faine reduce it to a narrower compasse of time Hâ—die si vocem ejus audieritis that you would heare his voyce to day and not harden your hearts to day And to a narrower compasse then that Dabitur in illa hora sayes Christ Luk. 12.12 The holy Ghost shall teach you in that houre In this houre the holy Ghost offers himselfe unto you And to a narrower compasse then an houre Beati qui nunc esuritis qui nunc fletis Luk. 6.21 Blessed are ye that hunger now and that mourn now that put not off years nor dayes nor hours but come to a sense of your sins and of the meanes of reconciliation to God now this minute And therefore when ye reade Iusta pondera just weights and Just balances Levit. 19.36 and just measures a just Hin and a just Ephah shall ye have I am the Lord your God Do not you say so I will hereafter I will come to just weights and measures and to deale uprightly in the world as soon as I have made a fortune established a state raised a competency for wife and children but yet I must doe as other men doe Levit. 23. when you reade Remember that you keep holy the Sabbath day and by the way remember that God hath called his other holy dayes and holy convocations Sabbaths too remember that you celebrate his Sabbaths by your presence here doe not you say so I will if I can rise time enough if I can dine soon enough when you reade sweare not at all doe not you say Matt. 5.34 no more I would but that I live amongst men that will not beleeve me without swearing and laugh at me if I did not sweare for duties of this kinde permanent and constant duties arising out of the evidence of Gods word such as just and true dealing with men such as keeping Gods Sabbaths such as not blaspheming his name have no latitude about them no conditions in them they have no circumstance but are all substance no apparell but are all body no body but are all soule no matter but are all forme They are not in Genere deliberativo they admit no deliberation but require an immediate and an exact execution But then for extraordinary things things that have not their evidence in the word of God formerly revealed unto us whether we consider matters of Doctrine Extraordinary and new opinions or matter of Practise and new commands from what depth of learning soever that new opinion seeme to us to rise or from heighth of Power soever that new-Command seeme to fall it is still in genere deliberativo still we are allowed nay still wee are commanded to deliberate Melch. Canus to doubt to consider before we execute As a good Author in the Roman Church sayes Perniciosius est Ecclesiae It is more dangerous to the Church to accept an Apocryphall book for Canonicall then to reject a Canonicall booke for Apocryphall so may it be more dangerous to doe some things which to a distempered man may seeme to be commanded by God then to forbeare some things which are truely commanded by him God had rather that himselfe should be suspected then that a false god should be admitted The easinesse of admitting Revelations and Visions and Apparitions of spirits and Purgatory souls in the Roman Church And then the overbending and super-exaltation of zeale and the captivity to the private spirit which some have fallen into that have not beene content to consist in moderate and middle wayes in the Reformed Church this easinesse of admitting imaginary apparitions of spirits in the Papist and this easinesse of submitting to the private spirit in the Schismatike hath produced effects equally mischievous Melancholy being made the seat of Religion on the one side Basil by the Papist and Phrenzy on the other side by the Schismatick Multi prae studio immoderato intendi in contrarium aberrarunt à medio was the observation and the complaint of that Father in his time and his prophecy of ours That many times an over-vehement bending into some way of our owne choosing does not onely withdraw us from the left hand way the way of superstition and Idolatry from which wee should all draw but from the middle way too in which we should stand and walk And then Leo. the danger is thus great facile in omnia flagitia impulit quos religione decepit diabolus As God doth the devill also doth make Zeal and Religion his instrument And in other tentations the devill is but a serpent but in this when he makes zeale and religion his instrument he is a Lyon As long as the devill doth but say Doe this or thou wilt live a foole and dye a begger Doe this or thou canst not live in this world the devill is but a devill he playes but a devils part a lyer a seducer But when the devill comes to say Doe this or thou canst not live in the next world thou canst not be saved here the devill pretends to be God here he acts Gods part and so prevails the more powerfully upon us And then when men are so mis-transported either in opinions or in actions with this private spirit and inordinate zeale Quibus non potest auferre fidem aufert charitatem sayes the same Father Though the devill hath not quenched faith in that man himselfe yet he hath quenched that mans charity towards other men Though that man might be saved in that opinion which he holds because perchance that opinion destroyes no fundamentall point yet his salvation is shrewdly shaked and endangered in his uncharitable thinking that no body can be saved that thinks otherwise And as it works thus to an uncharitablenesse in private so doth it to turbulency and sedition in the publique Of which Eusebius we have a pregnant and an aplyable example in the life of Constantine the Emperour In his time there arose some new questions and new opinions in some points of Religion the Emperor writ alike to both parties thus De rebus ejusmodi nec omnino rogetis nec rogati respondeatis Doe you move no questions in such things your selves and if any other doe yet be not you too forward to write so much as against them What questions doth he meane That is expressed Quas nulla lex Canonve Ecclesiasticus necessario praescribit Such questions as are not evidently declared and more then evidently declared necessarily enjoyned by some law some rule some Canon of the Church Disturbe not the peace of the Church upon Inferences and Consequences but deale onely upon those things which are evidently declared in the Articles and necessarily enjoyned by the Church And yet though that Emperor declared himselfe on neither side nor did any act in favour of either side yet because he did not declare himselfe on their side those promovers of these new opinions Eo pervenere sayes that Author ut imagines Imperatoris violarint They
not Christ meerly as the Son of God but the Son of Mary too And that generation the Holy Ghost hath told us was in the fulnesse of time When the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth c. In which words Divisio we have these three considerations First the time of Christs comming and that was the fulnesse of time And then the maner of his comming which is expressed in two degrees of humiliation one that he was made of a woman the other that he was made under the Law And then the third part is the purpose of his comming which also was twofold for first he came to redeem them who were under the Law All And secondly he came that we we the elect of God in him might receive adoption When the fulnesse of time was come c. For the full consideration of this fulnesse of time 〈◊〉 we shall first consider this fulnesse in respect of the Jews and then in respect of all Nations and lastly in respect of our selves The Jews might have seen the fulnesse of time the Gentiles did in some measure see it and we must if we will have any benefit by it see it too It is an observation of S. Cyril That none of the Saints of God nor such as were noted to be exemplarily religious and sanctified men did ever celebrate with any festivall solemnity their own birth-day Pharaoh celebrated his own Nativity 〈◊〉 40.22 but who would make Pharaoh his example and besides he polluted that festivall with the bloud of one of his servants Herod celebrated his Nativity but who would think it an honor to be like Herod and besides he polluted that festivall with the blood of Iohn Baptist But the just contemplation of the miseries and calamities of this life into which our birth-day is the doore and the entrance is so far from giving any just occasion of a festivall as it hath often transported the best disposed Saints and servants of God to a distemper to a malediction and cursing of their birth-day 〈…〉 Cursed be the day wherein I was born and let not that day wherein my mother bare me be blessed Let the day perish wherein I was born let that day be darknesse Job 3. and let not God regard it from above How much misery is presaged to us when we come so generally weeping into the world that perchance in the whole body of history we reade but of one childe Zoroaster that laughed at his birth What miserable revolutions and changes what downfals what break-necks and precipitations may we justly think our selves ordained to if we consider that in our comming into this world out of our mothers womb we doe not make account that a childe comes right except it come with the head forward and thereby prefigure that headlong falling into calamities which it must suffer after Though therefore the dayes of the Martyrs which are for our example celebrated in the Christian Church be ordinarily called natalitia Martyrum the birth-day of the Martyrs yet that is not intended of their birth in this world but of their birth in the next when by death their soules were new delivered of their prisons here and they newly born into the kingdome of heaven that day upon that reason the day of their death was called their birth-day and celebrated in the Church by that name Onely to Christ Jesus the fulnesse of time was at his birth not because he also had not a painfull life to passe through but because the work of our redemption was an intire work and all that Christ said or did or suffered concurred to our salvation as well his mothers swathing him in little clouts as Iosephs shrowding him in a funerall sheete as well his cold lying in the Manger as his cold dying upon the Crosse as well the puer natus as the consummatum est as well his birth as his death is said to have been the fulnesse of time First we consider it to have been so to the Jews for this was that fulnesse Indeic in which all the prophecies concerning the Messias were exactly fulfilled Dan. 2. Hagg. 2. Mich. 5. Esay 7. That he must come whilest the Monarchy of Rome flourished And before the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed That he must be born in Bethlem That he must be born of a Virgin His person his actions his passion so distinctly prophecyed so exactly accomplished as no word being left unfulfilled this must necessarily be a fulnesse of time So fully was the time of the Messias comming come that though some of the Jews say now that there is no certain time revealed in the Scriptures when the Messias shall come and others of them say that there was a time determined and revealed and that this time was the time but by reason of their great sins he did not come at his time yet when they examine their own supputations they are so convinced with that evidence that this was that fulnesse of time that now they expresse a kinde of conditionall acknowledgement of it by this barbarous and inhumane custome of theirs that they alwayes keep in readinesse the blood of some Christian with which they anoint the body of any that dyes amongst them with these words if Jesus Christ were the Messias then may the blood of this Christian availe thee to salvation So that by their doubt and their implyed consent in this action this was the fulnesse of time when Christ Jesus did come that the Messias should come It was so to the Jews and it was so to the Gentiles too Gontibus It filled those wise men which dwelt so far in the East that they followed the star from thence to Jerusalem Herod was so full of it that he filled the Countrey with streames of innocent bloud and lest he should spare that one innocent childe killed all The two Emperours of Rome Vespasian and Domitian were so full of it that in jealousie of a Messias to come then from that race they took speciall care for the destruction of all of the posterity of David All the whole people were so full of it that divers false-Messiahs Barcocab and Moses of Crete and others rose up and drew and deceived the people as if they had been the Messiah because that was ordinarily knowne and received to be the time of his comming And the Devill himself was so full of it as that in his Oracles he gave that answer That an Hebrew childe should be God over all gods and brought the Emperour to erect an Altar to this Messiah Christ Jesus though he knew not what he did This was the fulnesse that filled Jew and Gentile Kings and Philosophers strangers and inhabitants counterfaits and devils to the expectation of a Messiah and when comes this fulnesse of time to us that we feele this Messiah born in our selves In this fulnesse in this comming of our Saviour into us Nobis we should
place in such a disposition as that if you should meet the last Trumpets at the gates and Christ Jesus in the clouds you would not intreat him to goe back and stay another yeare To enwrap all in one if you have a religious and sober assurance that you are his and walke according to your beleefe you are his and as the fulnesse of time so the fulnesse of grace is come upon you and you are not onely within the first commission of those who were under the Law and so Redeemed but of this quorum who are selected out of them the adopted sons of that God who never disinherits those that forsake not him SERMON IV. Preached at S. Pauls upon Christmas day 1626. LUKE 2.29 30. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word For mine eyes have seen thy salvation THe whole life of Christ was a continuall Passion others die Martyrs but Christ was born a Martyr He found a Golgatha where he was crucified even in Bethlem where he was born For to his tendernesse then the strawes were almost as sharp as the thornes after and the Manger as uneasie at first as his Crosse at last His birth and his death were but one continuall act and his Christmas-day and his Good Friday are but the evening and morning of one and the same day And as even his birth is his death so every action and passage that manifests Christ to us is his birth for Epiphany is manifestation And therefore though the Church doe now call twelf-Twelf-day Epiphany because upon that day Christ was manifested to the Gentiles in those Wise men who came then to worship him yet the Ancient Church called this day the day of Christs birth the Epiphany because this day Christ was manifested to the world by being born this day Every manifestation of Christ to the world to the Church to a particular soule is an Epiphany a Christmas-day Now there is no where a more evident manifestation of Christ then in that which induced this text Lord now lettest thou thy servant c. It had been revealed to Simeon whose words these are that he should see Christ before he dyed And actually and really substantially essentially bodily presentially personally he does see him so it is Simeons Epiphany Simeons Christmas-day So also this day in which we commemorate and celebrate the generall Epiphany the manifestation of Christ to the whole world in his birth all we we who besides our interest in the universall Epiphany and manifestation implyed in the very day have this day received the Body and Blood of Christ in his holy and blessed Sacrament have had another Epiphany another Christmas-day another manifestation and application of Christ to our selves And as the Church prepares our devotion before Christmas-day with foure Sundayes in Advent which brings Christ nearer and nearer unto us and remembers us that he is comming and then continues that remembrance again with the celebration of other festivals with it and after it as S. Stephen S. Iohn and the rest that follow so for this birth of Christ in your particular soules for this Epiphany this Christmas-day this manifestation of Christ which you have had in the most blessed Sacrament this day as you were prepared before by that which was said before so it belongs to the through celebration of the day and to the dignity of that mysterious act and to the blessednesse of worthy and the danger of unworthy Receivers to presse that evidence in your behalf and to enable you by a farther examination of your selves to depart in peace because your eyes have seen his salvation To be able to conclude to you selves that because you have had a Christmas-day a manifestation of Christs birth in your soules by the Sacrament you shall have a whole Good-Friday a crucifying and a consummatum est a measure of corrections and joy in those corrections tentations and the issue with the tentation And that you shall have a Resurrection and an Ascension an inchoation and an unremoveable possession of heaven it self in this world Make good your Christmas day that Christ by a worthy receiving of the Sacrament be born in you and he that dyed for you will live with you all the yeare and all the yeares of your lives and inspire into you and receive from you at the last gasp this blessed acclamation Lord now lettest thou thy servant c. The end of all digestions Divisio and concoctions is assimilation that that meate may become our body The end of all consideration of all the actions of such leading and exemplar men as Simeon was is assimilation too That we may be like that man Therefore we shall make it a first part to take a picture to give a character of this man to consider how Simeon was qualified and prepared matured and disposed to that confidence that he could desire to depart in peace intimated in that first word Now now that all that I look for is accomplished And farther expressed in the first word of the other clause For for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Now now the time is fulfilled For for mine eyes have seen And then enters the second part what is the greatest happinesse that can be well wished in this world by a man well prepared is that he may depart in peace Lord now lettest thou c. And all the way in every step that we make in his light in Simeons light we shall see light we shall consider that that preparation and disposition and acquiescence which Simeon had in his Epiphany in his visible seeing of Christ then is offered to us in this Epiphany in this manifestation and application of Christ in the Sacrament And that therefore every penitent and devout and reverent and worthy receiver hath had in that holy action his Now there are all things accomplished to him and his For for his eyes have seen his salvation and so may be content nay glad to depart in peace In the first part then 1 Part. in which we collect some marks and qualities in Simeon which prepared him to a quiet death qualities appliable to us in that capacity as we are â—â—tred for the Sacrament Praesentatio for in that way only we shall walk throughout this exercise wee consider first the action it self what was done at this time At this time our Saviour Christ according to the Law by which all the first born were to be presented to God in the Temple at a certain time after their birth was presented to God in the Temple and there acknowledged to be his And then bought of him again by his parents at a certain price prescribed in the Law A Lord could not exhibite his Son to his Tenants and say this is your Land-lord nor a King his Son to his Subjects and say this is your Prince but first he was to be tendred to God his they were all He that is not
the eldest almost in all vulgar languages the name of a Lord or magistrate hath no other derivation then so an Elder Senior noster is a word that passes freely through the authors of the middle age for our Lord or our King and the same derivation hath the name of Priest in a holy language Presbyter an Elder So evermore in the course of the Scripture all counsell and all government is placed in the Elders and all the service of God is expressed so even in heaven too by the foure and twenty Elders Apoc. 4.9 Thy Creator will be remembred in the dayes of thy youth but God hath had longer experience of that man and longer conversation with that man who is come to a holy age That wise King who could carry nothing to a higher pitch in any comparison then to a Crowne saies Age is a crowne of glory Prov. 16.31 when it is found in the wayes of the righteous but in the waies of righteousnesse no blessing is a blessing and in the waies of righteousnesse wealth may be a crowne of our labours and health may be a crowne of our temperance but age is the crowne of glory of reverence â—hat crowne the crowne of reverence the Lord the righteous Judge hath reserved to that day the day of our age because our age is the seale of our constancy and perseverance In this blessed age Simeon was thus dignified admitted to this Epiphany this manifestation of Christ And to be admitted to thy Epiphany and manifestation of Christ in the Sacrament thou must put off the yong man and put on the old God to whose Table thou art called is represented as Antiquus Dierum the ancient of Daies and his Guests must be of mortified affections He must be crucified to the world that will receive him that was crucified for the world the lusts of youth the voluptuousnesse of youth the revengefulnesse of youth must have a holy damp and a religious stupidity shed upon them that come thither Nay it is not enough to bee suddenly old to have sad and mortified thoughts then no nor to be suddenly dead to renounce the world then that houre that morning but quatriduani sitis you should have been dead three daies as Lazarus you should have passed an Examination an accusation a condemnation of your selves divers daies before ye came to that Table God was most glorified in the raising of Lazarus when he was long dead and putrified God is most glorified in giving a resurrection to him that hath been longest dead that is longest in the Contemplation of his owne sinfull and spirituall putrefaction For he that stinks most in his owne by true contrition is the best perfume to Gods nostrils and a conscience troubled in it selfe is Odor quietis as Noahs sacrifice was a savor of rest to God This assistance we have to the exaltation of our devotion from that circumstance that Simeon was an old man Sacerdos we have another from another that he was a Priest and in that notion and capacity the better fitted for this Epiphany this Christmas this Manifestation of Christ We have not this neither in the letter of the story no nor so constantly in Tradition that he was a Priest as that he was an old man But it is rooted in Antiquity too In Athanasius in St. Cyrill in Epiphanius in others who argue and inferre it fairly and conveniently out of some Priestly acts which Simeon seemes to have done in the Temple as the taking of Christ in his armes which belongs to the Priest and the blessing of God which is the Thanks-giving to God in the behalfe of the congregation and then the blessing of the people in the behalfe of God which are acts peculiar to the Priest Accepting him in that quality a Priest we consider that as the King takes it worse in his houshold servants then in his Subjects at large if they goe not his wayes so they who dwell in Gods house whose livelihood growes out of the revenue of his Church and whose service lies within the walls of his Church are most inexcusable if they have not a continuall Epiphany a continuall Manifestation of Christ All men should looke towards God but the Priest should never looke off from God And at the Sacrament every man is a Priest I had rather that were not said which yet a very Reverend Divine sayes That this Simeon might be aliquis plebeius homo Calvin some ordinary common man that was in the Temple at that time when Christ was brought He who is of another sub-division Chemnicius though in the reformed Church too collects piously that God chose extraordinary men to give testimony of his Sonne Nicodemus a great Magistrate Gamaliel a great Doctor Iairus a Ruler in the Synagogue and this Simeon in probability pregnant enough a Priest But was that any great Addition to him if hee were so For holinesse certainly it was But for outward dignity and respect it was so too Josephus amongst them In omni Natione certum aliquod Nobilitatis argumentum Every Nation hath some particular way of ennobling and some particular evidence and declaration of Nobility Armes for a great part is that in Spaine and Merchandize in some States in Italy and learning in France where besides the very many preferments by the Church in which some other Nation may be equall to them there are more preferments by other wayes of learning especially of Judicature then in any other Nation All Nations sayes Iosephus had some peculiar way and amongst the Jews sayes he Priesthood was that way A Priest was even for civill priviledges a Gentleman Therefore hath the Apostle not knighted nor ennobled but crowned every good soule with that style Regale Sacerdotium That they are a Royall Priesthood To be Royall without Priesthood seemed not to him Dignity enough Consider then that to come to the Communion Table is to take Orders Every man should come to that Altar as holy as the Priest Erasmus for there he is a Priest And Sacer dotem nemo agit qui libenter aliud est quam Sacerdos No man is truly a Priest which is any thing else besides a Priest that is that entangles himselfe in any other businesse so as that that hinders his function in his Priesthood No man comes to the Sacrament well that is sorry hee is there that is whom the penalty of the law or observation of neighbours or any collaterall respect brings thither There thou art a Priest though thou beest but a lay-man at home And then no man that hath taken Orders can deprive himselfe or devest his Orders when he will Thou art bound to continue in the same holinesse after in which thou presentest thy selfe at that Table As the sailes of a ship when they are spread and swolne and the way that the ship makes shewes me the winde where it is though the winde it selfe be an invisible thing so thy
vae habitantibus terram Apoc. 8.13 a woe of desolation upon the whole world for God loves this world as the worke of his owne hands as the subject of his providence as the Scene of his glory as the Garden-plot that is watered by the Blood of his Son Since the Woe in this Text is not Esaies wo Vae genti peccatrici Esay 1.4 an increpation and commination upon our whole Nation for God hath not come so neare to any Nation and dealt so well with any Nation as with ours Since the Woe in this Text is not Ezekiels Woe Ezek. 24â— Vae Civitati sanguinum an imputation of injustice or oppression and consequently of a malediction laid upon the whole City for God hath carried his woes upon other Cities Vae Chorasin vae Bethsaida God hath laid his heavy hand of warre and other calamities upon other Cities that this City might see her selfe and her calamities long before in that glasse and so avoid them Since the Woe in this Text is not the Prophets other woe Ezek. 44.6 Ios 24.15 Vae domui not a woe upon any family for when any man in his family comes to Ioshua's protestation Ego domus mea As for me and my house we will serve the Lord the Lord comes to his protestation In mille generationes Esay 28.1 I will shew mercy to thee and thy house for a thousand generations Since the Woe in this Text is not Esaies woe againe Vae Coronae for the same Prophet tels us of what affection they are that they are Idolaters persons inclin'd to an idolatrous and superstitious Religion and fret themselves Esay 8 2â— and curse the King and their God we know that the Prophets Vae Coronae in that place is Vae Coronae superbiae and the crowne and heighth of Pride is in him who hath set himselfe above all that is called God Christian Princes know that if their Crownes were but so as they seeme all gold they should bee but so much the heavier for being all gold but they are but Crownes of thornes gilded specious cares glorious troubles and therefore no subject of pride To contract this since the Woe in this Text is no State woe nor Church woe for it is not Ezechiels Vae Pastoribus insipientibus which cannot feed their flock Ezek. 23.3 Ier. 23.1 nor Ieremies Vae Pastoribus disperdentibus Woe unto those lazie Shepheards which doe not feed their flock but suffer them to scatter Snce the Woe in this Text is not a woe upon the whole World nor upon the whole Nation nor upon the whole City nor upon any whole Family nor upon any whole ranke or calling of men when I have asked with Solomon Cui vae to whom belongs this woe I must answer with S. Paul Vae mihi Prov. 23.19 1 Cor. 9.16 woe unto me if I doe not tell them to whom it belongs And therefore since in spirituall things especially charity begins with it selfe I shall transferre this Vae from my selfe by laying it upon them whom your owne conscience shall find it to belong unto Vae desiderantibus diem Domini Woe be unto them that desire the day of the Lord c. But yet if these words can be narrow in respect of persons it is strange for in respect of the sins that they are directed upon they have a great compasse they reach from that high fin of Presumption and contempt and deriding the day of the Lord the judgements of God and they passe through the sin of Hypocrisie when we make shift to make the world and to make our selves beleeve that we are in good case towards God and would be glad that the day of the Lord the day of judgement would come now and then they come downe to the deepest sin the sin of Desperation of an unnaturall valuing of this life when overwhelmed with the burden of other sins or with Gods punishment for them men grow to a murmuring wearinesse of this life and to an impatient desire and perchance to a practise of their owne ends In the first acceptation the day of the Lord is the day of his Judgements and afflictions in this life In the second the day of the Lord is the day of the generall judgement And in the third the day of the Lord is that Crepusculum that twilight betweene the two lives or rather that Meridies noctis as the Poet cals it that noone of night the houre of our death and transmigration out of this world And if any desire any of these daies of the Lord out of any of these indispositions out of presumption out of hypocrisie out of desperation he fals within the compasse of this Text and from him we cannot take off this Vae desiderantibus First then the Prophet directs himself most literally upon the first sin of Presumption They were come to say 1 Part. that in truth whatsoever the Prophet declaimed in the streets there was no such thing as Dies Domini any purpose in God to bring such heavy judgements upon them to the Prophets themselves they were come to say You your selves live parched and macerated in a starved and penurious fortune and therefore you cry out that all we must die of famine too you your selves have not a foot of land a mong all the Tribes therfore you cry out that all the Tribes must be carried into another Land in Captivity That which you call the Day of the Lord is come upon you beggery and nakednesse and hunger contempt and affliction and imprisonment is come upon you and therefore you will needs extend this day upon the whole State but desideramus we would fain see any such thing come to passe we would fain see God goe about to do any such thing as that the State should not be wise enough to prevent him To see a Prophet neglected because he will not flatter to see him despised below because he is neglected above to see him injured insulted upon and really damnified because he is despised All this is dies mundi and not dies Domini it is the ordinary course of the world and no extraordinary day of the Lord but that there should be such a stupor and consternation of minde and conscience as you talk of and that that should be so expressed in the countenance Lam. 4.7 that they which had been purer then snow whiter then milk redder then Rubies smoother then Saphirs should not only be as in other cases pale with a sudden feare but blacker in face then a coale as the Prophet sayes there that they should not be able to set a good face upon their miseries nor disguise them with a confident countenance that there should be such a consternation of countenance and conscience and then such an excommunication of Church and State as that the whole body of the children of Israel should be without King Hos 3.4 without Sacrifice without Ephod without
be well Christ said in his behalfe Verily I have not found so great faith no not in Israel When Christ makes so much of this single grain of Mustard-seed this little faith as to prefer it before all the faith of Israel surely faith went very low in Israel at that time Nay when Christ himself sayes speaking of his last comming after so many ages preaching of the Gospell When the Son of man comes shall he finde faith upon earth Luk. 18.8 any faith We have I say a blessed beam of comfort shining out of this text that it is no small number that is reserved for that Kingdome For whether the Apostle speak this of himself and the Thessalonians or of others he speaks not as of a few but that by Christs having preached the narrownesse of the way and the straitnesse of the gate our holy industry and endeavour is so much exalted which was Christs principall end in taking those Metaphors of narrow wayes and strait gates not to make any man suspect an impossibility of entring but to be the more industrious and endeavorous in seeking it that as he hath sent workmen in plenty abundant preaching so he shall return a plentifull harvest a glorious addition to his Kingdome both of those which slept in him before and of those which shall be then alive fit all together to be caught up in the clouds to meet him and be with him for ever for these two armies imply no small number Now of the condition of these men who shall be then alive and how being clothed in bodies of corruption they become capable of the glory of this text in our first distribution we proposed that for a particular consideration and the other branch of this second part and to that in that order we are come now I scarce know a place of Scripture more diversly read Immutabimur and consequently more variously interpreted then that place which should most enlighten us in this consideration presently under our hands which is that place to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 15.51 Non omnes dormiemus We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed The Apostle professes there to deliver us a mystery Behold I shew you a mystery but Translators and Expositors have multiplyed mysticall clouds upon the words S. Chrysostome reads these words as we do Chrysost Non dormiemus We shall not all sleep but thereupon he argues and concludes that wee shall not all die The common reading of the ancients is contrary to that Omnes dormiemus sed non c. We shall all sleep but we shall not all be changed The vulgat Edition in the Romane Church differs from both and as much from the originall as from either Omnes resurgemus We shall all rise again but we shall not all be changed S. Hierome examines the two readings and then leaves the reader to his choice as a thing indifferent S. Augustine doth so too and concludes aquè Catholicos esse That they are as good Catholiques that reade it the one way as the other But howsoever that which S. Chrysostome collects upon his reading may not be maintained He reads as we do and without all doubt aright We shall not all sleep But what then Therefore shall we not all die To sleep there is to rest in the grave to continue in the state of the dead and so we shall not all sleep not continue in the state of the dead But yet Statutum est sayes the Apostle Heb. 9.27 as verily as Christ was once offered to beare our sinnes so verily is it appointed to every man once to die Rom. 5.12 And as verily as by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne so verily death passed upon all men for that all men have sinned So the Apostle institutes the comparison so he constitutes the doctrine in those two places of Scripture As verily as Christ dyed for all all shall die As verily as every man sins every man shall die In that change then which we who are then alive shall receive for though we shall not all sleep we shall all be changed we shall have a present dissolution of body and soul and that is truly a death and a present redintegration of the same body and the same soul and that is truly a Resurrection we shall die and be alive again before another could consider that we were dead but yet this shall not be done in an absolute instant some succession of time though undiscernible there is It shall be done In raptu in a rapture but even in a rapture there is a motion a transition from one to another place It shall be done sayes he In ictuoculi In the twinkling of an eye But even in the twinkling of an eie there is a shutting of the eie-lids and an opening of them again Neither of these is done in an absolute instant but requires some succession of time The Apostle in the Resurrection in our text constitutes a Prius something to be done first and something after first those that were dead in Christ shall rise first and then Then when that is done after that not all at once we that are alive shall be wrought upon we shall be changed our change comes after their rising so in our change there is a Prius too first we shall be dissolved so we die and then we shall be re-compact so we rise again This is the difference they that sleep in the grave put off and depart with the very substance of the body it is no longer flesh but dust they that are changed at the last day put off and depart with only the qualities of the body as mortality and corruption It is still the same body without resolving into dust but the first step that it makes is into glory Now transfer this to the spirituall Resurrection of thy soul by grace here Here Grace works not that Resurrection upon thy soul in an absolute instant And therefore suspect not Gods gracious purpose upon thee if thou beest not presently throughly recovered God could have made all the world in one day and so have come sooner to his Sabbath his rest but he wrought more to give us an example of labour and of patience in attending his leasure in our second Creation this Resurrection from sin as we did in our first Creation when we were not made till the sixt day But remember too that the last Resurrection from death is to be transacted quickly speedily And in thy first thy spirituall Resurrection from sin make haste The last is to be done In raptu in a rapture Let this rapture in the first Resurrection be to teare thy self from that company and conversation that leads thee into tentation The last is to be done Inictu oculi In the twinkling of an eye Let that in thy first Resurrection be The shutting of thine eyes from looking upon things in things upon creatures in creatures
This is my beloved Son this day have I begotten him And with such Copies it seemes both Iustin Martyr and Irenaeus met for they reade these words so and interpret them accordingly But these words are misplaced and mis-transferred out of the second Psalme where they are And as they change the words and in stead of In quo complacui In whom I am well pleased reade This day have I begotten thee S. Cyprian addes other words to the end of these which are Hunc audite Heare him Which words when these words were repeated at the Transfiguration were spoken but here at the Baptisme they were not what Copy soever misled S. Cyprian or whether it were the failing of his own memory But S. Chrysostome gives an expresse reason why those words were spoken at the Transfiguration and not here Because saies he Here was onely a purpose of a Manifestation of the Trinity so farre as to declare their persons who they were and no more At the Trans-figuration where Moses and Elias appeared with Christ there God had a purpose to preferre the Gospel above the Law and the Prophets and therefore in that place he addes that Hunc audite Heare him who first fulfills all the Law and the Prophets and then preaches the Gospel He was so well pleased in him as that he was content to give all them that received him Eph. 1.6 power to become the Sons of God too as the Apostle sayes By his grace he hath made us accepted in his beloved Beloved That you may be so Come up from your Baptisme as it is said that Christ did Rise and ascend to that growth which your Baptisme prepared you to And the heavens shall open as then even Cataractae coeli All the windowes of heaven shall open and raine downe blessings of all kindes in abundance And the Holy Ghost shall descend upon you as a Dove in his peacefull comming in your simple and sincere receiving him And he shall rest upon you to effect and accomplish his purposes in you If he rebuke you as Christ when he promises the Holy Ghost though he call him a Comforter John 16.7 sayes That he shall rebuke the world of divers things yet he shall dwell upon you as a Dove Quae si mordet osculando mordet sayes S. Augustine If the Dove bite it bites with kissing if the Holy Ghost rebuke he rebukes with comforting And so baptized and so pursuing the contract of your Baptisme and so crowned with the residence of his blessed Spirit in your holy conversation hee shall breathe a soule into your soule by that voyce of eternall life You are my beloved Sonnes in whom I am well pleased SERM. XLIV Preached at S. Dunstanes upon Trinity-Sunday 1627. REV. 4.8 And the foure Beasts had each of them sixe wings about him and they were full of eyes within And they rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come THese words are part of that Scripture which our Church hath appointed to be read for the Epistle of this day This day which besides that it is the Lords day the Sabbath day is also especially consecrated to the memory and honour of the whole Trinity The Feast of the Nativity of Christ Christmas day which S. Chrysostome calls Metropolin omnium festorum The Metropolitane festivall of the Church is intended principally to the honour of the Father who was glorified in that humiliation of that Son that day because in that was laid the foundation and first stone of that house and Kingdome in which God intended to glorifie himselfe in this world that is the Christian Church The Feast of Easter is intended principally to the honour of the Son himselfe who upon that day began to lift up his head above all those waters which had surrounded him and to shake off the chaines of death and the grave and hell in a glorious Reserrection And then the Feast of Pentecost was appropriated to the honour of the Holy Ghost who by a personall falling upon the Apostles that day inabled them to propagate this Glory of the Father and this death and Resurrection of the Son to the ends of the world to the ends in Extention to all places to the ends in Duration to all times Now as S. Augustine sayes Nullus eorum extra quemlibet eorum est Every Person of the Trinity is so in every other person as that you cannot think of a Father as a Father but that there falls a Son into the same thought nor think of a person that proceeds from others but that they from whom he whom ye think of proceeds falls into the same thought as every person is in every person And as these three persons are contracted in their essence into one God-head so the Church hath also contracted the honour belonging to them in this kinde of Worship to one day in which the Father and Son and Holy Ghost as they are severally in those three severall dayes might bee celebrated joyntly and altogether It was long before the Church did institute a particular Festivall to this purpose For before they made account that that verse which was upon so many occasions repeated in the Liturgy and Church Service Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost had a convenient sufficiency in it to keep men in a continuall remembrance of the Trinity But when by that extreame inundation and increase of Arians these notions of distinct Persons in the Trinity came to be obliterated and discontinued the Church began to refresh her selfe in admitting into to the formes of Common Prayer some more particular notifications and remembrances of the Trnity And at last though it were very long first for this Festivall of this Trinity-Sunday was not instituted above foure hundred yeares since they came to ordaine this day Which day our Church according to that peacefull wisedome wherewithall the God of Peace of Unity and Concord had inspired her did in the Reformation retaine and continue out of her generall religious tendernesse and holy loathnesse to innovate any thing in those matters which might bee safely and without superstition continued and entertained For our Church in the Reformation proposed not that for her end how shee might goe from Rome but how she might come to the Truth nor to cast away all such things as Rome had depraved but to purge away those depravations and conserve the things themselves so restored to their first good use For this day then were these words appointed by our Church Divisic And therefore we are sure that in the notion and apprehension and construction of our Church these words appertaine to the Trinity In them therefore we shall consider first what these foure creatures were which are notified and designed to us in the names and figures of foure Beasts And then what these foure creatures did Their Persons and their Action will be our two
can resolve thee scatter thee annihilate thee with a word and yet afford so many words so many houres conferences so many Sermons to reclaime thee why persecutest Thou Him Answer this question with Sauls answer to this question by another question Domine quid me vis facere Lord what wilt thou have me do Deliver thy selfe over to the will of God and God shall deliver thee over as he did Saul to Ananias provide thee by his Ministery in his Ordinance means to rectifie thee in all dejection of spirit light to cleare thee in all perplexities of conscience in the wayes of thy pilgrimage and more and more effectuall seals thereof at the houre of thy transmigration into his joy and thine eternall rest SERM. XLVII Preached at S. Pauls The Sunday after the Conversion of S. PAUL 27. Ian. 1627. ACT. 20.25 And now Behold I know that all yee among whom I have gone preaching the kingdome of God shall see my face no more WHen S. Chrysostome calls Christmas day Metropolin omnium festorum The Metropolitan Holyday the principall festivall of the Church he is likely to intend onely those festivalls which were of the Churches later institution and means not to enwrap the Sabbath in that comparison As S. Augustine sayes of the Sacrament of Baptisme that it is Limen Ecclesiae The threshold over which we step into the Church so is Christmas day Limen festorum The threshold over which we step into the festivall celebration of some other of Christs actions and passions and victorious overcommings of all the Acts of his Passion such as his Resurrection and Ascension for but for Christmas day we could celebrate none of these dayes And so that day is Limen festorum The threshold over which we passe to the rest But the Sabbath is not onely Limen or Ianua Ecclesiae The doore by which we enter into the Church and into the consideration what the Church hath done but Limen mundi The doore by which we enter into the consideration of the World how and when the World was made of nothing at the Creation without which we had been so far from knowing that there had been a Church or that there had been a God as that we our selves had had no being at all And therefore as our very being is before all degrees of well-being so is the Sabbath which remembers us of our being before all other festivalls that present and refresh to us the memory of our well-being Especially to us to whom it is not onely a Sabbath as the Sabbath is a day of Rest in respect of the Creation but Dies Dominicus The Lords day in respect of the Redemption of the world because the consummation of that worke of Redemption for all that was to be done in this world which was the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus was accomplished upon that day Levit. 23. which is our Sabbath But yet as it did please God to accompany the Great day the Sabbath with other solemne dayes too The Passeover and Pentecost Trumpets and Tabernacles and others and to call those other dayes Sabbaths as well as the Sabbath it selfe so since he is pleased that in the Christian Church other dayes of Holy Convocations should also be instituted I make account that in some measure I do both offices both for observing those particular festivalls that fall in the weeke and also for the making of those particular festivalls to serve the Sabbath when upon the Sabbath ensuing or preceding such or such a festivall in the weeke I take occasion to speake of that festivall which fell into the compasse of that weeke for by this course that festivall is not pretermitted nor neglected the particular festivall is remembred And then as God receives honour in the honour of his Saints so the Sabbath hath an honour when the festivalls and commemorations of those Saints are reserved to waite upon the Sabbath Hence is it that as elsewhere I often do so that is Celebrate some festivall that fals in the weeke upon the Sabbath so in this place upon this very day I have done the like and returne now to do so againe that is to celebrate the memory of our Apostle S. Paul to day though there be a day past since his day was in the ordinary course to have been celebrated The last time that I did so I did it in handling those words And he fell to the earth and heard a voyce saying Saul Saul why persecutest thou me which was the very act of his Conversion A period and a passage which the Church celebrates in none but in S. Paul though many others were strangely converted too she celebrates none but his In the words chosen for this day And now behold I know c. wee shall reduce to your memories first His proceeding in the Church after he was called I have gone preaching the kingdome of God among you And then the ease the reposednes the acquiescence that he had in that knowledge which God by his Spirit had given him of the approach of his dissolution and departure out of this life I know that all you shall see my face no more As those things which we see in a glasse for the most part must be behinde us so that that makes our transmigration in death comfortable unto us must be behinde us in the testimony of a good Conscience for things formerly done Now behold I know that all yee among whom I have gone c. In handling of which words our Method shall be this Our generall parts Divisio being as we have already intimated these two His way and his End His painfull course and his cheerfull finishing of his course His laborious battaile and his victorious triumph In the first I have gone preaching the kingdome of God among you wee shall see first That there is a Transivi as well as a Requievi acceptable to God A discharge of a Duty as well in going from one place to another as in a perpetuall Residence upon one Transivi sayes our Apostle I have gone among you But then in a second consideration in that first part That that makes his going acceptable to God is because he goes to preach Transivi praedicans I have gone preaching And then lastly in that first part That that that makes his Preaching acceptable is that he preached the kingdome of God Transivi praedicans regnum Dei I have gone amongst you preaching the kingdome of God And in these three characters of S. Pauls Ministery first Labour and Assiduity And then Labour bestowed upon the right means Preaching And lastly Preaching to the right end to edification advancing the kingdome of God we shall determine our first part In our second part we passe from his Transition to his Transmigration from his going up and downe in the world to his departing out of the world And now behold I know that yee shall see my face no more In which we
Christ Ephes 2.12 for so S. Paul sayes to the Ephesians Absque Christo absque Deo If ye be without Christ ye are without God For as it is the same absurdity in nature to say There is no Sun and to say This that you call the Sun is not the Sun this that shines out upon you this that produces your fruits and distinguishes your seasons is not the Sun so is it the same Atheisme in these dayes of light to say There is no God and to say This Christ whom you call the Son of God is not God That he in whom God hath manifested himselfe He whom God hath made Head of the Church and Judge of the world is not God This then is our double Sadduce Davids Atheist that beleeves not God S. Pauls Atheist that beleeves not Christ And as our Sadduce is so is our Pharisee twofold also There is a Pharisee Duplex Pharisaeus that by following private expositions separates himselfe from our Church principally for matter of Government and Discipline and imagines a Church that shall be defective in nothing and does not onely think himself to be of that Church but sometimes to be that Church for none but himselfe is of that perswasion And there is a Pharisee that dreames of such an union such an identification with God in this life as that he understands all things not by benefit of the senses and impressions in the fancy and imagination or by discourse and ratiocination as we poore soules doe but by immediate and continuall infusions and inspirations from God himselfe That he loves God not by participation of his successive Grace more and more as he receives more and more grace but by a communication of God himselfe to him intirely and irrevocably That he shall be without any need and above all use of Scriptures and that the Scriptures shall be no more to him then a Catechisme to our greatest Doctors That all that God commands him to doe in this world is but as an easie walk downe a hill That he can doe all that easily and as much more as shall make God beholden to him and bring God into his debt and that he may assigne any man to whom God shall pay the arrerages due to him that is appoint God upon-what man he shall confer the benefit of his works of Supererogation For in such Propositions as these and in such Paradoxes as these doe the Authors in the Roman Church delight to expresse and celebrate their Pharisaicall purity as we find it frequently abundantly in them In a word some of our home-Pharisees will say That there are some who by benefit of a certaine Election cannot sin That the Adulteries and Blasphemies of the Elect are not sins But the Rome-Pharisee will say that some of them are not onely without sin in themselves but that they can save others from sin or the punishment of sin by their works of Supererogation and that they are so united so identified with God already as that they are in possession of the beatificall Vision of God and see him essentially and as he is in this life for that Ignatius the father of the Jesuits did so Sandaeus Theolog pâ—r 1. fo 760. some of his Disciples say it is at least probable if not certaine And that they have done all that they had to doe for their owne salvation long agoe and stay in the world now onely to gather treasure for others and to worke out their salvation So that these men are in better state in this life then the Saints are in heaven There the Saints may pray for others but they cannot merit for others These men here can merit for other men and work out the salvation of others Nay they may be said in some respect to exceed Christ himselfe for Christ did save no man here but by dying for him These men save other men with living well for them and working out their salvation These are our double Sadduces our double Pharisees now beloved Dissentio if we would goe so far in S. Pauls way as to set this two-fold Sadduce Davids Atheist without God and S. Pauls Atheist without Christ against our twofold Pharisee our home-Catharist and our Rome-Catharist If we would spend all our wit and all our time all our Inke and our gall in shewing them the deformities and iniquities of one another by our preaching and writing against them The truth and the true Church might as S. Paul did in our Text scape the better But when we we that differ in no such points tear and wound and mangle one another with opprobrious contumelies and odious names of sub-division in Religion our Home-Pharisee and our Rome-Pharisee maligners of our Discipline and maligners of our Doctrine gaine upon ns and make their advantages of our contentions and both the Sadduces Davids Atheist that denies God and S. Pauls Atheist that denies Christ joyne in a scornfull asking us Where is now your God Are not we as well that deny him absolutely as you that professe him with wrangling But stop we the floodgates of this consideration it would melt us into teares Sadducaei Pharisaei interni End we all with this That we have all all these Sadduces and Pharisees in our owne bosomes Sadduces that deny spirits carnall apprehensions that are apt to say Is your God all Spirit and hath bodily eyes to see sin All Spirit and hath bodily hands to strike for a sinne Is your soule all spirit and hath a fleshly heart to feare All spirit and hath sensible sinews to feele a materiall fire Was your God who is all Spirit wounded when you quarrelled or did your soule which is all spirit drink when you were drunk Sins of presumption and carnall confidence are our Sadduces and then our Pharisees are our sins of separation of division of diffidence and distrust in the mercies of our God when we are apt to say after a sin Cares God who is all Spirit for my eloquent prayers or for my passionate teares Is the giving of my goods to the poore or of my body to the fire any thing to God who is all Spirit My spirit and nothing but my spirit my soule and nothing but my soule must satisfie the justice the anger of God and be separated from him for ever My Sadduce my Presumption suggests that there is no spirit no soule to suffer for sin and my Pharisee my Desperation suggests That my soule must perish irremediably irrecoverably for every sinne that my body commits Now if I go S. Pauls way to put a dissention between these my Sadduces and my Pharisees Via Pauli to put a jealousie between my presumption my desperation to make my presumption see that my desperation lies in wait for her and to consider seriously that my presumption will end in desperation I may as S. Paul did in the Text scape the better for that But if without farther
a right value upon Holinesse and to give a due respect to holy men For so where we read Psal 78.63 Their Maidens were not given in Marriage we finde this word of our Text Their Maidens were not praised that is there was not a due respect held of them nor a just value set upon them So that this retribution intended for the upright in heart as in the growth and extension of the word it reaches to Joy and Glory and Eminency and Respect so in the roote it signifies Praise And it is given them by God as a Reward That they shall be Praised now Praise sayes the Philosopher is Sermo elucidans magnitudinem virtutis It is the good word of good men a good testimony given by good men of good actions And this difference we use to assigne betweene Praise and Honour Laus est in ordine ad finem Honor eorum qui jam in fine Praise is an encouragement to them that are in the way and so far a Reward a Reward of good beginnings Honour is reserved to the end to crowne their constancy and perseverance And therefore where men are rewarded with great honours at the beginning in hope they will deserve it they are paid beforehand Thanks and Grace and good countenance and Praise are interlocutory encouragements Honours are finall Rewards But since Praise is a part of Gods retribution a part of his promise in our text They shall be praised we are thereby not onely allowed but bound to seeke this praise from good men and to give this praise to good men for in this Coine God hath promised that the upright in heart shall be paid They shall be praised To seeke praise from good men by good meanes Laus à bonis quaerenda Prov. 22.1 Bernar. is but the same thing which is recommended to us by Solomon A good name is rather to be chosen then great riches and loving favour then silver and Gold For Habent mores colores suos habent odores Our good works have a colour and they have a savor we see their Candor their sincerity in our owne consciences there is their colour for in our owne consciences our works appeare in their true colours no man can be an hypocrite to himselfe nor seriously deliberately deceive himselfe And when others give allowance of our works and are edified by them there is their savour their odor their perfume their fragrancy And therefore S. Hierom and S. Augustin differ little in their manner of expressing this Hieron Non paratum habeas illud è trivio Serve not thy selfe with that triviall and vulgar saying As long as my conscience testifies well to me I care not what men say of me August And so sayes that other Father They that rest in the testimony of their owne consciences and contemne the opinion of other men Imprudenter agunt crudeliter They deale weakly and improvidently for themselves in that they assist not their consciences with more witnesses And they deale cruelly towards others in that they provide not for their edification by the knowledge and manifestation of their good works For as he adds well there Qui à criminibus vitam custodit bene facit He that is innocent in his owne heart does well for himselfe but Qui famam custodit in alios misericors est He that is known to live well he that hath the praise of good men to bee a good man is mercifull in an exemplary life to others and promoves their salvation For when that Father gives a measure how much praise a man may receive and a rule how he may receive it when he hath first said Nec totum nec nihil accipiatur Receive not all but yet refuse not all praise he adds this That that which is to be received is not to be received for our owne sakes sed propter illos quibus consulere non potest si nimia dejectione vilescat but for their sakes who would undervalue goodnesse it selfe if good men did too much undervalue themselves or thought themselves never the better for their goodnesse And therefore S. Bernard applies that in the Proverbs to this case Prov. 25.16 Hast thou found Honey eate that which is sufficient Mellis nomine favor humanae laudis sayes he By Honey favour and praise and thankfulnesse is meant Meritóque non ab omni sed ab immoderato edulio prohibemur We are not forbid to taste nor to eate but to surfet of this Honey of this praise of men S. Augustine found this love of praise in himselfe and could forbid it no man Laudari à bene viventibus si dicam nolo mentior If I should say that I desired not the praise of good men I should belie my selfe He carries it higher then thus He does not doubt but that the Apostles themselves had a holy joy and complacency when their Preaching was acceptable and thereby effectuall upon the Congregation Such a love of praise is rooted in Nature and Grace destroyes not Nature Grace extinguishes not but moderates this love of praise in us nor takes away the matter but onely exhibits the measure Certainly he that hath not some desire of praise will bee negligent in doing praise-worthy things and negligent in another duty intended here too that is To praise good men which is also another particular branch in this Part. The hundred forty fift Psalme is Laus danda aliis in the Title thereof called A Psalme of Praise And the Rabbins call him Filium futuri Seculi A child of the next World that sayes that Psalme thrice a day We will interpret it by way of Accommodation thus that he is a child of the next World that directs his Praise every day upon three objects upon God upon himselfe upon other men Of God there can be no question And for our selves it is truly the most proper and most literall signification of this word in our Text Iithhalelu That they shall praise themselves that is They shall have the testimony of a rectified conscience that they have deserved the praise of good men in having done laudible service to God And then for others That which God promises to Israel in their restauration Zephan 3.19 belongs to all the Israel of the Lord to all the faithfull I will get thee praise and fame in every land and I will make thee a name and a praise amongst all the people of the earth This God will doe procure them a name a glory By whom When God bindes himselfe he takes us into the band with him and when God makes himselfe the debtor he makes us stewards when he promises them praise he meanes that we should give them that praise Be all waies of flatterings and humourings of great persons precluded with a Protestation with a detestation Be Philo Iudaeus his comparison received His Coquus and his Medicus One provides sweetnesse for the present taste but he is but a
to diminish mercy The names of first or last derogate from it for first and last are but ragges of time and his mercy hath no relation to time no limitation in time it is not first nor last but eternall everlasting Let the Devill make me so far desperate as to conceive a time whē there was no mercy and he hath made me so far an Atheist as to conceive a time when there was no God if I despoile him of his mercy any one minute and say now God hath no mercy for that minute I discontinue his very Godhead and his beeing Later Grammarians have wrung the name of mercy out of misery Misericordia praesumit miseriam say these there could be no subsequent mercy if there were no precedent misery But the true roote of the word mercy through all the Prophets is Racham and Racham is diligere to love as long as there hath been love and God is love there hath been mercy And mercy considered externally and in the practise and in the effect began not at the helping of man when man was fallen and become miserable but at the making of man when man was nothing So then here we consider not mercy as it is radically in God and an essentiall attribute of his but productively in us as it is an action a working upon us and that more especially as God takes all occasions to exercise that action and to shed that mercy upon us for particular mercies are feathers of his wings and that prayer Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us as our trust is in thee is our birdlime particular mercies are that cloud of Quailes which hovered over the host of Israel and that prayer Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us is our net to catch our Gomer to fill of those Quailes The aire is not so full of Moats of Atomes as the Church is of Mercies and as we can suck in no part of aire but we take in those Moats those Atomes so here in the Congregation we cannot suck in a word from the preacher we cannot speak we cannot sigh a prayer to God but that that whole breath and aire is made of mercy But we call not upon you from this Text to consider Gods ordinary mercy that which he exhibites to all in the ministery of his Church nor his miraculous mercy his extraordinary deliverances of States and Churches but we call upon particular Consciences by occasion of this Text to call to minde Gods occasionall mercies to them such mercies as a regenerate man will call mercies though a naturall man would call them accidents or occurrences or contingencies A man wakes at mid-night full of unclean thoughts and he heares a passing Bell this is an occasionall mercy if he call that his own knell and consider how unfit he was to be called out of the world then how unready to receive that voice Foole this night they shall fetch away thy soule The adulterer whose eye waites for the twy-light goes forth and casts his eyes upon forbidden houses and would enter and sees a Lord have mercy upon us upon the doore this is an occasionall mercy if this bring him to know that they who lie sick of the plague within passe through a furnace but by Gods grace to heaven and hee without carries his own furnace to hell his lustfull loines to everlasting perdition What an occasionall mercy had Balaam when his Asse Catechized him What an occasionall mercy had one Theefe when the other catechized him so Art not thou afraid being under the same condemnation What an occasionall mercy had all they that saw that when the Devil himself fought for the name of Jesus and wounded the sons of Sceva for exorcising in the name of Jesus Act. 19.14 with that indignation with that increpation Iesus we know and Paul we know but who are ye If I should declare what God hath done done occasionally for my soule where he instructed me for feare of falling where he raised me when I was fallen perchance you would rather fixe your thoughts upon my illnesse and wonder at that then at Gods goodnesse and glorifie him in that rather wonder at my sins then at his mercies rather consider how ill a man I was then how good a God he is If I should inquire upon what occasion God elected me and writ my name in the book of Life I should sooner be afraid that it were not so then finde a reason why it should be so God made Sun and Moon to distinguish seasons and day and night and we cannot have the fruits of the earth but in their seasons But God hath made no decree to distinguish the seasons of his mercies In paradise the fruits were ripe the first minute and in heaven it is alwaies Autumne his mercies are ever in their maturity We ask panem quetidianum our daily bread and God never sayes you should have come yesterday he never sayes you must againe to morrow but to day if you will heare his voice to day he will heare you If some King of the earth have so large an extent of Dominion in North and South as that he hath Winter and Summer together in his Dominions so large an extent East and West as that he hath day and night together in his Dominions much more hath God mercy and judgement together He brought light out of darknesse not out of a lesser light he can bring thy Summer out of Winter though thou have no Spring though in the wayes of fortune or understanding or conscience thou have been benighted till now wintred and frozen clouded and eclypsed damped and benummed smothered and stupified till now now God comes to thee not as in the dawning of the day not as in the bud of the spring but as the Sun at noon to illustrate all shadowes as the sheaves in harvest to fill all penuries all occasions invite his mercies and all times are his seasons If it were not thus in generall it would never have been so in this particular in our case Achaz case in the Text in King Achaz If God did not seeke occasion to doe good to all he would never have found occasion to doe good to King Achaz Subjects are to look upon the faults of Princes with the spectacles of obedience and reverence to their place and persons little and dark spectacles and so their faults and errors are to appeare little and excusable to them Gods perspective glasse his spectacle is the whole world he looks not upon the Sun in his spheare onely but as he works upon the whole earth And he looks upon Kings not onely what harme they doe at home but what harme they occasion abroad through that spectacle the faults of Princes in Gods eye are multiplyed farre above those of private men Achaz had such faults and yet God sought occasion of Mercy Iotham his Father is called a good King and yet all Idolatry was not removed in his time and he
still it was a future thing Christ is often called the Expectation of the world but it was all that while but an Expectation but a reversion of a future thing So God fed that old world with expectation of future things as that that very name by which God notified himself most to that people Exod. 3.14 in his commission by Moses to Pharaoh was a future name howsoever our Translations and Expositions run upon the present as though God had said Qui sum my name is I am yet in truth it is Qui ero my name is I shall be They had evidences enow that God was but God was pleased to establish in them an assurance that he would be so still and not only be so still as he was then but that hee would be so with them hereafter as he was never yet he would be Immanuel God with us so as that God and man should be one person It was then a faire assurance and a blessed comfort which the children of Israel had in that of Zechary Zech. 9.9 Ecce venit rex Rejoyce ye daughters of Sion and shout ye daughters of Ierusalem Behold thy King commeth riding unto thee upon an Asse But yet this assurance though delivered as in the present produced not those acclamations Mat. 21.9 and recognitions and Hosannaes and Hosanna in the highest to the Son of David as his personall and actuall and visible riding into Jerusalem upon Palme-Sunday did Amougst the Jews there was light enough to discern this future blessing this comming of Christ but they durst not open it nor publish it to others We see the Jews would dye in defence of any part of their Law were it but the Ceremoniall were it but for the not eating of Swines flesh what unsufferable torments suffered the seven brothers in the Maccabees for that But yet we never finde that any of them dyed or exposed themselves to the danger or to the dignity of Martyrdome for this Doctrine of the Messias this future comming of Christ Nay we finde that the Septuagint who first translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek for King Ptolome disguised divers places thereof and departed from the Originall rather then propose this future comming of the Son of God to the interpretation of the world A little Candle they had for themselves but they durst not light anothers Candle at it So also some of the more speculative Philosophers had got some beames of this light but because they saw it would not be beleeved De verarelg cap. 4. they let it alone they said little of it Hence is it that S. Augustine sayes si Platonici reviviscerent if Plato and his Disciples should rise from the dead and come now into our streets and see those great Congregations which thrust and throng every Sabbath and every day of holy convocation to the worship of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus Hoc fortasse dicerent This it is likely they would say sayes he Haec sunt quae populis persuadere non ausi consaetudini cessimus This is that religion which because it consisted so much in future things we durst not propose to the people but were fain to leave them to those present and sensible and visible things to which they had been accustomed before lest when we had shaked them in their old religion we should not be able to settle and establish them in the new And as in civill government a Tyranny is better then an Anarchy a hard King better then none so when we consider religions Idolatry is better then Atheisme and superstition better then profanenesse Not that the Idolater shall any more be saved then the Atheist but that the Idolater having been accustomed to some sense and worship of God of God in his estimation is therefore apter to receive religious impressions then the Atheist is In this then consists this second act of Christs mercy to us in this word veni I am actually really personally presentially come that those types and figures and sacrifices which represented Christ to the old world were not more visible to the eye more palpable to the hand more obvious to the very bodily senses that Christ himself hath been since to us Therefore S. Iohn does not only rest in that That which was from the beginning 1 John 1.1 Christ was alwayes in purpose in prophecy in promise nor in that That which we have heard the world heard of Christ long before they saw him but he proceeds to that That which we have seen and looked upon with our eyes and handled with our hands that declare we unto you So that we are now delivered from that jealousie that possessed those Septuagint those Translators that they durst not speak plain and delivered from that suspition that possessed Plato and his disciples that the people were incapable of that doctrine Wee know that Christ is come and we avow it and we preach it and we affirm that it is not onely as impious and irreligious a thing but as senslesse and as absurd a thing to deny that the Son of God hath redeemed the world as to deny that God hath created the world and that he is as formally and as gloriously a Martyr that dyes for this Article The Son of God is come as he that dyes for this There is a God And these two acts of his mercy enwrapped in this one word veni I came first that he who is alwayes present out of an abundant love to man studied a new way of comming and then that he who was but betrothed to the old world by way of promise is married to us by an actuall comming will be farther explicated to us in that which only remaines and constitutes our third and last part the end and purpose of his comming That they might have life and might have it more abundantly And though this last part put forth many handles wee can but take them by the hand and shake them by the hand that is open them and so leave them First then in this last part we consider the gift it self the treasure Life 3. Part. Vita That they might have life Now life is the character by which Christ specificates and denominates himselfe Life is his very name and that name by which he consummates all his other names I am the Way the Truth and the Life John 14.6 And therefore does Peter justly and bitterly upbraid the Jews with that Ye desired a murderer an enemy to life to be granted unto you and killed the Prince of Life Acts 3.14 It is an honour to any thing that it may be sworn by by vulgar and triviall things men might not sweare Jer. 5.7 How shall I pardon them this sayes God They have sworn by things that are not gods And therefore God who in so many places professes to sweare by himself and of whom the Apostle sayes Heb. 6.13 That because he could sweare by no greater he
swore by himselfe because he could propose no greater thing in himself no clearer notion of himself then life for his life is his eternity and his eternity is himselfe does therefore through all the Law and the Prophets still sweare in that form Vivo ego vivit Dominus As I live saith the Lord and as the Lord liveth still he sweares by his own life As that solemne Oath which is mentioned in Daniel is conceived in that form too He lift up his right hand and his left hand to heaven Dan. 12.7 and swore by him that liveth for ever that is by God and God in that notion as he is life All that the Queen and the Councell could wish and apprecate to the King was but that Life In sempiternum vive vive in aeternum O King live for ever God is life Dan. 5. and would not the death of any We are not sure that stones have not life stones may have life neither to speak humanely is it unreasonably thought by them that thought the whole world to be inanimated by one soule and to be one intire living creature and in that respect does S. Augustine prefer a fly before the Sun 1 Tim. 5.6 because a fly hath life and the Sun hath not This is the worst that the Apostle sayes of the young wanton widow That if she live in pleasure she is dead whilst she lives So is that Magistrate that studies nothing but his own honour and dignity in his place dead in his place And that Priest that studies nothing but his owne ease and profit dead in his living And that Judge that dares not condemne a guilty person And which is the bolder transgression dares condemne the innocent deader upon the Bench then the Prisoner at the Barre God hath included all that is good Dcut. 30.15 in the name of Life and all that is ill in the name of Death when he sayes See I have set before thee Vitam Bonum Life and Good Mortem Malum Death and Evill This is the reward proposed to our faith Hab. 2.4 Iustus fide sua vivit To live by our faith And this is the reward proposed to our works Fac hoc vives to live by our works All is life And this fulnesse this consummation of happinesse Life and the life of life spirituall life and the exaltation of spirituall life eternall life is the end of Christs comming I came that they might have life And first Vt daret ut daret that he might give life bring life into the world that there might be life to be had that the world might be redeemed from that losse which S. Augustine sayes it was falne into Perdidimus possibilitatem boni That we had all lost all possibility of life For the heaven and the earth and all that the Poet would call Chaos was not a deader lump before the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters then Mankind was before the influence of Christs comming wrought upon it But now that God so loved the world as that he gave his Son now that the Son so loved the world as that he gave himselfe Psal 19.6 as David sayes of the Sun of the firmament the father of nature Nihit absconditum there is nothing hid from the heat thereof so we say of this Son of God the Father of the faithfull in a far higher sense then Abraham was called so Nihilabsconditum there is nothing hid from him no place no person excluded from the benefit of his comming The Son hath paid the Father hath received enough for all not in fingle money for the discharge of thy lesser debts thy idle words thy wanton thoughts thy unchast looks but in massie talents to discharge thy crying debts the clamors of those poore whom thou hast oppressed and thy thundring debts those blasphemies by which thou hast torne that Father that made thee that Sonne that redeemed thee that boly Ghost that would comfort thee 1 Reg. 5. There is enough given but then as Hiram sent materials sufficient for the building of the Temple but there was something else to be done for the fitting and placing thereof so there is life enough brought into the world for all the world by the death of Christ but then there is something else to be done for the application of this life to particular persons intended in this word in our Text ut haberent I came that they might have life There is Ayre enough in the world Vt haberent to give breath to every thing though every thing doe not breath If a tree or a stone doe not breathe it is not because it wants ayre but because it wants meanes to receive it or to returne it All egges are not hatched that the hen sits upon Matt. 23.37 neither could Christ himselfe get all the chickens that were hatched to come and to stay under his wings That man that is blinde or that will winke shall see no more sunne upon S. Barnabies day then upon S. Lucies no more in the summer then in the winter solstice Psal 130.7 And therefore as there is copiosa redemptio a plentifull redemption brought into the world by the death of Christ so as S. Paul found it in his particular conversion there is copiosa lux Acts 22.6 a great a powerfull light exhibited to us that we might see and lay hold of this life in the Ordinances of the Church in the Confessions and Absolutions and Services and Sermons and Sacraments of the Church Christ came ut daret that he might bring life into the world by his death and then he instituted his Church ut haberent that by the meanes thereof this life might be infused into us and infused so as the last word of our Text delivers it Abundantiùs I came that they might have life more abundantly Dignaris Domine Abūdantiùs August ut eis quibus debita dimittis te promissionibus tuis debitorem facias This O Lord is thine abundant proceeding First thou forgivest me my debt to thee and then thou makest thy selfe a debter to me by thy large promises and after all performest those promises more largely then thou madest them Indeed God can doe nothing scantly penuriously singly Even his maledictions to which God is ever loth to come his first commination was plurall it was death and death upon death Morte morieris Death may be plurall but this benediction of life cannot admit a singular Chajim which is the word for life hath no singular number This is the difference betweene Gods Mercy and his Judgements that sometimes his Judgements may be plurall complicated enwrapped in one another but his Mercies are alwayes so and cannot be otherwise he gives them abundantiùs more abundantly More abundantly then to whom Illis gentibus The naturall man hath the Image of God imprinted in his soule eternity is God himselfe man hath not
grace in this world I shall have that more abundantly in Heaven for there my terme shall bee a terme for three lives for those three that as long as the Father and the Son and the holy Ghost live I shall not dye And to this glorious Son of God and the most almighty Father c. SERMONS Preached upon Candlemas-day SERMON VIII Preached upon Candlemas Day MAT. 5.16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven EIther of the names of this day were Text enough for a Sermon Purification or Candlemas Joyne we them together and raise we only this one note from both that all true purification is in the light corner purity clandestine purity conventicle purity is not purity Christ gave himself for us Tit. 2.14 sayes the Apostle that he might purifie to himself a peculiar people How shall this purification appeare It follows They shall be zealous of good works They shall not wrangle about faith and works but be actually zealous of goods works For purification was accompanied with an oblation something was to be given A Lamb a Dove Levit. 12.6 a Turtle All emblemes of mildnesse true purity is milde meek humble and to despise and undervalue others is an inseparable mark of false purity The oblation of this dayes purification is light so the day names it Candlemas-day so your custome celebrates it with many lights Now when God received lights into his Tabernacle hee received none of Tallow the Oxe hath hornes he received none of Waxe the Bee hath his sting but he received only lampes of oyle And though from many fruits and berries they pressed oyle yet God admitted no oyle into the service of the Church but only of the Olive the Olive the embleme of peace Our purification is with an oblation our oblation is light our light is good works our peace is rather to exhort you to them then to institute any solemne or other then occasionall comparison between faith and them Every good work hath faith for the roote but every faith hath not good works for the fruit thereof And it is observable that in all this great Sermon of our Saviours in the Mount which possesseth this and the two next Chapters there is no mention of faith by way of perswasion or exhortation thereunto but the whole Sermon is spent upon good works For good works presuppose faith Mat. 6.30 and therefore he concludes that they had but little faith because they were so solicitous about the things of this world O ye of little faith And as Christ concludes an unstedfastnesse in their faith out of their solicitude for this world so may the world justly conclude an establishment in their faith if they see them exercise themselves in the works of mercy and so let their light shine before men that they may see their good works and glorifie their Father which is in heaven These are words spoken by our Saviour to his Disciples in the Mount Divisio a treasure deposited in those disciples but in those disciples as depositaries for us an Oracle uttered to those disciples but through those disciples to us Paradise convayed to those disciples but to those disciples as feoffees in trust for us to every one of us in them from him that rides with his hundreds of Torches to him that crawles with his rush-candle our Saviour sayes Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works c. The words have two parts so must our explication of them first a precept Sic luceat Let your light so shine before men and then the reason the purpose the end the effect ut videant that men may see your good works and c. From the first bough will divers branches spring and divers from the other all of good taste and nourishment if wee might stay to presse the fruits thereof We cannot yet in the first we shall insist a while upon each of these three First the light it self what that is Sic luceat lux Let your light so shine And then secondly what this propriety is lux vestra let your light shine yours And lastly what this emanation of this light upon others is coram hominibus let your light shine before men The second part which is the reason or the effect of this precept ut videant that men may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven abounds in particular considerations and I should weary you if I should make you stand all the while under so heavy a load as to charge your memories with all those particulars so long before I come to handle them Reserving them therefore to their due time anon proceed we now to the three branches of our first part first the light in it self then the propriety in us lastly the emanation upon others Let your light so shine before men First 1 Part. Lux. John 1.9 for the light it self There is a light that lightneth every man that commeth into the world And even this universall light is Christ sayes S. Iohn He was that light that lighteth every man that commeth into the world And this universall enunciation He lightneth every man moved S. Cyril to take this light for the light of nature and naturall reason John 1.3 Colos 1.16 For even nature and naturall reason is from Christ All things were made by him sayes S. Iohn even nature it self And By him and for him all things visible and invisible were created sayes the Apostle And therefore our latter men of the Reformation are not to be blamed who for the most part pursuing S. Cyrils interpretation interpret this universall light that lightneth every man to be the light of nature Divers others of the Fathers take this universall light because Christ is said to be this light to be Baptisme For in the primitive Church as the Nativity of Christ was called the Epiphany Manifestation so Baptisme was called Illumination And so Christ lightens every man that comes into the world that is into the Christian world by that Sacrament of Illumination Baptisme S. Augustine brought the exposition of that universall proposition into a narrow roome That he enlightned all that came into the world that is all that were enlightned in the world were enlightned by him there was no other light and so he makes this light to be the light of faith and the light of effectuall grace which all have not but they that have have it from Christ Now which of these lights is intended in our Text Let you light shine out is it of the light of nature at our comming into the world or the light of Baptisme and that generall grace that accompanies all Gods Ordinances at our comming into the Church or the light of faith and particular grace sealing our adoption and spirituall filiation there Properly our light is none of these three and yet
first end of letting our light to shine before men is that they may know Gods proceedings but the last end to which all conduces is that God may have glory Whatsoever God did first in his own bosome in his own decree what that was contentious men will needs wrangle whatsoever that first act was Gods last end in that first act of his was his own glory And therefore to impute any inglorious or ignoble thing to God comes too neare blasphemy And be any man who hath any sense or taste of noblenesse or honour judge whether there be any glory in the destruction of those creatures whom they have raised till those persons have deserved ill at their hands and in some way have damnified them or dishonoured them Nor can God propose that for glory to destroy man till he finde cause in man Now this glory to which Christ bends all in this Text that men by seeing your good works might glorifie your Father consists especially in these two declarations Commemoration and Imitation a due celebration of former founders and benefactors and a pious proceeding according to such precedents is this glorifying of God When God calls himself so often The God of Abraham of Isaac and of Iacob Gloria ex Commemoratione Ezech. 14.14 God would have the world remember that Abraham Isaac and Iacob were extraordinary men memorable men When God sayes Though these three men Noah Daniel and Iob were here they should not deliver this people God would have it knowne that Noah Daniel and Iob were memorable men and able to doe much with him When the Holy Ghost is so carefull to give men their additions Gen. 4.20 That Iabal was the father of such as dwell in Tents keep Cattell Iubal the father of Harpers and Organists and Tubal-Cain of all Gravers in Brasse and Iron And when he presents with so many particularities every peece of worke that Hiram of Tyre wrought in Brasse for the furnishing of Solomons Temple 1 Reg. 7.13 God certainly is not afraid that his honour will be diminished in the honourable mentioning of such men as have benefited the world by publique good works The wise man seemes to settle himselfe upon that meditation let us now praise famous men sayes he Ecclus. 44.1 and our fathers that begot us and so he institutes a solemne commemoration and gives a catalogue of Enoch and Abraham and Moses and Aaron and so many more as possesse six Chapters nor doth he ever end the meditation till he end his booke so was he fixt upon the commemoration of good men Heb. 11. as S. Paul likewise feeds and delights himselfe in the like meditation even from Abel It is therefore a wretched impotency not to endure the commemoration and honourable mentioning of our Founders and Benefactors God hath delivered us and our Church from those straights in which some Churches of the Reformation have thought themselves to be when they have made Canons That there should be no Bell rung no dole given no mention made of the dead at any Funerall lest that should savour of superstition The Holy Ghost hath taught us the difference between praising the dead and praying for the dead betweene commemorating of Saints and invocating of Saints We understand what David meanes when he sayes This honour have all his Saints and what S. Paul meanes Psal 149.9 1 Tim. 1.17 when he sayes Vnto the only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever God is honoured in due honour given to his Saints and glorified in the commemoration of those good men whose light hath so shined out before men that they have seen their good workes But then he is glorified more in our imitation then in our commemoration Herein is my Father glorified sayes Christ that ye beare much fruit Gloria ex Imitatione Iohn 15.8 Mar. 4.20 The seed sowed in good ground bore some an hundred fold the least thirty The seed in this case is the example that is before you of those good men whose light hath shined out so that you have seene their good workes Let this seed these good examples bring forth hundreds and sixties and thirties in you much fruit for herein is your Father glorified that you beare much fruit Of which plentifull encrease I am afraid there is one great hinderance that passes through many of you that is that when your Will lyes by you in which some little lamp of this light is set up something given to God in pious uses if a Ship miscarry if a Debtor break if your state be any way empaired the first that suffers the first that is blotted out of the Will is God and his Legacy and if your estates encrease portions encrease and perchance other legacies but Gods portion and legacy stands at a stay Christ left two uses of his passion application and imitation He suffered for us 1 Pet. 2.22 sayes the Apostle for us that is that we might make his death ours apply his death and then as it follows there he left us an example So Christ gives us two uses of the Reformation of Religion first the doctrine how to doe good works without relying upon them as meritorious and then example many very many men and more by much in some kindes of charity since the Reformation of Religion then before even in this City whose light hath shined out before you and you have seen their good works That as this noble City hath justly acquired the reputation and the testimony of all who have had occasion to consider their dealings in that kinde that they deale most faithfully most justly most providently in all things which are committed to their trust for pious uses from others not only in a full employment of that which was given but in an improvement thereof and then an employment of that emprovement to the same pious use so every man in his particular may propose to himselfe some of those blessed examples which have risen amongst your selves and follow that and exceed that That as your lights are Torches and not petty Candles and your Torches better then others Torches so he also may be a larger example to others then others have been to him for Herein is your Father glorified if you beare much fruit and that is the end of all that we all doe That men seeing it may glorifie our Father which is in heaven SERMON IX Preached upon Candlemas day ROM 13.7 Render therefore to all men their dues The Text being part of the Epistle of that day that yeare THe largenesse of this short Text consists in that word Therefore therefore because you have been so particularly taught your particular duties therefore perform them therefore practise them Reddite omnibus debita Render therefore to every man his due The Philosopher might seem to have contracted as large a law into a few words in his suum cuique as the Holy Ghost had done in his Reddite
saies he Inter animas terrenas non autem inter Angelicas beatitudines She is not compared with her owne state in Heaven she shall have a better state in that State then she hath here So when Iohn Baptists Office is highliest extolled that he is called The greatest Prophet it is but Inter natos mulierum Amongst the sons of women he is not compared with the Son of God So this Blessednesse appropriated to the pure in heart gives a present assurance of future joy and a present inchoation of that now though the plenary consummation thereof be respited till we see God And first videbunt non contremiscent Videbunt Deum This is a Blessednesse they shall see God and be glad to see him see him in Judgement and be able to stand in Judgement in his sight They shall see him and never trouble the hils to fall upon them nor call the mountains to cover them upon them he shall not steal as a thiefe in the night but because he hath used to stand at their doore and knock and enter they shall look for his comming and be glad of it First they come to a true valuation of this world in S. Pauls Omnia stercora Phil. 3.8 I count all things but Dung but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord When they have found the true value of worldly things they will come to something worth the getting they will come to S. Pauls way of Gain Mors lucrum that to die is gain and advantage Phil. 1.21 When they know that they will conceive a religious covetousnesse of that and so come to S. Pauls Cupio dissolvi to desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ When they have entertained that Desire they will declare it make a petition a suite for it with a Veni Domine Iesu Come Lord Iesu come quickly and they shall have a holy and modest but yet an infallible assurance of this answer to their petition Venite benedicti Come ye blessed of my Father inherite the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundations of the world Mat. 26.34 So Videbunt non contremiscent by this acquainting themselves and accustoming themselves to his presence in all their actions and meditations in this life they shall see him and be glad to see him even in Judgement in the next But the seeing of God principally intended in this place is that Visio beatifica to see God so as that that very seeing makes the seer Blessed They are Blessed therefore because they see him And that is videre Essentiam to see the very Essence and nature of God For that we shall see God in his Essence is evident enough by that place of the Apostle 1 John 3.2 Now we are the Sons of God that is now by this purity of heart and testimony of a rectified conscience we are so And it doth not yet appeare what we shall be that is there are degrees of glory reserved for us that yet do not appeare to our understanding we cannot conceive them But we know that when he shall appeare we shall be like him that is receive incorruption and glory in our bodies as he hath done And then the reason given there of that is For we shall see him sicuti est as he is in his Essence All our Beatification and Glorification in our bodies consists in this that we shall see him sicuti est 1 Cor. 13.12 as he is in his Essence Then sayes S. Paul I shall know even as I am knowne Essentially But whether then in the resurrection and glorification of the body God in his Essence be to be seen with those eyes which the body shall then have is yet and hath been long a question The Scripture goes no farther then to S. Iohns Sicuti est I shall see him as he is and to S. Pauls Cognoscam I shall know him as I am knowne but with what eyes I shall see him without any perplexing curiosities we will look a little into the Fathers and into the School and conclude so as may best advance our edification For the Fathers it may be sufficient to insist upon S. Augustine not because he is alwayes to be preferred before all but because in this point he hath best collected all that were before him and is best followed of all that come after S. Augustine had written against a Bishop who was of the Sect of the Anthropomorphits whose Heresie was that God had a Body and in opposition of him S. Augustine had said Istius corporis oculos nec videre Deum nec visuros That God was so far from having a Body that our bodily eyes howsoever glorified should never see God In that Treatise S. Augustine had been very bitter against that Bishop and being warned of it in another Epistle to another Bishop Fortunatianus he repents and retracts his bitternesse but his opinion his doctrine That our bodily eyes should never see God S. Augustine never retracted He professes ingenuously Longè tolerabilius corpori arrogare quà m Deo derogare That he could be more easily brought to attribute so much too much to the body of man as to say that with these bodily eyes he should see God then to derogate so much from God as to say that he had a body that might be seen but because he saw that one might follow on the other he denyed both and did no more beleeve that mans eyes should see God then that God had a body to be seen And this negative opinion of his S. Augustine builds upon S. Ambrose and upon S. Hierome too who seem to deny that the Angels themselves see the Essence of God and upon Athanasius who against the Arrians opinion That God the Father only was invisible but the Son who was not equall to the Father and the Holy Ghost who was not equall to the Son might be seen argues and maintains that the whole Trinity is equall in it self and equally invisible to us So doth he also assist himself with that of Nazianzen Quando Deus visus salva sua invisibilitate visus howsoever God be said to have been seen it is said in some such sense as that even then when he was seen he was invisible He might have added Chrysostomes testimony too Ipsum quod Deus est nec Angeli viderunt nec Archangeli Neither Angel nor Archangel did ever see that Nature which is the very Essence of God And he might have added Areopagita too who expresses it with equall elegancy and vehemency Dei nec sententia est nec ratio nec opinio nec sensus nec phantasia If we bring the very Nature and Essence of God into question we can give no judgement upon it non sententia we can make no probable discourse of it non ratio we can frame no likely opinion or conjecture in it non opinio we cannot prepare our selves with any thing which hath fallen
yet his third teares his pontificall teares which accompany his sacrifice Those teares we called the Sea but a Sea which must now be bounded with a very little sand To saile apace through this Sea 3. Part. these teares the teares of his Crosse were expressed by that inestimable waight the sinnes of all the world If all the body were eye argues the Apostle in another place why here all the body was eye every pore of his body made an eye by teares of blood and every inch of his body made an eye by their bloody scourges And if Christs looking upon Peter made Peter weep shall not his looking upon us here with teares in his eyes such teares in such eyes springs of teares rivers of teares seas of teares make us weep too Peter who wept under the waight of his particular sin wept bitterly how bitterly wept Christ under the waight of all the sins of all the world In the first teares Christ humane teares those we called a spring we fetched water at one house we condoled a private calamity in another Lazarus was dead In his second teares his Propheticall teares wee went to the condoling of a whole Nation and those we called a River In these third teares his pontificall teares teares for sin for all sins those we call a Sea here is Mare liberum a Sea free and open to all Every man may saile home home to himselfe and lament his own sins there I am farre ftom concluding all to be impenitent that doe not actually weep and shed teares I know there are constitutions complexions that doe not afford them And yet the worst Epithet which the best Poet could fixe upon Pluto himselfe was to call him Illachrymabilis a person that could not weep But to weep for other things and not to weep for sin or if not to teares yet not to come to that tendernesse to that melting to that thawing that resolving of the bowels which good soules feele this is a spunge I said before every man is a spunge this is a spunge dried up into a Pumice stone the lightnesse the hollownesse of a spunge is there still but as the Pumice is dried the Aetnaes of lust of ambition of other flames in this world I have but three words to say of these teares of this weeping What it is what it is for what it does the nature the use the benefit of these teares is all And in the first I forbeare to insist upon S. Basils Metaphor Lachrymae sudor animi male sani Sin is my sicknesse the blood of Christ Jesus is my Bezar teares is the sweat that that produceth I forbeare Greg. Nyssens metaphor too Lachryma sanguis cordis defoecatus Teares are out best blood so agitated so ventilated so purified so rarified into spirits as that thereby I become Idem spiritus one spirit with my God That is large enough and imbraces all which S. Gregory sayes That man weeps truly that soul sheds true teares that considers seriously first ubi fuit in innocentia the blessed state which man was in in his integrity at first ubifuit and then considers ubi est in tentationibus the weak estate that man is in now in the midst of tentations where if he had no more himself were tentation too much ubi est and yet considers farther ubi erit in gehenna the insupportable and for all that the inevitable theirreparable and for all that undeterminable torments of hell ubi erit and lastly ubi non erit in coelis the unexpressible joy and glory which he loses in heaven ubi non erit where he shall never be These foure to consider seriously where man was where he is where he shall be where he shall never be are foure such Rivers as constitute a Paradise And as a ground may be a weeping ground though it have no running River no constant spring no gathering of waters in it so a soule that can poure out it self into these religious considerations may be a weeping soule though it have a dry eye This weeping then is but a true sorrow that was our first and then what this true sorrow is given us for and that is our next Consideration As water is in nature a thing indifferent in may give life Ad quid so the first livin things that were were in the water and it may destroy life so all things living upon the earth were destroyed in the water but yet though water may though it have done good and bad yet water does now one good office which no ill quality that is in it can equall it washes our soules in Bap isme so though there be good teares and bad teares teares that wash away sin and teares that are sin yet all teares have this degree of good in them that they are all some kinde of argument of good nature of a tender heart and the Holy Ghost loves to work in Waxe and not in Marble I hope that is but meerly Poeticall which the Poet saies Discunt lachrymare decenter that some study to weep with a good grace Quoque volunt plorant empore quoquemode they make use and advantage of their teares and weep when they will But of those who weep not when they would but when they would not do half imploy their teares upon thatfor which God hath given them that sacrifice upon sin God made the Firmament which he called Heaven after it had divided the waters After we have distinguished our teares naturall from spirituall worldly from heavenly then there is a Firmament established in us then there is a heaven opened to us and truly to cast Pearles before Swine will scarce be better resembled then to shed teares which resemble pearles for worldly losses Are there examples of menopassionately enamored upon age or if upon age upon deformity If there be example of that are they not examples of scorn too doe not all others laugh at their teares and yet such is our passionate doting upon this world Mundi facies sayes S. Augustine and even S. Augustine himselfe hath scarce said any thing more pathetically tanta rerani labe contrita ut etiam speciem seductionis amiserit The face of the whold world is so defaced so wrinkled so ruined so deformed as that man might be trusted with this world and there is no jealousie no suspition that this world should be able to minister any occasion of tentation to man Speciem seductionis amisit And yet Qui in seipso aruit in nobis floret sayes S. Gregory as wittily as S. Augustine as it is easie to be witty easie to extend an Epigram to a Satyre and a Satyre to an Invective in declaiming against this world that world which findes it selfe truly in an Autumne in it selfe findes it selfe in a spring in our imaginations Labenti haeremus sayes that Father Et cum labentem sistere non possumus cum ipso labimur The world passes away and yet wee cleave to it and
a young man comes to Christ Christ receives him with an extraordinary welcome well intimated though he were yong and he came though he wre Vnus è principibus for so he is qualified in S. Luke A principall man a great man as we translate it One of the Rulers Luke 18.18 for so he is a reall and a personall answer and instance to that scornfull question of the Pharisees Nunquid è principibus Do any of the Rulers any great men beleeve in Christ It is true that the Holy Ghost doth say 1 Cor. 1.26 Non multi nobiles few noble men come to heaven Not out of Panigorola the Bishop of Asti his reason Pauci quia pauci There cannot come many noble men to heaven because there are not many upon earth for many times there are many In calme and peaceable times the large favours of indulgent Princes in active and stirring times the merit and the fortune of forward men do often enlarge the number But such is often the corrupt inordinatenesse of greatnesse that it only carries them so much beyond other men but not so much nearer to God It only sets men at a farther not God at a nearer distance to them but because they are come to be called gods they think they have no farther to go to God but to themselves But God is the God of the Mountains 1 King 20.28 Esay 40.12 as well as of the Valleyes Great and small are equall and equally nothing in his sight for when all the world is In pugillo in Gods fist as the Prophet speaks who can say then This is the Ant this is the Elephant Our conversation should be in heaven and if we look upon the men of this world as from heaven as if we looked upon this world it self from thence the hils would be no hils but all one flat and equall plain so are all men one kinde of dust Records of nobility are only from the book of Life and your preferment is your interest in a place at the right hand of God But yet when those men whom God hath raised in this world take him in their armes and raise him too though God cannot be exalted above himself yet he is content to call this a raising and to thank them for it Therefore when this man a man of this rank came to him Mar. 10.21 Iesus beheld him sayes the Gospell and he loved him and he said one thing thou lackest God knows he lacked many things but because he had that one zeale to him Christ doth not reproach to him his other defects God pardons great men many errors for that one good affection a generall zeale to his glory and his cause His disposition then though it have seemed suspitious and questionable to some was so good as that it hath afforded us these good considerations If it were not so good as these circumstances promise yet it affords us another as good consideration That how bad soever it were Christ Jesus refused him not when he came to him When he enquired of Christ after salvation Christ doth not say There is no salvation for thee thou Viper thou Hypocrite thou Pharisee I have locked an iron doore of predestination between salvation and thee when he enquired of him what he should do to be sure of heaven Christ doth not say There is no such art no such way no such assurance here but you must look into the eternall decree of Election first and see whether that stand for you or no But Christ teaches him the true method of this art for when he sayes to him Why callest thou me good There is none good but God he only directs him in the way to that end which he did indeed or pretended to seek And this direction of his this method is our third part In which having already seen in the first the Context the situation and prospect of the house that is the coherence and occasion of the words And in the second the Pretext the accesse and entrance to the house that is the pretense and purpose of him that occasioned the words you may now be pleased to look farther into the house it self and to see how that is built that is by what method Christ builds up and edifies this new disciple of his which is the principall scope and intention of the Text and that to which all the rest did somewhat necessarily prepare the way Our Saviour Christ thus undertaking the farther rectifying of this thus disposed disciple 3. Part. by a faire method leads him to the true end Good ends and by good wayes consummate goodnesse Now Christs answer to this man is diversly read We reade it as you have heard why callest thou me good The vulgat Edition in the Romane Church reads it thus Quid me interrogas de bono Why dost thou question me concerning goodnesse Which is true That which answers the Originall and it can admit no question but that ours doth so But yet Origen to be sure in his eighth Tractate upon this Gospell reads it both wayes And S. Augustine in his 63. Chap. of the second book De consensu Evangelist arum thinks it may very well be beleeved that Christ did say both That when this man called him good master Christ said then There was none good but God and that when this man asked him what good thing he should do then Christ said Why dost thou ask me me whom thou thinkest to be but a meere man what is goodnesse There is none good but God If thou look to understand goodnesse from man thou must look out such a man as is God too So that this was Christs method by these holy insinuations by these approaches and degrees to bring this man to a knowledge that he was very God and so the Messias that was expected Nihil est falsitas August nisi cum esse putatur quod non est All error consists in this that we take things to be lesse or more other then they are Christ was pleased to redeem this man from this error and bring him to know truly what he was that he was God Christ therefore doth not rebuke this man by any denying that he himself was good for Christ doth assume that addition to himself I am the good Shepheard Neither doth God forbid that those good parts which are in men should be celebrated with condigne praise We see that God as soon as he saw that any thing was good he said so he uttered it he declared it first of the Light and then of other creatures God would be no author no example of smothering the due praise of good actions For surely that man hath no zeale to goodnesse in himself that affords no praise to goodnesse in other men But Christs purpose was also that this praise this recognition this testimony of his goodnesse might be carried higher and referred to the only true author of it to God So the Priests
other Heretiques in the Primitive Church would rather admit and constitute two Gods a good God and a bad God then be drawn to think that he that was the good God indeed could produce any ill of himself or meane any ill to any man that had done none And therefore even from Plato himself some Christians might learn more moderation in expressing themselves in this point Plato sayes Creavit quia bonus therefore did God create us that he might be good to us and then he addes Bono nunquam inest invidia certainly that God that made us out of his goodnesse does not now envy us that goodnesse which he hath communicated to us certainly he does not wish us worse that so he might more justly damne us and therefore compell us by any positive decree to sin to justifie his desire of damning us Much lesse did this good God hate us or meane ill to us before he made us and made us only therefore that he might have glory in our destruction There is nothing good but God there is nothing but goodnesse in God How abusively then doe men call the things of this world Goods They may as well call them so they do in their hearts Gods as Goods for there is none good but God But how much more abusively do they force the world that call them Bona quia beant Goods because they make us good blessed happy In which sense Seneca uses the word shrewdly Insolens malum beata uxor a good wife a blessed wife sayes he that is a wife that brings a great estate is an insolent mischiefe If we doe but cast our eye upon that title in the Law Bonorum and De bonis of Goods we shall easily see what poor things they make shift to cal Goods And if we consider if it deserve a consideration how great a difference their Lawyers make Baldus makes that and others with him between Bonorum possessio and possessio bonorum that one should amount to a right and propriety in the goods and the other but to a sequestration of such goods we may easily see that they can scarce tell what to call or where to place such Goods Health and strength and stature and comelinesse must be called Goods though but of the body The body it self is in the substance it self but dust these are but the accidents of that dust and yet they must be Goods Land and Money honor must be called Goods though but of fortune Fortune her self is but such an Idol as that S. Aug. was ashamed ever to have named her in his works and therefore repents it in his Retractations her self is but an Idol and an Idol is nothing these but the accidents of that nothing and yet they must be Goods Are they such Goods as make him necessarily good that hath them Or such as no man can be good that is without them How many men make themselves miserable because they want these Goods And how many men have been made miserable by others because they had them Except thou see the face of God upon all thy money as well as the face of the King the hand of God to all thy Patents as well as the hand of the King Gods Amen as well as the Kings fiat to all thy creatiōs all these reach not to the title of Goods for there is none good but God Nothing in this world not if thou couldst have it all carry it higher to the highest to heaven heaven it self were not good without God For in the Schoole very many and very great men have thought and taught That the humane nature of Christ though united Hypostatically to the Divine Nature was not meerly by that Union impeccable but might have sinned if besides that Union God had not infused and super-induced other graces of which other graces the Beatificall vision the present sight of the face and Essence of God was one Because say they Christ had from his Conception in his Humane Nature that Beatificall Vision of God which we shall have in the state of Glory therefore he could not sin This Beatificall Vision say they which Christ had here and which as they suppose and not improbably in the problematicall way of the Schoole God of his absolute power might have with-held and yet the Hypostaticall Union have remained perfect for say they the two Natures Humane Divine might have been so united and yet the Humane not have so seen the Divine This Beatificall Vision this sight of God was the Cause or Seal or Consummation of Christs Perfection and impeccability in his Humane Nature Much more is this Beatificall Vision this sight of God in Heaven the Cause or Consummation of all the joyes and glory which we shall receive in that place for howsoever they dispute whether that kinde of Blessednesse consist in seeing God formaliter or causaliter that is whether I shall see all things in God as in a glasse in which the species of all things are or whether I shall see all things by God as by the benefit of a light which shall discover all things to me yet they all agree though they differ de modo of the manner how that howsoever it be the substance of the Blessednesse is in this that I shall see God Blessed are the pure in heart sayes Christ for they shall see God If they should not see God they were not blessed And therefore they who place children that die unbaptised in a roome where though they feele no torment yet they shall never see God durst never call that roome a part of heaven but of hell rather Though there be no torment yet if they see not God it is hell There is nothing good in this life nothing in the next without God that is without sight and fruition of the face and presence of God which is that which S. Augustine intends when he sayes Secutio Dei est appetitus Beatitatis consecutio Beatitas our looking towards God is the way to Blessednesse but Blessednesse it self is only the sight of God himself That therefore thou maist begin thy heaven here put thy self in the sight of God put God in thy sight in every particular action We cannot come to the body of the Sun but we can use the light of the Sun many waies we cannot come to God himself here but yet here we can see him by many manifestations so many as that S. Augustine in his 20. Chapt. De moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae hath collected aright places of Scripture where every one of our senses is called a Seeing there is a Gustate videte and audite and palpate tasting and hearing and feeling and all to this purpose are called seeing In all our senses in our faculties we may see God if we will God sees us at midnight he sees us then when we had rather he looked off If we see him so it is a blessed interview How would he that were come abroad at mid-night
Resurrection and in the Ascension And so that which is the last step of our first stage That that Iesus is made Lord as well as he is made Christ enters us upon our second stage The meanes by which we are to know and prove all this to our selves Therefore sayes the Text let all know it wherefore why because God hath raised him after you had crucified him Because God hath loosed the bands of death Ver. 23 24 25 26 27. because it was impossible that he should be holden by death Because Davids prophecy of a deliverance from the grave is fulfilled in him Therefore let all know this to be thus So that the Resurrection of Christ is argument enough to prove that Christ is made Lord of all And if he be Lord he hath Subjects that do as he does And so his Resurrection is become an argument and an assurance of our Resurrection too and that is as far as we shall go in our second part That first Christs Resurrection is proofe enough to us of his Dominion if he be risen he is Lord and then his Dominion is proofe enough to us of our Resurrection if he be Lord Lord of us we shall rise too And when we have paced and passed through all these steps we shall in some measure have solemnized this day of the Resurrection of Christ and in some measure have made it the day of our Resurrection too First then 1. Part. Domus Israel the Apostle applies himself to his Auditory in a faire in a gentle manner he gives them their Titles Domus Israel The house of Israel We have a word now denizened and brought into familiar use amongst us Complement and for the most part in an ill sense so it is when the heart of the speaker doth not answer his tongue but God forbid but a true heart and a faire tongue might very well consist together As vertue it self receives an addition by being in a faire body so do good intentions of the heart by being expressed in faire language That man aggravates his condemnation that gives me good words and meanes ill but he gives me a rich Jewell and in a faire Cabinet he gives me precious wine and in a clean glasse that intends well and expresses his good intentions well too If I beleeve a faire speaker I have comfort a little while though he deceive me but a froward and peremptory refuser unsaddles me at first I remember a vulgar Spanish Author who writes the Iosephina the life of Ioseph the husband of the blessed Virgin Mary who moving that question why that Virgin is never called by any style of Majesty or Honour in the Scriptures he sayes That if after the declaring of her to be the Mother of God he had added any other Title the Holy Ghost had not been a good Courtier as his very word is nor exercised in good language and he thinks that had been a defect in the Holy Ghost in himself He meanes surely the same that Epiphanius doth That in naming the Saints of God and especially the blessed Virgin we should alwayes give them the best Titles that are applyable to them Epiphan Haeres 78. Quis unquam ausus saies he proferre nomen Mariae non statim addidit virgo Who ever durst utter the name of that Mary without that addition of incomparable honour The Virgin Mary That Spanish Author need not be suspitious of the Holy Ghost in that kinde that he is no good Courtier so for in all the books of the world you shall never reade so civill language nor so faire expressions of themselves to one another as in the Bible When Abraham shall call himself dust and ashes and indeed if the Son of God were a worme and no man what was Abraham If God shall call this Abraham this Dust this Worme of the dust The friend of God and all friendship implyes a parity an equality in something when David shall call himself a flea and a dead dog even in respect of Saul and God shall call David A man according to his own heart when God shall call us The Apple of his own eye The Seale upon his own right hand who would go farther for an Example or farther then that example for a Rule of faire accesses of civill approaches of sweet and honourable entrances into the affections of them with whom they were to deale Especially is this manner necessary in men of our profession Not to break a bruised reed nor to quench smoaking flaxe not to avert any from a will to heare by any frowardnesse any morosity any defrauding them of their due praise and due titles but to accompany this blessed Apostle in this way of his discreet and religious insinuation to call them Men of Iudea ver 14. and Men of Israel ver 22. and Men and Brethren ver 29. and here Domus Israel the ancientest house the honourablest house the lastingest house in the world The house of Israel He takes from them nothing that is due Accusat tamen that would but exasperate He is civill but his civility doth not amount to a flattery as though the cause of God needed them or God must be beholding to them or God must pay for it or smart for it if they were not pleased And therefore though he do give them their titles Apertè illis imputat crucifixionem Christi sayes S. Chrysostome Plainly and without disguise he imputes and puts home to them the crucifying of Christ how honourably soever they were descended he layes that murder close to their Consciences You you house of Israel have crucified the Lord Iesus There is a great deale of difference between Shimeis vociferations against David 2 Sam. 16.5 Thou man of blood thou man of Belial And Nathans proceeding with David and yet Nathan forbore not to tell him 2 Sam. 12.7 Thou art the man Thou hast despised the Lord Thou hast killed Vriah Thou hast taken his wife It is one thing to sow pillows under the elbows of Kings flatterers do so another thing to pull the chaire from under the King and popular and seditious men do so Where Inferiours insult over their Superiours we tell them Christi Domini they are the Lords anointed and the Lord hath said Touch not mine anointed And when such Superiours insult over the Lord himselfe and think themselves Gods without limitation as the God of heaven is when they doe so we must tell them they doe so Etsi Christi Domini though you be the Lords anointed yet you crucifie the anointed Lord for this was S. Peters method though his successor will not be bound by it When he hath carried the matter thus evenly betweene them I doe not deny Omnes but you are the House of Israel you cannot deny but you have crucified the Lord Jesus you are heires of a great deale of honour but you are guilty of a shrewd fault too stand or fall to your Master
miser abilis casus saies he cui non sufficit una regeneratio Miserable man that I am and miserable condition that I am fallen into whom one regeneration will not serve So is it a miserable death that hath swallowed us whom one Resurrection will serve We need three but if we have not two we were as good be without one There is a Resurrection from worldly calamities a resurrection from sin and a resurrection from the grave First Exod. 10.17 1 Cor. 15.31 Psal 41.8 from calamities for as dangers are called death Pharaoh cals the plague of Locusts a death Intreat the Lord your God that he may take from me this death onely And so S. Paul saies in his dangers I dye daily So is the deliverance from danger called a Resurrection It is the hope of the wicked upon the godly Now that he lieth he shall rise no more that is Now that he is dead in misery he shall have no resurrection in this world Now this resurrection God does not alwaies give to his servants neither is this resurrection the measure of Gods love of man whether he do raise him from worldly calamities or no. The second is the resurrection from sin Apec 20.5 and therefore this S. Iohn calls The first Resurrection as though the other whether we rise from worldly calamities or no were not to be reckoned Anima spiritualiter cadit spiritualiter resurget saies S. Augustine Since we are sure there is a spirituall death of the soule let us make sure a spirituall resurrection too Audacter dicam saies S. Hierome I say confidently Cum omnia posset Deus suscitare Virginem post ruinam non potest Howsoever God can do all things he cannot restore a Virgin that is fallen from it to virginity againe He cannot do this in the body but God is a Spirit and hath reserved more power upon the spirit and soule then upon the body and therefore Audacter dicam I may say with the same assurance that S. Hierome does No soule hath so prostituted her selfe so multiplied her fornications but that God can make her a virgin againe and give her even the chastity of Christ himselfe Fulfill therefore that which Christ saies Iohn 5.25 The houre is comming and now is when the dead shall heare the voyce of the Son of God and they that heare shall live Be this that houre be this thy first Resurrection Blesse Gods present goodnesse for this now and attend Gods leasure for the other Resurrection hereafter 1 Cor. 15.20 He that is the first fruits of them that slept Christ Jesus is awake he dyes no more he sleepes no more Sacrificium pro te fuit sed à te accepit August quod pro te obtulit He offered a Sacrifice for thee but he had that from thee that he offered for thee Primitiae fuit sed tuae primitiae He was the first fruits but the first fruits of thy Corne Spera in te futurum quod praecess it in primitiis tuis Doubt not of having that in the whole Croppe which thou hast already in thy first fruits that is to have that in thy self which thou hast in thy Saviour And what glory soever thou hast had in this world Glory inherited from noble Ancestors Glory acquired by merit and service Glory purchased by money and observation what glory of beauty and proportion what glory of health and strength soever thou hast had in this house of clay The glory of the later house Hag. 2.9 shall be greater then of the former To this glory the God of this glory by glorious or inglorious waies such as may most advance his own glory bring us in his time for his Son Christ Jesus sake Amen SERMON XIX Preached at S. Pauls upon Easter-day in the Evening 1624. APOC. 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection IN the first book of the Scriptures that of Genesis there is danger in departing from the letter In this last book this of the Revelation there is as much danger in adhering too close to the letter The literall sense is alwayes to be preserved but the literall sense is not alwayes to be discerned for the literall sense is not alwayes that which the very Letter and Grammer of the place presents as where it is literally said That Christ is a Vine and literally That his flesh is bread and literally That the new Ierusalem is thus situated thus built thus furnished But the literall sense of every place is the principall intention of the Holy Ghost in that place And his principall intention in many places is to expresse things by allegories by figures so that in many places of Scripture a figurative sense is the literall sense and more in this book then in any other As then to depart from the literall sense that sense which the very letter presents in the book of Genesis is dangerous because if we do so there we have no history of the Creation of the world in any other place to stick to so to binde our selves to such a literall sense in this book will take from us the consolation of many spirituall happinesses and bury us in the carnall things of this world The first error of being too allegoricall in Genesis transported divers of the ancients beyond the certain evidence of truth and the second error of being too literall in this book fixed many very many very ancient very learned upon an evident falshood which was that because here is mention of a first Resurrection and of raigning with Christ a thousand years after that first Resurrection There should be to all the Saints of God a state of happinesse in this world after Christs comming for a thousand yeares In which happy state though some of them have limited themselves in spirituall things that they should enjoy a kinde of conversation with Christ and an impeccability and a quiet serving of God without any reluctations or cōcupiscences or persecutions yet others have dreamed on and enlarged their dreames to an enjoying of all these worldly happinesses which they being formerly persecuted did formerly want in this world and then should have them for a thousand yeares together in recompence And even this branch of that error of possessing the things of this world so long in this world did very many and very good and very great men whose names are in honour and justly in the Church of God in those first times stray into and flattered themselves with an imaginary intimation of some such thing in these words Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection Thus far then the text is literall Divisio That this Resurrection in the text is different from the generall Resurrection The first differs from the last And thus far it is figurative allegoricall mysticall that it is a spirituall Resurrection that is intended But wherein spirituall or of what spirituall Resurrection In
our virility our holy manhood our true and religious strength consists in the assurance that though death have divided us and though we never receive our dead raised to life again in this world yet we do live together already in a holy Communion of Saints and shal live together for ever hereafter in a glorious Resurrection of bodies Little know we how little a way a soule hath to goe to heaven when it departs from the body Whether it must passe locally through Moone and Sun and Firmament and if all that must be done all that may be done in lesse time then I have proposed the doubt in or whether that soule finde new light in the same roome and be not carried into any other but that the glory of heaven be diffused over all I know not I dispute not I inquire not Without disputing or inquiring I know that when Christ sayes That God is not the God of the dead he saies that to assure me that those whom I call dead are alive And when the Apostle tels me That God is not ashamed to be called the God of the dead Heb. 11.16 he tels me that to assure me That Gods servants lose nothing by dying He was but a Heathen that said Menander Thraces If God love a man Iuvenis tollitur He takes him young out of this world And they were but Heathens that observed that custome To put on mourning when their sons were born and to feast and triumph when they dyed But thus much we may learne from these Heathens That if the dead and we be not upon one floore nor under one story yet we are under one roofe We think not a friend lost because he is gone into another roome nor because he is gone into another Land And into another world no man is gone for that Heaven which God created and this world is all one world If I had fixt a Son in Court or married a daughter into a plentifull Fortune I were satisfied for that son and that daughter Shall I not be so when the King of Heaven hath taken that son to himselfe and maried himselfe to that daughter for ever I spend none of my Faith I exercise none of my Hope in this that I shall have my dead raised to life againe This is the faith that sustaines me when I lose by the death of others or when I suffer by living in misery my selfe That the dead and we are now all in one Church and at the resurrection shall be all in one Quire But that is the resurrection which belongs to our other part That resurrection which wee have handled though it were a resurrection from death yet it was to death too for those that were raised again died again But the Resurrection which we are to speak of is forever They that rise then shall see death no more for it is sayes our Text A better Resurrection That which we did in the other part 2 Part. in the last branch thereof in this part we shall doe in the first First we shall consider the examples from which the Apostle deduceth this encouragement and faithfull constancy upon those Hebrewes to whom he directs this Epistle Though as he sayes in the beginning of the next Chapter he were compassed about with a Cloud of witnesses and so might have proposed examples from the Authenticke Scriptures and the Histories of the Bible yet we accept that direction which our Translators have given us in the Marginall Concordance of their Translation That the Apostle in this Text intends and so referres to that Story which is 2 Maccab. 7.7 To that Story also doth Aquinas referre this place But Aquinas may have had a minde to doe that service to the Romane Church to make the Apostle cite an Apocryphall Story though the Apostle meant it not It may be so in Aquinas He might have such a minde such a meaning But surely Beza had no such meaning Calvin had no such minde and yet both Calvin and Beza referre this Text to that Story Though it be said sayes Calvin that Ieremy was stoned to death and Esay sawed to death Non dubito quin illas persecutiones designet quae sub Antiocho I doubt not sayes he but that the Apostle intends those persecutions which the Maccabees suffered under Antiochus So then there may be good use made of an Apocryphall Booke It alwayes was and alwayes will be impossible for our adversaries of the Romane Church to establish that which they have so long endeavoured that is to make the Apocryphall Bookes equall to the Canonicall It is true that before there was any occasion of jealousie or suspition that there would be new Articles of faith coyned and those new Articles authorized and countenanced out of the Apocryphall Books the blessed Fathers in the Primitive Church afforded honourable names and made faire and noble mention of those Books So they have called them Sacred and more then that Divine and more then that too Canonicall Books and more then all that by the generall name of Scripture and Holy Writ But the Holy Ghost who fore-saw the danger though those blessed Fathers themselves did not hath shed and dropt even in their writings many evidences to prove in what sense they called those Books by those names and in what distance they alwayes held them from those Bookes which are purely and positively and to all purposes and in all senses Sacred and Divine and Canonicall and simply Scripture and simply Holy Writ Of this there is no doubt in the Fathers before S. Augustine For all they proposed these Bookes as Canones morum non sidei Canonicall that is Regular for applying our manners and conversation to the Articles of Faith but not Canonicall for the establishing those Articles Canonicall for edification but not for foundation And even in the later Roman Church we have a good Author that gives us a good rule Cajeâ—an Ne turberis Novitie Let no young Student be troubled when he heares these Bookes by some of the Fathers called Canonicall for they are so saies he in their sense Regulares ad aedificationem Good Canons good Rules for matter of manners and conversation And this distinction saies that Author will serve to rectifie not onely what the Fathers afore S. Augustine for they speake cleerely enough but what S. Augustine himselfe and some Councels have said of this matter But yet this difference gives no occasion to an elimination to an extermination of these Books which we call Apocryphall And therefore when in a late forraine Synod that Nation where that Synod was gathered would needs dispute whether the Apocryphall Bookes should not be utterly left out of the Bible And not effecting that yet determined that those Bookes should be removed from their old place where they had ever stood that is after the Bookes of the Old Testament Exteri se excusari petierunt Sessio 10. say the Acts of that Synod Those that
world immediatly after a pardon received and reconciliation sealed to him for all his sins No doubt but he shall have a good Resurrection But then we cannot doubt neither but that to him that hath been carefull in all his wayes and yet crost in all his wayes to him whose daily bread hath been affliction and yet is satisfied as with marrow and with fatnesse with that bread of affliction and not only contented in but glad of that affliction no doubt but to him is reserved a Better Resurrection Every Resurrection is more then we can think but this is more then that more Almighty God inform us and reveale unto us what this Better Resurrection is by possessing us of it And make the hastening to it one degree of addition in it Come Lord Jesus come quickly to the consummation of that Kingdome which thou hast purchased for us with inestimable price of thine incorruptible blood Amen SERMON XXIII Preached at S. Pauls for Easter-day 1628. 1 COR. 13.12 For now we see through a Glasse darkly But then face to sace Now I know in part But then I shall know even as also I am knowne THese two termes in our Text Nunc and Tunc Now and Then Now in a glasse Then face to face Now in part Then in perfection these two secular termes of which one designes the whole Age of this world from the Creation to the dissolution thereof for all that is comprehended in this word Now And the other designes the everlastingnesse of the next world for that incomprehensiblenesse is comprehended in the other word Then These two words that design two such Ages are now met in one Day in this Day in which we celebrate all Resurrections in the roote in the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus blessed for ever For the first Term Now Now in a glasse now in part is intended most especially of that very act which we do now at this present that is of the Ministery of the Gospell of declaring God in his Ordinance of Preaching his word Now in this Ministery of his Gospell we see in a glasse we know in part And then the Then the time of seeing face to face and knowing as we are knowne is intended of that time which we celebrate this day the day of Resurrection the day of Judgement the day of the actuall possession of the next life So that this day this whole Scripture is fulfilled in your eares for now now in this Preaching you have some sight and then Then when that day comes which in the first roote thereof we celebrate this day you shall have a perfect sight of all Now we see through a glasse c. That therefore you may the better know him Divisio when you come to see him face to face then by having seen him in a glasse now and that your seeing him now in his Ordinance may prepare you to see him then in his Essence proceed we thus in the handling of these words First That there is nothing brought into comparison into consideration nothing put into the balance but the sight of God the knowledge of God It is not called a better sight nor a better knowledge but there is no other sight no other knowledge proposed or mentioned or intimated or imagined but this All other sight is blindnesse all other knowledge is ignorance And then we shall see how there is a twofold sight of God and a twofold knowledge of God proposed to us here A sight and a knowledge here in this life and another manner of sight and another manner of knowledge in the life to come For here we see God In speculo in a glasse that is by reflexion And here we know God In aenigmate sayes our Text Darkly so we translate it that is by obscure representations and therefore it is called a Knowledge but in part But in heaven our sight is face to face And our knowledge is to know as we are knowne For our sight of God here our Theatre the place where we sit and see him is the whole world the whole house and frame of nature and our medium our glasse is the Booke of Creatures and our light by which we see him is the light of Naturall Reason And then for our knowledge of God here our Place our Academy our University is the Church our medium is the Ordinance of God in his Church Preaching and Sacraments and our light is the light of faith Thus we shall finde it to be for our sight and for our knowledge of God here But for our sight of God in heaven our place our Spheare is heaven it selfe our medium is the Patefaction the Manifestation the Revelation of God himselfe and our light is the light of Glory And then for our knowledge of God there God himself is All God himself is the place we see Him in Him God is our medium we see Him by him God is our light not a light which is His but a light which is He not a light which flowes from him no nor a light which is in him but that light which is He himself Lighten our darknesse we beseech thee O Lord O Father of lights that in thy light we may see light that now we see this through this thy glasse thine Ordinance and by the good of this hereafter face to face The sight is so much the Noblest of all the senses as that it is all the senses Visio As the reasonable soul of man when it enters becomes all the soul of man and he hath no longer a vegetative and a sensitive soul but all is that one reasonable soul so sayes S. Aug. and he exemplifies it by severall pregnant places of Scripture Visus per omnes sensus recurrit Aug. All the senses are called Seeing as there is videre audire S. Iohn turned to see the sound Apoc. 1. Psal 34.9 and there is Gustate videte Taste and see how sweet the Lord is And so of the rest of the senses all is sight Employ then this noblest sense upon the noblest object see God see God in every thing and then thou needst not take off thine eye from Beauty from Riches from Honour from any thing S. Paul speaks here of a diverse seeing of God Of seeing God in a glasse and seeing God face to face but of not seeing God at all the Apostle speaks not at all When Christ tooke the blinde man by the hand Mark 8.23 though he had then begun his cure upon him yet hee asked him if hee saw ought Something he was sure he saw but it was a question whether it were to be called a sight for he saw men but as trees The naturall man sees Beauty and Riches and Honour but yet it is a question whether he sees them or no because he sees them but as a snare But he that sees God in them sees them to be beames and evidences of that Beauty
that Wealth that Honour that is in God that is God himselfe The other blinde man that importuned Christ Mark 10.46 Iesus thou Son of David have mercy on me when Christ asked him What wilt thou that I shall doe unto thee Had presently that answer Lord that I may receive my sight And we may easily think that if Christ had asked him a second question What wouldst thou see when thou hast received thy sight he would have answered Lord I would see thee For when he had his sight and Christ said to him Goe thy way he had no way to goe from Christ but as the Text sayes there He followed him All that he cared for was seeing all that he cared to see was Christ Whether he would see a Peace or a Warre may be a States-mans Probleme whether he would see plenty or scarcity of some commodity may be a Merchants Probleme whether he would see Rome or Spaine grow in greatnesse may be a Jesuits Probleme But whether I had not rather see God then any thing is no Problematicall matter All sight is blindnesse that was our first all knowledge is Ignorance till we come to God that is our next Consideration The first act of the will is love sayes the Schoole for till the will love till it would have something it is not a will But then Amare nisi nota non possumus Scientia Aug. It is impossible to love any thing till we know it First our Understanding must present it as Verum as a Knowne truth and then our Will imbraces it as Bonum as Good and worthy to be loved Therefore the Philosopher concludes easily as a thing that admits no contradiction That naturally all men desire to know that they may love But then as the addition of an honest man varies the signification with the profession and calling of the man for he is a honest man at Court that oppresses no man with his power and at the Exchange he is the honest man that keeps his word and in an Army the Valiant man is the honest man so the Addition of learned and understanding varies with the man The Divine the Physitian the Lawyer are not qualified nor denominated by the same kinde of learning But yet as it is for honesty there is no honest man at Court or Exchange or Army if he beleeve not in God so there is no knowledge in the Physitian nor Lawyer if he know not God Neither does any man know God except he know him so as God hath made himselfe known that is In Christ Therefore as S. Paul desires to know nothing else so let no man pretend to know any thing but Christ Crucified that is Crucified for him made his In the eighth verse of this Chapt. he sayes Prophesie shall faile and Tongues shall faile and Knowledge shall vanish but this knowledge of God in Christ made mine by being Crucified for me shall dwell with me for ever And so from this generall consideration All sight is blindnesse all knowledge is ignorance but of God we passe to the particular Consideration of that twofold sight and knowledge of God expressed in this Text Now we see through a glasse c. First then we consider 2. Part. Visio before we come to our knowledge of God our sight of God in this world and that is sayes our Apostle In speculo we see as in a glasse But how doe we see in a glasse Truly that is not easily determined The old Writers in the Optiques said That when we see a thing in a glasse we see not the thing it selfe but a representation onely All the later men say we doe see the thing it selfe but not by direct but by reflected beames It is a uselesse labour for the present to reconcile them This may well consist with both That as that which we see in a glasse assures us that such a thing there is for we cannot see a dreame in a glasse nor a fancy nor a Chimera so this sight of God which our Apostle sayes we have in a glasse is enough to assure us that a God there is This glasse is better then the water The water gives a crookednesse and false dimensions to things that it shewes as we see by an Oare when we row a Boat and as the Poet describes a wry and distorted face Qui faciem sub aqua Phoebe natant is habes That he looked like a man that swomme under water But in the glasse which the Apostle intends we may see God directly that is see directly that there is a God And therefore S. Cyrils addition in this Text is a Diminution Videmus quasi in fumo sayes he we see God as in a smoak we see him better then so for it is a true sight of God though it be not a perfect sight which we have this way This way our Theatre where we sit to see God is the whole frame of nature our medium our glasse in which we see him is the Creature and our light by which we see him is Naturall Reason Aquinas calls this Theatre Theatrum Mundus where we sit and see God the whole world And David compasses the world and findes God every where and sayes at last Whither shall I flie from thy presence Psal 138.8 If I ascend up into heaven thou art there At Babel they thought to build to heaven but did any men ever pretend to get above heaven above the power of winds or the impression of other malignant Meteors some high hils are got But can any man get above the power of God If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea there thy right hand shall hold me and lead me If we saile to the waters above the Firmament it is so too Nay take a place which God never made a place which grew out of our sins that is Hell yet If we make our bed in hell God is there too It is a wofull Inne to make our bed in Hell and so much the more wofull as it is more then an Inne an everlasting dwelling But even there God is and so much more strangely then in any other place because he is there without any emanation of any beame of comfort from him who is the God of all consolation or any beame of light from him who is the Father of all lights In a word whether we be in the Easterne parts of the world from whom the truth of Religion is passed or in the Westerne to which it is not yet come whether we be in the darknesse of ignorance or darknesse of the works of darknesse or darknesse of oppression of spirit in sadnesse The world is the Theatre that represents God and every where every man may nay must see him The whole frame of the world is the Theatre Medium Creatura and every creature the stage the medium the glasse in which we may see God Moses made
thirteenth Homily upon S. Luke And as evident that S. Hierom himselfe upon the first verse of the sixt Chapter of Micheas thought and taught That those good Angels whom God appoints for the tuition of certaine men and certaine places in this world shall give an account at the day of Judgement of the execution of their office whether the men committed to them have not fallen sometimes by their fault and their dereliction for so does he and not he only understand that place That we shall judge the Angels 1 Cor. 6.3 As also those words in the beginning of the Revelation which S. Iohn is commanded by Christ to write to the Angels of certaine Churches that Father S. Hierom interprets not only of figurative and Metaphoricall Angels the Bishops of those Churches but literally of the Angels of Heaven So then Calvin is from any singularity in that That the good Angels considered in themselves may be defective but because he may be singular in interpreting this Text of good Angels as for ought I have observed he is this singularity of his may be a just reason of suspending our assent but not a just reason presently to condemne his exposition The Church must beas just to him as it was to S. Augustine that is to examine his grounds And truly his ground is faire his ground is firme It is this that though this seeme to derogato from the honour of Angels that being confirmed they should be subject to weaknesse yet saies he we must not pervert nor force any place of Scripture for the honour of the Angels For indeed the perverting and forcing of Scriptures for the over-honouring of Saints hath induced a chain of Heresies in the Romane Church And that this is a forcing of Scripture to understand this Text of fallen Angels Calvin argues rationally That those Angels which are spoken of here are called the servants of God And devils are but his slaves not his servants They execute his will but against their will Good Angels are the servants of God Nor shall we easily finde that Title The servant of God applyed to ill persons in the Scriptures Therefore as he notes usefully God doth not charge Angels in this Text with rebellion or obstination or any haynous crime but only with folly weaknesse infirmity from which in all degrees none but God himself can be free Though therefore there be no such necessity of accepting this exposition as should produce that confident asseveration which he comes to Dubium non est It can admit no doubt but this place must be thus understood for by his favour it may admit a doubt yet neither is there any such newnesse in it because it is grounded upon Truth and all Truth is ancient but that it may very well be received And therefore as the sense that is most fit to advance his purpose that speakes it which is one principall thing to be considered in every place as the sense that most conduces to Eliphaz his end and to prove that which he intends to Iob without laying obligation upon any to think so or imputation upon any that doth not think so we accept this interpretation of these words that they are spoken of Angels which was our first and of good Angels which was our second disquifition and now proceed to our third what their confirmation is and how it works if for all that God put no trust in those servants but charged those Angels with folly That Moses did speak nothing of the fall or of the confirmation of Angels Confirmatiâ— may justly seem a convenient reason to think that he meant to speak nothing of the creation of Angels neither If Moses had intended to have told us of the creation of Angels he would have told us of their fall and confirmation too as having told us so particularly of the making of man he tells us as particularly of the fall of man and the restitution of man by the promise of a Messiah in Paradise And therefore that the Angels are wrapped up in that word of Moses The Heavens and that they were made when the heavens were made or that they are wrapped up in that word of Moses The Light and that they were made when Light was made is all but conjecturall cloudy Neither doth any article of that Creed which we call the Apostles direct us upon any consideration of Angels That they were created long before this world all the Greek Fathers of the Eastern Church did constandy think And in the Westerne Church amongst the Latine Fathers S. Ierome himself was so cleare in it as to say Sex millia nostri orbis nondum implentur anni Our world is not yet six thousand yeares old Et quantas aternitates quantas saeculorum origines sayes that Father what infinite revolutions of ages what infinite eternities did the Powers and Principalities and Thrones and Angels of God serve God in before Theodoret that thinkes not so thinks it not against any article of Faith to think that it was so Aquinas that thinkes not so will not call it an errour to think so out of a reverence to Athanasius and Nazianzen who did think so for that is an indelible character which S. Ierome hath imprinted printed upon those two Fathers That no man ever durst impute errour to Athanasius or Nazianzen Therefore S. Augustine sayes moderately and with that discreet and charitable temper which becomes every man in matters that are not fundamentall Vt volet unusquisq accipiat I forbid no man sayes he either opinion That the Angels were made before the world or with it Dum non Deo coaeternos de vera foelicitate securos non ambigat Only this I forbid him that he do not beleeve the Angels to be coeternall with God For if they were never made but subsist of themselves then they are God If they be not creatures they are Creators And then this I forbid him too sayes he That he do not think the Angels now in any danger of falling So that S. Augustine makes this matter of faith That the Angels cannot fall Nor hath S. Augustine any adversary in that point we only inquire how they acquired this Infallibility and assurance in their station For if they were made so long before this world and fell when this world was made since they that had stood so long fell then why may not they that stand yet fall now They are supported and established by a confirmation sayes the Schoole And that is our present and ordinary answer and it is enough But how or when was this confirmation sealed upon them or how doth it work in them if God doe not yet trust these servants but charge these Angels with folly That the Angels were created Viatores Viatores and not Beati in a possibility of everlasting blessednesse but not in actuall possession of it admits no doubt because some of them did actually fall Of whom S. Augustine sayes
never spoken of the Resurrection to them they were likely to have heard of it from them to whom Christ had spoken of it It was Cleophas his question to Christ though he knew him not then to be so when they went together to Emaus Art thou onely a stranger in Ierusalem that is hast thou been at Jerusalem and is this Luke 24.16 The death of Christ strange to thee So may we say to any that professes Christianity Art thou in the Christian Church and is this The Resurrection of Christ strange to thee Are there any amongst us that thrust to Fore-noones and After-noones Sermons that pant after high and un-understandable Doctrines of the secret purposes of God and know not this the fundamentall points of Doctrine Even these womens ignorance though they were in the number of the Disciples of Christ makes us affraid that some such there may be and therefore blessed be they that have set on foote that blessed way of Catechizing that after great professions we may not be ignorant of small things These things these women might have learnt of others who were to instruct them Luke 24. â—â— But for their better assurance the Angell tells them here that Christ himself had told them of this before Remember sayes he how Christ spoke to you whilst he was with you in Galile We observe that Christ spoke to his Disciples of his Resurrection five times in the Gospell Now these women could not be present at any of the five but one which was the third Mat. 17.22 And before that it is evident that they had applied themselves to Christ and ministred unto him The Angell then remembers them what Christ said to them there Luke 24.6 It was this The Sonne of man must be delivered into the hands of sinfull men and Crucified and the third day rise againe And they remembred his words sayes the Text there Then they remembred them when they heard of them again but not till then Which gives me just occasion to note first the perverse tendernesse and the supercilious and fastidious delicacy of those men that can abide no repetitions nor indure to heare any thing which they have heard before when as even these things which Christ himself had preached to these women in Galile had been lost if this Angel had not preached them over again to them at Jerusalem Remember how he spake to you sayes he to them And why shouldst thou be loath to heare those things which thou hast heard before when till thou heardst them again thou didst not know that is not consider that ever thou hadst heard them So have we here also just occasion to note their impertinent curiosity who though the sense be never so well observed call every thing a salfification if the place be not rightly cyphard or the word exactly cited and magnifie one another for great Text men though they understand no Text because they cite Book and Chapter and Verse and Words aright whereas in this place the Angel referres the women to Christs words and they remember that Christ spake those words and yet if we compare the places Mat. 17.22 Luke 24.6 that where Christ speaks the words and that where the Angell repeats them though the sense be intirely the same yet the words are not altogether so Thus the Angell erects them in the consternation Remember what was promised that in three dayes he would rise The third day is come and he is risen as he said and that your senses may be exercised as well as your faith Come and see the place where the Lord lay Even the Angell calls Christ Lord Dominus Angeli Heb. 1.6 and his Lord for the Lord and the Angell calls him so is Lord of all of men and Angels When God brings his Soninto the world sayes the Apostle he sayes let all the Angels of God worship him And when God caries his Son out of the world by the way of the Crosse they have just cause to worship him too Colâ—â—â— 1.20 for By the blood of his Crosse are all things reconciled to God both things in earth and things in heaven Men and Angels Therefore did an Angel minister to Christ before he was Luke 1. Mat. 1. Luke 2. Mat. 4. Luke 22. Acts 1.10 in the Annunciation to his blessed Mother that he should be And an Angel to his imaginary Father Ioseph before he was born And a Quire of Angels to the Shepheards at his birth An Angel after his tentation And in his Agony and Bloody-sweat more Angels Angels at his last step at his Ascension and here at his Resurrection Angels minister unto him The Angels of heaven acknowledged Christ to be their Lord. In the beginning some of the Angels would be Similes Altissimo like to the most High But what a transcendent what a super-diabolicall what a prae-Luciferian pride is his that will be supra Altissimum 2 Thes 2.4 superiour to God That not only exalteth himselfe above all that is called God Kings are called Gods and this Arch-Monarch exalts himselfe above all Kings but above God literally and in that wherein God hath especially manifested himself to be God to us that is in prescribing us a Law how he will be obeyed for in dispensing with this Law and adding to and withdrawing from this law he exalts himself above God as our Law-giver And as it is also said there He exalteth himself and opposeth himselfe against God There is no trusting of such neighbours as are got above us in power This man of sin hath made himselfe superiour to God and then an enemy to God for God is Truth and he opposes him in that for he is heresie and falshood and God is Love and he opposes him in that for he is envy and hatred and malice and sedition and invasion and rebellion The Angell confesses Christ to be The Lord his Lord Dominus mortuus and he confesses him to be so then when he lay dead in the grave Come seethe place where the Lord lay A West Indian King having beene well wrought upon for his Conversion to the Christian Religion and having digested the former Articles when he came to that He was crucified dead and buried had no longer patience but said If your God be dead and buried leave me to my old god the Sunne for the Sunne will not dye But if he would have proceeded to the Article of the Resurrection hee should have seene that even then when hee lay dead hee was GOD still Then when hee was no Man hee was GOD still Nay then when hee was no man hee was God and Man in this true sense That though the body and soule were divorced from one another and that during that divorce he were no man for it is the union of body and soule that makes a man yet the Godhead was not divided from either of these constitutive parts of man body or soule Psal 22.7 1
soul and call the will ours we usurp the soul it self and call it ours and then deliver all to everlasting bondage Would the King suffer his picture to be used as we use the Image of God in our soules or his Hall to be used as we use the Temple of the Holy Ghost our Bodies We have nothing but that which we have received and when we come to think that our own we have not that For God will take all from that man that sacrifices to his own nets When thou commest to Church come in anothers name When thou givest an Almes give it in anothers name that is feele all thy devotion and all thy charity to come from God For if it be not in his name it will be in a worse Thy devotion will contract the name of hypocrisie and thine Almes the name of Vain-glory. The Holy Ghost came in anothers name in Christs name but not so as Montanus the Father of the Montanists came in the Holy Ghosts name Montanus said he was the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost did not pretend to be Christ There is a man the man of sin at Rome that pretends to be Christ to all uses And I would he would be content with that and stop there and not be a Hyper-Christus Above Christ more then Christ I would he would no more trouble the peace of Christendome no more occasion the assassinating of Christian Princes no more binde the Christian liberty in forbidding Meats and Marriage no more slacken and dissolve Christian bands by Dispensations and Indulgences then Christ did But if he will needs be more if he will needs have an addition to the name of Christ let him take heed of that addition which some are apt enough to give him however he deserve it that he is Antichrist Now in what sense the Holy Ghost is said to have come in the name of Christ S. Basil gives us one interpretation that is that one principall name of Christ belongs to the Holy Ghost For Christ is Verbum The Word and so is the Holy Ghost sayes that Father Quia interpres filii sicut filius patris Because as the Son manifested the Father so the Holy Ghost manifests the Son S. Augustine gives another sense Societas Patris Filii est Spiritus Sanctus The Holy Ghost is the union of the Father and the Son As the body is not the man nor the soul is not the man but the union of the soul and body by those spirits through which the soul exercises her faculties in the Organs of the body makes up the man so the union of the Father and Son to one another and of both to us by the Holy Ghost makes up the body of the Christian Religion And so this interpretation of S. Augustine comes neare to the fulnesse in what sense the Holy Ghost came in Christs name John 17.12 For when Christ sayes I am come in my Fathers name that was to execute his Decree to fulfill his Will for the salvation of man by dying so when Christ sayes here the Holy Ghost shall come in my name that is to perfect my work to collect and to govern that Church in which my salvation by way of satisfaction may be appropriated to particular soules by way of application And for this purpose to do this in Christs name his own name is Paracletus The Comforter which is our last circumstance The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost The Comforter is an Euangelicall name The Comforter Athanasius notes that the Holy Ghost is never called Paracletus The Comforter in the old Testament He is called Spiritus Dei The Spirit of God in the beginning of Genesis And he is called Spiritus sanctus The holy Spirit and Spiritus principalis The principall Spirit in divers places of the Psalmes but never Paracletus never the Comforter A reason of that may well be first that the state of the Law needed not comfort and then also that the Law it self afforded not comfort so there was no Comforter Their Law was not opposed by any enemies as enemies to their Law If they had not by that warrant which they had from God invaded the possession of their neighbours or grown too great to continue good neighbours their neighbours had not envyed them that Law So that in the state of the Law in that respect they were well enough and needed no Comforter Whereas the Gospell as it was sowed in our Saviours blood so it grew up in blood for divers hundreds of yeares and therefore needed the sustentation and the assurance of a Comforter And then for the substance of the Law it was Lex interficiens non perficiens sayes S. Augustine A Law that told them what was sin and punisht them if they did sin but could not conferre Remission for sin which was a discomfortable case Whereas the Gospel and the Dispensation of the Gospel in the Church by the Holy Ghost is Grace Mercy Comfort all the way and in the end Therefore Christ v. 17. cals the Holy Ghost Spiritum veritatis The Spirit of truth In which he opposes him and preferres him above all the remedies and all the comforts of the Law Not that the Holy Ghost in the Law did not speak truth but that he did not speak all the truth in the Law Origen expresses it well The Types and Figures of the Law were true Figures and true Types of Christ in the Gospel but Christ and his Gospel is the truth it self prefigured in those Types Therefore the Holy Ghost is Paracletus The Comforter in the Gospel which he was not in the Law In the Records and Stories and so in the Coynes and Medals of the Romane Emperours we see that even then when they had gotten the possession of the name of Emperours yet they forbore not to adde to their style the name of Consul and the name of Pontifex maximus still they would be called Consuls which was an acceptable name to the people and High-Priests which carried a reverence towards all the world Where Christ himselfe is called by a name appliable to none but Christ by a name implying the whole nature and merit of Christ that is The Propitiation of the sins of the whole world 1 John 2.2 yet there in that place he is called by the name of this Text too Paracletus the Comforter He would not forbeare that sweet that acceptable that appliable name that name that concernes us most and establishes us best Paracletus the Comforter And yet he does not take that name in that full and whole sense in which himselfe gives it to the Holy Ghost here For there it is said of Christ If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father There Paracletus though placed upon Christ is but an Advocate But here Christ sends Paracletum in a more intire and a more internall and more viscerall sense A Comforter Upon which Comforter Christ imprints these two marks of
answered not safely affirmed Truly I had rather put my salvation upon some of those ancient Creeds which want some of the Articles of our Creed as the Nicene Creed doth and so doth Athanasius then upon the Trent Creed that hath as many more Articles as ours hath The office of the Holy Ghost himself the Spirit of all comfort is but to bring those things to remembrance which Christ taught and no more They are many too many for many revolutions of an houre-glasse Spiritus Sanctus Therefore wee proposed at first That when we should come to this Branch for the proper celebration of the day we would only touch some things which the Holy Ghost had taught of himself that so we might detect and detest such things as some ancient and some later Heretiques had said of the Holy Ghost Now those things which the ancient Heretiques have said are sufficiently gain-said by the ancient Fathers The Montanists said the Holy Ghost was in Christ and in the Apostles but in a farre higher exaltation in Montanus then in either but Tertullian opposed that Manes was more insolent then the Montanist for he avowed himselfe to be the Holy Ghost and S. Augustine overthrew that Hierarchas was more modest then so and did but say That Melchisedech was the Holy Ghost and S. Cyprian would not indure that The Arrians said the Holy Ghost was but Creatura Creaturae made by the Son which Son himselfe was but made in time and not eternally begotten by the Father but Liberius and many of the Fathers opposed that as a whole generall Councell did Macedonius when he refreshed many Errours formerly condemned concerning the Holy Ghost and few of these have had any Resurrection any repulullation or appeared again in these later daies But in these later times two new Herefies have arisen concerning the Holy Ghost About foure hundred yeares since Euangelium Spiritus Sancti came out that famous infamous Booke in the Roman Church which they called Euangelium Spiritus Sancti The Gospel of the Holy Ghost in which was pretended That as God the Father had had his time in the government of the Church in the Law And God the Son his time in the Gospel so the Holy Ghost was to have his time and his time was to begin within fifty yeares after the publishing of that Gospel and to last to the end of the world and therefore it was called Euangelium aeternum The everlasting Gospel By this Gospel the Gospel of Christ was absolutely abrogated and the power of governing the Church according to the Gospel of Christ utterly evacuated for it was therein taught that onely the literall sense of the Gospel had been committed to them who had thus long governed in the name of the Church but the spirituall and mysticall sense was reserved to the Holy Ghost and that now the Holy Ghost would set that on foot And so which was the principall intention in that plot they would have brought all Doctrine and all Discipline all Government into the Cloyster into their religious Orders and overthrown the Hierarchy of the Church of Bishops and Priests and Deacons and Cathedrall and Collegiate Churches and brought all into Monasteries He that first opposed this Book was Waldo hee that gave the name to that great Body that great power of Men who attempted the Reformation of the Church and were called the Waldenses who were especially defamed and especially persecuted for this that they put themselves in the gap and made themselves a Bank against this torrent this inundation this impetuousnesse this multiplicy of Fryars and Monks that surrounded the world in those times And when this Book could not be dissembled and being full of blasphemy against Christ was necessarily brought into agitation yet all that was done by them who had the government of the Church in their hands then was but this That this Book this Gospel of the Holy Ghost should be suppressed and smothered but without any noyse or discredit and the Booke which was writ against it should be solemnly publiquely infamously burnt And so they kindled a Warre in Heaven greater then that in the Revelation Rev. 12.7 where Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon and his Angels For here they brought God the Son into the field against God the Holy Ghost and made the Holy Ghost devest dethrone disseise and dispossesse the Sonne of his Government Now when they could not advance that Heresie Scrinium pectoris when they could not bring the Holy Ghost to that greatnesse when they could not make him King to their purposes that is King over Christ They are come to an Heresie cleane contrary to that Heresie that is to imprison the Holy Ghost And since they could not make him King over Christ himselfe they have made him a Prisoner and a flave to Christs Vicar and shut him up there In scrinio pectoris as they call it in that close imprisonment in the breast and bosome of one man that Bishop And so the Holy Ghost is no longer a Dove a Dove in the Ark a Dove with an Olive-Branch a Messenger of peace but now the Holy Ghost is in a Bull in Buls worse then Phalaris his Bull Buls of Excommunication Buls of Rebellion and Deposition and Assassinates of Christian Princes The Holy Ghost is no longer Omni-present Psal 139.7 as in Davids time Whither shall I goefrom thy Spirit but he is onely there whither he shall be sent from Rome in a Cloak-bagge and upon a Post-horse as it was often complained in the Councell of Trent The Holy Ghost is no longer Omniscient to know all at once 1 Cor. 2.10 .. as in S. Pauls time when the Spirit of God searched all things yea the deep things of God but as a Sea-Captaine receives a Ticket to be opened when he comes to such a height and thereby to direct his future course so the Holy Ghost is appointed to aske the Popes Nuntio his Legate what he shall declare to be truth So the Holy Ghost was sent into this Kingdome by Leo the tenth with his Legate that brought the Bull of Declaration for Hcnry the eights Divorce but the Holy Ghost might not know of it that is not take knowledge of it not declare it to be a Divorce till some other conditions were performed by the King which being never performed the Holy Ghost remained in the case of a new created Cardinall Ore clauso he had novoyce and so the Divorce though past all debatements and all consents and all determinations at Rome was no Divorce because he that sent the Holy Ghost from Rome forbad him to publish and declare it So that the style of the Court is altered from the Apostles time Acts 15.28 Then it was Visum est Spiritui Sancto nobis It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us First to the Holy Ghost before others and when it is brought to others it is to us
use the Law lawfully Let us use our liberty of reading Scriptures according to the Law of liberty that is charitably to leave others to their liberty if they but differ from us and not differ from Fundamentall Truths Si quis quaerat ex me quid horum Moses senserit If any man ask me which of these which may be all true Moses meant Non sum sermones istiâ—â—onfessiones Lord sayes hee Ibid. This that I say is not said by way of Confession as I intend it should if I doe not freely confesse that I cannot tell which Moses meant But yet I can tell that this that I take to be his meaning is true and that is enough Let him that findes a true sense of any place rejoyce in it Let him that does not beg it of thee Vtquid mihi molest us est Why should any man presse me to give him the true sense of Moses here or of the holy Ghost in any darke place of Scripture Ego illuminem ullum hominen venientem in mundum 1.13 C. 10. saies he Is that said of me that I am the light that enlightned every man any man Iohn 1.9 that comes into this world So far I will goe saies he so far will we in his modesty and humility accompany him as still to propose Quod luce veritatis quod fruge utilitatis excellit such a sense as agrees with other Truths that are evident in other places of Scripture and such a sense as may conduce most to edisication For to those two does that heavenly Father reduce the foure Elements that make up a right exposition of Scripture which are first the glory of God such a sense as may most advance it secondly the analogie of faith such a sense as may violate no confessed Article of Religion and thirdly exaltation of devotion such a sense as may carry us most powerfully upon the apprehension of the next life and lastly extension of charity such a sense as may best hold us in peace or reconcile us if we differ from one another And within these limits wee shall containe our selves The glory of God the analogie of faith the exaltation of devotion the extension of charity In all the rest that belongs to the explication or application to the literall or spirituall sense of these words And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters to which having stopped a little upon this generall consideration the exposition of darke places we passe now Within these rules we proceed to enquire who this Spirit of God is or what it is Spiritus whether a Power or a Person The Jews who are afraid of the Truth lest they should meete evidences of the doctrine of the Trinity and so of the Messias the Son of God if they should admit any spirituall sense admit none but cleave so close to the letter as that to them the Scripture becomes Liter a occidens A killing Letter and the savour of death unto death They therefore in this Spirit of God are so far from admitting any Person that is God as they admit no extraordinary operation or vertue proceeding from God in this place but they take the word here as in many other places of Scripture it does to signifie onely a winde and then that that addition of the name of God The Spirit of God which is in their Language a denotation of a vehemency of a high degree of a superlative as when it is said of Saul Sopor Domini A sleepe of God was upon him it is intended of a deepe a dead sleepe inforces induces no more but that a very strong winde blew upon the face of the waters and so in a great part dryed them up And this opinion I should let flye away with the winde if onely the Jews had said it But Theodoret hath said it too and therefore we afford it so much answer That it is a strange anticipation that Winde which is a mixt Meteor to the making whereof divers occasions concurre with exhalations should be thus imagined before any of these causes of Winds were created or produced and that there should be an effect before a cause is somewhat irregular In Lapland the Witches are said to sell winds to all passengers but that is but to turne those windes that Nature does produce which way they will but in our case the Jews and they that follow them dreame winds before any winds or cause of winds was created The Spirit of God here cannot be the Wind. It cannot be that neither which some great men in the Christian Church have imagined it to be Operatio Dei The power of God working upon the waters so some or Efficientia Dei A power by God infused into the waters so others August And to that S. Augustine comes so neare as to say once in the negative Spiritus Dei hic res dei est sed non ipse Deut est The Spirit of God in this place is something proceeding from God but it is not God himselfe And once in the affirmative Posse esse vitalem creaturam quâ universus mundus movetur That this Spirit of God may be that universall power which sustaines and inanimates the whole world which the Platoniques have called the Soule of the world and others intend by the name of Nature and we doe well if we call The providence of God Spiritus Sanctus But there is more of God in this Action then the Instrument of God Nature or the Vice-roy of God Providence for as the person of God the Son was in the Incarnation so the person of God the Holy Ghost was in this Action though far from that manner of becomming one and the same thing with the waters which was done in the Incarnation of Christ who became therein perfect man That this word the Spirit of God is intended of the Person of the Holy Ghost in other places of Scripture is evident undeniable unquestionable and that therefore it may be so taken here Where it is said The Spirit of God shall rest upon him Esay 11.2 upon the Messiah where it is said by himselfe The Lord and his Spirit is upon me And the Lord and his Spirit hath anointed me there it is certainly and therefore here it may be probably spoken of the Holy Ghost personally It is no impossible sense it implies no contradiction It is no inconvenient sense it offends no other article it is no new sense nor can we assigne any time when it was a new sense Basil The eldest Fathers adhere to it as the ancientest interpretation Saint Basil saies not onely Constantissimè asseverandum est We must constantly maintaine that interpretation for all that might be his owne opinion not onely therefore Quia verius est for that might be but because he found it to be the common opinion of those times but Quia à majoribus nostris approbatum because it is accepted for the true
dependance or relation to any faculty in man or man himselfe have some concurrence and co-operation therein There we found that in the first creation God wrought otherwise for the production of creatures then he does now At first he did it immediatly intirely by himselfe Now he hath delegated and substituted nature and imprinted a naturall power in every thing to produce the like So in the first act of mans Conversion God may be conceived to work otherwise then in his subsequent holy actions for in the first man cannot be conceived to doe any thing in the rest he may not that in the rest God does not all but that God findes a better disposition and souplenesse and maturity and mellowing to concurre with his motion in that man who hath formerly been accustomed to a sense and good use of his former graces then in him who in his first conversion receives but then the first motions of his grace But yet even in the first creation the Spirit of God did not move upon that nothing which was before God made heaven and earth But he moved upon the waters though those waters had nothing in themselves to answer his motion yet he had waters to move upon Though our faculties have nothing in themselves to answer the motions of the Spirit of God yet upon our faculties the Spirit of God works And as out of those waters those creatures did proceed though not from those waters so out of our faculties though not from our faculties doe our good actions proceed too All in all is from the love of God but there is something for God to love There is a man there is a soul in that man there is a will in that soul and God is in love with this man and this soul and this will Aug. would have it Non amor ita egenus indigus ut rebus quas diligit subjiciatur sayes S. Aug. excellently The love of God to us is not so poore a love as our love to one another that his love to us should make him subject to us as ours does to them whom we love but Superfertur sayes that Father and our Text he moves above us He loves us but with a Powerfull a Majesticall an Imperiall a Commanding love He offers those whom he makes his his grace but so as he sometimes will not be denyed So the Spirit moves spiritually upon the waters He comes to the waters to our naturall faculties but he moves above those waters He inclines he governes he commands those faculties And this his motion upon those waters we may usefully consider in some divers applications and assimilations of water to man and the divers uses thereof towards man We will name but a few Baptisme and Sin and Tribulation and Death are called in the Scripture by that name Waters and we shall onely illustrate that consideration how this Spirit of God moves upon these Waters Baptisme Sin Tribulation and Death and we have done The water of Baptisme is the water that runs through all the Fathers Baptismus All the Fathers that had occasion to dive or dip in these waters to say any thing of them make these first waters in the Creation the figure of baptisme Tertul. There Tertullian makes the water Primam sedem Spiritus Sancti The progresse and the setled house The voyage and the harbour The circumference and the centre of the Holy Ghost And therefore S. Hierome calls these waters Matrem Mundi The Mother of the World Hieron and this in the figure of Baptisme Nascentem Mundum in figura Baptismi parturiebat The waters brought forth the whole World were delivered of the whole World as a Mother is delivered of a childe and this In figura Baptismi To fore-shew that the waters also should bring forth the Church That the Church of God should be borne of the Sacrament of Baptisme So sayes Damascen Damase Basil And he establishes it with better authority then his owne Hoc Divinus asseruit Basilius sayes he This Divine Basil said Hoc factum quia per Spiritum Sanctum aquam voluit renovare hominem The Spirit of God wrought upon the waters in the Creation because he meant to doe so after in the regeneration of man And therefore Pristinam sedem recognoscens conquiescit Terrul Till the Holy Ghost have moved upon our children in Baptisme let us not think all done that belongs to those children And when the Holy Ghost hath moved upon those waters so in Baptisme let us not doubt of his power and effect upon all those children that dye so We know no meanes how those waters could have produced a Menow a Shrimp without the Spirit of God had moved upon them and by this motion of the Spirit of God we know they produce Whales and Leviathans We know no ordinary meanes of any saving grace for a child but Baptisme neither are we to doubt of the fulnesse of salvation in them that have received it And for our selves Mergimur emergimus Aug. In Baptisme we are sunk under water and then raised above the water againe which was the manner of baptizing in the Christian Church by immersion and not by aspersion till of late times Affectus ameres sayes he our corrupt affections Idem and our inordinate love of this world is that that is to be drowned in us Amor securitatis A love of peace and holy assurance and acquiescence in Gods Ordinance is that that lifts us above water Therefore that Father puts all upon the due consideration of our Baptisme And as S. Hierome sayes Hier. Certainly he that thinks upon the last Judgement advisedly cannot sin then Aug. So he that sayes with S. Augustine Procede in confessionc fides mea Let me make every day to God this confession Domine Deus meus Sancte Sancte Sancte Domine Deus meus O Lord my God O Holy Holy Holy Lord my God In nomine tuo Baptizatus sum I consider that I was baptized in thy name and what thou promisedst me and what I promised thee then and can I sin this sin can this sin stand with those conditions those stipulations which passed between us then The Spirit of God is motion the Spirit of God is rest too And in the due consideration of Baptisme a true Christian is moved and setled too moved to a sense of the breach of his conditions setled in the sense of the Mercy of his God in the Merits of his Christ upon his godly sorrow So these waters are the waters of Baptisme Sin also is called by that name in the Scriptures Aquae peccatum Water The great whore sitteth upon many waters she sits upon them as upon Egges and hatches Cockatrices venomous and stinging sins Apoc. 17. Aqum and yet pleasing though venomous which is the worst of sin that it destroyes and yet delights for though they be called waters yet that is
himselfe but not for a Ransome not for a Satisfaction but onely for a lively example thereby to incline us to suffer for Gods glory and for the edification of one another If we call him Dominum A Lord we call him Messiam Vnctum Regem anointed with the oyle of gladnesse by the Holy Ghost to bee a cheerefull conquerour of the world and the grave and sin and hell and anointed in his owne blood to be a Lord in the administration of that Church which he hath so purchased This is to say that Jesus is a Lord To professe that he is a person so qualified in his being composed of God and Man that he was able to give sufficient for the whole world and did give it and so is Lord of it When we say Iesus est That Jesus is There we confesse his eternity and therein Dominus The Lord. his Godhead when we say Iesus Dominus that he is a Lord therein we confesse a dominion which he hath purchased And when we say Iesum Dominum so as that we professe him to be the Lord Then we confesse a vigilancy a superintendency a residence and a permanency of Christ in his Dominion in his Church to the worlds end If he be the Lord in his Church there is no other that rules with him there is no other that rules for him The temporall Magistrate is not so Lord as that Christ and he are Collegues or fellow-Consuls that if he command against Christ he should be as soone obeyed as Christ for a Magistrate is a Lord and Christ is the Lord a Magistrate is a Lord to us but Christ is the Lord to him and to us and to all None rules with him none rules for him Christ needs no Vicar he is no non-resident He is nearer to all particular Churches at Gods right hand then the Bishop of Rome at his left Direct lines direct beames does alwaies warme better and produce their effects more powerfully then oblique beames doe The influence of Christ Jesus directly from Heaven upon the Church hath a truer operation then the oblique and collaterall reflections from Rome Christ is not so far off by being above the Clouds as the Bishop of Rome is by being beyond the Hils Dicimus Dominum Iesum we say that Jesus is the Lord and we refuse all power upon earth that will be Lord with him as though he needed a Coadjutor or Lord for him as though he were absent from us To conclude this second part To say that Iesus is the Lord is to confesse him to bee God from everlasting and to have beene made man in the fulnesse of time and to governe still that Church which he hath purchased with his blood and that therefore hee lookes that we direct all our particular actions to his glory For this voice wherein thou saiest Dominus Iesus The Lord Iesus must be as the voyce of the Seraphim in Esay Esay 6.2 thrice repeated Sanctus sanctus sanctus Holy holy holy our hearts must say it and our tongue and our hands too or else we have not said it For when a man will make Jesus his companion and be sometimes with him and sometimes with the world and not direct all things principally towards him when he will make Jesus his servant that is proceed in all things upon the strength of his outward profession upon the colour and pretence and advantage of Religion and devotion would this man be thought to have said Iesum Dominum Luke 6.46 That Iesus is the Lord Why call ye me Lord Lord and doe not the things I speake to you saies Christ Christ places a tongue in the hands Actions speake and Omni tuba clarior per opera Demonstratio sayes S. Chrysostome There is not onely a tongue but a Trumpet in every good worke When Christ sees a disposition in his hearers to doe according unto their professing Iohn 13.14 then only he gives allowance to that that they say Dicitis me Dominum bene dicitis You call me Lord and you doe well in doing so doe ye therefore as I have done to you To call him Lord is to contemplate his Kingdome of power to feele his Kingdome of grace to wish his Kingdome of glory It is not a Domine usque quò Iohn 11.21 Lord how long before the Consummation come as though we were weary of our warfare It not a Domine si fuisses Lord if thou hadst beene here our brother had not died as Martha said of Lazarus as though as soon as we suffer any worldly calamity we should thinke Christ to be absent from us in his power or in his care of us It is not a Domine vis mandemus Luke 9.54 Lord wilt thou that we command fire from Heaven to consume these Samaritans as though we would serve the Lord no longer then he would revenge his owne and our quarrel for that we may come to our last part to that fiery question of the Apostles Christ answered You know not of what spirit you are It is not the Spirit of God it is not the Holy Ghost which makes you call Jesus the Lord onely to serve your own ends and purposes and No man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost For this Part 3 Part. Difficultas we proposed onely two Considerations first that this But excluding all meanes but one that one must therefore necessarily be difficult and secondly that that But admitting one meanes that one must therefore necessarily be possible so that there is a difficulty but yet a possibility in having this working by the Holy Ghost For the first of those hereticall words of Fanstus the Manichaean That in the Trinity the Father dwelt In illa luce inaccessibili In that light which none can attaine to And the Son of God dwelt in this created light whose fountaine and roote is the Planet of the Sun And the Holy Ghost dwelt in the Aire and other parts illumined by the Sun we may make this good use that for the knowledge of the Holy Ghost wee have not so present so evident light in reason as for the knowledge of the other blessed Persons of the glorious Trinity For for the Son because he assumed our nature and lived and dyed with us we conceive certaine bodily impressions and notions of him and then naturally and necessarily as soon as we heare of a Son we conceive a Father too But the knowledge of the Holy Ghost is not so evident neither doe we bend our thoughts upon the consideration of the Holy Ghost so much as we ought to doe The Arians enwrapped him in double clouds of darknesse when they called him Creaturam Creaturae That Christ himselfe from whom say they the Holy Ghost had his Creation was but a Creature and not God and so the Holy Ghost the Creature of a Creature And Maximus ille Gigas as Saint Bernard cals Plato That Giant in all kinde of
of the Spirit When that light is so mended that you have some sparkes of faith Iud. 19. you must also leave the works of the flesh For Fleshly men have not the Spirit When the Spirit offers it self in approaches Resist it not as Stephen accuses them to have done Ephes 4.32 Act. 7. When it hath prevailed and sealed you to God Grieve not the holy Spirit by whom ye are sealed unto Redemption For this preventing the Spirit by trusting to nature and morality this infecting the Spirit by living ill in a good profession this grieving of the Spirit 1 Thes 5. by neglecting his operations induces the last desperate work of Quenching the Spirit which is a smothering a suffocating of that light by a finall obduration Spiritus ubi vult spirat Iohn 3.8 sayes our Saviour Christ which S. Augustine and indeed most of the Fathers interpret of the holy Ghost and not of the winde though it may also properly enough admit that interpretation too But The holy Ghost sayes he breathes where it pleases him Et vocem ejus audis sayes Christ You heare the voice of the holy Ghost for sayes S. Augustine upon those words of Christ Sonat psalmus vox est Spiritus sancti When you heare a Psalme sung you heare the voice of the holy Ghost Sonat Euangelium sonat sermo Divinus You heare the Gospell read you heare a Sermon preached still you heare the voice of the holy Ghost And yet as Christ sayes in that place Nescis unde venit Thou knowest not from whence that voice comes Thou canst finde nothing in thy self why the holy Ghost should delight to entertain thee and hold discourse with thee in so familiar and so frequent and so importunate a speaking to thee Nescis unde venit Thou knowest not from whence all this goodnesse comes but meerly from his goodness So also as Christ adds there Nescis quò vadat Thou knowest not whither it goes how long it will last and goe with thee If thou carry him to darke and foule corners if thou carry him back to those sins of which since he began to speake to thee at this time thou hast felt some remorse some detestation he will not goe with thee he will give thee over But as long as he The Spirit of God by your cherishing of him staies with you when Jesus shall say to you in your consciences Quid vos dicitis Whom doe you say that I am You can say Iesus Dominus We say we professe That thou art Iesus and that Iesus is the Lord If he proceed Si Dominus ubi timor If I be Lord where is my feare You shall shew your feare of him even in your confidence in him In timore Domini fiducia fortitudinis In the feare of the Lord is an assured strength You shall not only say Iesum Dominum professe Jesus to be the Lord but Veni Domine Iesu You shall invite and solicite Jesus to a speedy judgement and be able in his right to stand upright in that judgement This you have if you have this Spirit and you may have this Spirit Acts 10. if you resist it not now For As when Peter spake the holy Ghost fell upon all that heard So in the Ministery of his weaker instruments he conveyes and diffuses and seales his gifts upon all which come well disposed to the receiving of him in his Ordinance SERM. XXXIII Preached upon Whitsunday ACTS 10.44 While Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word Part of the second Lesson of that day THat which served for an argument amongst the Jews to diminish and under-value Christ Have any of the Rulers beleeved in him John 7.48 had no force amongst the Gentiles for amongst them the first persons that are recorded to have applied themselves to the profession of the Christian Religion were Rulers Persons of place and quality Sunè propter hoc Dignitates positae sunt ut major pietas ostendatur sayes S. Chrysostome This is the true reason why men are Ennobled why men are raised why men are inriched that they might glorifie God the more by that eminency This is truly to be a good Student Scrutari Scripturas To search the Scriptures in which is eternall life This is truly to be called to the Barre to be Crucified with Christ Jesus And to be called to the Bench to have part in his Resurrection and raigne in glory with him and to be a Judge to judge thy selfe that thou beest not judged to condemnation by Christ Jesus Offices and Titles and Dignities make thee in the eye and tongue of the world a better man be truly a better man between God and thee for them and they are well placed Those Pyramides and Obelisces which were raised up on high in the Aire but supported nothing were vaine testimonies of the frivolousnesse and impertinency of those men that raised them But when we see Pillars stand we presume that something is to be placed upon them They who by their rank and place are pillars of the State and pillars of the Church if Christ and his glory be not raised higher by them then by other men put Gods building most out of frame and most discompose Gods purposes of any others And therefore S. Chrysostome hath noted usefully That the first of the Gentiles which was converted to Christianity was that Eunuch Acts 8.27 which was Treasurer to the Queen of Aethiopia And the second was this Centurion in whose house S. Peter preached this fruitfull Sermon at which While Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell upon all them that heard the word Our Parts will be two first some Circumstances that preceded this act Divisio this miraculous descent and infusion of the Holy Ghost And then the Act the Descent it selfe In the first we shall consider first the time it was when Peter was speaking when Gods Ordinance was then in executing preaching And secondly what made way to this descent of the Holy Ghost that is what Peter was speaking and preaching These words true and necessary Doctrine And here also we shall touch a little the place and the Auditory Cornelius and his family When from hence we shall descend to the second Part The descent of the Holy Ghost we shall looke first so as it may become us upon the Person the third Person in the holy blessed and glotions Trinity And then upon his action as it is expressed here Cecidit He fell As of Christ it is said Deliciae ejus cum filiis hominum His delight is to be with the sons of men And to speak humanely a perverse delight for it was to be with the worst men with Publicans sinners so to speak humanely the Holy Ghost had an extraordinary a perverse ambition to goe downewards to inlarge himselfe in his working by falling He fell And then he fell so as a showre of rain
whom they defame by the name of Heretiques with beginning this doctrine which was amongst themselves before we were at all if they did date us aright Attestatur spiritus ei damus fidem inde certi sumus sayes that Bishop The holy Ghost beares witnesse and our spirit with him and thereby we are sure but sayes he they will needs make a doubt whether this be a knowledge out of faith which doubt sayes he Secum fert absurditatem There is an absurdity a contradiction in the very doubt Ex Spiritu sancto humana Is it a knowledge from the holy Ghost and is it not a divine knowledge then But say they as that Bishop presses their objections The holy Ghost doth not make them know that it is the holy Ghost that assures them This is sayes he as absurd as the other For Nisi se testantem insinuet non testatur Except he make them discern that he is a witnesse he is no witnesse to them He ends it thus Sustinere coguntur quod excidit and that is indeed their case in very many things controverted Then when it conduced to their advantage in argument or to their profit in purse such and such things fell from them and now that opposition is made against such sayings of theirs their profit lyes at stake and their reputation too to make good and to maintain that which they have once how undiscreetly soever said Some of their severest later men even of their Jesuits acknowledges that we may know ourselves to be the children of God with as good a knowledge as that there is a Rome or a Constantinople And such an assurance as delivers them from all feare that they shall fall away Vegas Pererius and is not this more then that assurance which we take to our selves We give no such assurance as may occasion security or slacknesse in the service of God and they give such an assurance as may remove all feare and suspition of falling from God It was truly good counsell in S. Gregory when writing to one of the Empresses bed-chamber a religious Lady of his own name who had written to him that she should never leave importuning him till he sent her word that he had received a revelation from God that she was saved for sayes he Rem difficilem postulas inutilem It is a hard matter you require and an impertinent and uselesse matter for I am not a man worthy to receive revelations and besides such a revelation as you require might make you too secure And Mater negligentiae solet esse securitas sayes he Such a security might make you negligent in those duties which should make sure your salvation S. Augustine felt the witnesse of The Spirit but not of his spirit when he stood out so many solicitations of the holy Ghost and deferred and put off the outward meanes his Baptisme In that state when he had a disposition to Baptisme he sayes of himselfe Inferbui exultando sed inhorrui timendo Still I had a fervent joy in me because I saw the way to thee and intended to put my selfe into that way but yet because I was not yet in it I had a trembling a jealousie a suspition of my self Insinuati sunt mihi in profundo nutus tui In that halfe darknesse in that twi-light I discerned thine eye to be upon me Et gaudens in fide laudavi nomen tuum And this sayes he created a kinde of faith a confidence in me and this induced an inward joy and that produced a praising of thy goodnesse Sed ea fides securum me non esse sinebat But all this did not imprint and establish that security that assurance which I found as soon as I came to the outward seales and marks and testimonies of thine inseparable presence with me in thy Baptisme and other Ordinances S. Bernard puts the marks of as much assurance as we teach in these words of our Saviour Surge tolle grabatum ambula Arise Take up thy bed and walk Surge ad divina Raise thy thoughts upon the next world Tolle corpus ut non te ferat sed tu illud Take up thy body bring thy body into thy power that thou govern it and not it thee And then Ambula non retrospicias Walk on proceed forward and looke not backe with a delight upon thy former sins Remigius And a great deale an elder man then Bernard expresses it well Bene viventibus perhibet testimonium quòd jam sumus filii Dei To him that lives according to a right faith the Spirit testifies that he is now the childe of God Et quòd talia faciendo perseverabimus in ea filiatione He carries this testimony thus much farther That if we endeavour to continue in that course we shall continue in that state of being the children of God and never be cast off never disinherited Herein is our assurance an election there is The Spirit beares witnesse to our spirit that it is ours We testifie this in a holy life and the Church of God and the whole world joynes in this testimony That we are the children of God which is our last branch and conclusion of all The holy Ghost could not expresse more danger to a man then when he calls him Filium saeculi Luk. 16.18 Ephes 5.6 Acts 13.10 The childe of this world Nor a worse disposition then when he cals him Filium diffidentiae The childe of diffidence and distrust in God Nor a worse pursuer of that ill disposition then when he calls him Filium diaboli as S. Peter calls Elymas The childe of the devill Nor a worse possessing of the devill then when he calls him Filium perditionis John 17. Mat. 23.15 The childe of perdition Nor a worse execution of all this then when he calls him Filium gehennae The childe of hell The childe of this world The childe of desperation The childe of the devill The childe of perdition The childe of hell is a high expressing a deep aggravating of his damnation That his damation is not only his purchase as he hath acquired it but it is his inheritance he is the childe of damnation So is it also a high exaltation when the holy Ghost draws our Pedegree from any good thing and calls us the children of that Iohn 12.36 Mat. 9.15 As when he cals us Filios lucis The children of light that we have seen the day-star arise when he cals us Filios sponsi The children of the bride-chamber begot in lawfull marriage upon the true Church these are faire approaches to the highest title of all to be Filii Dei The children of God And not children of God Per filiationem vestigii so every creature is a childe of God by having an Image and impression of God in the very Beeing thereof but children so as that we are heires and heires so as that we are Co-heires with Christ as it follows in the next verse
is that he hath infused and imprinted in all their hearts whom hee hath called effectually to the participation of the meanes of salvation in the true Church a constant and infallible assurance that all the world that is all the rest of the world which hath not imbraced those helps lies unrecoverably by any other meanes then these which we have imbraced under sin under the waight the condemnation of sin So that the comfort of this reproofe as all the reproofes of the holy Ghost in this Text are given by him in that quality as he is The Comforter is not directly and simply and presently upon all the world indeed but upon those whom the holy Ghost hath taken out of this world to his world in this world that is to the Christian Church them he Reproves that is Convinces them establishes delivers them from all scruples that they have taken the right way that they and onely they are delivered and all the world beside are still under sin When the Holy Ghost hath brought us into the Ark from whence we may see all the world without sprawling and gasping in the flood the flood of sinfull courses in the world and of the anger of God when we can see this violent flood the anger of God break in at windowes and there devoure the licentious man in his sinfull embracements and make his bed of wantonnesse his death-bed when we can see this flood the anger of God swell as fast as the ambitious man swels and pursue him through all his titles and and at last suddenly and violently wash him away in his owne blood not alwayes in a vulgar but sometimes in an ignominious death when we shall see this flood the flood of the anger of God over-flow the valley of the voluptuous mans gardens and orchards and follow him into his Arbours and Mounts and Terasses and carry him from thence into a bottomlesse Sea which no Plummet can sound no heavy sadnesse relieve him no anchor take hold of no repentance stay his tempested and weather-beaten conscience when wee finde our selves in this Ark where we have first taken in the fresh water of Baptisme and then the Bread and Wine and Flesh of the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus Then are we reproved forbidden all scruple then are we convinced That as the twelve Apostles shall sit upon twelve seats and judge the twelve Tribes at the last day So doth the Holy Ghost make us Judges of all the world now and inables us to pronounce that sentence That all but they who have sincerely accepted the Christian Religion are still sub peccato under sin and without remedy For we must not waigh God with leaden or iron or stone waights how much land or metall or riches he gives one man more then another but how much grace in the use of these or how much patience in the want or in the losse of these we have above others When we come to say Hi in curribus Hi in equis Psal 20.7 nos autem in nomine Domini Dei nostri invocabimus Some trust in chariots and some in horses Ver. 8. but we will remember the name of the Lord our God Ipsi obligati sunt ceciderunt nos autem surreximus erecti sumus They are brought downe and fallen but we are risen and stand upright Obligati sunt ceciderunt They are pinion'd and falleâ— fettered and manacled and so fallen fallen and there must lie Nos autem erecti Wee are risen and enabled to stand now we are up When we need not feare the mighty nor envy the rich Quia signatum super nos lumen vultus tui Domine Because the light of thy countenance O Lord Ver. 7. is not onely shed but lifted up upon us Quia dedisti laetitiam in corde nostro Because thou hast put gladnesse in our heart more then in the time that their corne and their wine increased when we can thus compare the Christian Church with other States and spirituall blessings with temporall then hath the Holy Ghost throughly reproved us that is absolutely convinced us that there is no other foundation but Christ no other name for salvation but Jesus and that all the world but the true professors of that name are still under sin under the guiltinesse of sin And these be the three acceptations of this word Arguet He shall carry the Gospel to all before the end Arguit Hee does worke upon the faculties of the naturall man every minute and Arguit againe Hee hath manifested to us that that they who goe not the same way perish And so wee passe to the second Reproofe and Conviction He shall reprove the world De Iustitia Of Rightcousnesse This word 2 Part. Dejustitia Iustificare To justifie may be well considered three wayes First as it is verbum vulgare as it hath an ordinary and common use And then as it is verbum forense as it hath a civill and a legall use And lastly as it is verbum Ecclesiasticum as it hath a Church use as it hath been used amongst Divines The first way To justifie is to averre and maintaine any thing to be true as wee ordinarily say to that purpose I will justifie it Psal 19.9 and in that sense the Psalmist sayes Iustificata judicia Domini in semetipso The judgements of the Lord justifie themselves prove themselves to be just And in this sense men are said to justifie God Luke 7.29 The Pharisees and Lawyers rejected the counsell of God but all the people and the Publicans justified God that is testified for him In the second way as it is a judiciall word To justifie is only a verdict of Not guilty and a Judgement entred upon that That there is not evidence enough against him and therefore he is justified that is Prov. 17.14 acquited In this sense is the word in the Proverbs He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both are an abomination to the Lord. Now neither of these two wayes are we justified we cannot be averred to be just God himselfe cannot say so of us Exod. 23.7 of us as we are we Non justificabo impium I will not justifie the wicked God will not say it God cannot doe it A wicked man cannot be he cannot by God be said to be just they are incompatible contradictory things Nor the second way neither consider us standing in judgement before God no man can be acquited for want of evidence Psal 143.2 Enter not into Iudgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall none that liveth be justified For if we had another soule to give the Devill to bribe him to give no evidence against this if we had another iron to seare up our consciences against giving of evidence against our selves then yet who can take out of Gods hands those examinations and those evidences which he hath registred exactly as often as we have
mala sunt in ordine That even disorders are done in order that even our sins some way or other fall within the providence of God But that is not the order nor judgement which the holy Ghost is sent to manifest to the world The holy Ghost works best upon them which search least into Gods secret judgements and proceedings But the order and judgement we speak of is an order a judgement-seate established by which every man howsoever oppressed with the burden of sin may in the application of the promises of the Gospel by the Ordinance of preaching and in the seales thereof in the participation of the Sacraments be assured that he hath received his Absolution his Remission his Pardon and is restored to the innocency of his Baptisme nay to the integrity which Adam had before the fall nay to the righteousnesse of Christ Jesus himselfe In the creation God took red earth and then breathed a soule into it When Christ came to a second creation to make a Church he took earth men red earth men made partakers of his blood for Ecclesiam quaesivit acquisivit Bernard Hee desired a Church and he purchased a Church but by a blessed way of Simony Adde medium acquisitionis Sanguine acquisivit Acts 20.28 He purchased a Church with his own blood And when he had made this body in calling his Apostles then he breathed the soule into them his Spirit and that made up all Quod insufflavit Dominus Apostolis dixit August Accipite Spiritum sanctum Ecclesiae potestas collata est Then when Christ breathed that Spirit into them he constituted the Church And this power of Remission of sins is that order and that judgement which Christ himselfe calls by the name of the most orderly frame in this or the next world A Kingdome Dispono vobis regnum Luk. 22.29 I appoint unto you a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed unto me Now Faciunt favos vespa faciunt Ecclesias Marcionitae As Waspes make combs Tertul. but empty ones so do Heretiques Churches but frivolous ones ineffectuall ones And as we told you before That errors and disorders are as well in wayes as inends so may we deprive our selves of the benefit of this judgement The Church as well in circumstances as in substances as well in opposing discipline as doctrine The holy Ghost reprovcâ—thee convinces thee of judgement that is offers thee the knowledge that such a Church there is A Jordan to wash thine originall leprosie in Baptisme A City upon a mountaine to enlighten thee in the works of darknesse a continuall application of all that Christ Jesus said and did and suffered to thee Let no soule say she can have all this at Gods hands immediatly and never trouble the Church That she can passe her pardon between God and her without all these formalities by a secret repentance It is true beloved a true repentance is never frustrate But yet if thou wilt think thy selfe a little Church a Church to thy selfe because thou hast heard it said That thou art a little world a world in thy selfe that figurative that metaphoricall representation shall not save thee Though thou beest a world to thy self yet if thou have no more corn nor oyle nor milk then growes in thy self or flowes from thy self thou wilt starve Though thou be a Church in thy fancy if thou have no more seales of grace no more absolution of sin Grego then thou canst give thy self thou wilt perish Per solam Ecclesiam sacrificium libenter accipit Deus Thou maist be a Sacrifice in thy chamber but God receives a Sacrifice more cheerefully at Church Sola quae pro errantibus fiducialiter intercedit Only the Church hath the nature of a surety Howsoever God may take thine own word at home yet he accepts the Church in thy behalfe as better security Joyne therefore ever with the Communion of Saints August Et cum membrum sis ejus corporis quod loquitur omnibus linguis crede te omnibus linguis loqui Whilst thou art a member of that Congregation that speaks to God with a thousand tongues beleeve that thou speakest to God with all those tongues And though thou know thine own prayers unworthy to come up to God because thou liftest up to him an eye which is but now withdrawne from a licentious glancing and hands which are guilty yet of unrepented uncleannesses a tongue that hath but lately blasphemed God a heart which even now breaks the walls of this house of God and steps home or runs abroad upon the memory or upon the new plotting of pleasurable or profitable purposes though this make thee thinke thine own prayers uneffectuall yet beleeve that some honester man then thy selfe stands by thee and that when he prayes with thee he prayes for thee and that if there be one righteous man in the Congregation thou art made the more acceptable to God by his prayers and make that benefit of this reproofe this conviction of the holy Ghost That he convinces thee De judicio assures thee of an orderly Church established for thy reliefe and that the application of thy self to this judgement The Church shall enable thee to stand upright in that other judgement the last judgement which is also enwrapped in the signification of this word of our Text Iudgement and is the conclusion for this day As God begun all with judgement Iudicium finale Sap. 11. for he made all things in measure number and waight as he proceeded with judgement in erecting a judiciall seat for our direction and correction the Church so he shall end all with judgement The finall and generall judgement at the Resurrection which he that beleeves not beleeves nothing not God for Heb. 11.6 He that commeth to God that makes any step towards him must beleeve Deum remuner atorem God and God in that notion as he is a Rewarder Therefore there is judgement But was this work left for the Holy Ghost Did not the naturall man that knew no Holy Ghost know this Truly all their fabulous Divinity all their Mythology their Minos and their Rhadamanthus tasted of such a notion as a judgement And yet the first planters of the Christian Religion found it hardest to fixe this roote of all other articles That Christ should come againe to judgement Miserable and froward men They would beleeve it in their fables and would not beleeve it in the Scriptures They would beleeve it in the nine Muses and would not beleeve it in the twelve Apostles They would beleeve it by Apollo and they would not beleeve it by the Holy Ghost They would be saved Poetically and fantastically and would not reasonably and spiritually By Copies and not by Originals by counterfeit things at first deduced by their Authors out of our Scriptures Tertul. and yet not by the word of God himself Which Tertullian apprehends and reprehends in his time when he
root and bring that comfort to the fruit and confesse that God who is both is the God of all comfort Follow God in the execution of this good purpose upon thee to thy Vocation and heare him who hath left East and West and North and South in their dimnesse and dumnesse and deafnesse and hath called thee to a participation of himselfe in his Church Go on with him to thy justification That when in the congregation one sits at thy right hand and beleeves but historically It may be as true which is said of Christ as of William the Conquerour and as of Iulius Caesar and another at thy left hand and beleeves Christ but civilly It was a Religion well invented and keeps people well in order and thou betweene them beleevest it to salvation in an applying faith proceed a step farther to feele this fire burning out thy faith declared in works thy justification growne into sanctification And then thou wilt be upon the last staire of all That great day of thy glorification will breake out even in this life and either in the possessing of the good things of this world thou shalt see the glory and in possessing the comforts of this World see the joy of Heaven or else which is another of his wayes in the want of all these thou shalt have more comfort then others have or perchance then thou shouldest have in the possessing of them for he is the God of all comfort and of all the wayes of comfort And therefore Blessed be God even the Father c. SERM. XXXIX Preached upon Trinity-Sunday 1 PET. 1.17 And if ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans works passe the time of your sojourning here in feare YOu may remember that I proposed to exercise your devotions and religious meditations in these exercises with words which might present to you first the severall persons in the Trinity and the benefits which we receive in receiving God in those distinct notions of Father Son and holy Ghost And then with other words which might present those sins and the danger of those sins which are most particularly opposed against those severall persons Of the first concerning the person of the Father we spoke last and of the other concerning sins against the Father these words will occasion us to speak now It is well noted upon those words of David Psal 51.1 Have mercy upon me O God that the word is Elohim which is Gods in the plurall Have mercy upon me O Gods for David though he conceived not divers Gods yet he knew three divers persons in that one God and he knew that by that sin which he lamented in that Psalme that peccatum complicatum that manifold sin that sin that enwrapped so many sins he had offended all those three persons For whereas we consider principally in the Father Potestatem Power and in the Son Sapientiam Wisdome and in the holy Ghost Bonitatem Goodnesse David had sinned against the Father in his notion In potestate in abusing his power and kingly authority to a mischievous and bloody end in the murder of Vriah And he had sinned against the Son in his notion In sapientia in depraving and detorting true wisdome into craft and treachery And he had sinned against the holy Ghost in his notion In bonitate when he would not be content with the goodnesse and piety of Vriah who refused to take the eases of his owne house and the pleasure of his wifes bosome as long as God himselfe in his army lodged in Tents and stood in the face of the Enemy Sins against the Father then we consider especially to be such as are In potestate Either in a neglect of Gods Power over us or in an abuse of that power which we have from God over others and of one branch of that power particularly of Judgement is this Text principally intended If ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth c. In the words we shall insist but upon two parts Divisio First A Counsaile which in the Apostles mouth is a commandement And then a Reason an inducement which in the Apostles mouth is a forcible an unresistible argument The Counsell that is The commandement is If ye call on the Father feare him stand in feare of him And the reason that is the Argument is The name of Father implyes a great power over you therefore feare him And amongst other powers a power of judging you of calling you to an account therefore feare him In which Judgement this Judge accepts no persons but judges his sons as his servants and therefore feare him And then he judges not upon words outward professions but upon works actions according to every mans works and therefore feare him And then as on his part he shall certainly call you to judgement when you goe hence so on your part certainly it cannot be long before you goe hence for your time is but a sojourning here it is not a dwelling And yet it is a sojourning here it is not a posting a gliding through the world but such a stay as upon it our everlasting dwelling depends And therefore that we may make up this circle and end as we begun with the feare of God passe that time that is all that time in fear In fear of neglecting and undervaluing or of over-tempting that great power which is in the Father And in feare of abusing those limnes and branches and beames of that power which he hath communicated to thee in giving thee power and authority any way over others for these To neglect the power of the Father or To abuse that power which the Father hath given thee over others are sinnes against the Father who is power If ye call on the Father c. First then for the first part the Counsell Si invocatis If ye call on the Father In timore 1. Part. Doe it in feare The Counsell hath not a voluntary Condition and arbitrary in our selves annexed to it If you call then feare does not import If you doe not call you need not feare It does not import That if you professe a particular forme of Religion you are bound to obey that Church but if you doe not but have fancied a religion to your selfe without precedent Or a way to salvation without any particular religion Or a way out of the world without any salvation or damnation but a going out like a candle if you can think thus you need not feare This is not the meaning of this If in this place If you call on the Father c. But this If implyes a wonder an impossibility that any man should deny God to be the Father If the author the inventer of any thing usefull for this life be called the father of that invention by the holy Ghost himselfe Gen. 4.20 Iabal was the father of such as dwell in Tents and Tubal his brother
The nature of the worke and according to Thy worke The propriety of the worke Thee who art a Protestant he shall judge by thine owne worke and not by S. Stephens or S. Peters and thee who art a Papist he shall judge by thine owne worke and not by S. Campians or S. Garnets as meritorious as thou thinkest them And therefore if God be thy Father and in that title have soveraigne power over thee A power spirituall as High-priest of thy soule that discernes thy sacrifices A power Civill and drawes the sword of Justice against thee when he will A power judiciary and judges without accepting persons and without error in apprehending thy works If he be a Father thus feare him for these are the reasons of feare on his part and then feare him for this reason on thy part That this time which thou art to stay here first is But a sojourning it is no more but yet it is a sojourning it is no lesse Passe the time of your sojourning here c. When there is a long time to the Assises Incolatus there may be some hope of taking off or of smothering Evidence or working upon the Judge or preparing for a pardon Or if it were a great booty a great possession which we had gotten even that might buy out our peace But this world is no such thing neither for the extent that we have in it It is but little that the greatest hath nor for the time that we have in it In both respects it is but a sojourning Gen. 47.6 Heb. 13.14 it is but a pilgrimage sayes Iacob And But the dayes of my pilgrimage Every one of them quickly at an end and all of them quickly reckoned Here we have no continuing City first no City no such large being and then no continuing at all it is but a sojourning The word in the Text is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have but a parish we are but parishioners in this world and they that labour to purchase whole shires usurp more then their portion and yet what is a great Shire in a little Map Here we are but Viatores Passengers way-faring men This life is but the high-way and thou canst not build thy hopes here Nay to be buried in the high way is no good marke and therefore bury not thy selfe thy labours thy affections upon this world What the Prophet sayes to thy Saviour O the hope of Israel 〈◊〉 14.7 the Saviour thereof in time of trouble why shouldest thou be a stranger in the land and as a wayfaring man that turnes aside to tarry for a night say thou to thy soule Sincethou art a stranger in the land a wayfaring man turned aside to tarry for a night since the night is past Arise and depart for here is not thy rest Mic. 2.10 prepare for another place and feare him whom thou callest Father and who is shortly to be thy Iudge for here thou art no more then a sojourner but yet remember withall that thou art so much Thou art a sojourner This life is not a Parenthesis a Parenthesis that belongs not to the sense Incolatus a Parenthesis that might be left out as well as put in More depends upon this life then so upon every minute of this life depend millions of yeares in the next and I shall be glorified eternally or eternally lost for my good or ill use of Gods grace offered to me this houre Therefore where the Apostle sayes of this life Peregrinamur à Domino 2 Cor. 5.6 We are absent from the Lord yet he sayes We are at home in the body This world is so much our home as that he that is not at home now he that hath not his conversation in heaven here shall never get home And therefore even in this Text our former Translation calls it Dwelling That which we reade now passe the time of your sojourning we did reade then passe the time of your dwelling for this where we are now is the suburb of the great City the porch of the triumphant Church and the Grange or Country house of the same Landlord belonging to his heavenly Palace in the heavenly Jerusalem Be it but a sojourning yet thou must pay God something for thy sojourning pay God his rent of praise and prayer And be it but a sojourning yet thou art bound to it for a time Though thou sigh with David Heu mihi quia prolongatus incolatus Psal 120.5 woe is me that I sojourne so long here Though the miseries of thy life make thy life seeme long yet thou must stay out that time which he who tooke thee in appointed and by no practice no not so much as by a deliberate wish or unconditioned prayer seeke to be delivered of it Because thy time here is such a sojourning as is quickly atan end and yet such a sojourning as is never at an end for our endlesse state depends upon this fear him who shall so certainly and so soone be a just Judge of it feare him in abstaining from those sinnes which are directed upon his power which are principally as we intimated at the beginning and with which we shall make an end first The negligence of his power upon thee And then the abuse of his power communicated to thee over others First then the sin directed against the Father Negligentia whom wee consider to be the roote and center of all power is when as some men have thought the soule of man to be nothing but a resultance of the temperament and constitution of the body of man and no infusion from God so they thinke that power by which the world is governed is but a resultance of the consent and the tacite voice of the people who are content for their ease to bee so governed and no particular Ordinance of God It is an undervaluing a false conception a mis-apprehension of those beames of power which God from himself sheds upon those whom himselfe cals Gods in this World We sin then against the Father when we undervalue God in his Priest God hath made no step in that perverse way of the Roman Church to prefer so as they doe the Priest before the King yet speaking in two severall places of the dignity of his people first as Jews then as Christians he sayes in one place They shall be a Kingdome and a Kingdome of Priests and he sayes in the other Esay 19.6 1 Pet. 2.9 They shall be Sacerdotium and Regale Sacerdotium Priests and royall Priests In one place the King in the other the Priest mentioned first and in both places both involved in one another The blessings from both are so great as that the Holy Ghost expresses them by one another mutually Num. 1. Oleaster When God commands his people to bee numbred in every Tribe one moves this question Why in all other Tribes he numbred but from twenty yeares upward and in the Tribe of
Levi from a moneth upward Agnosce sacerdos sayes he quanti te Deus tuus fecerit Take knowledge thou who art the Priest of the high God what a value God hath set upon thee that whereas he takes other servants for other affaires when they are men fit to doe him service he took thee to the Priesthood in thy cradle in thine infancie How much more then when the Priest is not Sacerdos infans A Priest that cannot or does not speake but continues watchfull in meditating and assiduous in uttering powerfully and yet modestly the things that concerne your salvation ought you to abstaine from violating the power of God the Father in dis-esteeming his power thus planted in the Priest So also doe we sin against the Father the roote of power Civilis in conceiving amisse of the power of the Civill Magistrate Whether where God is pleased to represent his unity in one Person in a King or to expresse it in a plurality of persons in divers Governours When God sayes Per me Reges regnant By me Kings raigne There the Per is not a Permission but a Commission It is not That they raigne by my Sufferance but they raigne by mine Ordinance A King is not a King because he is a good King nor leaves being a King Rom. 13.5 as soone as he leaves being good All is well summed by the Apostle You must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake But then the greatest danger of sinning against the Father Iudiciaria in this notion of power is if you conceive not aright of his Judiciary power of that judgement which he executes not by Priests nor by Kings upon earth but by his owne Son Christ Jesus in heaven For not to be astonished at the Contemplation of that judgement where there shall be Information Examination Publication Hearing Judgement and Execution in a minute where they that never beleeved till they heard me may be taken in and I that Preached and wrought their salvation may be left out where those wounds which my Saviour received upon earth for me shall be shut up against me and those wounds which my blasphemies have made in his glorified body shall bleed out indignation upon sight of me the murtherer not to think upon not to tremble at this judgement is the highest sin against the Father and his power in the undervaluing of it But there is a sin against this power too Abusus in abusing that portion of that power which God hath deposited in thee Art thou a Priest and expectest the reverence due to that holy calling Ambr Ep. 6. ad Iren. Be holy in in that calling Quomodo potest observari à populo qui nihil habet secretum à populo How can the people reverence him whom they see to be but just one of them Quid in te miretur si sua in te recognoscit If they finde no more in thee then in one another what should they admire in thee Si quae in se erubescit in te quem reverendum arbitratur offendit If they discerne those infirmities in thee which they are ashamed of in themselves where is there any object any subject any exercise of their reverence psal 52.1 Art thou great in Civill Power Quid gloriaris in malo quiae potens es Why boastest thou thy selfe in mischiefe O mighty man Hast thou a great body therefore because thou shouldest stand heavy upon thine own feet and make them ake Or a great power therefore because thou shouldest oppresse them that are under thee use thy power justly Jes 1. ◠and call it the voyce of allegeance when the people say to thee as to Iosua All that thou commandest us we will doc and whither soever thou sendest us we will goe Abuse that power to oppression and thou canst not call that the voyce of sedition in which Peter and the other Apostles joyned together Acts 5.29 We ought to obey God rather then man Hast thou any judiciall place in this world here there belongs more feare then in the rest Some things God hath done in Christ as a Priest in this world some things as a King But when Christ should have been a Judge in civill causes he declined that he would not divide the Inheritance and in criminall causes he did so too he would not condemne the Adulteresse So that for thy example in judgement thou art referred to that which is not come yet to that to which thou must come The last the everlasting judgement Waigh thine affections there and then and think there stands before thee now a prisoner so affected as thou shalt be then Waigh the mercy of thy Judge then and think there is such mercy required in thy judgement now Be but able to say God be such to me at the last day as I am to his people this day and for that dayes justice in thy publique calling God may be pleased to cover many sins of infirmity And so you have all that we intended in this exercise to present unto you The first person of the Trinity God the Father in his Attribute of power Almighty and those sins which as farre as this Text leads us are directed upon him in that notion of Father The next day the Son will rise SERM. XL. Preached upon Trinity-Sunday 1 COR. 16.22 If any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha CHrist is not defined not designed by any name by any word so often as by that very word The Word Sermo Speech In man there are three kinds of speech Sermo innatus That inward speech which the thought of man reflecting upon it selfe produces within He thinks something And then Sermo illatus A speech of inference that speech which is occasioned in him by outward things from which he drawes conclusions and determins And lastly Sermo prolatus That speech by which he manifests himselfe to other men We consider also three kindes of speech in God and Christ is all three There is Sermo innatus His eternall his naturall word which God produced out of himselfe which is the generatiof the second Person in the Trinity And then there is Sermo illatus His word occasioned by the fall of Adam which is his Decree of sending Christ as a Redeemer And there is also Sermo prolatus His speech of manifestation and application of Christ which are his Scriptures The first word is Christ the second the Decree is for Christ the third the Scripture is of Christ Let the word be Christ so he is God Let the word be for Christ for his comming hither so he is man Let the word be of Christ so the Scriptures make this God and man ours Now If in all these if in any of these apprehensions any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha By most of those who from the perversenesse of Heretiques Divisio have taken
then to make it for in the Creation there was no reluctation of the Creature for there was no Creature but to divert Nature out of her setled course is a conquest upon a resisting adversary and powerfull in a prescription The Recedat Mare Let the Sea go back and the Sistat Sol Let the Sun stand still met with some kinde of opposition in Nature but in the Fiat Mare and Fiat Sol Let there be a Sea and a Sun God met with no opposition no Nature August he met with nothing And therefore Interrogemus Miracula quid nobis de Christo loquantur Let us aske his Miracles and they will make us understand Christ Habent enim si intelligantur linguam suam If wee understand them that is If wee would understand them they speake loud enough and plaine enough In his Miraculous birth of a Virgin In his Miraculous disputation with Doctors at twelve yeares of age in his fasting in his invisibility in his walking upon the Sea in his re-assuming his body in the Resurrection Christ spoke in himselfe in the language of Miracles So also had they a loud and a plaine voyce in other men In his Miraculous curing the sick raising the dead dispossessing the Devill Christ spoke in other men in the language of Miracles And he did so also as in himselfe and in other men so in other things In the miraculous change of Water into Wine in the drying up of the Fig-tree In feeding five thousand with five loaves in shutting up the Sun in darknesse and opening the graves of the Dead to light in bringing plenty of Fish to the Net and in putting money into the mouth of a Fish at the Angle Christ spoke in all these Creatures in the language of Miracles So the Scriptures testifie of his Deity and so doe his Miracles and so doe those Conclusions which arise from thence though we consider but that one which is expressed in this part of the Text that he is the Lord If any love not the Lord c. We reason thus God gives not his glory to others Dominus and his glory is in his Essentiall Name and in his Attributes and to whomsoever he gives them because they cannot be given from God he who hath them is God Of these none is so peculiar to him as the name of Iehova the name which for reverence the Jews forbore to sound and in the room therof ever sounded Adonai and Adonai is Dominus the name of this Text The Lord Christ by being the Lord thus is Jehovah and if Jehovah God It is Tertullians observation Et ss Pater sit dicatur Dominus Filius sit dicatur Deus That though the Father be the Lord and be called the Lord and though the Son be God and be called God yet sayes he the manner of the Holy Ghost in the New Testament is to call the Father God and the Son the Lord. He is Lord with the Father as he was Con-creator his Collegue in the Creation But for that Dominion and Lordship which he hath by his Purchase by his Passion Calcavit solus I le trod the Wine-presse alone not onely no man but no Person of the Trinity redeemed us by suffering for us but he For the ordinary appellation of Lord in the New Testament which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is but a name of Civility not onely no name implying Divine worship but not implying any distinction of ranke or degree amongst men Mary Magdalen speaks of Christ and speakes to the Gardiner as she thought and both in one and the same word it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominus Lord to both when she sayes They have taken away my Lord meaning Christ Iohn 20.15 and when she saies to the Gardiner Sir if thou hast borne him hence it is the same word too But all that reaches not to the style of this Text The Lord for here The Lord is God 1 Cor. 12.3 And no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost All that was written in the Scriptures all that was established by Miracles all that is deduced by reason conduces to this determines in this That every tongue should confesse that Iesus Christ is the Lord in which essentiall name the name of his nature he is first proposed as the object of our love Now this Lord Lord for ever is become that which he was not for ever Christus otherwise then in a secondary consideration that is Christ which implies a person prepared and sitted and anointed to a peculiar Office in this World And can the Lord the ever-living Lord the Son of God the onely Son of God God himselfe have any preferment preferment by an Office in this World Was it a preferment to Dionysius who was before in that height over men to become a schoole-master over boyes Were it a preferment to the Kings Son to be made governour over a Bee-hive or over-seer over an Ant-hill And men nay Mankinde is no more not that not a Bee-hive not an Ant-hill compared to this Person who being the Lord would become Christ As he was the Lord we considered him as God and that there is a God naturall reason can comprehend As he is Christ we consider him God and Man and such a Person naturall reason not rooted in the Scriptures not illustrated by the Scriptures cannot comprehend Man will much easilier beleeve the Lord that is God then Christ that is God and Man in one Person Christ then is the style the title of his Office Non Nomen sed Appellatio Tertul. Christ is not his Name but his Addition Vnctus significatur sayes he unctus non magis nomen quam vestitus calceatus Christ signifies but anointed and anointed is no more a Name then apparelled or shod is a name So as hee was apparelled in our flesh and his apparell dyed red in his owne blood so as he was shod to tread the Wine-presse for us So he was Christ That it is Nomen Sacramenti as S. Aug. cals it A mystery is easily agreed to for all the mysteries of all the Religions in the World are but Milke in respect of this Bone but Catechismes in respect of this Schoole-point but Alphabets in respect of this hard Style God and Man in one person That it is Nomen Sacramenti as Augustine says is easie but that it is Nuncupatio potestatis as Lactantius cals it is somewhat strange that it is an office of power a title of honour for the Creator to become a Creature and the Lord of life the object of death nay the seat of death in whom death did sojourn three dayes can Lactantius call this a declaration of power is this Nuncupatio potestatis a title of honour Beloved he does and he may for it was so for it was an Annointing Exod. 29.7 Christas is unctus and unction was the Consecration of Priests Thou shalt take
Solomon do for the most part hold in Christ Christ is for the most part the Wisdome of that book And for that book which is called altogether The book of Wisdome Isidore sayes that a Rabbi of the Jews told him That that book was heretofore in the Canonicall Scripture and so received by the Jews till after Christs Crucifying when they observed what evident testimonies there were in that book for Christ they removed it from the Canon This I know is not true but I remember it therefore because all assists us to consider Wisdome in Christ as that does also That the greatest Temple of the Christians in Constantinople was dedicated in that name Sophia to Wisdome by implication to Christ And in some apparitions where the Son of God is said to have appeared he cals himself by that name Sapientiam Dei He is Wisdome therefore because he reveales the Will of the Father to us and therefore is no man wise but he that knowes the Father in him Isidore makes this difference Inter sapientem prudentem that the first The wise man attends the next world the last The prudent man but this world But wisdome even heavenly wisdome does not exclude that prudence though the principall or rather the ordinary object thereof be this world And therefore sins against the second Person are sins against Wisdome in either extreame either in affected and grosse ignorance or in overrefined and sublimed curiosity As we place this Ignorance in Practicall things of this world so it is Stupidity and as we place it in Doctrinall things of the next world so Ignorance is Implicite Beliefe And Curiosity as we place it upon Practical things is Craft and upon Doctrinal things Subtilty And this Stupidity and this Implicite faith and then this Craft and this Subtilty are sins directed against the Son who is true and onely Wisdome First then A stupid and negligent passage through this world as though thou wert no part of it without embarking thy selfe in any calling To crosse Gods purpose so much Stupiditas as that whereas he produced every thing out of nothing to be something thou wilt go so far back towards nothing againe as to be good for nothing that when as our Lawes call a Calling an Addition thou wilt have no Addition And when as S. Augustine saies Musca Soli praeferenda quia vivit A Fly is a nobler Creature then the Sun in this respect because a Fly hath life in it selfe and the Sun hath none so any Artificer is a better part of a State then any retired or contemplative man that embraces no Calling These chippings of the world these fragmentary and incoherent men trespasse against the Son against the second Person as he is Wisdome And so doe they in doctrinall things that swallow any particular religion upon an implicite faith When Christ declared a very forward knowledge in the Temple at twelve yeares with the Doctors yet he was there Audiens interrogans He heard what they would say and he moved questions to heare what they could say for Ejusdem scientiae est scire quid interroges quidve respondeas Luke 2.46 Origen It is a testimony of as much knowledge to aske a pertinent question as to give a pertinent answer But never to have beene able to give answer never to have asked question in matter of Religion this is such an Implicitenesse and indifferency as transgresses against the Son of God who is Wisdome It is so too in the other extreame Curiosity And this in Practicall things is Craft Curiositas in Doctrinall Subtilty Craft is properly and narrowly To go towards good ends by ill wayes And though this be not so ill as when neither ends nor wayes be good yet this is ill too The Civilians use to say of the Canonists and Casuists That they consider nothing but Crassam aequitatem fat Equity downe-right Truths things obvious and apprehensible by every naturall man and to doe but so to be but honest men and no more they thinke a diminution To stay within the limits of a profession within the limits of precedents within the limits of time is to over-active men contemptible nothing is wisdome till it be exalted to Craft and got above other men And so it is with some with many in Doctrinall things too To rest in Positive Divinity and Articles confessed by all Churches To be content with Salvation at last and raise no estimation no emulation no opinion of singularity by the way only to edifie an Auditory and not to amaze them onely to bring them to an assent and to a practise and not to an admiration This is but home-spun Divinity but Country-learning but Catechisticall doctrine Let me know say these high-flying men what God meant to doe with man before ever God meant to make man I care not for that Law that Moses hath written That every man can read That he might have received from God in one day Let me know the Cabal that which passed betweene God and him in all the rest of the forty dayes I care not for Gods revealed Will his Acts of Parliament his publique Proclamations Let me know his Cabinet Counsailes his bosome his pocket dispatches Is there not another kinde of Predestination then that which is revealed in Scriptures which seemes to be onely of those that beleeve in Christ May not a man be saved though he doe not and may not a man bee damned though he doe performe those Conditions which seeme to make sure his salvation in the Scriptures Beloved our Countrey man Holkot upon the booke of Wisdome sayes well of this Wisdome which we must seeke in the Booke of God After he hath magnified it in his harmonious manner which was the style of that time after he had said Cujus authore nihil sublimius That the Author of the Scripture was the highest Author for that was God Cujus tenore nihil solidius That the assurance of the Scripture was the safest foundation for it was a Rock Cujus valore nihil locupletius That the riches of the Scripture was the best treasure for it defrayed us in the next World After he had pursued his way of Elegancy and called it Munimentum Majestatis That Majesty and Soveraignty it selfe was established by the Scriptures and Fundamentum firmitatis That all true constancy was built upon that and Complementum potestatis That the exercise of all power was to be directed by that he reserves the force of all to the last and contracts all to that Emolumentum proprietatis The profit which I have in appropriating the power and the wisdome of the Scriptures to my selfe All wisdome is nothing to me if it be not mine and I have title to nothing that is not conveyed to me by God in his Scriptures and in the wisdome manifested to me there I rest I looke upon Gods Decrees in the execution of those Decrees and I try whether I be within that Decree
informed to God better informed for hee alwaies knowes all evidence before it be given And therefore the larger the jurisdiction and the higher the Court is the more carefull ought the Judge to be of wrong judgement for Abrahams expostulation reaches in a measure to them Shall not the Iudge of all or of a great part of the earth do right Now what is the wrong which Abraham disswaded and deprecated here first Iusti cum impiis Ne justi cum impiis That God would not destroy the Just with the unjust not make both their cases alike This is an injustice which never any bloody men upon earth but those who exceeded all in their infamous purposes the Authors and Actors in the Powder treason did ever deliberately and advisedly upon debate whether it should be so or no resolve that all of both Religions should perish promiscuously in the blowing up of that house Here the Devill would be Gods Ape and as God had presented to S. Peter a sheete of all sorts of Creatures cleane and uncleane and bad him take his choice kill and eate So the Devill would make S. Peter in his imaginary Successor or his instruments present God a sacrifice of cleane and uncleane Catholiques and Heretiques in their denomination and bid him take his choyce which action whosoever forgets so as that he forgets what was intended in it forgets his Religion and whosoever forgets it so as that he forgets what they would doe againe if they had power forgets his reason But this is not the way of Gods justice God is a God of harmony and consent and in a musicall instrument if some strings be out of tune wee doe not presently breake all the strings but reduce and tune those which are out of tune As gold whilest it is in the mine in the bowels of the earth is good for nothing and when it is out and beaten to the thinnesse of leaf-gold it is wasted and blown away and quickly comes to nothing But when it is tempered with such allay as it may receive a stamp and impression then it is currant and usefull So whilest Gods Justice lyes in the bowels of his own decree and purpose and is not executed at all we take no knowledge that there is any such thing And when Gods Justice is dilated to such an expansion as it overflowes all alike whole Armies with the sword whole Cities with the plague whole Countryes with famine oftentimes we lose the consideration of Gods Justice and fall upon some naturall causes because the calamity is faln so indifferently upon just and unjust as that we thinke it could not be the act of God but when Gods Justice is so allayd with his wisedome as that we see he keeps a Goshen in Aegypt and saves his servants in the destruction of his enemies then we come to a rich and profitable use of his Justice And therefore Abraham presses this with that vehement word Chalilah Absit Abraham serves a Prohibition upon God as S. Peter would have done upon Christ when he was going up to Jerusalem to suffer Absit sayes he Thou shalt not do this But the word signifies more properly prophanationem pollutionem Abraham intends that God should know that it would be a prophaning of his holy honour and an occasion of having his Name blasphemed amongst the Nations if God should proceed so as to wrap up just and unjust righteous and unrighteous all in one condemnation and one execution Absit Be this far from thee But Abrahams zeale extended farther then this Vt parcat Impiis his desire and his hope was That for the righteous sake the unrighteous might be spared and reserved to a time of repentance This therefore ministers a provocation to every man to be as good as he can not onely for his own sake but for others too This made S. Ambrose say Quantus murus patriae vir bonus An honest and religious man is a wall to a whole City a sea to a whole Iland When our Saviour Christ observed that they would presse him with that Proverb Medice cura teipsum Physitian heal thy selfe we see there that himselfe was not his person Luk. 4.23 but his Country was himselfe for that is it that they intend by that Proverb Heal thy selfe take care of them that are near thee do that which thou doest here in Capernaum at home Preach these Sermons there do these miracles there cure thy Country and that is curing thy selfe Live so that thy example may be a precedent to others live so that for thy sake God may spare others and then and not till then thou hast done thy duty God spares sometimes ob commixtionem sanguinis for kindreds sake and for alliance and therefore it behoves us to take care of our allyances and planting our children in religious families How many judgements do we escape because we are of the seed of Abraham and made partakers of the Covenant which the Gentils who are not so are overwhelmed under God spares sometimes Ob cohabitationem for good neighbourhood he will not bring the fire near a good mans house As here Act. 27. in our Text he would have done in Sodome and as he did save many onely because they were in the same Ship with S. Paul And therefore as in the other Religion the Jews have streets of their own and the Stews have streets of their own so let us choose to make our dwellings and our conversation of our own and not affect the neighbourhood nor the commerce of them who are of evill communication Be good then that thou mayest communicate thy goodnesse to others and consort with the good that thou mayest participate of their goodnesse Omnis sapiens stulti est redemptio is excellently said by Philo A wise mad is the saviour and redeemer of a foole And as the same man says though a Physitian when he is called discerne that the patient cannot be recovered yet he will prescribe something Ne ob ejus negligentiam periisse videatur lest the world should think he dyed by his negligence How incurable how incorrigible soever the world be be thou a religious honest man lest some childe in thy house or some servant of thine be damned which might have been saved if thou hadst given good example Gods ordinary way is to save man by man and Abraham thought it not out of Gods way to save man for man to save the unjust for the just the unrighteous for the righteous sake But if God do not take this way Si nolit Deus Eccles 9.2 if he do wrap up the just and the unjust in the same Judgement is God therefore unjust God forbid All things come alike to all sayes Solomon One event to the righteous and to the wicked to the cleane and to the uncleane to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth
that Father The second birth which he had at his Baptisme was the more honourable birth for Ab illa se Pater qui putabatur Ioseph excusat At his first birth Ioseph his reputed Father did not avow him for his Son In hac se Pater qui non putabatur insinuat At this his second birth God who was not known to be his Father before declares that now Ibi labor at suspicionibus Mater quia professioni deerat Pater There the Mothers honour was in question because Ioseph could not professe himselfe the Father of the childe Hic honoratur genetrix quia filium Divinitas protestatur Here her honour is repaired and magnified because the God-head it selfe proclaimes it selfe to be the Father If then Christ himselfe chose to admit an addition of dignity at his Baptisme who had an eternall generation in heaven and an innocent conception without sin upon earth let not us undervalue that dignity which is afforded us by Baptisme though our children be borne within the Covenant by being borne of Christian Parents for the Covenant gives them Ius ad rem a right to Baptisme children of Christian Parents may claime Baptisme which aliens to Christ cannot doe but yet they may not leave out Baptisme A man may be within a generall pardon and yet have no benefit by it if he sue it not out if he plead it not a childe may have right to Baptisme and yet be without the benefit of it if it be neglected Christ began at Baptisme Naturall things he did before He fled into Aegypt to preserve his life from Herods Persecution before And a miraculous thing he did before He overcame in disputation the Doctors in the Temple at twelve yeares old but yet neither of these neither before his Circumcision which was equivalent to Baptisme to this purpose but before he accepted or instituted Baptisme he did some naturall and some miraculous things But his ordinary work which he came for his preaching the Gospel and thereby raising the frame for our salvation in his Church he began not but after his Baptisme And then after that it is expresly and immediatly recorded That when he came out of the waters he prayed and then the next thing in the history is that he fasted and upon that his tentation in the wildernesse I meane no more in this but this That no man hath any interest in God to direct a prayer unto him how devoutly soever no man hath any assurance of any effect of his endeavours in a good life how morally holy soever but in relation to his Baptisme in that seale of the Covenant by which he is a Christian Christ took this Sacrament his Baptisme before he did any other thing and he took this three yeares before the institution of the other Sacrament of his body and blood So that the Anabaptists obtrude a false necessity upon us that we may not take the first Sacrament Baptisme till we be capable of the other Sacrament too for first in nature Priùs nascimur quà m pascimur we are borne before we are fed and so in Religion we are first borne into the Church which is done by Baptisme before we are ready for that other food which is not indeed milk for babes but solid meat for stronger digestions They that have told us that the Baptisme that Christ took of Iohn was not the same Baptisme which we Christians take in the Church speak impertinently John 1.6 for Iohn was sent by God to baptize and there is but one Baptisme in him It is true that S. Augustine calls Iohns Baptisme Praecursorium ministerium as he was a fore-runner of Christ his Baptisme was a fore-running Baptisme It is true that Iustin Martyr calls Iohns Baptisme Euangelicae gratiae praeludium A Prologue to the grace of the Gospel It is true that more of the Fathers have more phrases of expressing a difference between the Baptisme of Iohn and the Baptisme of Christ But all this is not De essentia but De modo Not of the substance of the Sacrament which is the washing of our soules in the blood of Christ but the difference was in the relation Iohn baptized In Christum morituturum Into Christ who was to dye and we are baptized In Christum mortuum Into Christ who is already dead for us Damascen expresses it fully Christus baptizatur suo Baptismo Christ was baptized with his own Baptisme It was Iohns Baptisme and yet it was Christs too And so we are baptized with his Baptisme and there neither is nor was any other And that Baptisme is to us Ianua Ecclesiae as S. Augustine cals it The Doore of the Church at that we enter And Investitura Christianismi The investing of Christianity as S. Bernard cals it There we put on Christ Jesus And as he whom wee may be bold to match with these two floods of spirituall eloquence for his Eloquence that is Luther expresses it Puerpera regni Coelorum The Church in Baptisme is as a Woman delivered of child and her child is the Kingdome of Heaven and that kingdome she delivers into his armes who is truly Baptized This Sacrament makes us Christians this denominates us both Civilly and Spiritually there we receive our particular names which distinguish us from one another and there we receive that name which shall distinguish us from the Nations in the next World at Baptisme wee receive the name of Christians Act. 11.26 and there we receive our Christian names When the Disciples of Christ in generall came to be called Christians wee finde It was a name given upon great deliberation Barnabas had Preached there who was a good Man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith himselfe But he went to fetch Paul too a Man of great gifts and power in Preaching and both they continued a yeare Preaching in Antioch and there first of all the Disciples were called Christians Before they were called Fideles and Fratres and Discipuli The Faithfull and the Brethren and the Disciples and as S. Chrysostome sayes De via Men that were in the way for all the World besides were beside him who was The Way the Truth and the Life But by the way we may wonder what gave S. Chrysostome occasion of that opinion or that conjecture since in the Ecclesiastique Story I thinke there is no mention of that name attributed to the Christians And in the Acts of the Apostles it is named but once when Saul desired Letters to Damascus Acts 9.2 to punish them whom he found to be of That way Where we may note also the zeale of S. Paul though then in a wrong cause against them who were of That way that is That way inclined And our stupidity who startle not at those men who are not onely inclined another way a crosse way but labour pestilently to incline others and hope confidently to see all incline that way againe Here then at Antioch they began to be called Christians
ever after he bends his eye the same way and observes the working of God especially upon himselfe As at the beginning so in the way too particularly there By the grace of God I am that I am 1 Cor. 15. and then His grace was bestowed on me And not in vaine and againe I have laboured more abundantly then all And after all still he considers himselfe and findes himselfe to be the greatest sinner Quorum ego maximus It is called a greatnesse of spirit or constancy but it is indeed an incorrigible height of pride when a man will not beleeve that he is meant in a libel if he be not named in that libel It is a fearfull obduration to be Sermon-proofe or not to take knowledge that a judgement is denounced against him because he is not named in the denouncing of that judgement Is not thy name Simon Magus if thou buy and sell spirituall things thy selfe and is not thy servants name Gehazi if he exact after Is not thy name Cain if thou rise up against thy brother And is not thy name Zacheus if thou multiply thy wealth by oppression Is not thy name Dinah if thou gad abroad to see who will solicite thee And is not the name of Putiphars Wife upon thee if thou stay at home and solicite thy servants Post-date the whole Bible and whatsoever thou hearest spoken of such as thou art before beleeve all that to be spoken but now and spoken to thee This was one happinesse here that Saul found this voyce to be directed to him And another which is our last Consideration is what this voyce said it said Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Here Saul to make sure of him God cals him by his name that hee should not be able to transfer the summons upon any other or say it was not he They say that our Noctambulones men that walke in their sleepe will wake if they be called by their names To wake Saul out of this dreame for to thinke to oppose Christ and his cause is in the highest person of the world of what power or of what counsel soever but a vertiginous dreame and a giddy vapour to wake him he cals him by his name to let him know he meanes him and to wake him throughly he cals him twice Saul and Saul againe Saul Saul Ier. 22.29 The great desolation which was to fall upon that land God intimates God interminates God intonates with such a vehemency Terra terra terra Earth earth earth heare the word of the Lord. God should be heard at first beleeved at first but such is his abundant goodnesse as that he ingeminates multiplies his warnings And to this whole land he hath said Terra terra terra Earth earth earth heare the Word of the Lord Once in an Invasion once in a Powder-treason and againe and againe in pestilentiall contagions And to every one of us he hath said oftner then so Dust dust dust why doest thou lift up thy self against thy Maker Saul Saul why persecutest thou mee Here Christ cals the afflictions of those that are his in his purpose his afflictions Me. Christ will not absolutely verifie his owne words to his owne ease He had said before this upon the Crosse Consummatum est All is finished But though all were finished in his Person he hath a daily passion in his Saints still This language which the Apostle learnt of Christ here himselfe practised and spake after Who is weake and I am not weake 2 Cor. 11.29 who is offended and I burne not Since Christ does suffer in our sufferings be this our consolation Till he be weary we should not be weary nor faint nor murmur under our burdens and this too That when he is weary he will deliver us even for his owne sake for he though he cannot suffer paine may suffer dishonour in our sufferings therefore attend his leisure We end all in this Cur tu me Why doest Thou persecute Me Why Saul Christ Tume Put it upon a Nation what is any Saul any one man to a Nation Put it upon all the Nations of the World and you shall heare God aske with an indignation Quare fremuerunt Gentes Why doe the heathen rage why do the people imagine a vaine thing Psal 2.1 Ver. 4. why will they doe it what can they get He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh The Lord shall have them in derision Christ came into the Temple and disputed with the Doctors but hee did not despise them he did not laugh at them When all the Midianites and all the Amalekites and all the Children of the East were in a body against Israel Iudg. 6.33 God did not laugh at them Gideon his Generall mustered two and thirty thousand against them God would not imploy so many in the day of Battaile yet he did not laugh at them hee did not whip them out of the field he made the face of an Army though it were but three hundred But when God can chuse his way Hee can call in Nation against Nation he can cast a dampe upon any Nation and make them afraid of one another He can doe an execution upon them by themselves I presume you remember those stories in the Bible where God did proceed by such wayes or he can sit still in a scorne and let them melt away of themselves when he can cast downe Saul to the earth and never appeare in the cause benight his noone frustrate his purposes evacuate his hopes annihilate him in the height of his glory Cur tu me why will any Saul any Nation any World of Sauls persecute Christ any sinner tempt him who is so much too hard for him Cur me Why doest thou offer this to me who being thus much too hard for thee would yet faine be friends with thee and therefore came to a parley to a treaty for verba haec non tam arguentis quam defendentis sayes S. Chrysostome These are not so much offensive as defensive words He would not confound Saul but he would not betray his own honour To many Nations God hath never spoken To the Jews he spoke but suffered them to mistake him To some whole Christian Churches he speaks but he lets them speake too he lets them make their word equall to his To many of us he hath spoken and chidden but given over before we are cured As he sayes of Israel in a manner That she is not worth his anger not worth his punishing Esay 1.4 A people laden with sinnes why should they any more be smitten Why should I go about to recover them But if God speake to thee still and speake in a mixt voyce of Correction and Consolation too Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Him that receives so little benefit by thee and yet is so loath to lose thee Him that can so easily spare thee and yet makes thy soule more precious then his own life Him that
fefellit All the world never joyned to deceive one man nor was ever any one man able to deceive all the world Contemptu famae contemnuntur virtutes was so well said by Tacitus as it is pity S. Augustine said it not They that neglect the good opinion of others neglect those vertues that should produce that good opinion Therefore S. Hierom protests to abhor that Paratum de trivio as he cals it that vulgar that street that dunghill language Satis mihi as long as mine owne conscience reproaches me of nothing I care not what all the world sayes We must care what the world sayes and study that they may say well of us But when they doe though this be a faire stone in the wall it is no foundation to build upon for They change their minds Who do Populus our text does not tell us who The story does not tell us of what quality and condition these men of Malta were who are here said to have changed their minds Likeliest they are to have beene of the vulgar the ordinary the inferiour sort of people because they are likeliest to have flocked and gathered together upon this occasion of Pauls shipwrack upon that Iland And that kinde of people are alwaies justly thought to be most subject to this levity To change their minds The greatest Poet layes the greatest levity and change that can be laid to this kinde of people that is In contraria That they change even from one extreame to another Scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus Where that Poet does not onely meane that the people will be of divers opinions from one another for for the most part they are not so for the most part they think and wish and love and hate together and they doe all by example as others doe and upon no other reason but therefore because others doe Neither was that Poet ever bound up by his words that hee should say In contraria because a milder or more modified word would not stand in his verse but hee said it because it is really true The people will change into contrary opinions And whereas an Angel it selfe cannot passe from East to West from extreame to extreame without touching upon the way betweene the people will passe from extreame to extreame without any middle opinion last minutes murderer is this minutes God and in an instant Paul whom they sent to be judged in hell Prov. 14.28 is made a judge in heaven The people will change In the multitude of people is the Kings honour 2 Sam. 24.3 And therefore Ioab made that prayer in the behalfe of David The Lord thy God adde unto thy people how many soever they be a hundred fold But when David came to number his people with a confidence in their number God tooke away the ground of that confidence and lessened their number seventy thousand in three dayes Therefore as David could say Psal 3.6 I will not be afraid of ten thousand men so he should say I will not confide in ten thousand men though multiplied by millions for they will change and at such an ebbe the popular man will lye as a Whale upon the sands deserted by the tide We finde in the Roman story many examples particularly in Commodus his time upon Cleander principall Gentleman of his Chamber of severe executions upon men that have courted the people though in a way of charity and giving them corne in a time of dearth or upon like occasions There is danger in getting them occasioned by jealousie of others there is difficulty in holding them by occasion of levity in themselves Therefore we must say with the Prophet Ier. 17.5 Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For They the people will change their minds But yet there is nothing in our text Principes that binds us to fixe this levity upon the people onely The text does not say That there was none of the Princes of the People no Commanders no Magistrates present at this accident and partners in this levity Neither is it likely but that in such a place as Malta an Iland some persons of quality and command resided about the coast to receive and to give intelligence and directions upon all emergent occasions of danger and that some such were present at this accident and gave their voyce both wayes in the exclamation and in the acclamation That hee was a murderer and that he was a God For They will change their minds All High as well as low will change A good Statesman Polybius sayes That the people are naturally as the Sea naturally smooth and calme and still and even but then naturally apt to be moved by influences of Superiour bodies and so the people apt to change by them who have a power over their affections or a power over their wils So sayes he the Sea is apt to be moved by stormes and tempests and so the people apt to change with rumors and windy reports So the Sea is moved So the people are changed sayes Polybius But Polybius might have carried his politique consideration higher then the Sea to the Aire too and applied it higher then to the people to greater persons for the Aire is shaked and transported with vapours and exhalations as much as the sea with winds and stormes and great men as much changed with ambitions in themselves and flatteries from others as inferiour people with influences and impressions from them All change their minds Mal. 3.6 High as well as low will change But I am the Lord I change not I and onely I have that immunity Immutability And therefore sayes God there ye sons of Iacob are not consumed Therefore because I I who cannot change have loved you for they who depend upon their love who can change are in a wofull condition And that involves all all can all will all do change high and low Therefore It is better to trust in the Lord then to put confidence in man What man Psal 118.8 Ver. 9. Psal 146.3 Any man It is better to trust in the Lord then to put confidence in Princes Which David thought worth the repeating for he sayes it againe Put not your trust in Princes Not that you may not trust their royall words and gracious promises to you not that you may not trust their Counsailes and executions of those Counsailes and the distribution of your contributions for those executions not that you may not trust the managing of affaires of State in their hands without jealous inquifitions or suspitious mis-interpretations of their actions In these you must trust Princes and those great persons whom Princes trust But when these great persons are in the balance with God there they weigh as little as lesse men Nay as David hath ranked and disposed them lesse for thus he conveyes that consideration Surely men of low degree
are vanity that is sure enough Psal 62.5 there is little doubt of that men of low degree can profit us nothing they cannot pretend or promise to doe us good But then sayes David there Men of high degree are a lye They pretend a power and a purpose to do us good and then disappoint us Many times men cannot many times men will not neither can we finde in any but God himselfe a constant power and a constant will upon which we may relie The men of Malta of what ranke soever they were did all men low and high will change their minds Neither have these men of Malta consider them in what quality you will so much honour afforded them in the Originall as our translation hath given them We say they changed their minds the Original says only this they changed and no more Alas they we men of this world wormes of this dunghil whether Basilisks or blind wormes whether Scarabs or Silkworms whether high or low in the world have no minds to change The Platonique Philosophers did not only acknowledge Animā in homine a soule in man but Mentem in anima a minde in the soul of man They meant by the minde the superiour faculties of the soule and we never come to exercise them Men and women call one another inconstant and accuse one another of having changed their minds when God knowes they have but changed the object of their eye and seene a better white or red An old man loves not the same sports that he did when he was young nor a sicke man the same meats that hee did when hee was well But these men have not changed their mindes The old man hath changed his fancy and the sick man his taste neither his minde The Mind implies consideration deliberation conclusion upon premisses and wee never come to that wee never put the soule home wee never bend the soule up to her height we never put her to a tryall what she is able to doe towards discerning a tentation what towards resisting a tentation what towards repenting a tentation we never put her to tryall what she is able to doe by her naturall faculties whether by them shee cannot be as good as a Plato or a Socrates who had no more but those naturall faculties what by vertue of Gods generall grace which is that providence in which he inwraps all his creatures whether by that she cannot know her God as well as the Oxe knowes his Crib and the Stork her nest what by vertue of those particular graces which God offers her in his private inspirations at home and in his publique Ordinances here whether by those she cannot be as good an houre hence as she is now and as good a day after as that day that she receives the Sacrament we never put the soule home we never bend the soule up to her height and the extent of the soule is this mind When David speaks of the people he sayes They imagine a vaine thing It goes no farther Psal 2.2 then to the fancy to the imagination it never comes so neare the minde as Consideration Reflection Examination they onely imagine fancy a vain thing which is but a waking dreame for the fancy is the seat the scene the theatre of dreames When David speaks there of greater persons he carries it farther then so but yet not to the minde The Rulers take counsell sayes David but not of the minde not of rectified and religious reason but They take counsell together sayes he that is of one another They sit still and harken what the rest will doe and they will doe accordingly Now this is but a Herding it is not an Union This is for the most part a following of affections and passions which are the inferiour servants of the soule and not of that which we understand here by the Minde The deliberate resolutions and executions of the superiour faculties thereof They changed sayes our Text not their mindes there is no evidence no apparance that they exercised any that they had any but they changed their passions Nay they have not so much honour as that afforded them in the Originall for it is not They changed but They were changed passively Men subject to the transportation of passion doe nothing of themselves but are meerely passive And being possest with a spirit of feare or a spirit of ambition as those spirits move them in a minute their yea is nay their smile is a frowne their light is darknesse their good is evill their Murderer is a God These men of Malta changed not their mindes but their passions and so did not change advisedly but passionately were changed and in that distemper they said He is a God In this hasty acclamation of theirs Deus He is a God we are come to that which was our principall intention in this part That as man hath in him a naturall Logique but that strayes into Fallacies in uncharitable judgements so man hath in him a naturall Religion but that strayes into idolatry and superstition The men of Malta were but meere naturall men and yet were so far from denying God as that they multiplied Gods to themselves The soule of man brings with it into the body a sense and an acknowledgment of God neither can all the abuses that the body puts upon the soule whilest they dwell together which are infinite devest that acknowledgement or extinguish that sense of God in the soule And therefore by what severall names soever the old heathen Philosophers called their gods still they meant all the same God Chrysippus presented God to the world in the notion and apprehension of Divina Necessitas That a certaine divine necessitie which lay upon every thing that every thing must necessarily be thus and thus done that that Necessity was God and this others have called by another name Destiny Zeno presented God to the world in the notion and apprehension of Divina lex That it was not a constraint a necessity but a Divine law an ordinance and settled course for the administration of all things And this law was Zenoes God and this others have called by another name Nature The Brachmans which are the Priests in the East they present God in the notion and apprehension of Divina lux That light is God in which they expresse themselves not to meane the fire which some naturall men worshipped for God nor the Sunne which was worshipped by more but by their light they meane that light by which man is enabled to see into the next world and this we may well call by a better Name for it is Grace But still Chrysippus by his Divine Necessity which is Destiny and Zeno by his Divine law which is Nature and the Brachmans by their Divine light which is Grace though they make the operations of God God yet they all intend in those divers names the same power The naturall man knowes God But then to the naturall
and their Conservation And in that Name of Recognition and acknowledgement that all that can be had is to be asked of him and him onely Him as he is Iehovah The Lord does David solicite him here Acts 4.12 for as there is no other Name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved but the Name of Iesus Christ So is there no other Name above in heaven proposed to men whereby they should receive these blessings but the Name of Iehovah for Iehovah is the name of the whole Trinity and there are no more no Queen-mother in heaven no Counsaylors in heaven in Commission with the Trinity In this Name therefore David pursues his Prayer for from a River from a Cisterne a man may take more water at once then he can from the first spring and fountaine head But he cannot take the water so sincerely so purely so intemerately from the channell as from the fountaine head Princes and great persons may rayse their Dependants faster then God does his But sudden riches come like a land-water and bring much foulnesse with them Esay 5.7 We are Gods vineyard The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Iudah are his pleasant plant sayes the Prophet And God delights to see his plants prosper and grow up seasonably More then once Christ makes that profession That he goes downe into the Garden of Nuts Cant. 6.10 Cant. 7.12 to see the fruits of the valley And to see whether the Vine flourished and whether the Pomegranet budded And he goes up early into the vineyard to see whether the tender grape appeared He had a pleasure in the growth and successive encrease of his plants and did not looke they should come hastily to their height and maturity If worldly blessings by a good industry grow up in us it is naturall But if they fall upon us Psal 11.6 Exod. 9.23 Rev. 16.21 Pluit laqueos God rains downe springes and snares occasions of sinne in those abundances and Pluit grandinem He will raine downe Hailstones Hailstones as big as Talents as in the Revelation as big as Milstones He will make our riches occasions of raysing enemies and make those enemies Grindstones to grinde our fortunes to powder Make not too much haste to be rich Even in spirituall riches in spirituall health make not too much haste Pray for it for there is no other way to get it Pray to the Lord for it For Saints and Angels have but enough for themselves Make haste to begin to have these spirituall graces To desire them is to begin to have them But make not too much haste in the way Doe not thinke thy selfe purer then thou art because thou seest another doe some such sins as thou hast forborne Beloved at last when Christ Jesus comes with his scales thou shalt not be waighed with that man but every man shall be waighed with God Be pure as your Father in heaven is pure is the waight that must try us all and then the purest of us all that trusts to his owne purity must heare that fearfull Mene Tekel Vpharsin Thou art waighed Thou art found too light Thou art divided separated from the face of God because thou hast not taken the purity of that Son upon thee who not onely in himselfe but those also who are in him in him are pure as his and their Father in heaven is pure Neither make so much haste to this spirituall riches and health as to think thy self whole before thou art Neither murmure nor despaire of thy recovery if thou beest not whole so soone as thou desiredst If thou wrastle with tentations and canst not overcome them If thou purpose to pray earnestly and finde thy minde presently strayed from that purpose If thou intend a good course and meet with stops in the way If thou seeke peace of conscience and scruples out of zeale interrupt that yet discomfort not thy selfe God 〈…〉 in the Creation before he came to make thee yet all that while he wrought for thee Thy Regeneration to make thee a new creature is a greater worke then that and it cannot be done in an instant God hath purposed a building in thee he hath sat down and considered Luke 14.28 that he hath sufficient to accomplish that building as it is in the Gospel and therefore leave him to his leisure When thou hast begun with David with a Domine ne arguas O Lord rebuke me not and followed that with a Domine miserere O Lord looke graciously towards me and pursued that with a Domine sana me O Lord heale me If thou finde a Domine usqucquo Any degree of wearinesse of attending the Lords leisure arising in thee suppresse it overcome it with more and more petitions and that which God did by way of Commandement in the first Creation doe thou by way of prayer in this thy second Creation First he said Piat lux Let there be light Pray thou that he would enlighten thy darknesse God was satisfied with that light for three daies and then he said Fiant luminaria Let there be great lights Blesse God for his present light but yet pray that hee will inlarge that light which he hath given thee And turne all those his Commandments into prayers till thou come to his Faciamus hominem Let us make man according to our own Image Pray that he will restore his Image in thee and conforme thee to him who is the Image of the invisible God our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus Coloss 1.15 He did his greatest work upon thee before time was thine Election And he hath reserved the confummation of that work till time shall be no more thy Glorification And as forthy Vocation he hath taken his own time He did not call thee into the world in the time of the Primitive Church nor perchance call thee effectually though in the Church in the dayes of thy youth So stay his time for thy Sanctification and if the day-spring from on high have visited thee but this morning If thou beest come to a fiat lux but now that now God have kindled some light in thee hee may come this day seaven-night to a siant luminaria to multiply this light by a more powerfull meanes If not so soone yet still remember that it was God that made the Sun stand still to Ioshaah as well as to run his race as a Giant to David And God was as much glorified in the standing still of the Sun as in the motion thereof And shall be so in thy Sanctification though it seeme to stand at a stay for a time when his time shall be to perfect it in a measure acceptable to thee Nothing is acceptable to him but that which is seasonable nor seasonable except it come in the time proper to it And as S. Augustine sayes Natura rei est quam indidit Deus That is the nature of every thing which God
hath imprinted in it So that is the time for every thing which God hath appointed for it Pray and Stay are two blessed Monosy lables To ascend to God To attend Gods descent to us is the Motion and the Rest of a Christian And as all Motion is for Rest so let all the Motions of our soule in our prayers to God be that our wills may rest in his and that all that pleases him may please us therefore because it pleases him for therefore because it pleases him it becomes good for us and then when it pleases him it becomes seasonable unto us and expedient for us SERM. LII Preached upon the Penitentiall Psalmes PSAL. 6.4 5. Returne O Lord Deliver my soule O Lord save me for thy mercies sake For in Death there is no Remembrance of thee and in the Grave who shall give thee thanks THe whole Psalme is Prayer and Prayer is our whole service to God Earnest Prayer hath the nature of Importunity Wee presse wee importune God in Prayer Yet that puts not God to a morosity to a frowardnesse God flings not away from that God suffers that importunity and more Prayer hath the nature of Impudency Wee threaten God in Prayer as Gregor Nazi adventures to expresse it He saies his Sister in the vehemence of her Prayer would threaten God Et honesta quadam impudentiae egit impudentem She came saies he to a religious impudency with God and to threaten him that she would never depart from his Altar till she had her Petition granted And God suffers this Impudency and more Prayer hath the nature of Violence In the publique Prayers of the Congregation we besiege God saies Tertul and we take God Prisoner and bring God to our Conditions and God is glad to be straitned by us in that siege This Prophet here executes before what the Apostle counsailes after Pray incessantly Even in his singing he prayes And as S. Basil saies Etiam somniajustorum preces sunt A Good mans dreames are Prayers he prayes and not sleepily in his sleepe so Davids Songs are Prayers Now in this his besieging of God he brings up his works from a far off closer He begins in this Psalme at a deprecatory Prayer He asks nothing but that God would doe nothing that he would forbeare him Rebuke me not Correct me not Now it costs the King lesse to give a Pardon then to give a Pension and lesse to give a Reprieve then to give a Pardon and lesse to Connive not to call in Question then either Reprieve Pardon or Pension To forbeare is not much But then as the Mathematician said That he could make an Engin a Screw that should move the whole frame of the World if he could have a place assigned him to fix that Engin that Screw upon that so it might worke upon the World so Prayer when one Petition hath taken hold upon God works upon God moves God prevailes with God entirely for all David then having got this ground this footing in God he brings his works closer he comes from the Deprecatory to a Postulatory Prayer not onely that God would doe nothing against him but that he would doe something for him God hath suffered man to see Arcana imperii The secrets of his State how he governs He governs by Precedent by precedents of his Predecessors he cannot He hath none by precedents of other Gods he cannot There are none And yet he proceeds by precedents by his owne Precedents He does as he did before Habenti dat To him that hath received hee gives more and is willing to bee wrought and prevailed upon and prest with his owne example And as though his doing good were but to learne how to do good better still he writes after his owne copy And Nulla dies sine linea He writes something to us that is hee doth something for us every day And then that which is not often seene in other Masters his Copies are better then the Originals his later mercies larger then his former And in this Postulatory Prayer larger then the Deprecatory enters our Text Returne O Lord Deliver my soule O save me c. David Divisio who every where remembers God of his Covenant as he was the God of Abraham remembers also how Abraham proceeded with God in the behalfe of Sodom And he remembers that when Abraham had gained upon God and brought him from a greater to a lesse number of righteous men for whose sakes God would have spared that City yet Abraham gave over asking before God gave over granting And so Sodom was lost A little more of S. Augustines Importunity of Nazi Impudence of Tertul violence in Prayer would have done well in Abraham If Abraham had come to a lesse price to lesse then ten God knowes what God would have done for God went not away saies the text there till he had left communing with Abraham that is till Abraham had no more to say to him In memory and contemplation of that David gives not over in this text till he come to the utter most of all as far as man can aske as far as God can give He begins at first with a Revertere Domine Returne O Lord and higher then that no man can begin no man can begin at a Veni Domine no man can pray to God to come till God be come into him Quid peto ut venias in me saies S. August Qui non essem si nonesses in me How should I pray that God would come into me who not onely could not have the Spirit of praying but not the Spirit of being not life it selfe if God were not in me already But then this prayer is that when God had been with him and for his sins or his coldnesse and slacknesse in prayer was departed aside from him yet he would vouchsafe to returne to him againe and restore to him that light of his countenance which he had before Revertere Domine O Lord returne And then he passes to his second petition Eripe animam Deliver my soule That when God in his returne saw those many and strong snares which entangled him those many and deepe tentations and tribulations which surrounded him God being in his mercy thus Returned and in his Providence seing this danger would not now stand neutrall betweene them and see him and these tentations fight it our but fight on his side and deliver him Eripe animam Deliver my soule And then by these two petitions hee makes way for the third and last which is the perfection and consummation of all as far as he can carry a Prayer or a Desire Salvum me fac O Lord save me that is Imprint in me a strong hope of Salvation in this life and invest me in an irremoveable possession in the life to come Lord I acknowledge that thou hast visited me heretofore and for my sins hast absented thy selfe O Lord returne Lord now thou art returned and seest me unable
glorified in those victories which we by his grace gaine over the Devill Nescit Diabolus quant a bona de illo fiunt etiam cum saevit August Little knowes the Devill how much good he does us when he tempts us for by that we are excited to have our present recourse to that God whom in our former security we neglected who gives us the issue with the tentation Ego novi quid apposuerim Idem I know what infirmities I I have submitted thee to and what I have laid and applied to thee Ego novi unde aegrotes ego novi unde saneris I know thy sicknesse and I know thy physick Sufficit tibi gratiamea Whatsoever the disease be my grace shall be sufficient to cure it For whether we understand that as S. Chrysostome does De gratia miraculorum That it is sufficient for any mans assurance in any tentation or tribulation to consider Gods miraculous deliverances of other men in the like cases or whether we understand it according to the generall voyce of the Interpreters that is Be content that there remaine in thy flesh Matter and Subject for me to produce glory from thy weaknesse and Matter and Subject for thee to exercise thy faith and allegeance to me still these words will carry an argument against the expedience of absolute praying against all tentations for still this Gratiamea sufficit will import this amount to this I have as many Antidotes as the Devill hath poisons I have as much mercy as the Devill hath malice There must be Scorpions in the world but the Scorpion shall cure the Scorpion there must be tentations but tentations shall adde to mine and to thy glory and Eripiam I will deliver thee This word is in the Originall Chalatz which signifies Eripere in such a sense as our language does not fully reach in any one word So there is some defectivenesse some slacknesse in this word of our Translation Delivering For it is such a Delivering as is a sudden catching hold and snatching at the soule of a man then when it is at the brink and edge of a sin So that if thy facility and that which thou wilt make shift to call Good Nature or Good Manners have put thee into the hands of that subtile woman that Solomon speaks of That is come forth to mect thee and seek thy face Prov. 7.10.15 If thou have followed her As an Oxe goeth to the slaughter and as a foole to the correction of the stocks Even then when the Axe is over thy head then when thou hast approacht so neare to destruction then is the season of this prayer Eripe me Domine Catch hold of me now O Lord Gen. 39.10 and Deliver my soule When Ioseph had resisted the tentations of his Masters Wife and resisted them the onely safe way not onely not to yeeld but as the Text sayes not to come in her company and yet she had found her opportunity when there was none in the house but they he came to an inward Eripe me Domine O Lord take hold of me now and she caught and God caught She caught his garment and God his soule She delivered him and God delivered him She to Prison and God from thence If thy curiosity or thy considence in thine owne spirituall strength carry thee into the house of Rimmon to Idolatry to a Masse trust not thou to Naamans request Ignoscat Dominus servo in bacre 2 Kings 5. That God will pardon thee as often as thou doest so but since thou hast done so now now come to this Eripe animam O Lord deliver my soule now from taking harme now and hereafter from exposing my selfe to the like harme For this is the purpose of Davids prayer in this signification of this word that howsoever infirmity or company or curiosity or confidence bring us within the distance and danger within the Spheare and Latitude of a tentation that though we be not lodged in Sodome yet we are in the Suburbs though we be not impailed in a sin yet we are within the purlues which is not safely done no more then it is in a State to trust alwaies to a Defensive Warre yet when we are ingaged and enthralled in such a tentation then though God be not delighted with our danger yet then is God most delighted to help us when we are in danger and then he comes not only to deliver us from that imminent and particular danger according to that signification of this word but according to that Interpretation of this word which the Septuagint have given it in the Prophet Esay Esay 58.11 Iachalitz Pinguefaciet He shall proceed in his worke and make fat thy soule That is Deliver thee now and preserve and establish thee after to the fulfilling of all that belongs to the last Petition of this prayer Salvum me fac O Lord save me Though he have been absent he shall Returne and being Returned shall not stand still nor stand Neutrall but deliver thee and having delivered thee shall not determine his love in that one act of mercy but shall Save thee that is Imprint in thee a holy confidence that his salvation is thine So then Salvum me fac Esay 19.20 in that manner is Gods Deliverance exprest They shall cry unto him till wee cry he takes no knowledge at all and then he sends to them there is his returning upon their cry and then He shall deliver them sayes that Prophet and so the two former Petitions of this prayer are answered but the Consummation and Establishment of all is in the third which followes in the same place He shall send them a Saviour and a great one Esay 62.11 But who is that what Saviour Doubtlesse he that is proclaimed by God in the same Prophet Behold the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world Behold thy salvation commeth For that word which that Prophet uses there and this word in which David presents this last Petition here is in both places Iashang and Iashang is the very word from which the name of Iesus is derived so that David desires here that salvation which Esay proclaimed there salvation in the Saviour of the world Christ Jesus and an interest in the assurance of his merits We finde this name of Saviour attributed to other men in the Scriptures then to Christ In particular distresses when God raised up men to deliver his people sometimes those men were so called Saviours And so S. Ierome interprets those words of the Prophet Ascendent salvatores Obad. 1.21 Saviours shall come up on Mount Sion of Prophets and Preachers and such other Instruments as God should raise for the salvation of soules Those whom in other places he calls Angels of the Church here he calls by that higher name Saviours But such a Saviour as is proclaimed to the ends of the world to all the world a Saviour in the Mountaines in the height
of presumptuous sins and a Saviour in the vallies in the dejection of inordinate melancholy too A Saviour of the East of rising and growing men and a Saviour of the West of withering declining languishing fortunes too A Saviour in the state of nature by having infused the knowledge of himselfe into some men then before the light and help of the Law was afforded to the world A Saviour in the state of the Law by having made to some men then even Types Accomplishments and Prophesies Histories And as himself Cals things that are not as though they were So he made those men see things that were not as though they were for so Abraham saw his day and rejoyced A Saviour in the state of the Gospel and so as that he saves some there for the fundamentall Gospels sake that is for standing fast in the fundamentall Articles thereof though they may have been darkned with some ignorances or may have strayed into some errors in some Circumstantiall points A Saviour of all the world of all the conditions in the world of all times through the world of all places of the world such a Saviour is no man called but Christ Jesus only For when it is said that Pharaoh called Ioseph Salvatorem mundi A Saviour of the world besides Gen. 41.45 that if it were so that which is called all the world can be referred but to that part of the world which was then under Pharaoh as when it is said that Augustus taxed the world that is intended De orbe Romano so much of the world as was under the Romanes there is a manifest error in that Translation which cals Ioseph so for that name which was given to Ioseph there in that language in which it was given doth truly signifie Revelatorem Secretorum and no more a Revealer a Discoverer a Decypherer of secret and mysterious things according to the occasion upon which that name was then given which was the Decyphering the Interpreting of Pharaohs Dreame Be this then thus establisht that David for our example considers and referres all salvation Psal 98.2 to salvation in Christ As he does also where he sayes after Notum fecit salutare tuum The Lord hath made known his salvation Quid est salutare tuum saies S. Basil Luke 2. What is the Lords salvation And he makes a safe answer out Simeons mouth Mine eyes have seene thy salvation when he had seen Christ Iesus This then is he which is not only Satvator populi sui The Saviour of his people the Jews to whom he hath betrothed himselfe In Pacto salis A Covenant of salt an everlasting Covenant Nor onely Salvator corporis sui The Saviour of his own body as the Apostle calls him of that body which he hath gathered from the Gentiles in the Christian Church Nor only Salvator mundi A Saviour of the world so as that which he did and suffered was sufficient in it selfe and was accepted by the Father for the salvation of the world but as Tertullian for the most part reads the word he was Salutificator not only a Saviour because God made him an instrument of salvation as though he had no interest in our salvation till in his flesh he died for us but he is Salutificator so the Author of this salvation as that from all eternity he was at the making of the Decree as well as in the fulnesse of time he was at the executing thereof In the work of our salvation if we consider the merit Christ was sole and alone no Father no Holy Ghost trod the Wine-presse with him And if in the work of our salvation we consider the mercy there though Christ were not sole and alone for that mercy in the Decree was the joynt-act of the whole Trinity yet even in that Christ was equall to the Father and the Holy Ghost So he is Salutificator the very Author of this salvation as that when it came to the act he and not they died for us and when it was in Councell he as well as they and as soone as they decreed it for us As therefore the Church of God scarce presents any petition any prayer to God but it is subscribed by Christ the Name of Christ is for the most part the end and the seale of all our Collects all our prayers in the Liturgy though they be but for temporall things for Plenty or Peace or Faire-weather are shut up so Grant this O Lord for our Lord and Saviour Christ Iesus sake So David for our example drives all his petitions in this Text to this Conclusion Salvum me fac O Lord save me that is apply that salvation Christ Jesus to me Now beloved you may know that your selves have a part in those means which God uses to that purpose your selves are instruments though not causes of your own salvation Salvus factus es pro nihilo non de nihilo tamen Bernard Thou bringest nothing for thy salvation yet something to thy salvation nothing worth it but yet somthing with it Thy new Creation by which thou art a new creature that is thy Regeneration is wrought as the first Creation was wrought God made heaven and earth of nothing but hee produced the other creatures out of that matter which he had made Thou hadst nothing to doe in the first work of thy Regeneration Thou couldst not so much as wish it But in all the rest thou art a fellow-worker with God because before that there are seeds of former grace shed in thee And therefore when thou commest to this last Petition Salvum me fac O Lord save me remember still that thou hast something to doe as well as to say that so thou maist have a comfortable answer in thy soule to the whole prayer Returne O Lord Deliver my soule and Save me And so we have done with our first Part which was the Prayer it selfe and the second which is the Reasons of the Prayer we must reserve for a second exercise SERM. LIII Preached upon the Penitentiall Psalmes PSAL. 6.4 5. Returne O Lord Deliver my soule O Lord save me for thy mercie sake For in Death there is no Remembrance of thee and in the Grave who shall give thee thanks WEE come now to the Reasons of these Petitions in Davids Prayer For as every Prayer must bee made with faith I must beleeve that God will grant my Prayer if it conduce to his glory and my good to doe so that is the limit of my faith so I must have reason to ground a likelyhood and a faire probability that that particular which I pray for doth conduce to his glory and my good and that therefore God is likely to grant it Davids first Reason here is grounded on God himselfe Propter misericordiam Doe it for thy mercy sake and in his second Reason though David himselfe and all men with him seeme to have a part yet at last we shall see the Reason it selfe to
consider the two termes in which it is expressed what this is which is translated Transgression and then what this Forgiving imports The Originall word is Pashang and that signifies sin in all extensions The highest the deepest the waightiest sin It is a malicious and a forcible opposition to God It is when this Herod and this Pilat this Body and this soule of ours are made friends and agreed that they may concurre to the Crucifying of Christ When not onely the members of our bodies but the faculties of our soul our will and understanding are bent upon sin when we doe not only sin strongly and hungerly and thirstily which appertain to the body but we sin rationally we finde reasons and those reasons even in Gods long patience why we should sin We sin wittily we invent new sins and we thinke it an ignorant a dull and an unsociable thing not to sin yea we sin wisely and make our sin our way to preferment Then is this word used by the Holy Ghost when he expresses both the vehemence and the waight and the largenesse and the continuance all extensions all dimensions of the sins of Damascus Amos 1.3 Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Damascus and for foure I will not turne to it because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of Iron So then we consider sin here not as a staine such as Originall sin may be nor as a wound such as every actuall sin may be but as a burden a complication a packing up of many sins in an habituall practise thereof This is that waight that sunke the whole world under water in the first floud and shall presse downe the fire it selfe to consume it a second time It is a waight that stupifies and benums him that beares it August so as that the sinner feeles not the oppression of his owne sins Et quid miserius miscro non miserante seipsum What misery can be greater then when a miserable man hath not sense to commiserate his owne misery Our first errors are out of Levity and S. Augustin hath taught us a proper ballast and waight for that Amor Dei pondus animae The love of God would carry us evenly and steadily if we would embarke that But as in great tradings they come to ballast with Merchandise ballast and fraight is al one so in this habituall sinner all is sin plots and preparations before the act gladnesse and glory in the act sometimes disguises sometimes justifications after the act make up one body one fraight of sin So then Transgression in this place in the naturall signification of the word is a waight a burden and carrying it as the word requires to the greatest extension it is the sin of the whole World And that sinne is forgiven which is the second Terme The Prophet does not say here Forgiven Blessed is that man that hath no transgression for that were to say Blessed is that man that is no man All people all Nations did ever in Nature acknowledge not onely a guiltinesse of sin but some meanes of reconciliation to their Gods in the Remission of sins for they had all some formall and Ceremoniall Sacrifices and Expiations and Lustrations by which they thought their sins to be purged and washed away Whosoever acknowledges a God acknowledges a Remission of sins and whosoever acknowledges a Remission of sins acknowledges a God And therefore in this first place David does not mention God at all he does not say Blessed is he whose transgression the Lord hath forgiven for he presumes it to be an impossible tentation to take hold of any man that there can be any Remission of sin from any other person or by any other meanes then from and by God himselfe and therefore Remission of sins includes an Act of God But what kinde of Act is more particularly designed in the Originall word which is Nasa then our word forgiving reaches to for the word does not onely signifie Auferre but ferre not onely to take away sin by way of pardon but to take the sin upon himselfe and so to beare the sin and the punishment of the sin in his owne person And so Christ is the Lambe of God Qui tollit not onely that takes away Esay 53.4 but that takes upon himselfe the sins of the world Tulit portavit Surely he hath borne our griefes and carried our sorrowes Those griefes those sorrowes which we should he hath borne and carried in his owne person So that as it is all one never to have come in debt and to have discharged the debt So the whole world all mankinde considered in Christ is as innocent as if Adam had never sinned And so this is the first beame of Blessednesse that shines upon my soule That I beleeve that the justice of God is fully satisfied in the death of Christ and that there is enough given and accepted in the treasure of his blood for the Remission of all Transgressions And then the second beame of this Blessednesse is in The covering of sins Now to benefit our selves by this part of Davids Catechisme Sinne. we must as we did before consider the two termes of which this part of this Blessednesse consists sin and covering Sin in this place is not so heavy a word as Transgression was in the former for that was sin in all extensions sinne in all formes all sin of all men of all times of all places the sin of all the world upon the shoulders of the Saviour of the world In this place the word is Catah and by the derivation thereof from Nata which is to Decline to step aside or to be withdrawne and Kut which is filum a thread or a line that which we call sin here signifies Transilire lineam To depart or by any tentation to be withdrawne from the direct duties and the exact straightnesse which is required of us in this world for the attaining of the next So that the word imports sins of infirmity such sins as doe fall upon Gods best servants such sins as rather induce a cofession of our weaknesse and an acknowledgement of our continuall need of pardon for some thing passed and strength against future invasions then that induce any devastation or obduration of the conscience which Transgression in the former branch implied For so this word Catah hath that signification as in many other places there where it is said Iudg â—â— 16 That there were seven hundred left-handed Benjamits which would sling stones at a haires breadth and not faile that is not misse the marke a haires breadth And therefore when this word Catah sin is used in Scripture to expresse any weighty hainous enormous sin it hath an addition Peccatum magnum peccaverunt sayes Moses Exod. 32.31 when the people were become Idolaters These people have sinned a great sin otherwise it signifies such sin as destroyes not the foundation such as in the nature
thereof does not wholly extinguish Grace nor grieve the Spirit of God in us And such sinnes God covers saies David here Now what is his way of covering these sins As Sin in this notion is not so deepe a wound upon God as Transgression in the other Covering so Covering here extends not so far as Forgiving did there There forgiving was a taking away of sin by taking that way That Christ should beare all our sins it was a suffering a dying it was a penall part and a part of Gods justice executed upon his one and onely Son here it is a part of Gods mercy in spreading and applying the merits and satisfaction of Christ upon all them whom God by the Holy Ghost hath gathered in the profession of Christ and so called to the apprehending and embracing of this mantle this garment this covering the righteousnesse of Christ in the Christian Christ In which Church and by his visible Ordinances therein the Word and Sacraments God covers hides conceales even from the inquisition of his owne justice those smaller sins which his servants commit and does not turne them out of his service for those sins So the word the word is Casah which we translate Covering is used Prov. 12.23 A wise man concealeth knowledge that is Does not pretend to know so much as indeed he does So our mercifull God when he sees us under this mantle this covering Christ spread upon his Church conceales his knowledge of our sins and suffers them not to reflect upon our consciences in a consternation thereof So then as the Forgiving was Auferre ferendo a taking away of sin by taking all sin upon his owne person So this Covering is Tegere attingendo To cover sin by comming to it by applying himselfe to our sinfull consciences in the meanes instituted by him in his Church for they have in that language another word Sacac which signifies Tegere obumbrando To cover by overshadowing by refreshing This is Tegere obumbrando To cover by shadowing when I defend mine eye from the offence of the Sun by interposing my hand betweene the Sun and mine eye at this distance a far off But Tegere attingendo is when thus I lay my hand upon mine eye and cover it close by that touching In the knowledge that Christ hath taken all the sins of all the world upon himselfe that there is enough done for the salvation of all mankinde I have a shadowing a refreshing But because I can have no testimony that this generall redemption belongs to me who am still a sinner except there passe some act betweene God and me some seale some investiture some acquittance of my debts my sins therefore this second beame of Davids Blessednesse in this his Catechisme shines upon me in this That God hath not onely sowed and planted herbs and Simples in the world medicinall for all diseases of the world but God hath gathered and prepared those Simples and presented them so prepared to me for my recovery from my disease God hath not onely received a full satisfaction for all sinne in Christ but Christ in his Ordinances in his Church offers me an application of all that for my selfe and covers my sin from the eye of his Father not onely obumbrando as hee hath spread himselfe as a Cloud refreshing the whole World in the value of the satisfaction but Attingendo by comming to me by spreading himself upon me as the Prophet did upon the dead Child Mouth to mouth Hand to hand In the mouth of his Minister he speaks to me In the hand of the Minister he delivers himselfe to me and so by these visible acts and seales of my Reconciliation Tegit attingendo He covers me by touching me He touches my conscience with a sense and remorse of my sins in his Word and he touches my soule with a faith of having received him and all the benefit of his Death in the Sacrament And so he covers sin that is keepes our sins of infirmity and all such sins as do not in their nature quench the light of his grace from comming into his Fathers presence or calling for vengeance there Forgiving of transgressions is the generall satisfaction for all the world and restoring the world to a possibility of salvation in the Death of Christ Covering of sin is the benefit of discharging and easing the conscience by those blessed helps which God hath afforded to those whom he hath gathered in the bosome and quickned in the wombe of the Christian Church And this is the second beame of Blessedness cast out by David here and then the third is The not imputing of iniquity Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity In this also Impute as in the two former we did we consider this Imputing and then this Iniquity in the roote and Original signification of the two words When in this place the Lord is said not to impute sinne it is meant That the Lord shall not suffer me to impute sinne to my selfe The word is Cashab and Cashab imports such a thinking such a surmising as may be subject to error and mistaking To that purpose we finde the word where Hannah was praying 1 Sam. 1.12 and Eli the Priest who saw her lips move and heard no prayer come from her thought she had been drunke Imputed drunkennesse unto her and said How long wilt thou be drunke put away thy wine So that this Imputing is such an Imputing of ours as may be erronious that is an Imputing from our selves in a diffidence and jealousie and suspition of Gods goodnesse towards us To which purpose we consider also that this word which we translate here Iniquity Gnavah is oftentimes in the Scripture used for punishment as well as for sinne and so indifferently for both as that if we will compare Translation with Translation and Exposition with Exposition it will be hard for us to say Gen. 4.13 whether Cain said Mine iniquity is greater then can be pardoned or My punishment is greater then I can beare and our last Translation which seems to have been most carefull of the Originall takes it rather so My punishment in the Text and lays the other My sinne aside in the Margin So then this Imputing being an Imputing which arises from our selves and so may be accompanied with error and mistaking that we Impute that to our selves which God doth not impute And this mis-imputing of Gods anger to our selves arising out of his punishments and his corrections inflicted upon us That because we have crosses in the world we cannot beleeve that we stand well in the sight of God or that the forgiving of Transgressions or Covering of sinnes appertains unto us we justly conceive that this not Imputing of Iniquity is that Serenitas Conscientiae That brightnesse that clearnesse that peace and tranquillity that calme and serenity that acquiescence and security of the Conscience in which I am delivered from all scruples and
even the second death sorrowes that flow into desperation and impenitiblenesse and impenitiblenesse is hell As the torment is an inchoative hell so is the person the Wicked here an inchoated Devill It is S. Chrysostoms spontaneus daemon and voluntarius daemon He that is a devill to himselfe that could be and would be ambitious in a Spittle licentious in a Wildernesse voluptuous in a Famine and abound with tentations in himselfe though there were no devill Most of the names of the devill in the Scripture denote some action of his upon us As he is called The Prince of the power of the Ayre there he is called so because as it is added there Ephes 2.2 Hee works in the children of disobedience As the ayre works upon our bodies this Prince of the Ayre works upon our minds how works he hee deceives Revel 12.9 Hee deceived the whole world saith S. Iohn from this infinuation hee hath those other names there the great Dragon and the old Serpent When hee hath crept in as a Serpent then hee growes A roaring Lyon He professes his power he disguises not a tentation then he growes Satan an Adversary an Enemy he opposes all good endeavors in us then he growes Diabolus an Accuser an accuser to God an accuser to our owne conscience and when he hath made our sinne as great as it can be in our practise when by age or sicknesse or poverty he cannot multiply our sinnes for the present then by his multiplying glasse he multiplies the sins of our former times and presents them greater then even the mercies of God or the merits of Christ Jesus So he growes in mischievous names according to his mischievous actions and practises upon us but then out of himselfe arises the most vehement and the most collective name that is given him in all the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that with the emphaticall article The wicked one One that is all wickednesse one that is the wickednesse of all One who if he had no object to direct his wickednesse upon no subject to exercise his wickednesse in If God should proclaime so generall a Pardon That all men All should effectually be saved and so all hope to have enlarged his Kingdome be withdrawne yet would still be as wicked and as opposite to God as he is So then by this character of Multiplicity Plurality this emphaticall note of the wicked in our Text the person whose portion this sorrow is this sorrow which is a brand of Hell at least a match by which Hell fire it selfe is kindled is not hee that is an Adulterer or that is a Murtherer not hee that hath fallen into some particular sinnes though great and continued those great sinnes in habits though long for David fell so and yet found a holy sorrow a medicinall sorrow but it is the wicked he that runnes headlong into all wayes of wickednesse and usque ad finem precludes or neglects all wayes of recovery That is glad of a tentation and afraid of a Sermon that is dry wood and tinder to Satans fire if he doe but touch him and is ashes it selfe to Gods Spirit if he blow upon him That from a love of sinne at first because it is pleasing comes at last to a love of sinne because it is sinne because it is liberty because it is a deliverance of himselfe from the bondage as he thinks it of the law of God and from the remorse and anguish of considering sinne too particularly This is the person in whom at first by this emphaticall note the wicked we designe a Plurality as we called it that is a Complicated a Multiplied a Compact sinner a Body rather a Carkasse of Many of All sins all that have fallen within his reach And then in the word we noted also a Singularity That upon such a sinner upon every such sinner these Many these Great these Eternall sorrowes shall fall and tarry As in the former Circumstance Singularity we noted that it was the They that aggravated it it was not an An an Adulterer an Ambitious man but a The The wicked whom God enwrapped in this irrecoverable this undeterminable sorrow so here it is not a This or That This wicked or that wicked man but The wicked every wicked man is surrounded with this sorrow He can propose no comfort in a decimation as in popular Rebellions where nine may be spared and the tenth man hanged No nor so much hope as to have nine hanged and the tenth spared He is not in Sodoms case That a few righteous might have saved the wicked Ezek. 14.20 But he feeles a necessity of applying to himselfe that If Noah Daniel and Iob were in the midst of them as I live saith the Lord God they should deliver neither Son August nor Daughter Iussisti Domine sic est ut poena sit sibi omnis inordinatus animus It is thy pleasure O God and thy pleasure shall be infallibly accomplished that every wicked person should be his owne Executioner He is Spontaneus Daemon as S. Chrysostome speaks an In-mate an in-nate Devill a bosome devill a selfe-Devill That as he could be a tempter to himselfe though there were no Devill so he could be an Executioner to himselfe though there were no Satan and a Hell to himselfe though there were no other Torment Sometimes he staies not the Assises but prevents the hand of Justice he destroies himselfe before his time But when he staies he is evermore condemned at the Assises Let him sleepe out as much of the morning as securelyas he can embellish and adorne himselfe as gloriously as he can dine as largely and as delicately as he can weare out as much of the afternoone in conversation in Comedies in pleasure as hee can sup with as much distension and inducement of drousinesse as he can that he may scape all remorse by falling asleepe quickly and fall asleepe with as much discourse and musicke and advantage as he can he hath a conscience that will survive and overwatch all the company he hath a sorrow that shall joyne issue with him when he is alone and both God and the devill who doe not meet willingly shall meet in his case and be in league and be one the sorrowes side against him The anger of God and the malice of the devill shall concurre with his sorrow to his farther vexation No one wicked person by any diversion or cunning shall avoid this sorrow for it is in the midst and in the end of all his forced contentments Prov. 14.13 Even in laughing the heart is sorrowfull and the end of that mirth is heavinesse The person is The wicked Communication Every wicked person He hath no reliefe in a decimation that some may scape Nor reliefe in the communication of the torment It is no ease to him that so many beare a part with him In some afflictions in the world men lay hold
hath made him filium Dei Luke 6.35 The Sonne of God 1 Joh. 3.9 2 Pet. 1.4 and Semen Dei The seed of God and Consortem divinae naturae Partaker of the divine Nature and Deos ipsos Gods themselves for Ille dixit Dii estis he hath said we are Gods So that as though the glory of heaven were too much for God alone God hath called up man thither in the ascension of his Sonne to partake thereof and as though one God were not enough for the administration of this world God hath multiplied gods here upon Earth and imparted communicated not onely his power to every Magistrate but the Divine nature to every sanctified man David asks that question with a holy wonder Quid est homo What is man that God is so mindfull of him But I may have his leave and the holy Ghosts to say since God is so mindfull of him since God hath set his minde upon him What is not man Man is all Since we consider men in the place that they hold and value them according to those places and aske not how they got thither when we see Man made The Love of the Father The Price of the Sonne The Temple of the Holy Ghost The Signet upon Gods hand The Apple of Gods eye Absolutely unconditionally we cannot annihilate man not evacuate not evaporate not extenuate man to the levity to the vanity to the nullity of this Text Surely men altogether high and low are lighter then vanity For man is not onely a contributary Creature but a totall Creature He does not onely make one but he is all He is not a piece of the world but the world it selfe and next to the glory of God the reason why there is a world But we must not determine this consideration here That man is something a great thing Quid home erga hominem a noble Creature if we refer him to his end to his interest in God to his reversion in heaven But when we consider man in his way man amongst men man is not nothing not unable to assist man not unfit to be relyed upon by man for even in that respect also God hath made Hominem homini Deum He hath made one man able to doe the offices of God to another in procuring his regeneration here and advancing his salvation hereafter Obad. 21. As he sayes Saviours shall come up on Mount Sion which is the Church Neither hath God determined that power of assisting others in the Character of Priesthood onely that the Priest should be a god that is doe the offices and the work of God to the people by delivering salvation unto them but he hath also made the Prince and the secular Magistrate a god that is able to doe the offices and the works of God not onely to the people but to the Priest himselfe to sustaine him yea and to countenance and favour and protect him too in the execution and exercise of his priestly office As we see in the first plantation of those two great Cedars The Secular and the Ecclesiasticall Power which that they might alwayes agree like brethren God planted at first in those two brethren Moses and Aaron There though Moses were the temporall and Aaron the spirituall Magistrate Exod. 7.1 yet God sayes to Moses I have made thee a God to Pharaoh but not onely to Pharaoh but Aaron thy brother shall be thy Prophet for as he had said before Thou shalt be to him in stead of a God Exod. 4.16 So usefull so necessary is man to man as that the Priest who is of God incorporated in God subsists also by man for Isidor Principes hujus seculi rationem reddituri sunt The Princes of this world must give God an account Propter Ecclesiam quam à Christo tuendam susceperunt for that Church which Christ hath committed to their protection In spirituall difficulties and for spirituall duties God sends us to the Priest but to such a Priest as is a man and as our comfort is expressed A Priest which was touched with the feeling of our infirmities Heb. 4.15 and was in all points tempted like as we are for the businesses of this world Rights and Titles and Proprieties Deut. 16.18 and Possessions God sends us still to the Judge Iudges and officers shalt thou make in all thy gates Judges to try between man and man And the sword in battaile tryes between State and State Prince and Prince And therefore God commands and directs the levying of men to that purpose in many places of the history of his people Judg. 6. particularly God appoints Gideon to take a certaine proportion of the army a certaine number of Souldiers Exod. 32.26 And in another place there goes out a presse for Souldiers from Moses mouth He presses them upon their holy allegeance to God when he sayes Who is on the Lords side let him come unto me So in infirmities in sicknesses of the body Jer. 8.22 we aske with the Prophet Is there no balme in Gilead Is there no Physitian there God does not reprove Asa for seeking of helpe of the Physitians 2 Chro. 16.12 but the increpation lyes onely upon this That he sought to the Physitian and not to the Lord. God sends man to the Priest to the Prince to the Judge to the Physitian to the Souldier and so in other places to the Merchant and to cunning Artificers as in the building of the Temple that all that man needs might be communicated to man by man So that still simply absolutely unconditionally we cannot say Surely men men altogether high or low or meane all are lesse then vanity And surely they that pervert and detort such words as these to such a use and argue from thence Man is nothing no more then a worme or a fly and therefore what needs this solemne consideration of mans actions it is all one what he does for all his actions and himselfe too are nothing They doe this but to justifie or excuse their own lazinesse in this world in passing on their time without taking any Calling embracing any profession contributing any thing to the spirituall edification or temporall sustentation of other men But take the words as the Holy Ghost intends them comparatively what man compared with God or what man considered without God can doe any thing for others or for himselfe When the Apostle sayes That all the world is but dung when the Prophet sayes Phil. 3.8 Esay 40.15 2 Cor. 12.11 1 Cor. 1.21 That all the Nations of the world are lesse then nothing when the Apostle sayes even of himselfe that he is nothing all this is nothing in comparison of that expression in the same Apostle That even the preaching of the Gospel is foolishnesse That that which is the favour of life unto life Gods owne Ordinance Preaching is but foolishnesse Let it be a Paul that plants and an Apollo that
3.7 It is not onely Iob that complains That he was a burden to himselfe but even Absaloms haire was a burden to him till it was polled It is not onely Ieremy that complains Aggravavit compedes That God had made their fetters and their chains heavy to them but the workmen in harvest complaine That God had made a faire day heavy unto them Mat. 20.12 Pro. 27.3 We have borne the heat and the burden of the day Sand is heavy sayes Solomon And how many suffer so under a sand-hill of crosses daily hourely afflictions that are heavy by their number if not by their single waight And a stone is heavy sayes he in the same place And how many suffer so How many without any former preparatory crosse or comminatory or commonitory crosse even in the midst of prosperity and security fall under some one stone some grind-stone some mil-stone some one insupportable crosse that ruines them But then sayes Solomon there A fooles anger is heavier then both And how many children and servants and wives suffer under the anger and morosity and peevishnesse and jealousie of foolish Masters and Parents and Husbands though they must not say so David and Solomon have cryed out That all this world is vanity and levity And God knowes all is waight and burden and heavinesse and oppression And if there were not a waight of future glory to counterpoyse it we should all sinke into nothing I aske not Mary Magdalen whether lightnesse were not a burden for sin is certainly sensibly a burden But I aske Susanna whether even chast beauty were not a burden to her And I aske Ioseph whether personall comelinesse were not a burden to him I aske not Dives who perished in the next world the question but I aske them who are made examples of Solomons Rule Eccles 5.13 of that sore evill as he calls it Riches kept to the owners thereof for their hurt whether Riches be not a burden All our life is a continuall burden yet we must not groane A continuall squeasing yet we must not pant And as in the tendernesse of our childhood we suffer and yet are whipt if we cry so we are complained of if we complaine and made delinquents if we call the times ill And that which addes waight to waight and multiplies the sadnesse of this consideration is this That still the best men have had most laid upon them As soone as I heare God say that he hath found an upright man that feares God and eschews evill in the next lines I finde a Commission to Satan to bring in Sabeans and Chaldeans upon his cattell and servants and fire and tempest upon his children and loathsome diseases upon himselfe As soone as I heare God say That he hath found a man according to his own heart I see his sonnes ravish his daughters and then murder one another Mat. 3.17 and then rebell against the Father and put him into straites for his life As soone as I heare God testifie of Christ at his Baptisme This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased I finde that Sonne of his led up by the Spirit to be tempted of the Devill Matt. 4.1 Matt. 17.5 And after I heare God ratifie the same testimony againe at his Transfiguration This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased I finde that beloved Sonne of his deserted abandoned and given over to Scribes and Pharisees and Publicans and Herodians and Priests and Souldiers and people and Judges and witnesses and executioners and he that was called the beloved Sonne of God and made partaker of the glory of heaven in this world in his Transfiguration is made now the Sewer of all the corruption of all the sinnes of this world as no Sonne of God but a meere man as no man but a contemptible worme As though the greatest weaknesse in this world were man and the greatest fault in man were to be good man is more miserable then other creatures and good men more miserable then any other men But then there is Pondus Gloriae An exceeding waight of eternall glory Afflictio spiritualis and that turnes the scale for as it makes all worldly prosperity as dung so it makes all worldly adversity as feathers And so it had need for in the scale against it there are not onely put temporall afflictions but spirituall too And to these two kinds we may accommodate those words He that fals upon this stone upon temporall afflictions may be bruised Matt. 21.44 broken But he upon whom that stone falls spirituall afflictions is in danger to be ground to powder And then the great and yet ordinary danger is That these spirituall afflictions grow out of temporall Murmuring and diffidence in God and obduration out of worldly calamities And so against nature the fruit is greater and heavier then the Tree spirituall heavier then temporall afflictions They who write of Naturall story propose that Plant for the greatest wonder in nature Plin. l. 27.11 Lithospermus which being no firmer then a bull-rush or a reed produces and beares for the fruit thereof no other but an intire and very hard stone That temporall affliction should produce spirituall stoninesse and obduration is unnaturall yet ordinary Therefore doth God propose it as one of those greatest blessings which he multiplies upon his people I will take away your stony hearts and give you hearts of flesh And Ezek. 11.19 36.26 Plin. Plutar. Lord let mee have a fleshly heart in any sense rather then a stony heart Wee finde mention amongst the observers of rarities in Nature of hairy hearts hearts of men that have beene overgrowne with haire but of petrified hearts hearts of men growne into stone we read not for this petrefaction of the heart this stupefaction of a man is the last blow of Gods hand upon the heart of man in this world Revel 16. Those great afflictions which are powred out of the Vials of the seven Angels upon the world are still accompanied with that heavy effect that that affliction hardned them They were scorched with heats and plagues by the fourth Angel and it followes They blasphemed the name of God and repented not ver 9. to give him glory Darknesse was induced upon them by the fift Angel and it followes ver 11. They blasphemed the God of heaven and repented not of their deeds And from the seventh Angel there fell hailestones of the waight of talents ver 29. perchance foure pound waight upon men And yet these men had so much life left as to blaspheme God out of that respect which alone should have brought them to glorifie God Because the plague thereof was exceeding great And when a great plague brings them to blaspheme how great shall that second plague be that comes upon them for blaspheming Let me wither and weare out mine age in a discomfortable in an unwholesome in a penurious prison and
in that Church had charged the Jewes That they had rased that clause out of the Hebrew Leo Castr and that it was in the Hebrew at first A learned and a laborious Jesuit for truely Lorinus Schooles may confesse the Jesuits to bee learned for they have assisted there and States and Councell-tables may confesse the Jesuits to be laborious for they have troubled them there hee I say after he hath chidden his fellow for saying That this word had ever been in the Hebrew or was razed out from thence by the Jewes concludes roundly Vndecunque advenerit Howsoever those Additions which are not in the Hebrew came into our Translation Authoritatem habent retineri debent Their very being there gives them Authentikenesse and Authority and there they must be That this in the Title of this Psalme be there wee are content as long as you know that this particular That this Psalme by the Title thereof concerns the Resurrection is not in the Originall but added by some Expositor of the Psalmes you may take knowledge too That that addition hath beene accepted and followed by many and ancient and reverend Expositors almost all of the Easterne and many of the Westerne Church too and therefore for our use and accommodation may well be accepted by us also We consider ordinarily three Resurrections A spirituall Resurrection a Resurrection from sinne by Grace in the Church A temporall Resurrection a Resurrection from trouble and calamity in the world And an eternall Resurrection a Resurrection after which no part of man shall die or suffer againe the Resurrection into Glory Of the first The Resurrection from sinne Esay 60.1 is that intended in Esay Arise and shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee Of the later Resurrection is that harmonious straine of all the Apostles in their Creed intended I beleeve the Resurrection of the body And of the third Resurrection from oppressions and calamities which the servants of God suffer in this life Calvin Iob 19.26 Ezek. 37. some of our later men understand that place of Iob I know that my Redeemer liveth and that in my flesh I shall see God And that place of Ezekiel all understand of that Resurrection where God saith to the Prophet Sonne of man can these bones live Can these men thus ruined thus dispersed bee restored againe by a resurrection in this world And to this resurrection from the pressures and tribulations of this life doe those Interpreters who interpret this Psalme of a Resurrection refer this our Text Say unto God How terrible art thou in thy works Through the greatnesse of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee Consider how powerfully God hath and you cannot doubt but that God will give them a Resurrection in this world who rely upon him and use his meanes whensoever any calamity hath dejected them ruined them scattered them in the eyes of men Say unto the Lord That he hath done it and the Lord will say unto thee that he will doe it againe and againe for thee We call Noah Divisio Ianus because hee had two faces in this respect That hee looked into the former and into the later world he saw the times before and after the flood David in this Text is a Ianus too He looks two wayes he hath a Prospect and a Retrospect he looks backward and forward what God had done and what God would doe For as we have one great comfort in this That Prophecies are become Histories that whatsoever was said by the mouthes of the Prophets concerning our salvation in Christ is effected so prophecies are made histories so have wee another comfort in this Text That Histories are made Prophecies That whatsoever we reade that God had formerly done in the reliefe of his oppressed servants wee are thereby assured that he can that he will doe them againe and so Histories are made Prophecies And upon these two pillars A thankfull acknowledgement of that which God hath done And a faithfull assurance that God will doe so againe shall this present Exercise of your devotions be raysed And these are our two parts Dicite Deo Say unto God How terrible art thou in thy works that part is Historicall of things past In multitudine virtutis In the greatnesse of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee that part is Propheticall of things to come In the History wee are to turne many leafes and many in the Prophecy too to passe many steps to put out many branches in each In the first these Dicite say ye where we consider first The Person that enjoyns this publike acknowledgement and thanksgiving It is David and David as a King for to Him to the King the ordering of publike actions even in the service of God appertains David David the King speaks this by way of counsell and perswasion and concurrence to all the world for so in the beginning and in some other passages of the Psalme it is Omnis terra All yee lands Verse 1. and All the earth Verse 4. David doth what he can that all the world might concurre in one manner of serving God By way of Assistance he extends to all And by way of Injunction and commandement to all his to all that are under his government Dicite say you that is you shall say you shall serve God thus And as he gives counsell to all and gives lawes to all his subjects so he submits himselfe to the same law For as wee shall see in some parts of the Psalme to which the Text refers he professes in his particular that he will say and doe Iosh 24.15 whatsoever hee bids them doe and say My house shall serve the Lord sayes Ioshua But it is Ego domus mea I and my house himselfe would serve God aright too From such a consideration of the persons in the Historicall part wee shall passe to the commandement to the duty it selfe That is first Dicite say It is more then Cogitate to Consider Gods former goodnesse more then Admirari to Admire Gods former goodnesse speculations and extasies are not sufficient services of God Dicite Say unto God Declare manifest publish your zeale is more then Cogitate Consider it thinke of it but it is lesse then Facite To come to action wee must declare our thankfull zeale to Gods cause we must not modifie not disguise that But for the particular wayes of promoving and advancing that cause in matter of action we must refer that to them to whom God hath referred it The Duty is a Commemoration of Benefits Dicite Speake of it ascribe it attribute it to the right Author Who is that That is the next Consideration Dicite Deo Say unto God Non vobis Not to your owne Wisdome or Power Non Sanctis Not to the care and protection of Saints or Angels Sed nomini ejus da gloriam Onely unto his name be
him but his hinder parts Exod. 33.23 Let that be his Decrees then when in his due time they came to execution for then and not till then they are works And God would not suffer Moses his body to be seene when it was dead Deut. 34.6 because then it could not speake to them it could not instruct them it could not direct them in any duty if they transgressed from any God himselfe would not be spoken to by us but as hee speaks of himselfe and he speaks in his works And as among men some may Build and some may Write and wee call both by one name wee call his Buildings and wee call his Books his Works so if wee will speake of God this World which he hath built and these Scriptures which he hath written are his Works and we speak of God in his Works which is the commandement of this Text when we speak of him so as he hath manifested himselfe in his miracles and as hee hath declared himselfe in his Scriptures for both these are his Works There are Decrees in God but we can take out no Copies of them till God himselfe exemplifie them in the execution of them The accomplishing of the Decree is the best publishing the best notifying of the Decree But of his Works we can take Copies for his Scriptures are his Works and we have them by Translations and Illustrations made appliable to every understanding All the promises of his Scriptures belong to all And for his Miracles his Miracles are also his Works we have an assurance That whatsoever God hath done for any he will doe againe for us It is then his Works upon which we fix this Commemoration Deutipse in operibus illis considerandus and this glorifying of God but so as that wee determine not upon the Work it selfe but God in the Work Say unto God to Him how terrible art thou that God in thy Works It may bee of use to you to receive this note Then when it is said in this Psalme Come and see the Works of God and after Come and heare all yee that feare God in both places it is not Psal 66.5 Verse 16. Venite but Ite It is Lechu not Come but Goe Goe out Goe forth abroad to consider God in his Works Goe as farre as you can stop not in your selves nor stop not in any other till you come to God himselfe If you consider the Scriptures to be his Works make not Scriptures of your owne which you doe if you make them subject to your private interpretation My soule speaks in my tongue else I could make no sound My tongue speaks in English else I should not be understood by the Congregation So God speaks by his Sonne in the Gospel but then the Gospel speaks in the Church that every man may heare Ite goe forth stay not in your selves if you will heare him And so for matter of Action and Protection come not home to your selves stay not in your selves not in a considence in your owne power and wisedome but Ite goe forth goe forth into Aegypt goe forth into Babylon and look who delivered your Predecessors predecessors in Affliction predecessors in Mercy and that God who is Yesterday Heb. 13.8 and to day and the same for ever shall doe the same things which he did yesterday to day and for ever Turne alwayes to the Commemoration of Works but not your owne Ite goe forth goe farther then that Then your selves farther then the Angels and Saints in heaven That when you commemorate your deliverance from an Invasion and your deliverance from the Vault you doe not ascribe these deliverances to those Saints upon whose dayes they were wrought In all your Commemorations and commemorations are prayers and God receives that which wee offer for a Thanksgiving for former Benefits as a prayer for future Ite goe forth by the river to the spring by the branch to the root by the worke to God himselfe and Dicite say unto him say of him Quam terribilis Tu in Tuis which sets us upon another step in this part To consider what this Terriblenesse is that God expresses in his works Though there be a difference between timer and terror Terribilis feare and terror yet the difference is not so great but that both may fall upon a good man Not onely a feare of God must but a terror of God may fall upon the Best When God talked with Abraham a horror of great darknesse fell upon him Gen. 15.12 sayes that Text. The Father of lights and the God of all comfort present and present in an action of Mercy and yet a horror of great darknesse fell upon Abraham When God talked personally and presentially with Moses Exod. 13.6 Moses hid his face for sayes that Text he was afraid to looke upon God When I look upon God as I am bid to doe in this Text in those terrible Judgements which he hath executed upon some men and see that there is nothing between mee and the same Judgement for I have sinned the same sinnes and God is the same God I am not able of my selfe to dye that glasse that spectacle thorow which I looke upon this God in what colour I will whether this glasse shall be black through my despaire and so I shall see God in the cloud of my sinnes or red in the blood of Christ Jesus and I shall see God in a Bath of the blood of his Sonne whether I shall see God as a Dove with an Olive branch peace to my soule or as an Eagle a vulture to prey and to prey everlastingly upon mee whether in the deepe floods of Tribulation spirituall or temporall I shall see God as an Arke to take mee in or as a Whale to swallow mee and if his Whale doe swallow mee the Tribulation devour me whether his purpose bee to restore mee or to consume me I I of my selfe cannot tell I cannot look upon God in what line I will nor take hold of God by what handle I will Hee is a terrible God I take him so And then I cannot discontinue I cannot breake off this terriblenesse and say Hee hath beene terrible to that man and there is an end of his terror it reaches not to me Why not to me In me there is no merit nor shadow of merit In God there is no change nor shadow of change I am the same sinner he is the same God still the same desperate sinner still the same terrible God But terrible in his works Reverendus sayes our Text Terrible so as hee hath declared himselfe to be in his works His Works are as we said before his Actions and his Scriptures In his Actions we see him Terrible upon disobedient Resisters of his Graces and Despisers of the meanes thereof not upon others wee have no examples of that In his word we accept this word in which he hath beene pleased to
say That whatsoever the world doth justly looke for at our hands wee may justly look for at Gods hands Those outward meanes which are requisite for the performance of the duties of your calling to the world arising from your birth or arising from your place you are to pray for you are to labour for For that is Sufficientia tua so much is sufficient for you and so much Honey you may eat but eat no more sayes the Text Ne satieris Lest you be filled Hee doth not say yet Ne satieris lest thou bee satisfied there is no great feare nay there is no hope of that that he will be satisfied We know the receipt the capacity of the ventricle the stomach of man how much it can hold and wee know the receipt of all the receptacles of blood how much blood the body can have so wee doe of all the other conduits and cisterns of the body But this infinite Hive of honey this insatiable whirlpoole of the covetous mind no Anatomy no dissection hath discovered to us When I looke into the larders and cellars and vaults into the vessels of our body for drink for blood for urine they are pottles and gallons when I looke into the furnaces of our spirits the ventricles of the heart and of the braine they are not thimbles for spirituall things the things of the next world we have no roome for temporall things the things of this world we have no bounds How then shall this over-eater bee filled with his honey So filled as that he can receive nothing else More of the same honey hee can Another Mannor and another Church is but another bit of meat with another sauce to him Another Office and another way of Extortion is but another garment and another lace to him But he is too full to receive any thing else Christ comes to this Bethlem Bethlem which is Domus panis this house of abundance and there is no roome for Christ in this Inne there are no crums for Christ under this table There comes Boanerges Boanerges that is filius Tonitrui the sonne of Thunder and he thunders out the Vae's the Comminations the Judgements of God upon such as hee but if the Thunder spoile not his drink he sees no harme in Thunder As long as a Sermon is not a Sentence in the Starre-chamber that a Sermon cannot fine and imprison him hee hath no roome for any good effect of a Sermon The Holy Ghost the Spirit of Comfort comes to him and offers him the consolation of the Gospel but hee will die in his old religion which is to sacrifice to his owne Nets by which his portion is plenteous he had rather have the God of the Old Testament that payes in this world with milke and honey then the God of the New Testament that cals him into his Vineyard in this World and payes him no wages till the next one Iupiter is worth all the three Elohims or the three Iehovahs if we may speake so to him Iupiter that can come in a showre of gold out waighs Iehova that comes but in a showre of water but in a sprinkling of water in Baptisme and sels that water so deare as that he will have showres of teares for it nay showres of blood for it when any Persecutor hath a mind to call for it The voyce of God whom he hath contemned and wounded The voyce of the Preacher whom he hath derided and impoverished The voyce of the poore of the Widow of the Orphans of the prisoner whom he hath oppressed knocke at his doore and would enter but there is no roome for them he is so full This is the great danger indeed that accompanies this fulnesse but the danger that affects him more is that which is more literally in the text Evomet he shall be so filled as that he shall vomit even that fulnesse those temporall things which he had he shall cast up It is not a vomiting for his ease that he would vomit but he shall vomit Evomas he shall bee forced to vomit He hath swallowed downe riches and he shall vomit them up againe Iob 20.15 God shall cast them out of his belly But by what hand whether by his right hand by the true way of justice or his left hand by malice under colour of justice his money shall be his Antimony his own riches shall be his vomit Solomon sayes he saw a sore evill under the Sun Eccles 5.22 but if he had lived as long as the Sun he might have seen it every course of the Sun Riches reserved to their owners for their own hurt Richmen perish that should not have perished or not so soone or not so absolutely if they had not beene rich Their confidence in their riches provokes them to some unjustifiable actions and their riches provoke others to a vehement persecution And in this vomit of theirs if we had time to doe so we would consider first The sordidnesse and the contempt and scorne that this evacuated Man comes to in the world when he hath had this vomit of all his honey That because there can be no vacuity he shall be filled againe but Saturabitur ignominia Habak 2.16 He shall be filled with shame for glory and shamefull spuing shall be upon his glory Ier. 48.26 He magnified himselfe against the Lord and therefore was made drunk and shall wallow in his vomit and be had in derision His honey was his soule and that being vomited he is now but a rotten and abhorred carkass At best he was but a bag of money and now he is but the bag it selfe which scarce any man will stoop to take up And as in a vomit in a bason the Physitian is able to shew the world what cold meat and what raw meat and what hard and indigestible meat he had eaten So when such a person comes by justice or malice to this vomit every man becomes a Physitian every man brings Inditements and evidence against him and can shew all his falshoods and all his extortions in particular In these particulars we would consider the scorne upon this vomit and then the danger of it in these That nothing weakens the eyes more then vomiting when this worldly man hath lost his honey he hath lost his sight he was dimme sighted at beginning when he could see nothing but worldly things things nearest to him but when he hath vomited thē he hath lost his spectacles through his riches he saw some glimmering some colour of comfort now he sees no comfort at all And a greater danger in vomiting is that often times it breakes a veine within and that is most commonly incurable This man that vomits without bleeds within his fortune is broke and his heart is broke and he bleeds better blood then his owne he bleeds out the blood of Christ Jesus himselfe the blood of Christ Jesus poured into him heretofore in the consolation of the Gospel
they had cast their nets often and caught nothing nor because it was uncertaine how the Market would goe when they had catched A man must not be an ill Prophet upon his own labours nor bewitch them with a suspition that they will not prosper It is the slothfull man that sayes A Lion in the way A Lion in the street Cast thou thy net into the Sea Prov. 26.13 and God shall drive fish into thy net undertake a lawfull Calling and clogge not thy calling with murmuring nor with an ill conscience and God shall give thee increase and worship in it They cast their nets into the Sea for they were fishers it was their Calling and they were bound to labour in that And then this For hath another aspect lookes another way too 2. Quia piscatores and implies another Instruction They cast their nets into the Sea for they were fishers that is if they had not beene fishers they would not have done it Intrusion into other mens callings is an unjust usurpation and if it take away their profit it is a theft If it be but a censuring of them in their calling yet it is a calumny because it is not in the right way if it be extrajudiciall To lay an aspersion upon any man who is not under our charge though that which we say of him be true yet it is a calumny and a degree of libelling if it be not done judiciarily and where it may receive redresse and remedy And yet how forward are men that are not fishers in that Sea to censure State Councels and Judiciary proceedings Every man is an Absolom to say to every man Your cause is good 2 Sam. 15.3 but the King hath appointed none to heare it Money brings them in favour brings them in it is not the King or if it must be said to be the King yet it is the affection of the King and not his judgement the King misled not rightly informed say our seditious Absoloms and Ver. 4. Oh that I were made Iudge in the land that every man might come unto me and I would doe him justice is the charme that Absolom hath taught every man They cast their nets into a deeper Sea then this and where they are much lesse fishers into the secret Councels of God It is well provided by your Lawes that Divines and Ecclesiasticall persons may not take farmes nor buy nor sell for returne in Markets I would it were as well provided that buyers and sellers and farmers might not be Divines nor censure them I speake not of censuring our lives please your selves with that till God bee pleased to mend us by that thought that way of whispering calumny be not the right way to that amendment But I speak of censuring our Doctrines and of appointing our doctrines when men are weary of hearing any other thing then Election and Reprobation and whom and when and how and why God hath chosen or cast away We have liberty enough by your Law to hold enough for the maintenance of our bodies and states you have liberty enough by our Law to know enough for the salvation of your soules If you will search farther into Gods eternall Decrees and unrevealed Councels you should not cast your nets into that Sea for you are not fishers there Andrew and Peter cast their nets for they were fishers therefore they were bound to do it And againe for they were fishers if they had not been so they would not have done so These persons then thus disposed Duo simul unfit of themselves made fit by him and found by him at their labour labour in a lawfull Calling and in their owne Calling our Saviour Christ cals to him And he called them by couples by paires two together So he called his Creatures into the world at the first Creation by paires So he called them into the Arke for the reparation of the world by paires two and two God loves not singularity The very name of Church implies company It is Concio Congregatio Coetus It is a Congregation a Meeting an assembly It is not any one man neither can the Church be preserved in one man And therefore it hath beene dangerously said though they confesse it to have beene said by many of their greatest Divines in the Roman Church that during the time that our blessed Saviour lay dead in the grave there was no faith left upon the earth but onely in the Virgin Mary for then there was no Church God hath manifested his will in two Testaments and though he have abridged and contracted the doctrine of both in a narrow roome yet he hath digested it into two Commandements Love God love thy neighbour There is but one Church that is true but one but that one Church cannot be in any one man There is but one Baptisme that is also true but one But no man can Baptize himselfe there must be Sacerdos competens as our old Canons speake a person to receive and a Priest to give Baptisme There is but one faith in the remission of sins that is true too but one But no man can absolve himselfe There must be a Priest and a penitent God cals no man so but that he cals him to the knowledge that he hath called more then him to that Church or else it is an illusory and imaginary calling and a dreame Take heed therefore of being seduced to that Church that is in one man In scrinio pectoris where all infallibility and assured resolution is in the breast of one man who as their owne Authors say is not bound to aske the counsell of others before nor to follow their counsell after And since the Church cannot be in one in an unity take heed of bringing it too neare that unity to a paucity to a few to a separation to a Conventicle The Church loves the name of Catholique and it is a glorious and an harmonious name Love thou those things wherein she is Catholique and wherein she is harmonious that is Lyrinen Quod ubique quod semper Those universall and fundamentall doctrines which in all Christian ages and in all Christian Churches have beene agreed by all to be necessary to salvation and then thou art a true Catholique Otherwise that is without relation to this Catholique and universall doctrine to call a particular Church Catholique that she should be Catholique that is universall in dominion but not in doctrine is such a solecisme as to speak of a white blacknesse or a great littlenesse A particular Church to be universall implies such a contradiction Christ loves not singularity Duo fratres he called not one alone He loves not schisme neither between them whom he cals therefore he cals persons likely to agree two brethren He saw two brethren Peter and Andrew c. So he began to build the Synagogues to establish that first government in Moses and Aaron brethren So he begins to
would be rightly understood that is that I speake of such poverty as is contracted by our owne lazinesse or wastfulnesse For otherwise poverty that comes from the hand of God is as rich a blessing as comes from his hand He that is poore with a good conscience that hath laboured and yet not prospered knows to whom to go Psal 4.7 and what to say Lord thou hast put gladnesse into my heart more then in the time when corne and wine increased more now then when I had more I will lay me downe and sleepe for thou Lord onely makest me to dwell in safety Does every rich man dwell in safety Can every rich man lye downe in peace and sleepe no nor every poore man neither but he that is poore with a good conscience can And though he that is rich with a good conscience may in a good measure do so too sleepe in peace yet not so out of the spheare and latitude of envy and free from the machinations and supplantations and underminings of malicious men that feed upon the confiscations and build upon the ruines of others as the poore man is Though then S. Chrysostome call riches Absurditatis parentes the parents of absurdities That they make us doe not onely ungodly but inhumane things not onely irreligious but unreasonable things uncomely and absurd things things which we our selves did not suspect that we could be drawne to yet there is a growing rich which is not covetousnesse and there is a desire of honor and preferment which is not Pride For Pride is as we said before Appetitus perversus A perverse and inordinate desire but there is a defire of honor and preferment regulated by rectified Reason and rectified Reason is Religion And therefore as we said how ever other affections of man may and are by the Holy Ghost in Scriptures in some respects ascribed to God yet never Pride Nay the Holy Ghost himselfe seemes to be straitned and in a difficulty when he comes to expresse Gods proceedings with a proud man and his detestation of him and aversion from him There is a considerable a remarkable indeed a singular manner of expressing it perchance you finde not the like in all the Bible where God sayes Psal 101.5 Hini that hath a high looke and a proud heart I will not in our last I cannot in our former translation Not what Not as it is in those translations I cannot suffer him I will not suffer him for that word of Suffering is but a voluntary word supplied by the Translators In the Originall it is as it were an abrupt breaking off on Gods part from the proud man and if we may so speake a kinde of froward departing from him God does not say of the proud man I cannot worke upon him I cannot mend him I cannot pardon him I cannot suffer him I cannot stay with him but meerly I cannot and no more I cannot tell what to say of him what to doe for him Him that hath a proud heart I cannot Pride is so contrary to God as that the proud man and he can meet in nothing And this consideration hath kept us thus long from that which we made our first and principall collection That this commandment of Humility was imprinted in our very first word Sequere follow be content to come after to denote how early and primary a sin Pride is and how soone it entred into the world and how soone into us and that consideration we shall pursue now We know that light is Gods eldest childe his first borne of all Creatures Superbia in Angelis and it is ordinarily received that the Angels are twins with the light made then when light was made And then the first act that these Angels that fell did was an act of Pride They not thanke nor praise God for their Creation which should have been their first act They did not solicite nor pray to God for their Sustentation their Melioration their Confirmation so they should have proceede But the first act that those first Creatures did was an act of pride a proud reflecting upon themselves a proud overvaluing of their own condition and an acquiescence in that in an imaginary possibility of standing by themselves without any farther relation or beholdingnesse to God So early so primary a sin is Pride as that it was the first act of the first of Creatures So early so primary a sin as that whereas all Pride now is but a comparative pride Superbia positiva this first pride in the Angels was a positive a radicall pride The Pharisee is but proud that he is not as other men are that is but a comparative pride Luk. 18.11 No King thinks himselfe great enough yet he is proud that he is independant soveraigne subject to none No subject thinks himselfe rich enough yet he is proud that he is able to oppresse others that are poorer Et gloriatur in malo quia potens est He boasteth himselfe in mischiefe Psal 52.1 because he is a mighty man But all these are but comparative prides and there must be some subjects to compare with before a King can be proud and some inferiors before the Magistrate and some poore before the rich man can be proud But this pride in those Angels in heaven was a positive pride There were no other Creatures yet made with whom these Angels could compare themselves and before whom these Angels could prefer themselves and yet before there was any other creature but themselves any other creature to undervalue or insult over these Angels were proud of themselves So early so primary a sin is Pride So early so primary as that in that ground which was for goodnesse next to heaven Superbia in Paradiso that is Paradise Pride grew very early too Adams first act was not an act of Pride but an act of lawfull power and jurisdiction in naming the Creatures Adam was above them all and he might have called them what he would There had lyen no action no appeale if Adam had called a Lyon a Dog or an Eagle an Owle And yet we dispute with God why he should not make all us vessels of honor and we complaine of God that he hath not given us all all the abundances of this world Comparatively Adam was better then all the world beside and yet we finde no act of pride in Adam when he was alone Solitude is not the scene of Pride The danger of pride is in company when we meet to looke upon another But in Adams wife Eve her first act that is noted was an act of Pride Gen. 3.5 a hearkning to that voyce of the Serpent Ye shall be as Gods As soone as there were two there was pride How many may we have knowne if we have had any conversation in the world that have been content all the weeke at home alone with their worky day faces as well as with their worky day clothes
it a Mysterie and a great mysterie yet he cals it a mysterie without controversie Without controversie great is the mysterie of God manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit preached to the Gentiles beleeved in the world received into glory When he presents matter of consolation he would have it without controversie To establish a disconsolate soule there is alwaies Divinity enough that was never drawne into Controversie I would pray I finde the Spirit of God to dispose my heart and my tongue and mine eyes and hands and knees to pray Doe I doubt to whom I should pray To God or to the Saints That prayer to God alone was sufficient was never drawne into controversie I would have something to rely and settle and establish my assurance upon Doe I doubt whether upon Christ or mine owne or others merits That to rely upon Christ alone was sufficient was never drawne into Controversie At this time Christ disposed himselfe to comfort his Disciples in that wherein they needed comfort now their discomfort and their feare lay not in this whether there were different degrees of glory in Heaven but their feare was that Christ being gone and having taken Peter and none but him there should be no roome for them and thereupon Christ sayes Let not that trouble you for In my Fathers house are many mansions And so we have done with the former branch of this last part That it is piously done to beleeve these degrees of glory in Heaven That they have inconsiderately extended this probleme in the Roman Church That no Scriptures are so evident as to induce a necessity in it That this Scripture conduces not at all to it and therefore we passe to our last Consideration The right use of the right sense of these words First then Christ proposes in these words Consolation A worke Consolatio then which none is more divine nor more proper to God nor to those instruments whom he sends to worke upon the soules and consciences of others Who but my selfe can conceive the sweetnesse of that salutation when the Spirit of God sayes to me in a morning Go forth to day and preach and preach consolation preach peace preach mercy And spare my people spare that people whom I have redeemed with my precious Blood and be not angry with them for ever Do not wound them doe not grinde them do not astonish them with the bitternesse with the heavinesse with the sharpnesse with the consternation of my judgements David proposes to himselfe that he would Sing of mercy Psal 101.1 and of judgement but it is of mercy first and not of judgement at all otherwise then it will come into a song as joy and consolation is compatible with it It hath falne into disputation and admitted argument whether ever God inflicted punishments by his good Angels But that the good Angels the ministeriall Angels of the Church are properly his instruments for conveying mercy peace consolation never fell into question never admitted opposition How heartily God seemes to utter and how delightfully to insist upon that which he sayes in Esay Consolamini consolamini populum meum Comfort ye comfort ye my people Esay 40.1 And Loquimini ad cor Speake to the heart of Ierusalem and tell her Thine iniquities are pardoned How glad Christ seemes that he had it for him when he gives the sick man that comfort Fili confide My son be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee What a Coronation is our taking of Orders by which God makes us a Royall Priesthood And what an inthronization is the comming up into a Pulpit where God invests his servants with his Ordinance as with a Cloud and then presses that Cloud with a Vaesi non woe be unto thee if thou doe not preach and then enables him to preach peace mercy consolation to the whole Congregation That God should appeare in a Cloud upon the Mercy Seat as he promises Moses he will doe That from so poore a man as stands here Levit. 16.2 wrapped up in clouds of infirmity and in clouds of iniquity God should drop raine poure downe his dew and sweeten that dew with his honey and crust that honied dew into Manna and multiply that Manna into Gomers and fill those Gomers every day and give every particular man his Gomer give every soule in the Congregation consolation by me That when I call to God for grace here God should give me grace for grace Grace in a power to derive grace upon others and that this Oyle this Balsamum should flow to the hem of the garment even upon them that stand under me That when mine eyes looke up to Heaven the eyes of all should looke up upon me and God should open my mouth to give them meat in due season That I should not onely be able to say as Christ said to that poore soule Confide fili My son be of good comfort but Fratres Patres mei My Brethren and my Fathers nay Domini mei and Rex meus My Lords and my King be of good comfort your sins are forgiven you That God should seale to me that Patent Ite praedicate omni Creaturae Goe and preach the Gospell to every Creature be that creature what he will That if God lead me into a Congregation as into his Arke where there are but eight soules but a few disposed to a sense of his mercies and all the rest as in the Arke ignobler creatures and of brutall natures and affections That if I finde a licentious Goat a supplanting Fox an usurious Wolfe an ambitious Lion yet to that creature to every creature I should preach the Gospel of peace and consolation and offer these creatures a Metamorphosis a transformation a new Creation in Christ Jesus and thereby make my Goat and my Fox and my Wolfe and my Lion to become Semen Dei The seed of God and Filium Dei The child of God and Participem Divinae Naturae Partaker of the Divine Nature it selfe This is that which Christ is essentially in himselfe This is that which ministerially and instrumentally he hath committed to me to shed his consolation upon you upon you all Not as his Almoner to drop his consolation upon one soule nor as his Treasurer to issue his consolation to a whole Congregation but as his Ophir as his Indies to derive his gold his precious consolation upon the King himselfe What would a good Judge a good natured Judge give in his Circuit what would you in whose breasts the Judgements of the Star-chamber or other criminall Courts are give that you had a warrant from the King to change the sentence of blood into a pardon where you found a Delinquent penitent How rufully do we heare the Prophets groane under that Onus visionis which they repeat so often O the burden of my vision upon Judah or upon Moab or Damascus or Babylon or any place Which is not only that that judgement would be a
the true body and true soule true matter and true forme that is just possession for having and sober discretion for giving then enters the word of our Text literally The liberall man deviseth liberall things He devises studies meditates casts about where he may doe a noble action where he may place a benefit He seekes the man with as much earnestnesse as another man seeks the money And as God comes with an earnestnesse as though he thought it nothing to have wrought all the weeke to his Faciamus hominem Now let us make man So comes the liberall man to make a man and to redeeme him out of necessity and contempt the upper and lower Milstone of poverty And to returne to our former representations of Liberality Light and Sight As light comes thorough the glasse but we know not how and our sight apprehends remote objects but we know not how so the liberall man looks into darke corners even upon such as are loath to be looked upon loath to have their wants come into knowledge and visits them by his liberality when sometimes they know not from whence that showre of refreshing comes no more then we know how light comes thorough the glasse or how our sight apprehends remote objects So the liberall man deviseth liberall things And then which is our third terme and consideration in this civill and morall acceptation of the words By liberall things he shall stand Some of our later Expositors admit this phrase The liberall man shall stand to reach no further Shall stand nor to signifie no more but that The liberall man shall stand that is will stand will continue his course and proceed in liberall wayes And this is truely a good sense for many times men do some small actions that have some shew and tast of some vertue for collaterall respects and not out of a direct and true vertuous habit But these Expositors with whose narrownesse our former Translators complied will not let the Holy Ghost be as liberall as he would bee His liberality here is That the liberall man shall stand that is Prosper and Multiply and be the better established for his liberality He shall sowe silver and reape gold he shall sowe gold and reape Diamonds sowe benefits and reape honour not honour rooted in the opinion of men onely but in the testimony of a cheerfull conscience that powres out Acclamations by thousands And that is a blessed and a loyall popularity when I have a people in mine owne bosome a thousand voices in mine owne conscience that justifie and applaud a good action Therefore that Translation which we mentioned before reads this clause thus The liberall man imagineth honest things and commeth up by honesty still that which he calls Honesty is in the Originall Liberality and he comes up he prospers and thrives in the world by those noble and vertuous actions It is easie for a man of any largenesse in conversation or in reading to assigne examples of men that have therefore lost all because they were loath to part with any thing When Nazianzen sayes That man cannot be so like God in any thing as in giving he meanes that he shall be like him in this too that he shall not bee the poorer for giving But keeping the body and soule of liberality Giving his owne and giving worthily in soule and body too that is in conscience and fortune both By liberall things he shall stand that is prosper Now these three termes Liberality the vertue it selfe the studying of Liberality Rex this devising and the advantage of this Liberality this standing being yet in this first part still upon the consideration of civill and morall Liberality wee are to consider according to their Exposition that binde this Prophecy to an Hezckias or a Iosias in which Prophecy we finde mention of all those persons we are I say to consider them in the King in his Officers the Magistrate and in his Subjects For the King first this vertue of our Text is so radicall so elementary so essentiall to the King as that the vulgat Edition in the Romane Church reads this very Text thus Princeps verò ea quae principe digna sunt cogitabit The King shall exercise himselfe in royall Meditations and Actions Him whom we call a Liberall man they call a King and those actions that we call Liberall they call Royall A Translation herein excusable enough for the very Originall word which we translate Liberall is a Royall word Nadib and very often in the Scriptures hath so high a Royall signification The very word is in that place where David prayes to God to renew him spiritu Principali And this Psal 51.10 spiritus Principalis as many Translators call a Principall a Princely a Royall spirit as a liberall a free a bountifull spirit If it be Liberall it is Royall For when David would have bought a threshing-floore 2 Sam. 24.23 to erect an Altar upon of Araunah and Araunah offered so freely place and sacrifice and instruments and all the Holy Ghost expresses it so All these things did Araunah as a King offer to the King There was but this difference between the Liberall man and David A King and The King Higher then a King for an example and comparison of Liberality on this side of God hee could not goe The very forme of the Office of a King is Liberality that is Providence and Protection and Possession and Peace and Justice shed upon all And then this Prophecy considered still the first way morally Principes civilly carries this vertue not onely upon the King but upon the Princes too upon those persons that are great great in blood great in power great in place and office They must bee liberall of that which is deposited in them The Sunne does not enlighten the Starres of the Firmament meerly for an Omament to the Firmament though even the glory which God receives from that Ornament be one reason thereof but that by the reflection of those Starres his beames might be cast into some places to which by a direct Emanation from himselfe those beames would not have come So doe Kings transmit some beames of power into their Officers not onely to dignifie and illustrate a Court though that also be one just reason thereof for outward dignity and splendor must be preserved but that by those subordinate Instruments the royall Liberality of the King that is Protection and Justice might be transferred upon all And therefore Epistol ad Salvian S. Hierome speaking of Nebridius who was so gracious with the Emperor that he denied him nothing assignes that for the reason of his largenesse towards him Quòd sciebat non uni sed pluribus indulgeri Because he knew that in giving him he gave to the Publique Hee employed that which he received for the Publique And lastly our Prophecy places this Liberality upon the people Now Populus still this Liberality is that it
Leo Magnus 42. B. 48. C. D. 63. B. 221. E. 321. B. 431. B. 535. D. 604. A. Leo Castrius 695. D. Lex XII Tabularum 445. D. Lombardus 237. B. notatus 334. E. Lorinus 426. C. 574. C. 687. E. 695. D. Lutherus 18. D. 130. B. 205. A. 231. C. 232. D. 271. D. 301. D. 404. C. Apophthegma ejus 405. C. 417. B. 426. A. 479. E. 501. A. 687. B. 786. B. 798. E. Lyra. 50. B. 555. D. M Magdeburgenses 489. C. 799. C. Maldonatus 197. D. 356. E. 489. D. 739. D. 771. B. 798. A. Mariana 687. E. Martialis 550. B. S. Martialis 758. C. P. Martyr 271. B. 347. C. Masoritae 153. C. Maximus 63. A. 535. E. Matchiavel 744. B. Melancthon 92. C. 744. C. 798. E. Melchior Canus 42. A. 740. B. Menander 220. A. Mendoza 162. B. D. Munsterus 747. C. Musculus 775. A. N Nicephorus 31. D. dictum ejus de Chrysostomo 490. C. 699. B. O Oecumenius 66. A. 232. C. 527. A. Oleaster 391. D. Origenes 99. D. 102. A. 118. C. 128. E. 170. E. 201. C. 262. D. 263. C. 299. B. 333. B. 362. C. 363. D. 386. B. 411. C. 546. C. 700. C. 710. E. primus concionator 758. D. 770. D. 784. C. Osiander 221. C. 298. B. P Palladius 473. C. Pamelius 329. C. Panigorolla 166. A. Papias 739. E. Paracelsus 64. E. Paraphrastes Chaldaeus 134. A. 269. D. 404. B. Pellicanus 221. C. 404. C. Peltanus 97. E. Pererius 50. A. 740. A. Philo Judaeus 170. B. 417. D. 420. C. 550. B. 561. C. 680. D. 812. C. Picus 531. D. Pindarus 442. D. Piscator 46. C. 49. E. 131. E. 737. E. 799. A. Plato 46. D. 68. E. 168. D. 318. D. 442. D. 752. E. 783. E. 812. C. Plinius 17. A. 222. A. 385. C. 537. D. 617. B. 665. B. 713. A. 788. B. Plotinus 812. C. Plutarchus 665. C. Polycarpus 758. C. Polybius 482. D. 551. A. Porphyrius 207. B. 289. B. Prosper 240. D. Prudentius 262. E. Psalmi Arabicè 582. A. Ptolomaeus 818. B. Q Quintilianus 289. B. R Rabbi Aben Ezra 131. C. Rabbi Moyses 63. E. 66. B. 608. B. Rabbi Solomon 50. B. 404. B. Reuchlinus 541. C. Rhemigius 4. B. 340. A. Ribera 184. C. Roffensis 789. A. Ruffinus 270. E. Rupertus 51. B. S Salmeron 489. D. Sanctius 151. E. 405. E. Sandaeus 495. A. 690. D. Scotus 111. B. Scribanius 142. C. Schonfeldius 743. B. Seneca 147. E. 168. E. 362. B. 387. E. 388. A. 713. E. 789. B. 812. D. Serarius 406. B. Septuaginta Interpretes 404. B. 416. A. 528. B. 585. A. Severianus 249. C. Sextus Senensis 786. E. Sidonius Apollinaris 33. B. Sophronius 490. C. Stenartius 605. E. Strabo 198. D. Stunnica 133. A. Synodus Dordrecthana 742. C. T Tacitus 481. E. Talmud 379. C. 492. A. Tannerus 605. D. Tertullianus 17. C. 18. A. 33. E. 80. A. memoria lapsus 101. B. 152. A. 168. C. 181. E. 207. E. 289. B. 290. D. 309. D. 312. B. 334. B. 337. B. C. 369. E. 370. E. 379. B. 388. A. 395. B. E. 397. E. 400. A. B. 408. A. 414. E. 504. B. 739. E. 783. E. 794. C. 800. E. Testamentum Syriacum 636. C. 737. E. Theocritus 478. A. Theodoretus 91. B. 232. A. 305. D. 462. A. 578. D. 795. A. Theophylactus 91. B. 181. B. 246. B. 527. A. 609. C. 795. C. Tremellius 131. E. 133. E. 510. A. 560. C. 585. A. 690. B. 737. E. 809. C. Trismegistus 287. B. 295. B. 347. C. 379. C. 501. C. Turrecremata 603. C. V G. Valentia 356. D. 605. D. Vincentius Lyrinensis 47. A. 699. B. 722. D. Virgilius 744. C. 784. A. Vita P. Nerei 116. E. Vega. 339. D. Ulpianus 194. E. Vossius 740. A. Us pergensis 208. A. Vulgata Editio 146. D. 157. D. 162. C. 260. A. 288. D. 311. A. 505. C. 610. E. 711. D. 717. C. 743. C. 761. B. W Waldo 291. D. AN ALPHABETICALL TABLE OF THE PRINCIPALL CONTENTS IN THIS BOOK The number of the Figures referreth to the Page the Letter to the like Letter in the Margin A ABsolute Decree how dangerously man may be abused by it 691. E There is no such in God of punishing man but as a sinner 675. C. D. E Absolution of sinnes the power of it 143. A. B The cheerefulnesse of their spirits that have newly received it 264. A 596. B The necessity of it 370. A. B Active life and Contemplative both good 30. D One not to despise the other ibid. Admiration and Wonder how it stands between Knowledge and Faith 194. A Adoption in civill use the Lawes and Customes of it 27. B Applyed to our spirituall Adoption ibid. Adversity not the best time to seeke the Lord in 139. C. D. 245. D. E Whether Adversity or Prosperity be the cause of most sinnes 658. D Adultory God expresseth all carnall and spirituall sinne by the name of Adultery 632. E Advice to bee mixed with Love and Charitie 93. C How many doe miscarry in it ibid. D Afflictions wherefore inflicted upon Men 109. C Wherefore on godly men 129. B. 480. A. B. C 664. E They are not evill 170. D Common as well to the good as bad 420. E Age the center of Reverence 31. D Allelujah Psalmes which they are and how many 654. A Almes to be done 94. B. 106. C Cheerfully and without delay 107. D Against those that neglect them 414. B Wee not to consider the person too severely that is to receive them 764. A Against being Alone 51. E. 761. E. 762. A Alphonso King of Casteel his blasphemy 640. E Amen ever doubled by Saint John and why 658. B Anabaptists their wicked opinions 23. C. 91. C 344. D Anathema the severall acceptations of it 401. E Saint Andrew the first Saint in the Calendar and why 718. C. D Angels how reconciled by the death of Christ 9. B Whether they understand thoughts 111. B Or see the Essence of God 120. E. 121. D. E They pray for us 130. A Whether they shall give account of their Stewardship over us at the day of Judgement 234. E. 235. A Thought in the Greeke Church to be created before the World 235. E Nothing in Scripture about their creation 235. D Not in themselves Immortall 237 B. C. Some men called by the ministry of Angels even from the beginning of the world 261. E They that fell might have repented according to the Schooles 262. B They that fell shall never befor given 346. B Of tutelar Angels 422. B Angels created with the Light 729. C Anger in God two errours about it noted by Lactantius 408. D Anointing in Scripture not alwayes taken for reall Unction 44. E. 45. A c Anointing proper to Kings as well as Priests 396. A Ant and the Bee the difference betweene their labour and yet we are commanded to learne of both 712. E Apatheia against indolencie and emptinesse of all Affections 156. A Apochrypha Bookes the good use that is made of them 220. D Of their esteeme
B. C Expostulation with God how without sin 44. B. We may not excuse the inordinatenesse of all Expostulations of good men in the Scripture 132. C Nor come neere that excesse which we finde in some of them 155. C Of that in the widdow of Zareptha 218. A Against Extortion 94. A Against Extremities in matters of opinion 42. A. B. c. In Religion 326. D F FAith against implicite Faith 178. C. 411. C Faith and Reason how contiguous they are 178. B Faith how it is assisted by Reason 429. A. 612. A Of the imperfection that is in our Faith 818. D Faith and Works 78. E. 368. A. 567. D. E Our Workes more ours than our Faith 79. C. D. E. c. The Faith of others how profitable to us 105. D And how not 106. E Men not to deceive themselves with thinking that if they have Faith once they shall have it ever or have enough 819. B. C Fall sinne is a fall and how 186. D. 187. B. C. 462. D Against impossibility of falling from grace received 240. B. C Of Fame and getting a good name the necessity of it 680. A Fathers of the power of life and death which they had over their owne children 388. A How Jesuites slight the authority of the Fathers of the Church 489. C How they are to be followed 490. C Feare of the Feare of God 386. B The difference between fearefullnesse and Feare 387. B Servile and Filial Feare both good 386. D The Feare of God a blessed disease 466. B It constitutes the best assurance 694. C Not only a Feare but even a terror of God may fall upon the best men 70. A Festivalls the reason of their Institution in the Church 298. B Of applying particular Scriptures to particular Festivalls 423. D Filiation the markes of our spirituall Filiation lesse subject to errour than of our Temporall 338. E Fasting but thrice mentioned by David and he thrice derided for it 535. C The commendation and use of it ibid. D. E Finding of God the severall times of it 597. A Of Finding that which was lost 711. E The passage of the Usher in S. Augustine that found a bag of money and would not take so much as the tithe of it 712. A Fishers of men the Apostles why so called 734. E Flatterers how men may flatter the best men the very Angels yea and God himselfe 332. B Foliantes an Order in the Roman Church who only feed on roots and leaves 731. C Following Christ how we are to Follow in beleeving and in doing 731. E Against Forespeaking the Counsels or Actions of the State 535. E Foretelling of death the passage of the Monks of S. sidorus Monastery about it 473. C Forme of publike Prayer used amongst the very Gentiles 89. A And they had a particular Officer who made Prayers and Collects for them upon emergent occasions ibid. Which were received every five years ibid. Fortune and God how they consist together 711. C Freewill the obliquities of it from whence 283. D The power of it in our conversion 309. A. B Funerals of the duties belonging to them 196. A. 198. B Of the severall manner of them among severall nations 198. D Christian Funerals an evidence of Gods presence 826. B Fulnesse how in Christ and how in others of the Saints 3. C Three Fulnesses in Christ above others 4. A How Full all of us are of originall sin 2. E How Full God is of mercy 12. C Of Fulnesse without satisfaction and of satisfaction without Fulnesse 807. A Abraham why Full of yeares and yet not so old as Methusalem ibid. D Severall Fulnesses ibid. E G GEntiles and their salvation how prone the Fathers were in beleeving of it 261. D. 763. C Of the power of naturall reason in them and what many of the Fathers thought of it 314. C Of their multiplicity of Gods 378. B. 484. D. 502. E They durst not call their Tutelar Gods by their names 608. A Gentlenesse meeknesse and mildenesse the power of it both upon man and God 409. E. 410. A. B Glad God whether he be Glad that he is God 812. B Glorified bodies their Endowments applyed to the soule after her first resurrection 189. A. B. C Gloria Patri after every Psalme how ancient 88. C Glory against our feare of giving God too much Glory 58. E No Glory to God in destroying man only for his pleasure 85. B Glory what it is 88. A The light of Glory in heaven what 231. A All things we doe must be to the Glory of God 636. E Of the disparity and degrees of Glory in the Kingdome of heaven 742. D. 743. A. B. C Gluttony the effects and miseries of it 579. D God not to be loved in consideration of the Temporall Blessings he bestoweth upon us but for himselfe 750. C. D Foure wayes of knowing him 229. B God how present even in hell 226. D. E Seeing of God before us in our actions how necessary 169. E How we see him in a glasse 226. B How we are enemies to God 65. B All his wayes are goodnesse 66. E Severall positions motions and transitions ascribed to him 67. C How omnipresent with the Ubiquetary and the Stancarist 67. E Why he makes some poor others rich 84. E Glories not in destroying man till he finde cause 85. B Proposeth his glory to himselfe as the end of all his works 87. C. D. E All our wealth and honour to be ascribed to him 95. B Whether his Essence shall be seene in heaven 120. D. 230. D No evill from him 168. C Not the Author of sinne 368. E To be reverenced as a Father 388. C Of the reason of many Gods amongst the Gentiles 484. D God hates not any man but as a finner 628. C. D His mercy to all men 679. A. B The numberlesse number of Gods Benefits unto man 765. A Our Goods what care to be taken they be well gotten 83. A. 95. E They are abusively called Goods 168. D Goodnesse speciall in God 167. E. 168. A. B Golden Crowns of the Saints how forged in the Roman Church 743. D Gospell whether yet preached over all the world 363. D Why it is called in Scripture the Kingdome of God 472. A How compared to a net 736. C Grace against irresistible Grace 456. B Grace and Nature how they cooperate 649. D No consummative Grace in this life 735. B Graduall Psalmes which and why they are so called 653. E Great men not alwayes good and why 166. A But when good the more acceptable and their ill the more pardonable ibid. B. C The true end of Greatnesse 321. B. C. D Great men how dangerously obnoxious to their own servants 551 A Gretzer the Jesuite how injurious to the power of Kings in matters of Religion 698. D H AGainst making too much Haste either in Temporall or Spirituall Riches 520. D Hatred how it may consist with Charity 100 A Health Spirituall Health to
be preferred before that of the Body 110. C. 755. A What a Blessing the Bodily Health is 754. A. B. Hearing the Word against the neglect of it 331. A. B Against Hearing only 455. C Heart no inward part of man ascribed unto God beside the Heart 64. B Heaven the joyes of it 73. C. D. 223. A. B. C 266. A The Glory 682. A The Dotes or Endowments of the Saints of Heaven 266. B. 189. A. B. c. 824. C Heresie of the severall Heresies against the person of Christ 316. D Of that of the Photinians and Nativitarians 344. C Heretiques of severall wayes of dealing with them 355. C. D. 356. B. C. D Of History and returning the memory of man to things that are past and gone 290. B The Holy Ghost not so easily apprehended by the light of Reason as the other persons of the Trinity 318. C. D In the Procession especially ibid. E. 327. A. B. C 335. B The manner how he works upon man 322. C. D Three branches of sins against the Holy Ghost in the Schoole 349. E Refusing of lawfull Authority is sin against the Holy Ghost in St. Bernards judgement 350. B The power of the Holy Ghost in blowing where he lists 364. B. C His operations in meere morall men 365. A St. Paul beleeved of many to be the H. Ghost 461. E Holy Ghost only Dogmaticall the best men but Problematicall 658. A Hope how imperfect a Christian mans Hope is 820. A How a hatefull and a damnable Monosyllable 301. D Honour and Reputation which so many stand upon what it is 410. A Honey what is meant by it in Scripture 712. C Hospitalite the commendation and benefit of it 414. D. E. 415. A. B Houses of Progresse and standing Houses for God Heaven and the Church 747. B Humane learning how necessary to the making of a good Divine 562. A Hypocrisie the good use and benefit that may be made by it 297. E. 636. B Against the wicked practise of it 585. D I OF those Idaeas which are in God 667. E Against Idlenesse and lazinesse and taking of no Calling 45. D. 411. B Jehovah the right pronouncing of that Name the meanes whereby Christ did Miracles according to the calumniating Jewes 502. C Not pronounced till of late ibid. D Jesuites their uncharitablenesse even to their owne Authors in defaming and disgracing of them though their betters 50. A The pride of their Denomination from Jesus 687. D How boldly they depart from the Fathers and their Authority 740. B. C. 796. C D Their pride in taking upon them the name of Fathers 798. A Jesus of the name of Jesus 503. C How S. Paul delights himselfe in that Name 503. D. 688. A Jewes not one of them in all the world a Souldier 5. D Their opinion of Christs comming 21. C Their impious custome of anointing such as die with the blood of a Christian Infant ibid. Ignorance the severall Divisions and subdivisions of it in the Schoole 287. B. How full the most knowing men are of it ibid. C. D A learned Ignorance what 295. E Of the severall Imperfections in our Faith in our Hope and in our Charity 819.820 A. B. C. D Imprecations in Scripture are often only Prophecies 401. C Not allowed us D. but in some cases 555. E Against Impossibility of Falling 240. B Incarnation the mystery of it 16. C. D. 395. E. 396. A. D E Inconsideration the miseries of it 246. D. E. 247. A. 296. E. 297. B. C. D In case of Zeale the more pardonable ib. B Indignation for sinne how great it ought to be 542. C Of that Individuality wherein man is to bee considered 710. D Of that Infallibility with which the Holy Ghost proposeth his Dictates in the scripture and how farre it is from that possibility probability and verisimilitude of the Church of Rome 657. C Jnfidels of their right unto the things of this world 214. D Indulgencies the vanity the Church of Rome was growne to in preaching and extolling of them 773. B. C The multiplicity of them 788. A The Reformation arose from them ibid. D Indulgencies what they were in the Primitive Church 788. E. Against Ingratitude for mercies and Diliverances past 88. B. 577. E Why so seldome condemned in the scripture 550. A Injuries of patience in suffering them 410. A. B Innovations the difference between Innovations and Renovations 735. A Inquisition of torturing men in the Romish Inquisition and the uncertainty of such kinde of Tryalls 194.195 C. D Intentions the best mens best intentions usually misconstrued 344. E Instinct the difference between the Reason of Man and the instinct of Beast what it is and wherein it consisteth 227. B. C Inward speculations inward zeale inward prayer are not full performances of a Christian mans duty 700. B Jordan the River Jordan why so called 718. E Ioyes of Heaven of their eternity 73. C. D 223. A. B. C. 266. A. 340. D. 747. E Heaven represented in Joy and Glory 672. A Joy of the wicked which they have in this world counterfeit 635. C Of the Joy of the godly which they have in this world 671. E. 672. c. 673. A. B Cheerefulnesse and Joy commended 816. B Judging of other men condemned 128. D. 479. A In doubtfull cases we are ever to encline towards Charity 164. E There may be sinne in a charitable Iudging of some holy mens Actions 488. D Judgement of the day of Judgement and the uncertainty thereof 271. D Gods Judgements have not exactly the name of Punishments 544. C How unwilling God is to speak of or to come to Judgement 676. C Justificare to Justifie taken three severall wayes 366. C Neither Works nor Faith the cause of our Justification 367. E K KIngs the best forme of Government by Kings 51. B Our duty and debt unto them 91. C The Releiving of them more necessary than giving of Almes 92. A What Humility and Reverence in Subjects is due unto them ibid. D And afforded in the very Scripture ibid. Not only their substantiall but their circumstantiall and ceremoniall wants to be prevented by the Subjects Giving 100. E Their Crowne of Thornes 137. B Kings a particular ordinance of God and nothing resulting out of the tacite consent of the people 391. C The King to institute and order matters in the publique service of God 698. A He is Keeper of both the Tables D Against those disloyall jealousies and suspicions which the people have of the King and of his affection to Religion 699. D In matters of favour the King is one of the people saith the Law 754. C. D Kisses of their treacherous carnall and sacred uses 405.406 A. B. C Used of Kinsfolkes 407. C As a Recognition of Power D In comming and going E In religious reverence E In signe of concord 408. A Kneeling the necessitie of it in the time of prayer 72. E. 73. A Of the Kneeling at the Sacrament 115. D. 116. A. B. Knowledge of
Fundamentals every man is bound to have but not of the superstructure and superedification 807. B How Imperfect all our Knowledge is in Arts and Sciences 818. A Knowledge against over-much curiosity in attaining to it 63. E. 308. C. 319. A. B Whether wee shall Know one another in the next world 157. C Of sobriety in Knowledge 270. C. 701. A Knowing of our selves how hard a thing it is 563. C Knowing of God foure ordinary wayes of it in the Schooles 229. B L LAbour three-fold Labour in the Scripture 538. B Law and the Gospell of the severall state of either 284. E. 285. A Of the Law of Nature under which every man is 362. C How the Law is said to shew what is sinne 687. B Lawes of Temporall Princes whether or no they binde the conscience of the Subject wherefore never stated by the Pope or by any Councell 741. B Liberality and Bounty Civill and Spirituall what 759. E Liberality a vertue that begets a vertue ibid. The true body and true soule of Liberalitie what it is 760. C Life the excellencie of it 69. D. E. 70. A All that is good included in it 70. A Light the first creature 759. D Literae Formatae in the Primitive Church their Institution and use 415. A Lord whether God could be called the Lord before there were any creatures a disputable thing 757. A The Judgement of Tertullian and S. Augustine either way ibid. B Love the first Act of the Will 225. D How we may love the creatures 398. E 598. B Against the Love of the things of this world 187. C. 399. C Against loving of God for the Temporall blessings he bestowes upon us 750. C Loving our enemies six degrees observed in it 97. B Lust and Licentiousnesse the burdens that it makes men under goe 623. D Lying whether it be lawfull before one that is no competent Judge 491. B M Macchabees their torture and patience 221. E. 222. A. B. C. c. Man what Man is 64. D. E. 65. A. c. The dignitie and honour of Man 655. C. D Hee cannot deliberately wish himselfe an Angel for he should lose thereby ibid. E Of those helps and assistances which Man affords to Man 656. D. E. c. Man is called every creature in Scripture and why 770. C. D Mary the Crownes of England Scotland Denmark and Hungary much about one time fell upon women whose name was Mary 243. E It is a noble and a comprehensive name and why 244. A Marriage of second Marriages 216. D. E. c Masters of that esteeme and regard is to bee had to such as have taught us or have beene our Masters 288. E. 289. A why called Patres-familias 388. B Mediocrity of Estate the commendation of it 661. A. B. c. 685. D Orders in the Church of Rome from both extremes but not one from the Meane 661. B. What is a Mediocrity to one is not nor ought to be to another 714. C Memory the Holy Ghosts pulpit oftner than the Vnderstanding 290. B. C Of the sinfull Memory of past sins how dangerous it is 542. D Mercie of God how much above his judgements 12. B. 67. A. 71. A How full God is of it C Occasionall Mercies what and how many D The Devils capable of Mercy in the judgement of many Fathers 66. A. 262. D The proper difference betweene Mercy and Truth 530. D Against those that abridge the great volume of Gods Mercies 568. E Of severall Mercies and refreshments which are none of Gods 810. E. 811. A God can doe nothing but in Mercy 811. C Merits foreseene no cause of Graces in us 5. A Millenarii their errour what and how generall almost all the Fathers tainted with it 261. C Miracles against multiplying of them in the Roman Chuch 36. D Mirabilis or the man that workes Miracles the first of those great names given to Christ by the Prophet Esay 58. C Nothing dearer to God than a Miracle 215. A They are his owne Prerogative ibid. B It is more to change Nature by Miracles than to make Nature 394. E No man to ground his Faith upon a Miracle as it seemes to him 429. A How to judge of Miracles whether they bee true or false 429. B Dangerous putting of God to a Miracle in saving us 456. B What is properly a Miracle 683. D The Creation it selfe none ibid. Monuments not in Churches in the Primitive times 730 D Mortification outward Mortification and austerity a specious thing 492. E Mortification to be generall of all the parts and not of one onely 541. B Mosselim a kind of Doctors amongst the Jewes that taught the people by parables and obscure sayings 690. E The Multitude of their levity judgement and changing of opinions 482. B. D Against Murmuring at Gods blessings if they be not as great as we desire 576. C Mute against standing Mute at examinations 491. C Mysteries of two kinds in the Schooles 203. D Every Religion under heaven hath had her Mysteries and some things in-intelligible of all sorts of men 690. D N NAmes and Titles nothing puffeth men up more 734. D The Heathen never called their Tutelar Gods by their Names and why 608. A Of getting a good Name amongst men and against those that neglect it 680. A. E Of mens retaining those Names that are most acceptable 285. B Of the Name of Christian and when it was given and how 426. B Adam named all creatures but himselfe and why 563. B Natalitia Martyrum their dayes of suffering so called and why 268. C. 461. C Nativities three Nativities to every Christian and which they are 424. E Nature of that sight which wee have of God even by the light of Nature 227. B. 686. E Of that power which some of the Fathers attribute to Nature without Grace 314. C Men doe not halfe so much against sin as even by the power of Nature they are able to doe 315. B. C Of the testimony which a Naturall soule gives unto it selfe of it selfe 337. B Nature not equivalent to Grace 649 A Nature not our owne ibid. Nature and Grace how they co-operate ibid. D Neighbour-hood and evill Neighbour-hood and communicating with evill men 420. C Noctambulones men that walk in their sleep wake if they be called by their Names 467. A Nothing there is nothing more contrary to God than to be to doe or to thinke Nothing 265. B The Devill himselfe cannot wish himselfe deliberately to be nothing C An Order of Friars in the Roman Church that in humilitie called themselves Nullanos or Nothings 731. C Of the Numberlesse number of Gods benefits to Man 765. A O OCcasionall instruments of Gods glory what cold affections they meet with in the world amongst men disaffected to Gods cause 154. E Occasionall mercies offered what and how many 12. D Occasionall Convertites who 461. C God no Occasionall God and why 586. B Devotion no Occasionall thing and why 244. E A great
to the Office of a Prophet 54. D. The promises of God in the Prophets how different from those in the Gospel 40. E. A This a seditious inference the Prophets did thus and thus in the Law therefore the Ministers of the Gospel should doe so likewise and why 734. A Psalmes The Booke of Psalmes the dignity and vertue of it 653. D. E They are the Manna of the Church 663. B Such forbid to bee made Priests that were not perfect in the Psalmes 813. B Singing of the Psalmes how generall and commendable in S. Hieromes times ibid. B. C Purgatorie none in the old Testament and why 783. E How derived from Poets and Philosophers to Fathers 784. A. B. C How suspitiously and doubtfully the Fathers speak of it bid specially S Augustine 786. E Bellarmine refuted about it 792.793 Q QVestions arising taken away by Silencing of both parties 42. D Against curiosity in seeking after them 57. D There is alwaies Divinity enough to save a soule that was never called into Question 745. A How peevish some Romish Authors doe detoâ—t the Scripture when they fall upon any Question or Controversie though otherwise they content themselves with the true meaning and sense of the same words 790. E. 791. A Quomodo to Question how God doth this or that dangerous 301. E. 367. C R REason not to be enquired after in all points of Faith 23. B Reasons not convincing never to be proffered for to prove Articles of Faith 205. D God useth to accompany those Duties which hee commands with Reasons to enduce us to the performance of them 593. A Reconciliation how little amongst the Papists 10. D All Nations under heaven have acknowledged some meanes of Reconciliation to their offended gods in the remission of their sinnes 564. C Religion against such as damnifie Religion by their outward profession more than if they did forsake it 757. D Every Religion had her mysteries her Reservations and in-intelligiblenesse which were not easily understood of all men 690. D And therefore Religion not to be made too homely and course a thing ibid. C Christian Religion an easie yoke a short and contracted burden 71. D All points of Religion not to bee divulged to the people 87. D Defects in Religion safer than superfluities 291. A Of peaceable conversation with men of divers Religions 310. C Wee charged to have but a negative Religion 636. A Religion how farre we may proceed in the outward declaration of our Religion 814. A Resurrection of three sorts 149. E Of that from persecution 185. B. C. D Of that from Sinne 186. D. E. c Of that from Death 189. D How a Resurrection of the soule being the soule cannot die 189. D Christ how the First Resurrection 191. B Our Resurrection a mystery 204. C Resurrection All Religions amongst the Heathens had some Impressions of it 800. E Retrospection or looking upon time past the best rule to judge of the future 668. D Reverence how much due to men of old Age 31. D What Required in Gods House 43. D Revelations wee are not to hearken after them 238 E Nor yet to binde God from them 239. A Rewards against bribery or receiving of Rewards 389. E God first proposes to himselfe persons to be Rewarded or condemned before he thinks of their condemnation or their Reward 674. B. 675. B. C Riches the cause of lesse sinne than poverty 658. D Especially considered in the highest degree and in the lowest that is abundant Riches and extreme beggerly poverty 659. D Against the perverse desire of Riches 728. C Riches S. Chrysostome calls the parents of absurdities and why 729. A The Remane Church a true Church as the Pest house is a house 606. A. 621. C Rome the Church of Rome the better for reformamation 621. B They doe charge us that we have but a negative Religion 636. A Why they so much under-value the Scripture and yet endevour to bring bookes of other Authors into that ranke as the Macchabees and such like 738. E Rome it selfe how it hath beene handled ever by Catholikes in their bloody warres 779. A Almost all the Controversies between Rome and the Christian world are matters of profit 791. A Rule and Example the two onely wayes of Teaching 571. E. 668. B The onely Rule of doctrine the Scripture and Word of God 738. E S THe Sabbath a Ceremoniall Law 92. C Sacrament how effectually Christ is present in it 19. C Of preparing our selves to the worthy receiving of it 32. A. c 33. A. c Against Superstition and Prophanesse too in the comming to it 34. A Of Christs reall presence in it 36. D. 37. B. C That which we receive in the Sacrament to bee Adored 693. B Against unworthy receiving of it 693. D. E Of both extremes about Chrsts presence in the Sacrament 821. E Saints against praying to them 90. D. 378. D. 595. A. 744. A. 757. B The Saints in heaven pray for us 106. B Why they must not pray to Saints in the Church of Rome upon good Friday Easter and Whitsunday 485. D Whether they enjoy degrees of Glory in heaven 742. E Salvation of the generall possibility of Salvation for all men 66. B. 330. A. B. 742. B. C. D. Not to be ascribed to our Workes 107. D Nor to our Faith ibid. E More that are Saved than that are damned 241. A. 259. C The impossibility of Salvation to any man before hee was a man a discomfortable doctrine 278. B Of that certaintie of Salvation which is taught of some in the Roman Church and how farre we are from it 339. D. E. 340. A. 608. C Salvation offered to all men and in earnest 742. A. B Saviour the name of Saviour attributed to others beside Christ 528. D Scriptures the most eloquent Books that are 47. E 556. E. 557. C foure Elements of the right exposition and sense of Scripture 305. B Moderation in reading of them 323. C Scripures the only rule of Doctrine 738. E Secrecy in Confession commended but in case of disloyaltie 92. E. 575. E Seeing of God in our Actions how necessary 169. E Against Selfe-Subsistence or standing of our selves 240. A. B Against Selfe-Love 156. A Sermons how loth the Fathers were to lacke company at them 48. C Of preaching the same Sermons twice 114. C 250. C The danger of hearing Sermons without practising 455. C. D Sighing for sinne the benefit of it 537. D Sight the noblest of the sences and all the sences 225. B Signe of the Crosse wherefore used in the Primative times 538. A And why by us in baptisme ibid. Signes how they may be sought after and how not 15. B. C. D Shame for sinne a good signe 557. D To be voice-proofe not afraid nor Ashamed of what the World sayes of a Man an ill signe of a Spirituall obduration in sinne 589. A Silence the severall sorts of it Silence of Reverence 575. C Silence of subjection ibid. D
secresie of the Bee that the greatest and most authorized spie see it not to supplant it And the purity of the Bee that never settles upon any foule thing that thou never take a foule way to a faire end and the fruit of thy labour shall bee Hony God shall give thee the sweetnesse of this world honour and ease and plenty and hee shall give thee thy honey-combe with thy honey that which preserves thy honey to thee that is a religious knowledge that all this is but hony And honey in the dew of the flowres Plin. whence it is drawne is but Coeli sudor a sweaty excrement of the heavens and Siderum saliva the spettle the fleame of the starres and Apum vomitus the casting the vomit of the Bee And though honey be the sweetest thing that wee doe take into the body yet there it degenerates into gall and proves the bitterest And all this is honey in the Anti-type in that which it signifies in the temporall things of this world In the temporall things of this world there is a bitternesse in our use of them But in his hand and his purpose that gives them they have impressions of sweetnesse and so Comede Eat thy honey which is also a step farther Here is libery for any man to eat Honey if hee have found it Comede and Ionathan the Kings sonne found honey upon the ground and did but dip his staffe in it 1 Sam. 14 24. and put it to his mouth and hee must die for it Of forbidden honey the least dramme is poyson how sweet soever any collaterall respect make it But Ionathan knew not that it was forbidken by the King Ignorance is no plea in any subject against the Kings lawes and there is a King in breach of whose lawes no King no Kings sonne can excuse themselves by ignorance if they doe but dip their Scepter in forbidden honey in any unlawfull delight in this world For they doe or they may know the unlawfulnesse of it But for the honey which God allowes us whether God give it in that plenty Terram fluentem Exod. 3.8 that the land flow with milke and honey nay Torrentes mellis rivers and streames of honey Iob 20.17 that great fortunes flow into men in this world or whether God put us to suck honey out of the Rock that that which we have we digge and plough and thresh for Deut. 32.13 yet when thou hast found that Comede use it enjoy it eat it Hee that will not work shall not eat 2 Thes 3.10 He that shuts himselfe up in a Cloyster till the honey finde him till meat bee brought to him should not eat Christ himselfe are Honey but after his Resurrection Luk. 24.41 when his body needed not refection when our principall end in worldly things is not for the body nor for the world but that we have had a spirituall resurrection that we can see Gods love in them and shew Gods glory by them then Invenisti thou hast found for Invenire Festus est in rem venire id est in usum to find a thing is to make the right use of it and Invenisti mel thou hast found Honey that which God intends for sweetnesse for necessities conveniences abundances recreations and delights and therefore Comede eat it enjoy it but to thee also belongs that Caveat Comede ad sufficientiam Eat but enough That great Morall man Seneca could see that Nihil agere to passe this life Sufficientiam and intend no Vocation was very ill and that Aliud agere to professe a Vocation and be busier in other mens callings then his owne was worse but the Super-agere to over-doe to doe more then was required at his hands he never brought into comparison hee never suspected and yet that is our most ordinary fault That which hath been ordinarily given by our Physitians by way of counsell That we should rise with an appetite hath been enough followed by worldly men They alwayes lie downe and alwayes rise up with an appetite to more and more in this world An Office is but an Anti-past it gets them an appetite to another Office and a title of Honour but an Anti-past a new stomach to a new Title The danger is that we cannot goe upward directly If wee have a staire to goe any height it must be a winding staire It is a compassing a circumventing to rise A Ladder is a straight Engin of it selfe yet if we will rise by that it must be set a slope Though our meanes be direct in their owne nature yet wee put them upon crooked wayes It is but a poore rising that any man can make in a direct line and yet it is Ad sufficientiam high enough for it is to heaven Have yee seene a glasse blowne to a handsome competency and with one breath more broke I will not ask you whether you haue seene a competent beauty made worse by an artificiall addition because they have not thought it well enough before you see it every day and every where If Paul himselfe were here Act. 14.12 whom for his Eloquence the Lystrians called Mercury hee could not perswade them to leave their Mercury It will not easily be left for how many of them that take it outwardly at first come at last to take it inwardly Since the saying of Solomon Eccles 7.17 Be not over righteous admits many good senses even in Morall vertues and in religious duties too which are naturally good it is much more appliable in temporall things which are naturally indifferent Bee not over faire over witty over sociable over rich over glorious but let the measure be Sufficientia tua So much as is sufficient for thee But where shall a man take measure of himselfe Tuam At what age or in what calling shall he say This is sufficient for me Ieremy sayes Puer sum I am a child and cannot speake at all S. Paul sayes Quando puer When I was a child no bigger I spake like a child this was not sufficientia sua sufficienr for him for since he was to be a man he was to speak like a man The same clothes doe not serve us throughout our lives nay not the same bodies nay not the same vertues so there is no certaine Gomer no fixed Measure for worldly things Clem. Alex. for every one to have As Clemens Alexandrinus saith Eadem Drachma data Nauclero est Naulum The same piece of Money given to a Water-man is his Fare Publicano Vectigal given to a Farmer of Custome it is Impost Mercatori pretium to a Merchant it is the price of his Ware Operario Merces Mendico Eleemosyna To a Labourer it is Wages to a Begger it is Almes So on the other side this which we call sufficiency as it hath relation to divers states hath a different measure I think the rule will not be inconveniently given if we
which is a Crowne of gold without any intimation of any such lesser crownes growing out of themselves This then is their new Alchymy that whereas old Alchymists pretend to make gold of courser Metals these will make it of Nothing Out of a supposititious word which is not in the Text they have hammered and beat out these Aureolas these lesser crownes And these Aureolaes they ascribe onely to three sorts of persons to Virgins to Martyrs to Doctors Are then all the other Saints without Crowns They must make shift with that beame which they have from the Crowne of Christ for for these additionall crownes proceeding from themselves they have none And yet say they there are Saints which have some additions growing out of themselves though not Aureolas little crownes and those they call Fructus peculiar fruits growing out of themselves And for these fruits they distraine upon that place of Matthew where Christ saith Matt. 13.6 That some brought forth fruit a hundred fold some sixty and some thirty And the greater measure they ascribe to Virgins the sixty to Widowes and the thirty to Maried persons but onely such maried persons as have lived continently in mariage So then to make this Riddle of theirs as plaine as the matter will admit They place salvation it selfe Blessednesse it selfe if a man will be content with that in that union with God which is common to all the Saints But then they conceive certaine Dotes as they call them certaine dispositions in this life by which some have made themselves fitter to be united to God in a nearer distance then an ordinary Saint And these Dotes these endowments and dispositions here produce those Aureolas and those Fructus those lesser crownes and those measures of fruits which are a particular Joy not that they are united to God for so every Saint is but that they had those Dotes those dispositions to take that particular way of being united to God The way of Virginity the way of Martydome and the way of Preaching for by this they become Sancti Majores as they call them Saints in favor Saints in office and fitter to receive our petitions and mediate between God and us then those whom they call Mediocres and Inferiores Saints of a middle forme or of an inferiour ranke Yet these are so farre provided for by them too that wee must pray also to these Inferiour Saints either because I may have had a more particular interest in this life in that Saint then in a greater and so the readinesse and the assiduity of that Saint may recompence his want of power Or else Ad tollendum fastidium lest a great Saint should grow weary of me if I trouble him every day and for every trifle in heaven And some other such reasons it pleases them to assigne why though some Saints have more power with God then others yet we are bound to pray to all And thus they play with Divinity as though after they had troubled all States with politicall Divinity with their Bulls and Breves of Rebus sic stantibus That as long as things stood thus this should be Catholique Doctrine and otherwise when otherwise And in this politicall Divinity Machiavel is their Pope And after they had perplexed understandings with Philosophicall Divinity in the Schoole and in that Divinity Aristotle is their Pope They thought themselves in courtesie or conscience bound to recreate the world with Poeticall Divinity with such a Heaven and such a Hell as would stand in their Verses and in this Divinity Virgill is their Pope And so as Melancthon said when he furthered the Edition of the Alcoran that hee would have it printed Vt videamus quale poema sit That the world might see what a piece of Poetry the Alcoran was So I have stopped upon this point that you might see what a piece of Poetry they have made of this Problematicall point of Divinity The disparity and degrees of Glory in the Saints in Heaven Be this then thus settled Non liquet ex Scripturis In the matter The difference of degrees of Glory we will not differ In the manner we would not differ so as to induce a Schisme if they would handle such points Problematically and no farther But when upon matter of fact they will induce matter of faith when they will extend Problematicall Divinity to Dogmaticall when they will argue and conclude thus It may be thus therefore it must be thus A man may be saved though he beleeve this therefore he cannot be saved except hee beleeve this when in this point in hand out of our acknowledgement of these degrees of Glory in the Saints they will establish the Doctrine of Merits and of Invocation of Saints then wee must necessarily call them to the Rule of all Doctrines the Scriptures When they tell us Historically and upon a Historicall Obligation and for a Historicall certitude that Peter was at Rome and that hee was Bishop of Rome we are not so froward as to deny them that But when upon his Historicall and personall being at Rome they will build that mother Article of an universall Supremacy over all the Church then we must necessarily call them to the Rule to the Scriptures and to require them to prove both his being there and his being Bishop there by the Scriptures and either of these would trouble them As it would trouble them in our present case to assigne evident places of Scripture for these degrees of Glory in the Saints of Heaven For though we be far from denying the Consentaneum est That it is reasonable it should be and likely it is so and farre from denying the Piè creditur That it may advance Devotion and exalt Industry to beleeve that it is so Though we acknowledge a possibility a probability a very similitude a very truth and thus farre a necessary truth that our endevours may flagge and slacken except we doe embrace that helpe that there are degrees of Glory in Heaven yet if wee shall presse for places of Scriptures so evident as must constitute an Article of faith there are perchance none to be found to which very learned and very reverend Expositors have not given convenient Interpretations without inducing any such necessity At least Minus ex hee Taxtu however other places of Scripture may seeme to contribute more this proposition of our text In my Fathers house are many mansions though it have beene applyed to the proofe of that hath no inclination no inclinablenesse that way For in this text our Saviour applies himselfe to his Disciples in that wherein they needed comfort That Christ would go away That they might not goe too That Peter had got a Non-obstante He might and they might not and Christ gives them that comfort that all might In my Fathers house are many mansions 1 Tim. 3.16 When the Apostle presents a great part of our Christian Religion together so as that he cals