the fishing of Whales the Marke is great enough one can scarse misse hitting but if there be not sea room and line enough a dexterity in
how much more may we conceive an unexpressible association that 's too far off an assimilation that 's not neare enough an identification the Schoole would venture to say so with God in that state of glory Where as the Sunne by shining upon the Moone makes the Moone a Planet a Star as well as it selfe which otherwise would be but the thickest and darkest part of that Spheare so those beames of Glory which shall issue from my God and fall upon me shall make me otherwise a clod of earth and worse a darke Soule a Spirit of darkenesse an Angell of Light a Star of Glory a something that I cannot name now not imagine now nor to morrow nor next yeare but even in that particular I shall be like God that as he that asked a day to give a definition of God the next day asked a week and then a moneth and then a yeare so undeterminable would my imaginations be if I should goe about to thinke now what I shall be there I shall be so like God as that the Devill himselfe shall not know me from God so far as to finde any more place to fasten a tentation upon me then upon God nor to conceive any more hope of my falling from that kingdome then of Gods being driven out of it for though I shal not be immortall as God yet I shall be as immortall as God And there 's my Image of God of God considered altogether and in his unity in the state of Glory I shall have also then the Image of all the three Persons of the Trinity Power is the Fathers and a greater Power then he exercises here I shall have there here he overcomes enemies but yet here he hath enemies there there are none here they cannot prevaile there they shall not be So Wisedome is the Image of the Sonne And there I shall have better Wisdome then spirituall Wisdome it selfe is here for here our best Wisedome is but to goe towards our end there it is rest in our end here it is to seek to bee Glorified by God there it is that God may be everlastingly glorified by mee The Image of the holy Ghost is Goodnesse here our goodnesse is mixt with some ill faith mixt with scruples and good workes mixt with a love of praise and hope of better mixt with feare of worse There I shall have sincere goodnesse goodnesse impermixt intemerate and indeterminate goodnesse so good a place as no ill accident shall annoy it so good company as no impertinent no importune person shall disorder it so full a goodnesse as no evill of sinne no evill of punishment for former sinnes can enter so good a God as shall no more keep us in fear of his anger nor in need of his mercy but shall fill us first and establish us in that fulnesse in the same instant and give us a satiety that we can with no more and an infallibility that we can lose none of that and both at once Where as the Cabalists expresse our nearenesse to God in that state in that note that the name of man and the name of God Adam and Iehovah in their numerall letters are alike and equall so I would have leave to expresse that inexpressible state so far as to say that if there can be other world imagined besides this that is under our Moone and if there could be other Gods imagined of those worlds besides this God to whose Image we are thus made in Nature in Grace in Glory I had rather be one of these Saints in this heaven then of those Gods in those other worlds I shall be like the Angels in a glorified Soul and the Angels shall not be like me in a glorified body The holy noblenesse and the religious ambition that I would imprint in you for attaining of this Glory makes me medismiss you with this note for the feare of missing that Glory that as we have taken just occasion to magnifie the goodnesse of God towards us in that he speakes plurally Faciamus Let us All us do this and so powers out the blessings of the whole Trinity upon us in this Image of himselfe in every Person of the three and in all these wayes which we have considered so when the anger of God is justly kindled against us God collects himselfe summons himself assembles himselfe musters himselfe and threatens plurally too for of those foure places in Scripture in which onely as we noted before God speakes of himselfe in a Royall plurall God speakes in anger and in a preparation to destruction in one of those foure intirely as intirely he speakes of mercy but in one of them in this text here he says meerly out of mercy Faciamus Let us us all us make man and in the same plurality the same universality he says after Descendamus confundamus Let us us all us goe downe to them and confound them as meerly out of indignation and anger as here out of mercy And in the other two places where God speakes plurally he speakes not meerly in mercy nor meerly in justice in neither but in both he mingles both So that God carries himselfe so equally herein as that no Soul no Church no State may any more promise it selfe patience in God if it provoke him then suspect anger in God if we conforme our selves to him For from them that set themselves against him God shall withdraw his Image in all the Persons and all the Attributes the Father shall withdraw his Power and we shall be enfeebled in our forces the Sonne his Wisdome and we shall be infatuated in our counsailes the holy Ghost his Goodnesse and we shall be corrupted in our manners and corrupted in our Religion and be a prey to temporall and spirituall enemies and change the Image of God into the Image of the Beast and as God loves nothing more then the Image of himselfe in his Sonne and then the Image of his Sonne Christ Jesus in us so he hates nothing more then the Image of Antichrist in them in whom he had imprinted his Sonnes Image that is declinations towards Antichrist or concurrencies with Antichrist in them who were borne and baptized and catechised and blessed in that profession of his truth That God who hath hitherto delivered us from all cause or colour of jealousies or suspitions thereof in them whom he hath placed over us to conforme us to his Image in a holy life that sinnes continued and multiplyed by us against him doe not so provoke him against us that those two great helps the assiduity of Preaching and the personall and exemplary piety and constancy in our Princes be not by our sinnes made unprofitable to us For that 's the heighth of Gods malediction upon a Nation when the assiduity of preaching and the example of a Religious Prince does them no good but aggravates their fault SERMON XXX Preached to the Countesse of Bedford then at Harrington house
scandall which Christ found in these Disciples of Iohn and which wee have noted in their progeny and off-spring but goe on to the fourth The way that Christ took to devest them thereof by calling them to the contemplation of his works Consider what you have seen done The blinde see The lame goe The deafe hear and then you will not endanger your blessednesse by being offended in me The evidence that Christ produces and presses is good works for if a man offer me the roote of a tree to taste I cannot say this is such a Pear or Apple or Plum but if I see the fruit I can If a man pretend Faith to me I must say to him with Saint Iames Can his Faith save him such a Faith as that the Apostle declares himself to mean A dead Faith as all Faith is that is inoperative and workes not But if I see his workes I proceed the right way in Judicature I judge secundum allegata probata according to my evidence And if any man will say those workes may be hypocriticall I may say of any witnesse He may be perjured but as long as I have no particular cause to think so it is good evidence to me as to hear that mans Oath so to see this mans workes Cum in Coelis sedentem in Crucem agere non possum Though I cannot crucifie Christ being now set at the right hand of his Father in Heaven yet there is Odium impietatis saith that Father A crucifying by ungodlinesse An ungodly life in them that professe Christ is a daily crucifying of Christ. Therefore here Christ refers to good works And there is more in this then so It is not onely good works but good works in the highest proportion The best works that he that doth them can doe Therefore in his own case he appeals to Miracles For if fasting were all or wearing of Camells haire all or to have done some good to some men by Baptizing them were all these Disciples and their Master might have had as much to plead as Christ. Therefore he calls them to the consideration of works of a higher nature of Miracles for God never subscribes nor testifies a forged Deed God never seals a falshood with a Miracle Therefore when the Jewes say of Christ He hath a Devill and is mad why heare ye him some of the other Jewes said These are not the words of one that hath a Devil But though by that it appear that some evidence some argument may be raised in a mans behalfe from his words from that he saith from his Preaching yet Christs friends who spoke in his favour doe not rest in that That those are not the words of one that hath a Devill but proceed to that Can the Devill open the eyes of the blinde He doth more then the Devill can doe They appeal to his works to his good workes to his great works to his Miracles But doth he put us to doe miracles no Though in truth those sumptuous and magnificent buildings and endowments which some have given for the sustentation of the poore are almost Miracles half Miracles in respect of those penurious proportions that Myut and Cumin and those half-ounces of broken bread which some as rich as they have dropped and crumbled out Truely he that doth as much as he can is almost a Miracle And when Christ appeals to his Miracles he calls us therein to the best works we can doe God will be loved with the whole heart and God will have that love declared with our whole substance I must not thinke I have done enough if I have built an Almes-house As long as I am able to doe more I have done nothing This Christ intimates in producing his greatest works Miracles which Miracles he closeth up with that as with the greatest Pauperes evangelizantur The poore have the Gospell preached unto them In this our Blessed Saviour doth not onely give an instruction to Iohns Disciples but therein also derives and conveyes a precept upon us upon us who as we have received mercy have received the Ministery and indeed upon all you whom he hath made Regale Sacerdotium A royall Priesthood and Reges Sacerdotes Kings and Priests unto your God and bound you therby as well as us to preach the Gospell to the poore you by an exemplar life and a Catechizing conversation as well as us by our words and meditations Now beloved there are Poore that are literally poore poore in estate and fortune and poore that are naturally poore poore in capacity and understanding and poore that are spiritually poore dejected in spirit and insensible of the comforts which the Holy Ghost offers unto them and to all these poore are we all bound to preach the Gospell First then for them which are literally poore poore in estate how much doe they want of this means of salvation Preaching which the rich have They cannot maintain Chaplains in their houses They cannot forbear the necessary labours of their calling to hear extraordinary Sermons They cannot have seats in Churches whensoever they come They must stay they must stand they must thrust they must overcome that difficulty which Saint Augustine makes an impossibility that is for any man to receive benefit by that Sermon that he hears with pain They must take pains to hear To these poore therefore the Lord and his Spirit hath sent me to preach the Gospell That Gospell The Lord knoweth thy povertie but thou art rich That Gospell Be content with such things as thou hast for the Lord hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee And that Gospell God hath chosen the poore of this world rich in faith heires of that Kingdome which he hath promised to them that love him And this is the Gospell of those poore literally poore poore in estate To those that are naturally poore poore in understanding the Lord and his Spirit hath sent me to preach the Gospell too That Gospell If any man lacke wisedome let him aske it of God Solomon himselfe had none till he asked it there And that Gospell where Iohn went bitterly because there was a Booke preseated but no man could open it It were a sad consideration if now when the Booke of God the Scripture is afforded to us we could not open that Booke not understand those Scriptures But there is the Gospell of those poore That Lambe which is spoken of there That Lambe which in the same place is called a Lion too That Lambe-Lion hath opened the Booke for us The humility of the Lambe gathereth the strength of the Lion come humbly to the reading and hearing of the Scriptures and thou shalt have strength of understanding The Scriptures were not written for a few nor are to be reserved for a few All they that were present at this LambLions opening of the Book that is All they that come with modesty and humility
question because I can have no certaine answer and it is an infectious question too for here is one coale of the Devils fire of his pride kindled in me as the Devil said Similis ere Altissimo I will be like the Highest and see whether I may not stand by my selfe without any Influence from God without any Dependance upon God so in our case I will be so farre equall to God as that I will measure his actions by my reason and nor doe his Commandements till I know why he commanded them And then when the infection is got into a House who can say it shall end here in this Person and kill no more or it shall end this weeke and last no longer So if that infectious inquisition that Quare Why should God command this or this perticular be entred into me all my Humilitie is presently infected and I shall looke for a reason why God made a world or why he made a world no sooner then 6000. yeares agoe and why he sayes some and why but some and I shall examine God upon all the Interrogatories that I can frame upon the Creed why I should believe a Sonne of a Virgin without a Man or believe the Sonne of God to descend into Hell Or frame upon the Pater Noster why I should worship such a God that must be prayed to not to leade me into tentation Or frame upon the Ten Commandements why after all is done and heapt for any sinfull action yet I should be guilty of all for covering in my heart another mans horse or house And therfore Luther pursues it farther with words of more vehemence Odiosa exitialis vocule Quare It is an Execrable and Damnable Monasillable Why it exasperates God it ruines us For when we come to aske a reason of his actions either we doubt of the goodnesse of God that he is not so carefull of us as we would be or of his power that he cannot provide for us so well as we could doe or of his wisdome that he hath not grounded his Commandements so well as we could have advised him whereas Saint Augustine saies justly Qui rationem quaerit voluntatis Dei aliquid majus Deo quaerit He that seekes a reason of the will of God seekes for something greater then God It was the Devill that opened our eies in Paradise it is our parts to shut them so farre as not to gaze upon Gods secret purposes God guided his Children as well by a Pillar of Cloud as by a Pillar of Fire and both Cloud and Fire were equally Pillars There is as much strength in and as safe relying upon some ignorances as some knowledges for God provided for his people as well in this that he did Moses body from them as that he revealed other Mysteries to them by him All is well summ'd and collected by Saint Augustine Dominus cur jusserit viderit faciendum est à serviente quod jusserit Why God commands any thing God himselfe knowes our part is not to enquire why by to doe what he commands This is the Rule 'T is true there should not be but yet is there not sometimes in the minds and mouths of good and godly men a Quare a reasoning a disputing against that which God hath commanded or done The murmuring of the Children in the Desert had still this Quare Quare eduxisti Wherefore have you brought us hither to die here in this miserable place where there is no Seed no Figges no Vines no Pomegrantes no Water Saul had this Quare this rebellious inquisition upon that Commandement of God against the Amalekites Slay both Man and Woman Infant and Suckling Oxe and Sheepe Camell and Asse And from this Quare from this disputation of his arose that conclusion That it were better to spare some for Sacrifice then to destroy all But though his pretence had a religious colour that would not justifie a slacknesse in obeying the manifested will of God for for this God repented that he made him King and told him that he had more pleasure in Obedience then in Sacrifice But to come to better men then the Israelites in the Wildernesse or Saul in his Government Iob though he and his Friends held out long They sate upon the ground even daies and seven nights and none spoke a word yet at last fell into these Quares Why did I not die in the birth or why sucked I the breast Peter himselfe had this reluctation and though that were out of piety yet he was chidden for it Quare lavas saies he Lord doest thou wash my feet thou shalt never wash my feet till Christ was faine to say If I wash thee not thou shalt have no part with me Upon this common infirmitie inherent in the best men that may and not unlikely be that when God commanded Abraham at that great age to circumcise himselfe there might arise such Quares such scruples and doubts as there in Abrahams minde for as Saint Paul saies of himselfe If any man thinke he hath whereof to trust in the flesh much more I Circumcised an Hebrew an Israelite a Pharisee a Zealous Servant in the persecution and in righteousnesse unblameable So if any man might have taken this libertie to have disputed with God upon his precepts Abraham might have done it for when God called him out to number the Starres which was even to Art impossible and promised him that his seed should equall them which was in Nature incredible for all this Incredibilitie and Impossibilitie Abraham believed and this was accounted to him for Righteousnesse And Abraham had declared his easie and forward and implicit faith in God when God called him and he went out not knowing whither he went And therefore when God offered him a new seale Circumcision Abraham might have said Quare sigillum What needs a seale betweene thee and me I have used to take thy word before and thou hast tried me before But Abraham knew that Obedience was better then wit or disputation for though Obedience and good works do not beget faith yet they nurse it Per ea augescit fidei pinguescit saies Luther Our faith grows into a better state and into a better liking by our good works Againe when Abraham considered that it was Mandatum in re turpi That this Circumcision in it selfe was too frivolous a thing and in that part of the Bodie too obscene a thing to be brought into the fancy of so many Women so many young Men so many Strangers to other Nations as might bring the Promise and Covenant it selfe into scorne and into suspicion that should require such a seale to it as that was he might have come to this Quare tam turpe quare tam sordidum why does God command me so base and uncleane a thing so scornfull and mis-interpretable a thing as Circumcision and Circumcision in that part Againe when he considered that to Circumcise all
glory with the Father before the world was made thou didst admit a cloud and a slumber upon that glory and staiedst for thy glory till thy death yet thou givest us naturally inglorious and miserable creatures a reall possession of glory and of inseparablenesse from thee in this life This is that Copiosa redemptio there is with the Lord plentifull redemption though that were Matura redemptio a seasonable redemption if it should meet me upon my death-bed and that the Angels then should receive my soul to lay it in Abrahams bosome yet this is my Saviours plentifull redemption that my soul is in Abrahams bosome now whilest it is in this body and that I am already in the presence of his Throne now when I am in your sight and that I serve him already day and night in his Temple now when I meditate or execute his Commission in this service in this particular Congregation Those words are not then necessarily restrained to Martyrs they are not restrained to the state of the Triumphant Church they are spoken to all the Children of righteousnesse and of godlines and godlinesse hath the promises of the life present and that that is to come That which involves all these promises that which is the kernell and seed and marrow of all the last clause of the text God shall wipe all teares from their eyes those words that clause is thrice repeated intirely in the Scriptures When it is spoken here when it is spoken in the one and twentieth Chapter of the Revelation and at the fourth verse in both places it is derived from the Prophet Esay which is an Eacharisticall chapter a Chapter of thanksgiving for Gods deliverance of his children even in this world from the afflictions and tribulations thereof and therefore this text belongs also to this world This imprinting then of the seale in the forehead this washing of the robes in the bloud of the Lambe S. Ambrose places conveniently to be accomplished in the Sacrament of Baptisme for this is Copiosissima Redemptio this is the most plentiful redemption that that be applied to us not onely at last in Heaven nor at my last step towards heaven at my death nor in all the steps that I make in the course of my life but in my first step into the Church nay before I can make any step when I was carried in anothers armes thither even in the beginning of this life and so do divers of the later Men and of those whom we call ours understand all this of baptisme because if we consider this washing away of teares as Saint Cyprian says young children doe most of all need this mercy of God and this assistance of Man because as soone as they come into this world Plorantes ac flentes nihil aliud faciunt quam deprecantur they beg with teares something at our hands and therefore need this abstersion this wiping For though they cannot tell us what they aile though if we will enter into curiosities we cannot tell them what they aile that is we cannot tell them what properly and exactly Originall sin is yet they aile something which naturally disposes them to weep and beg that something might be done for the wiping away of teares from their eyes And therefore though the other errors of the Anabaptist be ancient 1000. year old yet the denying of baptisme to children was never heard of till within 100. years and lesse The Arrians and the Donatists did rebapsize those who were baptized by the true Christians whom they counted Heretiques but yet they refused not to baptize children The Pelegians denied originall sin in children but yet they baptized them All Churches Greek and Russian and Ethiopique howsoever they differ in the body of the Church yet they meet they agree in the porch in Limine Ecclesiae in the Sacrament of baptisme and acknowledge that it is communicable to all children and to all Men from the child new borne to the decrepit old Man from him that is come out of one mothers wombe to him that is going into another into his grave Sicut nullus prohibendus à baptisme it a nullus est qui non peccate moritur in baptismo As baptisme is to be denied to none so neither is it to be denied that all that are rightly baptized are washed from sin Let him that will contentiously say that there are some children that take no profit by baptisme shew me which is one of them and qui testatur de scientia testetur de mode scientiae If he say he knowes it let him tell us how he knowes that which the Church of God doth not know We come now to the second part in which we consider first this firstword quoniam for which is verbum praegnans a word that includes all those great blessings which God hath ordained for them whom in his eternall decree he hath prepared for this sealing and this washing Those blessings which are immediately before the text are that in Gods purpose they are already come out of great tribulations they have already received a whitenes by the bloud of the Lambe they are already in the presence of the threne of the Lambe they have already overcome all hunger and thirst and heat Those particular blessings we cannot insist upon that requires rather a Comment upon the Chapter then a Sermon upon the text But in this word of inference for we onely wil observe this That though all the promises of God in him are Yea and Amen certain and infallible in themselves though his Name that makes them be Amen Thus saith Amen the faithfull and true witnesse and therefore there needs no better security then his word for all those blessings yet God is pleased to give that abundant satisfaction to Man as that his reason shall have something to build upon as well as his faith he shall know why he should beleeve all these blessings to belong to them who are to have these Seales and this washing For God requires no such faith nay he accepts nay he excuses no such faith as beleeves without reason beleeves he knows not why As faith witout fruit witout works is no faith to faith without a roct without reason is no faith but an opinion All those blessings by the Sacrament of Baptism all Gods other promises to his children and all the mysteries of Christrian Religion are therefore beleeved by us becuase they are grounded in the Scriptures of God we beleeve them for that reason and then it is not a worke of my faith primarily but it is a worke of my reason that assures me that these are the Scriptures that these Scriptures are the word of God I can answer other Mens reasons that argue against it I can convince other men by reason that my reasons are true and therefore it is a worke of reason that I beleeve these to be Scriptures To prove a beginning of the world I
speake for him After that first and heavy curse of Almighty God upon Man Morte morieris If thou eate thou shalt die and die twice thou shall die a bodily thou shalt die a spirituall death a punishment which no sentence of any law or law-maker could ever equall to deterre Men from offending by threatning to take away their lives twice and by inflicting a spirituall death eternally upon the Soule after we have all incurred that malediction Morte moriemur we shall die both death we cannot thinke to scape any lesse malediction of any law and therefore we are all Intestabiles we are all intestable in all these senses and apprehensions which we have touched upon We can make no testament of our owne we have no good thing in us to dispose we have no good inclination no good disposition in our Will we can make no use of anothers testament not of the double testaments of Almighty God for in the Old testament he gives promises of a Messias but we bring into the world no Faith to apprehend those promises and in the New testament he gives a performance the Messias is come but he is communicable to us no way but by baptisme and we cannot baptize our selves we can profit no body else by our testimony we are not able to endure persecution for the testimony of Christ to the edification of others we are not able to doe such workes as may shine before Men to the glorifying of our God Neither doth the testimony of others doe us any good for neither the Martyrdome of so many Millions in the primitive Church nor the execution of so many judgments of God in our owne times doe restifie any thing to our Consciences neither at the last day when those Saints of God whom we have accompanied in the outward worship of God here in the visible Church shall be called to the right hand and we detruded to the left shall they dare to open their mouthes for us or to testifie of us or to say Why Lord these Men when they were in the world did as we did appeared and served thee in thy house as we did they seem'd to goe the same way that we did upon Earth why goe they a sinister way now in heaven We are utterly intestable we can give nothing we can take nothing nothing will be beleeved from us who are all falshood it selfe nor can we be releeved by any thing that any other will say for us As long as we are considered under the penalty of that law this is our case Interdicti intestabiles we are accursed and so as that we are intestable Now as this great malediction Morte marieris in volves all other punishments upon whom that falls all fall so when our Saviour Christ Jesus hath a purpose to take away that or the most dangerous part of that the spirituall death when he will reverse that judgment Aqua igni interdicitur to make us capable of his water and his fire when he will reverse the intestabiles the inteâ—â—ability and make us able to receive his graces by faith and declare them by works then as he that will reedifie a demolished house begins not at the top but at the bottome so Christ Jesus when he will make this great preparation this great reedification of mankind he beginnes at the lowest step which is that we may have use of the testimony of others in our behalfe and he proceeds strongly and effectually he produces three witnesses from heaven so powerfull that they will be heard they will be beleeved and three witnesses on earth so neare us so familiar so domestique as that they will not be denied they will not be discredited Three are three that beare Record in heaven and three that beare record in earth Since then Christ Jesus makes us all our owne Iury able to conceive and judge upon the Evidence and testimony of these three heavenly and three earthly witnesses let us draw neare and hearken to the evidence and consider three things Testimonium esse Quid sit and Qui testes That God descends to meanes proportionable to Man he affords him witnesse and secondly the matter of the proofe what all these six witnesses testifie what they establish Thirdly the quality and value of the witnesses and whether the matter be to be beleeved for their sakes and for their reasons God requires nothing of us but Testimony for Martyrdome is but that A Martyr is but a witnesse God offers us nothing without testimony for his Testament is but a witnesse Teste ipso is shrewd evidence when God says I will speake and I will testifie against thee I am God even thy God when the voice of God testifies against me in mine owne conscience It is more pregnant evidence then this when his voice testifies against me in his word in his Scriptures The Lord testified against Israel by all the Prophets and by all the Seers When I can never be alone but that God speakes in me but speakes against me when I can never open his booke but the first sentence mine eye is upon is a witnesse against me this is fearfull evidence But in this text we are not in that storme for he hath made us Testabiles that is ready to testifie for him to the effusion of our bloud and Testabiles that is fit to take benefit by the testament that hee hath made for us The effusion of his bloud which is our second branch what is testified for us what these witnesses establish First then that which a sinner must be brought to understand and beleeve by the strength of these witnesses is Integritas Christi not the Integrity as it signifies the Innocency of Christ but integrity as it signifies Intireness not as it is Integer vitae but Integra vita not as he kept an integrity in his life but as he onely is intirely our life That Christ was a person composed of those two Natures divine and humane whereby he was a fit and a full satisfaction for all our sinnes and by death could be our life for when the Apostle writ this Epistle it seemes there had been a schisme not about the Mysticall body of Christ the Church but even about the Naturall that is to say in the person of Christ there had been a schisme a separation of his two natures for as we see certainly before the death of this Apostle that the Heresie of Ebion and of Cerinthus which denied the divine nature of Christ was set on foot for against them purposely was the Gospell of Saint Iohn written so by Epiphanius his ranking of the Heresies as they arose where he makes Basilides his Heresie which denied that Christ had any naturall body to be the fourth herefie and Ebions to be the tenth it seemes that they denied his humanity before they denied his Divinity And therefore it is well collected that this Epistle of Saint Iohn being written long
can cover it and say He that knew that I bought my office will be content to let me be a saver by it If our hands be foule with shedding of innocent bloud as Saint Hierome sayes that Adam eate the Apple Ne contristaretur Delicias suas left he should over grieve his wife by refusing it Ne contristaremur Delicias nostras either because we would not displease another or because our beloved sinne to which we had maried our selves did sollicite us to it Particular excuses cover our particular defects from the sight of men but to put on Christ covers us all over even from the sight of God himselfe So that how narrowly so ever he search into us he sees nothing but the whitenesse of his Sonnes innocency and the rednesse of his Sonnes bloud When the prodigall child returned to his father his father clothed him intirely and all at once he put a robe upon him to cover all his defects which Robe when God puts upon us in clothing us with Christ that robe is not onely Dignitaes quam perdidit Adam as Augustine says but it is Amictus sapientiae as Ambrase enlarges it It does not onely make us aswell as we were in Adam but it enables us better to preserve that state It does not onely cover us that is make us excusable for our past and present sinnes but it indues us with grace and wisdome to keep that robe still and never to returne to our former foulnesses and deformities Our first parents Adam and Eve were naked all over but they were not sensible of all their nakednesse but onely of those parts whereof they were ashamed Nothing but the shame of the world makes us discerne our deformities And onely for those faults which shame makes us take knowledge of we goe about to provide And we provide nothing but short Aprons as that word signified and those but of fig-leaves That which comes first to hand and that which is withered before it is made that doe we take for an excuse for an aversion of our owne conscience when she begins to cast an eye or to examine the nakednesse and deformities of our soules But when God came to cloath them their short aprons were extended to coates that covered them all over and their fig-leaves to strong skins for God saw that not onely those parts of which they were already ashamed needed covering but that in all their other parts if they continued naked and still exposed to the Injurie and violence of the weather they would contract diseases and infirmities and therefore God covers them so throughly as he doth not onely provide for reparation of former inconveniences but prepare against future And so perfect effects doth this garment Christ Iesus work upon us if we put him on He doth not onely cover Originall sinnes which is the effect of those disobedient Members which derive sinne upon us in the sinfull generation of our parents but he covers all our actuall sinnes which we multiplie every day and not onely those which the world makes us ashamed of but which we hide from the world yea which we hide from our selfes that is sinnes which by a long custome of practise we commit so habitually and so indifferently as that we have forgot that they are sinnes But as it was in Adams Clothing there so must it be in our spirituall putting on of Christ. The word used there Labash doth not signifie that God cloathed Adam nor that Adam cloathed himselfe but as the Grammarians call it it is in Hiphil and it signified Induere fecit eos God caused them to be cloathed or God caused them to cloath themselves which is also intimated nay evidently expressed in the words of this text we are our selves poore and impotent creatures we cannot make our selves ready we are poore and beggerly creatures we have nothing to put on Christ is that garment and then Christ is the very life by which we stretch out our armes and our legs to put on that garment yea he puts it on upon us he doth the whole worke but yet he doth not thrust it on He makes us Able to put it on but if we be not willing then he puts no necessity upon our will but we remaine naked still Induere then to put on is an extension a dilatation over all And sometimes it signifies an abundant and overflowing and overwhelming measure of Gods judgements upon us Princeps Induetur desolatione The prince shal be 〈◊〉 with desolation and with astonishment But most commonly the rich and all-sufficient proportion of his mercies and spirituall benefits as he expressed it to his Apostles at his ascension Stay you in the Citty quousque Induamini virtute ex alto till ye be indued so we translate it that is cloathed with power from on high And this was per fidem ei innitends and per opera cum declar ando says Saint Augustine He onely hath pat on Christ which hath Christ in himselfe by faith and shewes him to others by his works which is Lucernâ— ardens as Christ said of Iohn Baptist a burning lamp and a shining lamp profitable to others as well as to himselfe There is a degree of vanity and pride whereby some Men delight to weare their richest clothes innermost and most out of sight But in this double garment of a Christian it is necessarily so for faith is the richest and most precious part of this garment an this which is our Holy-day garment is worne innermost for that our faith is onely seen by God but our outward garment of workes which is our worky-day garment that is our sanctification is seen of all the world And that also must be put on or else we have not put on Christ and it must cover us all over that is our sanctification must goe through our whole life in a constant and an even perseverance we must not onely be Hospitale and feed the poore at Christmas be sober and abstinent the day that we receive repent and thinke of amendment of life in the day of visitation and sicknesse but as the garment which Christ wore was seamlesse and intire so this garment which is Christ Iesus that is our sanctification should be intire and uninterrupted in the whole course of our lives we must remember that at the Mariage which figured the kingdome of heaven the master of the feast reprehended and punished him that was come in not expresly because he had not a wedding garment but Quâ—modo intrasti says he how camest thou in not having on thy wedding garment So that if it could be possible though we had put on the inside of this garment which is Christ that is if we had faith yet if we have not the outside too that is sanctification we have not put on Christ as we should for this is Indui virtute ex alto to have both inside faith and outside sanctification and to put it on so that it may
disarm them he wil infatuate them he wil make them a prey to their enemies take away all true and all imaginary rest too Briefly it is the mark of all men even naturall men Rest for though Tertullian condemn that to call Quietis Magisterium Sapientiam The act of being and living at quiet wisdome therein seeming to exclude all wisdome that conduces not to rest as though there were no wisdome in action and in businesse Though in the person of Epicurus he condemn that and that saying Nemo alii nascitur moriturus sibi It is no reason that any Man should think himselfe born for others since he cannot live to himselfe or to labour for others since himselfe cannot enjoy rest yet Tertullian leaving the Epicures that placed felicity in a stupid and unsociable retiring sayes in his own person and in his own opinion almost as much Vnicum mihi negotium nec aliud curo quam ne curem All that I care for is that I might care for nothing and so even Tertullian in his Christian Philosophy places happinesse in rest Now he speaks not onely of the things of this world they must necessarily be car'd for in their proportion we must not decline the businesses of this life and the offices of society out of an aëry and imaginary affection of rest our principall rest is in the testimony of our Conscience and in doing that which we were sent to doe And to have a Rest and peace in a Conscience of having done that religiously and acceptably to God is our true Rest and this was the rest which the Jewes were to lose in this place the testimony of their consciences that they had perform'd their part their Conditions so that they might rely upon Gods promises of a perpetuall rest in the Land of Canaan and that rest they could not have not that peacefull testimony of their Consciences They could not have that rest no Rest not there not in Canaan which was the highest degree of the misery because they were confident in their term their state in that Land that it should be perpetuall and they were confident in the goodnesse of the Land that it should evermore give them all conveniencies in abundance conducing to all kind of rest for this Land God himself cals by the name of rest and of his rest I sware they should not enter into my rest So that rest was proper to this Land and this Land was proper to them For as St. Augustine notes well though God recover'd this Land for them and reestablish'd miraculously their possession yet they came but in their Remitter and in postliminio the inheritance of that Land was theirs before for Sem the son of Neah was in possession of this Land and the sons of Cham the Canaanites expel'd his race out of it and Abraham of the race of Sem was restor'd unto it again So that as the goodnesse of the Land promis'd rest so the goodnesse of the title promis'd them the Land and yet they might have no rest there They had a better title then that Those often oathes which God had sworne unto them that that land should be theirs forever was their evidence If then that land were Requies Domini the rest of the Lord that is the best and the safest Rest and that land were their land why should they not have that rest here when the Lord had sworne they should Why because he swore the contrary after but will God sweare contrary things why sâ—lus securus jurat qui falliâ—non potest says Saint Augustine onely he can sweare a thing safely that sees all circumstances and foresees all occurrances onely God can sweare safely because nothing can be hid from him God therefore that knew upon what conditions he had taken the first oath and knew againe how contemptuously those conditions were broken he takes knowledge that he had sworne he denies not that but he sweares againe and in his anger I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest Those Men says he which have seen my glory and my Miracles and have tempted me tenne times and not obeyed my voyce certainly they shall not see the land whereof I sware unto their fathers neither shall any that provoke me see it He pleads not Non est factum but he pleads conditions performed he denies not that he swore but he justifies himselfe that he had done as much as he promised for his promise was conditionall The Apostle seemes to assigne but one reason of their exclusion from this Land and from this rest and yet he expresses that one Reason so as that it hath two branches He sayes we see that they could not enter because of unbeleef and yet he asks the question To whom sware he that they should not enter into his Rest but unto them that obeyed not Vnbeleef is assigned for the cause and yet they were shut out for disobedience now if the Apostle make it all one whether want of faith or want of works exclude us from the Land of Rest let not us be too curious enquirers whether faith or works bring us thither for neither faith nor works bring us thither as a full cause but if we consider mediate causes so they may be both causes faith instrumentall works declaratory faith may be as evidence works as the scale of it but the cause is onely the free election of God Nor ever shall we come thither if we leave out either we shall meet as many Men in heaven that have lived without faith as without works This then was the case God had sworne to them an inheritance permanently there but upon condition of their obedience If they had not had a privity in the condition if they had not had a possibility to perform the condition their exclusion might haveseemed unjust and it had been so for though God might justly have forborne the promise yet he could not justly breake the promise if they had kept the conditions therefore he expressed the condition without any disguise at first If thy heart turne away â—â—prâ—nounce unto you this day that you shall surely perishâ— you shall not prolong your dayes in the land And then when those conditions were made and made knowne and made easie and accepted when they so rebelliously broke all conditions his first oath lay not in his way to stop him from the second As I live saith the Lord I will surely bring mine oath that they have broken and my covenant that they have despised upon their head shall they breake my covenant and he delivered says God there God confesses the oath and the covenant to be his covenant and his oath but the breach of the oath and covenant was theirs and not his He expresses his promise to them and his departing from them together in another Propher God says to the Propher Buy thee a girdle bury it in the ground
serve God at home to Church they must come and there all their grasse was troden and all their water troubled What should they doe God never brings us to a perplexity so as that we must necessarily do one sinne to avoyd another Neverâ— It seemes that the Apostles had been traduced and insimulated of teaching this Doctrine That in some cases evill might be done that good might follow and therefore doth S. Paul with so much diligence discharge himself of it And yet long after this when those men who attempted the Reformation whom they called Pauperes de Lugduno taught that Doctrine That no lesse sinne might he done to escape a greater this was imputed to them then by the Roman Church for an Heresie That that was Orthodox in Saint Paul was Heresie in them that â—studyed a Reformation But the Doctrine stands like a rocke against all waves That nothing that is naturally ill intrinsecally sinne may upon any pretence be done not though our lifes nor the lifes of all the Princes in the world though the frame and beeing of the whole world though the salvation of our souls lay upon it no sinne naturally intrinsecally sinne might be done for any respect Christus peccatum factus est sed non fesit peccatum Though Christ pursued our redemption with hunger and thirst yet he would have left us unredeemed rather then have committed any sinne Of this kinde therefore naturally intrinsecally sinne and so known to be to them that did it certainely our Fathers coming to the superstitious service in the Church of Rome was not for had it been naturally sinne and so known to them when they did it they could not have been saved otherwise then by repentance after which we cannot presume in their behalfe for there are not testimonies of it If any of them had invested at any time a scruple a doubt whether they did well or no alasse how should they devest and overcome that scruple To whom durst they communicate that doubt They were under an invincible ignorance and sometimes under an indevestible scruple They had heard that Christ commanded to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadduces and so of the Herodians that is of the doctrines of those particular sects of affirming Fate and Destiny and Stoicall necessity with the Pharisees of denying Spirits and Resurrection with the Sadduces of mis-applying the prophesies concerning the Messias to the person of Herod or any earthly King But yet after all this he commands them to observe and performe the doctrine of the Pharisees because they sate in Moses chaire Though with much vehemence and bitternesse he call them Hypocrites though with many ingeminations upon every occasion he reiterate that name though he aggravate that name with other names of equall reproach Fools blinde guides painted tombes and the like yet he commands to obey them and which is most remarkable this is sayd not onely to the common sort but even to his own disciples too Christ had begunne his work of establishing a Church which should empty their Synagogues but because that worke was not yet perfected he would not withdraw the people from their Synagogues for there wrought Gods Ordinance though corrupted by the workmen which Ordinance was that the law should be publiquely expounded to the people and so it was there There God was present And though the Devill by their corruption were there too yet the Devill came in at the window God at the dore the Devill by stealth God by his declared Ordinance and Covenant And this was the case of our Fathers in the Roman Church They must know that all that hath passed between God and man hath passed Ex pacto by way of contact and covenant The best works of the best man have no proportion with the kingdome of heaven for I give God but his own But I have it Ex pacto God hath covenanted so Fac hoc vives Doe this and thou shalt live and at the last judgement Christ shall ground his Venite benedicti Come ye blessed and his Ite maledicti Goe ye accursed upon the Quia and upon the Quia non Because you have and Because you have not done this and this Faith that is of infinite value above works hath yet no proportion to the kingdome of heaven Faith saves mee as my hand feeds mee It reaches the food but it is not the food but faith saves Ex pacto by vertue of that Covenant which Christ hath made Tantummodo crede Onely beleeve To carry it to the highest the merit of Christ Iesus himselfe though it bee infinite so as that it might have redeemed infinite worlds yet the working thereof is safeliest considered in the School to be Ex pacto by vertue of that contract which had passed between the Father and him that all things should thus and thus be transacted by Christ and so man should be saved for if we shall place it meerely onely in the infinitenesse of the merit Christs death would not have needed for his first drops of bloud in his Circumcision nay his very Incarnation that God was made man and every act of his humiliation after being taken singly yet in that person God and man were of infinite merit and also if it wrought meerly by the infinitnesse of the merit it must have wrought not onely upon all men but to the salvation of the Devill for certainely there is more merit in Christ then there is sinne in the Devill But the proceeding was Ex pacto according to the contract made and to the conditions given Ipse conteret caput tuum That the Messias should bruise the Serpents head for us included our redemption That the Serpents head should be bruised excluded the Serpent himselfe This contract then between God and man as it was able to put the nature of a great fault in a small offence if we consider onely the eating of an apple and so to make even a Trespass High-Treason because it was so contracted so does this contract the Ordinance of God infuse a great vertue efficacie in the instruments of our reconciliation how mean in gifts or how corrupt in manners soever they be Circumcision in it self a low thing yea obscene subject to mis-interpretation yet by reason of the covenant He that is not circumcised that person shall be cut off from my people So also Baptism considered in it selfe a vulgar and a familiar thing yet except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven The Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ a domestique a dayly thing if we consider onely the breaking of the bread and participation of the Cup but if we ascend up to the contract in the institution it is to every worthy receiver the seale and the Conduit of all the merits of Christ to his soule God threw down the walls of Jericho with
company in the reformation of Religion A miracle scarce lesse then the first propagation thereof in the primitive Church In how few yeares did God make the number of learned â—riters the number of persons of all qualities the number of Kings in whose Dominions the reformed Religion was exercised equall to the number of them who adhered to the Roman Church And yet thou must not depart from this contemplation till thou have made thy self an argument of all this till thou have concluded out of this that God hath made love to thy soule thy weake soule thy sick and foule and sinfull soule That he hath written to thee in all his Scriptures sent Ambassage to thee in all his preachers presented thee in all his temporall and spirituall blessings That he hath come to thee even in actions of uncle annesse in actions of unfaithfulnesse towards men in actions of distrustfulnesse towards God and hath checked thy conscience and delivered thee from some sins even then when thou wast ready to commit them as all the rest That that God who is but one in himselfe is yet three persons That those three who were all-sufficient to themselves would yet make more make Angels make man make a Christ make him a Spouse a Church and first propagate that by so weake men in so hard a doctrine and in so short a space over all the world and then reforme that Church againe so soone to such a heighth as these I say are to all the world so be thou thy self and Gods exceeding goodnesse to thee an argument That that God who hath shewed himself so loath to lose thee is certainly loath to lose any other soule but as he communicates himself to us all here so he would have us all partake of his joy and glory hereafter he that fils his Militant Church thus would not have his Triumphant Church empty So far we consider the accessiblenesse the communicablenesse the conversation of our good and gracious God to us in the generall There is a more speciall manner intimated even in the first word of our Text After this After what After he had seene the servants of God sealed sealed This seale seales the contract betweene God and Man And then consider how generall this seale is First God sealed us in imprinting his Image in our soules and in the powers thereof at our creation and so every man hath this seale and he hath it as soone as he hath a soule The wax the matter is in his conception the seale the forme is in his quickning in his inanimation as in Adam the waxe was that red earth which he was made of the seale was that soule that breath of life which God breathed into him Where the Organs of the body are so indisposed as that this soule cannot exercise her faculties in that man as in naturall Idiots or otherwise there there is a curtaine drawn over this Image but yet there this Image is the Image of God is in the most naturall Idiot as well as in the wisest of men worldly men draw other pictures over this picture other images over this image The wanton man may paint beauty the ambitious may paint honour the covetous wealth and so deface this image but yet there this image is and even in hell it selfe it will be in him that goes down into hell uri potest in gehenna non exuri sayes St. Bernard The image of God may burne in hell but as long as the soule remaines that image remaines there too And then thou who wouldest not burne their picture that loved thee wilt thou betray the picture of the Maker thy Saviour thy Sanctifier to the torments of hell Amongst the manifold and perpetuall interpretations of that article He descended into hell this is a new one that thou senâ—est him to hell in thy soule Christ had his Consummatum est from the Iewes he was able to say at last All is finished concerning them shall he never have a Consummatum est from thee never be at an end with thee Never if his Image must burne eternally in thy soule when thou art dead for everlasting generations Thus then we were sealed all sealed all had his image in our creation in the faculties of our soules But then we were all sealed againe sealed in our very flesh our mortall flesh when the image of the invisible God Christ Iesus the onely Sonne of God tooke our nature for as the Tyrant wished that all mankinde were but one body that he might behead all mankinde at a blow so God tooke into his mercie all mankinde in one person As intirely as all mankinde was in Adam all mankinde was in Christ and as the seale of the Serpent is in all by originall sinne so the seale of God Christ Iesus is on us all by his assuming our nature Christ Jesus tooke our souls and our bodies our whole nature and as no Leper no person how infectiously soever he be diseased in his body can say surely Christ never tooke this body this Leprosie this pestilence this rottennesse so no Leprous soule must say Christ never tooke this pride this adultery this murder upon himself he sealed us all in soule and body when he tooke both and though both dye the soule in sin daily the body in sicknesse perchance this day yet he shall afford a resurrection to both to the soule here to the body hereafter for his seale is upon both These two seales then hath God set upon us all his Image in our soules at our making his Image that is his Sonne upon our bodies and soules in his incarnation And both these seales he hath set upon us then when neither we our selves nor any body else knew of it He sets another seale upon us when though we know not of it yet the world the congregation does in the Sacrament of Baptisme when the seale of his Crosse is a testimony not that Christ was borne as the former seale was but that also he dyed for us there we receive that seale upon the forehead that we should conforme our selves to him who is so sealed to us And after all these seales he offers us another and another seale Set me as a seale upon thy heart and as a seale upon thine arme says Christ to all us in the person of the spouse in the Heart by a constant faith in the Arme by a declaratory works for then are we sealed and delivered and witnessed that 's our full evidence then have we made sure our salvation when the works of a holy life doe daily refresh the contract made with God there at our Baptisme and testifie to the Church that we doe carefully remember what the Church promised in our behalfe at that time for otherwise beloved without this seale upon the arme that is a stedfast proceeding in the works of a holy life we may have received many of the other seales and yet deface
that the Gospel of Saint Iohn containes all Divinity this Chapter all the Gospell and this Text all the Chapter Therefore it is too large to goe through at this time at this time we shall insist upon such branches as arise out of that consideration what and who this light is for we shall finde it to be both a personall light it is some body and otherwise too a reall light it is some thing therefore we inquire what this light is what thing and who this light is what person which Iohn Baptist is denied to be Hereafter we shall consider the Testimony which is given of this light in which part in due time we shall handle the person of the witnesse Iohn Baptist in whom we shall finde many considerable and extraordinary circumstances and then his Citation and calling to this testimony and thirdly the testimony it selfe that he gave and lastly why any testimony was requisite to so evident a thing as light But the first part who and what this light is belongs most properly to this day and will fill that portion of the day which is afforded us for this exercise Proceed we therefore to that Iohn Baptist was not that light who was what was Though most expositors as well ancient as modern agree with one generall and unanime consent that light in this verse is intended and meant of Christ Christ is this light yet in some precedent and subsequent passages in this Chapter I see other senses have been admitted of this word light then perchance those places will beare certainly other then those places need particularly in the fourth verse In it was life and that life was the light of men there they understand life to be nothing but this naturall life which we breath and light to be onely that naturall life naturall reason which distinguishes us men from other creatures Now it is true that they may have a pretence for some ground of this interpretation in antiquity it selfe for so says Saint Cyrill Filius Dei Creativè illuminat Christ doth enlighten us in creating us And so some others of the Fathers and some of the Schooles understand by that light naturall Reason and that life conservation in life But this interpretation seemes to me subject to both these dangers that it goes so farre and yet reaches not home So far in wresting in divers senses into a word which needs but one and is of it selfe cleare enough that is light and yet reaches not home for it reaches not to the essentiall light which is Christ Iesus nor to the supernaturall light which is Faith and Grace which seemes to have been the Evangelists principall scope to declare the comming of Christ who is the essentiall light and his purpose in comming to raise and establish a Church by Faith and Grace which is the supernaturall light For as the holy Ghost himselfe interprets life to be meant of Christ He that hath the Sonne hath life so we may justly doe of light too he that sees the Sonne the Sonne of God hath light For light is never to my remembrance found in any place of the Scripture where it must necessarily signifie the light of nature naturall reason but wheresoever it is transferred from the naturall to a figurative sense it takes a higher signification then that either it signifies Essentiall light Christ Jesus which answers our first question Quis lux who is this light it is Christ personally or it signifies the supernaturall light of Faith and Grace which answers our second question Quid lux what is this light for it is the working of Christ by his Spirit in his Church in the infusion of Faith and Grace for beliefe and manners And therefore though it be ever lawfull and often times very usefull for the raising and exaltation of our devotion and to present the plenty and abundance of the holy Ghost in the Scriptures who satisfies us as with marrow and with fatnesse to induce the diverse senses that the Scriptures doe admit yet this may not be admitted if there may be danger thereby to neglect or weaken the literall sense it selfe For there is no necessity of that spirituall wantonnesse of finding more then necessary senses for the more lights there are the more shadows are also cast by those many lights And as it is true in religious duties so is it in interpretation of matters of Religion Necessarium Satis convertuntur when you have done that you ought to doe in your calling you have done enough there are no such Evangelicall counsailes as should raise workes of supererogation more then you are bound to doe so when you have the necessary sense that is the meaning of the holy Ghost in that place you have senses enow and not till then though you have never so many and never so delightfull Light therefore is in all this Chapter fitliest understood of Christ who is noted here with that distinctive article Illa lux that light For non sic dicitur lux sicut lapis Christ is not so called Light as he is called a Rock or a Cornerstone not by a metaphore but truly and properly It is true that the Apostles are said to be light and that with an article the light but yet with a limitation and restriction the light of the world that is set up to convey light to the world It is true that Iohn Baptist himselfe was called light and with large additions Lucerna ardens a burning and a shining lampe to denote both his owne burning zeale and the communicating of this his light to others It is true that all the faithfull are said to be light in the Lord but all this is but to signifie that they had been in darknesse before they had been beclouded but were now illustrated they were light but light by reflexion by illustration of a greater light And as in the first creation vesper mane dies unus The evening and the morning made the day evening before morning darknesse before light so in our regeneration when wee are made new Creatures the Spirit of God findes us in naturall darknesse and by him we are made light in the Lord. But Christ himselfe and hee onely is Illa lux vera lux that light the true light Not so opposed to those other lights as though the Apostles or Iohn Baptist or the faithfull who are called lights were false lights but that they were weake lights But Christ was fons lucis the fountaine of all their light light so as no body else was so so as that hee was nothing but light Now neither the Apostles nor Iohn Baptist nor the Elect no nor the virgin Mary though wee should allow all that the Roman Church aske in her behalfe for the Roman Church is not yet come to that searednesse that obduratenesse that impudency as to pronounce that the virgin Mary was without originall sinne though they have done many
If wee winke wee cannot chuse but see it if we stare wee know it never the better No man is yet got so neare to the knowledge of the qualities of light as to know whether light it selfe be a quality or a substance If then this naturall light be so darke to our naturall reason if wee shall offer to pierce so far into the light of this text the Essentiall light Christ Iesus in his nature or but in his offices or the supernaturall light of faith and grace how far faith may be had and yet lost and how far the freewill of man may concur and cooperate with grace and yet still remaine nothing in it selfe if wee search farther into these points then the Scripture hath opened us a way how shall wee hope to unentangle or extricate our selves They had a precious composition for lamps amongst the ancients reserved especially for Tombes which kept light for many hundreds of yeares we have had in our age experience in some casuall openings of ancient vaults of finding such lights as were kindled as appeared by their inscriptions fifteen or sixteen hundred years before but as soon as that light comes to our light it vanishes So this eternall and this supernaturall light Christ and faith enlightens warmes purges and does all the profitable offices of fire and light if we keep it in the right spheare in the proper place that is if wee consist in points necessary to salvation and revealed in the Scripture but when wee bring this light to the common light of reason to our inferences and consequencies it may be in danger to vanish it selfe and perchance extinguish our reason too we may search so far and reason so long of faith and grace as that we may lose not onely them but even our reason too and sooner become mad then good Not that we are bound to believe any thing against reason that is to believe we know not why It is but a slacke opinion it is not Beliefe that is not grounded upon reason He that should come to a Heathen man a meere naturall man uncatechized uninstructed in the rudiments of the Christian Religion and should at first without any preparation present him first with this necessitie Thou shalt burn in fire and brimstone eternally except thou believe a Trinitie of Persons in an unitie of one God Except thou believe the Incarnation of the second Person of the Trinitie the Sonne of God Except thou believe that a Virgine had a Soone and the same Sonne that God had and that God was Man too and being the immortall God yet died he should be so farre from working any spirituall cure upon this poore soule as that he should rather bring Christian Mysteries into scorne then him to a beliefe For that man if you proceed so Believe all or you burne in Hell would finde an easie an obvious way to escape all that is first not to believe Hell it selfe and then nothing could binde him to believe the rest The reason therefore of Man must first be satisfied but the way of such satisfaction must be this to make him see That this World a frame of so much harmony so much concinnitie and conveniencie and such a correspondence and subordination in the parts thereof must necessarily have had a workeman for nothing can make it selfe That no such workeman would deliver over a frame and worke of so much Majestie to be governed by Fortune casually but would still retain the Administration thereof in his owne hands That if he doe so if he made the World and sustaine it still by his watchfull Providence there belongeth a worship and service to him for doing so That therefore he hath certainly revealed to man what kinde of worship and service shall be acceptable to him That this manifestation of his Will must be permanent it must be written there must be a Scripture which is his Word and his Will And that therefore from that Scripture from that Word of God all Articles of our Beliefe are to bee drawne If then his Reason confessing all this aske farther proofe how he shall know that these Scriptures accepted by the Christian Church are the true Scriptures let him bring any other Booke which pretendeth to be the Word of God into comparison with these It is true we have not a Demonstration not such an Evidence as that one and two are three to prove these to be Scriptures of God God hath not proceeded in that manner to drive our Reason into a pound and to force it by a peremptory necessitie to accept these for Scriptures for then here had been no exercise of our Will and our assent if we could not have resisted But yet these Scriptures have so orderly so sweet and so powerfull a working upon the reason and the understanding as if any third man who were utterly discharged of all preconceptions and anticipations in matter of Religion one who were altogether neutrall disinteressed unconcerned in either party nothing towards a Turke and as little toward a Christian should heare a Christian pleade for his Bible and a Turke for his Alcoran and should weigh the evidence of both the Majesty of the Style the punctuall accomplishment of the Prophecies the harmony and concurrence of the foure Evangelists the consent and unanimity of the Christian Church ever since and many other such reasons he would be drawne to such an Historicall such a Grammaticall such a Logicall beliefe of our Bible as to preferre it before any other that could be pretended to be the Word of God He would believe it and he would know why he did so For let no man thinke that God hath given him so much ease here as to save him by believing he knoweth not what or why Knowledge cannot save us but we cannot be saved without Knowledge Faith is not on this side Knowledge but beyond it we must necessarily come to Knowledge first though we must not stay at it when we are come thither For a regenerate Christian being now a new Creature hath also a new facultie of Reason and so believeth the Mysteries of Religion out of another Reason then as a meere naturall Man he believed naturall and morall things He believeth them for their own sake by Faith though he take Knowledge of them before by that common Reason and by those humane Arguments which worke upon other men in naturall or morall things Divers men may walke by the Sea side and the same beames of the Sunne giving light to them all one gathereth by the benefit of that light pebles or speckled shells for curious vanitie and another gathers precious Pearle or medicinall Ambar by the same light So the common light of reason illumins us all but one imployes this light upon the searching of impertinent vanities another by a better use of the same light finds out the Mysteries of Religion and when he hath found them loves them not for the lights sake but for the naturall and
watchfulnesse that we fall not into sinne we have lucem essentiae possession and fruition of heaven and of the light of Gods presence and then if we doe by infirmity fall into sinne yet by this denudation of our soules this manifestation of our sinnes to God by confession and to that purpose a gladnesse when we heare our sinne spoken of by the preacher we have lumen gloriae an inchoation of our glorified estate and then an other couple of these lights which we propose to be considered is lumen fidei and lumen naturae the light of faith and the light of nature Of these two lights Faith and Grace first and then Nature and Reason we said something before but never too much be cause contentious spirits have cast such clouds upon both these lights that some have said Nature doth all alone and others that Nature hath nothing to do at all but all is Grace we decline wranglings that tend not to edification we say onely to our present purpose which is the operation of these severall couples of lights that by this light of Faith to him which hath it all that is involved in Prophecies is clear and evident as in a History already done and all that is wrapped up in promises is his own already in performance That man needs not goe so high for his assurance of a Messias and Redeemer as to the first promise made to him in Adam nor for the limitation of the stock and race from whence this Messias should come so far as to the renewing of this promise in Abraham nor for the description of this Messias who he should be and of whom he should be born as to Esaias nor to Micheas for the place nor for the time when he should accomplish all this so far as to Daniel no nor so far as to the Evangelists themselves for the History and the evidence that all this that was to be done in his behalf by the Messias was done 1600. yeares since But he hath a whole Bible and an abundant Library in his own heart and there by this light of Faith which is not onely a knowing but an applying an appropriating of all to thy benefit he hath a better knowledge then all this then either Propheticall or Evangelicall for though both these be irrefragable and infallible proofs of a Messias the Propheticall that he should the Evangelicall that he is come yet both these might but concern others this light of Faith brings him home to thee How sure so ever I be that the world shall never perish by water yet I may be drowned and how sure so ever that the Lamb of God hath taken away the sinnes of the world I may perish without I have this applicatory Faith And as he needs not looke back to Esay nor Abraham nor Adam for the Messias so neither needs he to looke forward He needs not stay in expectation of the Angels Trumpets to awaken the dead he is not put to his usquequo Domine How long Lord wilt thou defer our restitution but he hath already died the death of the righteous which is to die to sinne He hath already had his buriall by being buried with Christ in Baptisme he hath had his Resurrection from sinne his Ascension to holy purposes of amendment of life and his Iudgement that is peace of Conscience sealed unto him and so by this light of applying Faith he hath already apprehended an eternall possession of Gods eternall Kingdome And the other light in this second couple is Lux naturae the light of Nature This though a fainter light directs us to the other Nature to Faith and as by the quantitie in the light of the Moone we know the position and distance of the Sunne how far or how neare the Sunne is to her so by the working of the light of Nature in us we may discern by the measure and virtue and heat of that how near to the other greater light the light of Faith we stand If we finde our naturall faculties rectified so as that that free will which we have in Morall and Civill actions be bent upon the externall duties of Religion as every naturall man may out of the use of that free will come to Church heare the Word preached and believe it to be true we may be sure the other greater light is about us If we be cold in them in actuating in exalting in using our naturall faculties so farre we shall be deprived of all light we shall not see the Invisible God in visible things which Saint Paul makes so inexcusable so unpardonable a thing we shall not see the hand of God in all our worldly crosses nor the seal of God in all our worldly blessings we shall not see the face of God in his House his presence here in the Church nor the mind of God in his Gospell that his gracious purposes upon mankinde extend so particularly or reach so far as to include us I shall heare in the Scripture his Vinite omnes come all and yet I shall thinke thatâ— his eye was not upon me that his eye did not becken me and I shall heare the Deus vult omnes salves that God would save all and yet I shall finde some perverse reason in my selfe why it is not likely that God will save me I am commanded scrutari Scripturas to search the scriptures now that is not to be able to repeat any history of the Bible without booke it is not to ruffle a Bible and upon any word to turne to the Chapter and to the verse but this is exquisit a scrutatio the true searching of the Scriptures to finde all the histories to be examples to me all the prophecies to induce a Saviour for me all the Gospell to apply Christ Jesus to me Turne over all the folds and plaits of thine owne heart and finde there the infirmities and waverings of thine owne faith and an ability to say Lord I beleeve help mine unbeleefe and then though thou have no Bible in thy hand or though thou stand in a dark corner nay though thou canst not reade a letter thou hast searched that Scripture thou hast turned to Marke 9. ver 24 Turne thine eare to God and heare him turning to thee and saying to thy soule I will marry thee to my selfe for ever and thou hast searched that Scripture and turned to Hos. 2. ver 19. Turne to thine owne histery thine owne life and if thou canst reade there that thou hast endeavoured to turne thine ignorance into knowledge and thy knowledge into Practice if thou finde thy selfe to be an example of that rule of Christs If you know these things blessed are you if you do them then thou hast searched that Scripture and turned to Io. 13. ver 14. This is Scrutari Scripturas to Search the Scriptures not as though thou wouldest make a concordance but an application as thou wouldest search a
and may make thee doubt whether thou have it or no every day that is as often as thou canst heare more and more witnesses of this light and bless that God who for thy sake would submit himselfe to these Testimonia ab homine these Testimonies from men and being all light himselfe and having so many other Testimonies would yet require the Testimony of Man of Iohn which is our other branch of this first part Christ who is still the light of our Text That light the essentiall light had testimony enough without Iohn First he bore witness of himselfe And though he say of himself If I beare witnesse of my self my witnesse is not true yet that he might say either out of a legall and proverbiall opinion of theirs that ordinarily they thought That a witness testifying for himself was not to be beleeved whatsoever he said Or as Man which they then took him to be he might speake it of himselfe out of his own opinion that in Iudicature it is a good rule that a man should not be beleeved in his own case But after this and after he had done enough to make them see that he was more then man by multiplying of miracles then he said though I beare witnesse of my selfe my witnesse is true So the onely infallibility and unreproachable evidence of our election is in the inward word of God when his Spirit beares witnesse with our Spirit that we are the Sonnes of God for if the Spirit the Spirit of truth say he is in us he is in us But yet the Spirit of God is content to submit himselfe to an ordinary triall to be tried by God and the Countrey he allowes us to doubt and to be afraid of our regeneration except we have the testimony of sanctification Christ bound them not to his own testimony till it had the seale of workes of miracles nor must we build upon any testimony in our selves till other men that see our life testifie for us to the world He had also the testimony of his Father the Father himselfe which hath sent me beareth witnesse of me But where should they see the Father or heare the Father speak That was all which Philip asked at his hands Lord show us the Father and it sufficeth us He had the testimony of an Angel who came to the shepheards so as no where in all the Scriptures there is such an Apparition expressed the Angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them but where might a man talke with this Angel and know more of him As Saint Augustine says of Moses Scripsit abiit he hath written a little of the Creation and he is gone Si hîc esset tenerem rogarem if Moses were here says he I would hold him fast till I had got him to give me an exposition of that which he writ For beloved we must have such witnesses as we may consult farther with I can see no more by an Angel then by lightning A star testified of him at his birth But what was that star was it any of those stars that remaine yet Gregory Nissen thinkes it was and that it onely then changed the naturall course and motion for that service But almost all the other Fathers thinke that it was a light but then created and that it had onely the forme of a star and no more and some few that it was the holy Ghost in that forme And if it were one of the fixed stars and remaine yet yet it is not now in that office it testifies nothing of Christ now The wise men of the East testified of him too But what were they or who or how many or from whence were they for all these circumstances have put Antiquity it selfe into more distractions and more earnest disputations then circumstances should doe Simeon testified of him who had a revelation from the holy Ghost that he should not see death till he had seen Christ. And so did the Prophetess Anna who served God with fasting and prayer day and night Omnis sexus aetas both sexes and all ages testified of him and he gives examples of all as it was easie for him to doe Now after all these testimonies from himselfe from the Father from the Angel from the star from the wise men from Simeon from Anna from all what needed the testimony of Iohn All those witnesses had been thirty years before Iohn was cited for a witnesse to come from the wildernesse and preach And in thirty years by reason of his obscure and retired life in his father Iosephs house all those personall testimonies of Christ might be forgotten and for the most part those witnesses onely testified that he was borne that he was come into the world but for all their testimony he might have been gone out of the world long Before this he might have perished in the generall flood in that flood of innocent blood in which Herod drowned all the young children of that Countrey When therefore Christ came forth to preach when he came to call Apostles when he came to settle a Church to establish meanes for our ordinary salvation by which he is the light of our text the Essentiall light shining out in his Church by the supernaturall light of faith and grace then he admitted then he required Testimonium ab homine testimony from man And so for our conformity to him in using and applying those meanes which convay this light to us in the Church we must doe so too we must have the seale of faith and of the Spirit but this must be in the testimony of men still there must be that done by us which must make men testifie for us Every Christian is a state a common-wealth to himselfe and in him the Scripture is his law and the conscience is his Iudge And though the Scripture be inspired from God and the conscience be illumined and rectified by the holy Ghost immediately yet both the Scriptures and the Conscience admit humane arguments First the Scriptures doe in all these three respects first that there are certaine Scriptures that are the revealed will of God Secondly that these books which we call Canonicall are those Scriptures And lastly that this and this is the true sense and meaning of such and such a place of Scripture First that there is a manifestation of the will of God in certain Scriptures if we who have not power to infuse Faith into men for that is the work of the Holy Ghost onely but must deal upon the reason of men and satisfie that if we might not proceed per testimonia ab homine by humane Arguments and argue and infer thus That if God will save man for worshipping him and damne him for not worshipping him so as he will be worshipped certainly God hath revealed to man how he will be worshipped and
death not by the hand of a Moses but a Messias Opt as dare qui praecipit petere he that commands us to aske would faine give Cupit largiri qui desider at postulari he that desires us to pray to him hath that ready and a readinesse to give that that he bids us pray for If the King give a generall pardon will any man be so suspiciously trecherous in his own behalfe as to say for all this large extent of his mercy he meant not me and therefore I will sue out no pardon If the King cast a donative at his Coronation will any man lie still and say he meant none of that money to me When the master of the feast sent his servants for guests had it become those poor and maiâ—ed and halt and blind to have stood and disputed with the steward and said Surely sir you mistooke your Master your Master did not meane us Why should any man thinke that God meanes not him When he offers grace and salvation to all why not to him Should God exclude him as a man Why God made him good and as a man and his creature he is good still But non Deus Esan hominem odit fed odit Esau peccatorem God did not hate Esau as he was a man but as he was a sinner Should he exclude him as a sinner Why then he should receive none for we are all so and he came for none but such but sinners Perfectiorum est nihil in peccatore odiisse praeter peccata To hate nothing in a sinner but his sinne is a great degree of perfection God is that perfection he hates nothing in thee but thy sinne and that sinne he hath taken upon himself and sees it not in thee Should he exclude thee because thou art impenitent because thou hast not repented Doe it now Peccasti paenitere Hast thou sinned repent Millies peccasti millies poenitere Hast thou multiplied thy sinnes by thousands multiply thy penitent teares so too Should he exclude thee because thou art impenitible thou canst not repent how knowest thou thou canst not repent Doest thou try doest thon endevour doest thou strive why this this holy contention of thine is repentance Discredit not Gods evidence he offers thee Testimonium ab homine the testimony of man of the man of God the Minister that the promises of the Gospell belong to thee Judge not against that evidence confesse that there is no other name given under heaven to be saved but the name of Iesus and that that is And then when thou hast thus admitted his witnesses to thee that his preaching hath wrought upon thee be thou his witnesse to others by thy exemplar life and holy conversation In this chapter in the calling of the Apostles some such thing is intimated when of those two Disciples which upon Iohns testimony followed Christ one is named Andrew and the other is not named No doubt but the other is also written in the book of life and long since enjoyes the blessed fruit of that his forwardnesse But in the testimony of the Gospell written for posterity onely Andrew is named who sought out his brother Simon and drew him in and so propagated the Church and spread the Glory of God They who testifie their faith by works give us the better comfort and posterity the better example It will be but Christs first question at the last day What hast thou done for me If we can answer that he will aske What hast thou suffered for me and if we can answer that he will aske at last Whom hast thou won to me what soul hast thou added to my Kingdome Our thoughts our words our doings our sufferings if they bring but our selves to Heaven they are not Witnesses our example brings others and that is the purpose and the end of all we have said Iohn Baptist was a witnesse to us we are so to you be you so to one another SERMON XXXIX Preached at Saint Pauls PHILIP 3. 2. Beware of the Concision THis is one of those places of Scripture which afford an argument for that which I finde often occasion to say That there are not so eloquent books in the world as the Scriptures For there is not onely that non refugit which Calvin speaketh of in this place Non refugit in Organis suis Spiritus Sanctus leporem facetias The Holy Ghost in his Instruments in those whose tongues or pens he makes use of doth not forbid nor decline elegant and cheerfull and delightfull expression but as God gave his Children a bread of Manna that tasted to every man like that that he liked best so hath God given us Scriptures in which the plain and simple man may heare God speaking to him in his own plain and familiar language and men of larger capacity and more curiosity may heare God in that Musique that they love best in a curious in an harmonious style unparalleled by any For that also Calvin adds in that place that there is no secular Authour Qui jucundis vocum allusionibus figuris magis abundat which doth more abound with perswasive figures of Rhetorique nor with musicall cadences and allusions and assimilations and conformity and correspondency of words to one another then some of the Secretaries of the Holy Ghost some of the authours of some books of the Bible doe Of this Rule this Text is an example These Philippians amongst whom Saint Paul had planted the Gospell in all sincerity and impermixt had admitted certain new men that preached Traditionall and Additionall Doctrines the Law with the Gospell Moses with Christ Circumcision with Baptisme To these new Convertites these new Doctors inculcated often that charm You are the Circumcision you are they whom God hath sealed to himself by the Seale of Circumcision They whom God hath distinguished from all Nations by the marke of Circumcision They in whom God hath imprinted and that in so high a way as by a Sacrament an internall Circumcision in an externall and will you breake this Seale of Circumcision will you deface this marke of Circumcision will you depart from this Sacrament of Circumcision You are the Circumcision Now Saint Paul meets with these men upon their haunt and even in the sound of that word which they so often pressed he sayes they presse upon you Circumcision but beware of Concision of tearing the Church of God of Schismes and separations from the Church of God of aspersions and imputations upon the Church of God either by imaginary superfluities or imaginary defectivenesse in that Church for saith the Apostle We are the Circumcision we who worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Iesus and have no confidence in the flesh If therefore they will set up another Circumcision beyond this Circumcision if they will continue a significative a relative a preparative figure after the substance the body Christ Jesus is manifested to us a legall
bowells When Christ is disseised and dispossest his truth profligated and thrown out of a nation that professed it before when Christ is wounded by the blasphemies of others and crucified by thee in thy relapses to repented sinnes wilt thou not say to Them to Thy selfe in the behalfe of Christ why persecute yee me Wilt thou not make Christs case thine as hee made thine his Art not thou the bowells of Christ If not and thou art not if thou have not this sense of his suffering thou hast no interest in his death by thy Baptisme nor in his Resurrection by thy feeble halfe repentances But in the duty of a child as thou art a servant in the simplicity of a child as thou hast sucked from him in the interest and inheritance of a child as thou art the Son of his bowells in all these capacities and with all these we have done God calls thee come ye children and that is our next step the Action Come Passing thus from the Persons to the action Venite Come we must aske first what this comming is The whole mystery of our redemption is expressed by the Apostle in this word venit that Christ Iesus is come into the world All that thou hast to do is to come to and to meet him Where is he At home in his own house in the Church Which is his house which is his Church That to thee in which he hath given thee thy Baptisme if that do still afford thee as much as is necessary for thy salvation Come thither to the participation of his ordinances to the exercises of Religion there The gates of heaven shall be opened to you at last in that word Venite benedicti come ye blessed the way to those gates is opened to you now in the same word Venite filii come ye children come Christ can come and does often into thy bed-chamber in the visitation of his private Spirit but here he calls thee out into the congregation into the communion of Saints And then the Church celebrates Christs coming in the flesh a moneth before he comes in four Sundays of Advent before Christmas When thou comest to meet him in the Congregation come not occasionally come not casually not indifferently not collaterally come not as to an entertainment a show a spectacle or company come solemly with preparation with meditation He shall have the lesse profit by the prayer of the Congregation that hath not been at his private prayer before he came Much of the mystery of our Religion lay in the venturus that Christ was to come all that the law and Prophets undertooke for was that venturus that Christ was to come but the consummation of all the end of the law and the Prophets is in the venit he is come Do not clogge thy coming with future conditions and contingencies thou wilt come if thou canst wake if thou canst rise if thou canst be ready if thou like the company the weather the man We finde one man who was brought in his bed to Christ but it was but one Come come actually come earnestly come early come often and come to meet him Christ Jesus and no body else Christ is come into the world and therefore thou needest not goe out of the world to meet him He doth not call thee from thy Calling but in thy Calling The Dove went up and down from the Arke and to the Arke and yet was not disappointed of her Oliveleafe Thou maiest come to this place at due times and maiest doe the businesses of the world in other places too and still keep thy Olive thy peace of Conscience If no Hereticall recusancy thou dost like the Doctrine no schismaticall recusancy thou dost like the Discipline no lasie recusancy thou forbearest not because thou canst not sit at thine ease no proud recusancie that the company is not good enough for thee if none of these detain thee thou maist be here even when thou art not here God may accept thy desire as in many cases thou maist be away when thou art here as in particular thou art if being here thou do not hearken to that which is said here for that is added to the coming and follows in a third consideration after the capacity Children and the Action Come The disposition Hearken Come ye children hearken Upon those words of David Conturbata sunt ossa mea St. Basil faith well Habet anima ossa sua The soul hath bones as well as the body And in this Anatomy and dissection of the soul as the bones of the soul are the constant and strong resolutions thereof and as the seeing of the soul is understanding The eyes of your understanding being opened so the Hearing of the soul is hearkning in these religious exercises we doe not htar except we hearken for hearkning is the hearing of the soul. Some men draw some reasons out of some stories of some credit to imprint a belief of extasie and raptures That the body remaining upon the floore or in the bed the soul may be gone out to the contemplation of heavenly things But it were a strange and a perverse extasie that the body being here at a religious exercise and in a religious posture the soul should be gone out to the contemplation and pursuit of the pleasures or profits of this world You come hither but to your own funeralls if you bring nothing hither but your bodies you come but to be enterred to be laid in the earth if the ends of your comming be earthly respects prayse and opinion and observation of men you come to be Canonized to grow Saints if your souls be here and by grace here alwayes diffused grow up to a sanctification Bonus es Domine animae quaerenti te Thou art good O Lord to that soul that seeks thee It is St. Augustines note that it is put in the singular Animae to that soul Though many come few come to him A man may thread Sermons by half dozens a day and place his merit in the nūber a man may have been all day in the perfume and incense of preaching and yet have receivd none of the savor of life unto life Some things an Ape can do as wel as a Man some things an Hypocrite as wel as a Saint We cannot see now whether thy soul be here now or no but to morrow hereafter in the course of thy life they which are near thee know whether thy former faults be mended or no know whether thy soul use to be at Sermons as well as thy body uses to go to Sermons Faith comes by hearing saith the Apostle but it is by that hearing of the soul Hearkning Considering And then as the soul is infused by God but diffused over the whole body so there is a Man so Faith is infused from God but diffused into our works and so there is a Saint Practise is the Incarnation of Faith Faith is incorporated and manifested in a body by works and