that whosoever falls so is so broken First then because Christ loves us to the end therefore some will never put him to it never trouble him till then As the wise man said of Manna that Wisd 16. 25 it had abundance of all pleasures in it and was meet for all tasts that is as Expositours interpret it that Manna tasted to every man like that which every man liked best so hath this stone Christ Jesus abundance of all qualities of stone in it and it is such a stone to every man as he desires it should Vnto you that beleeve saith S. Peter he is 1. Pet. 2. 7. a pretious stone but unto the disobedient a stone to stumble at for if a man walk in a gallerie where windows and statues and tables are all of marble yet if he walk in the dark or blinde-folded or carelesly he may break his face as dangerously against that rich stone as if it were but brick so though a man walk in the true Church of God in that Jerusalem which is described in the Revelation whose foundation and gates and walls are all precious stone yet if a man bring misbelief all his religion is but a part of civil government and order if a man be scandalized at that humilitie that patience that povertie that lowlinesse of spirit which the Christian religion inclines us unto if he will say Si rex Israel If Christ will be King let him come down from the crosse and then we will beleeve in him let him deliver his Church from all crosses first of doctrine then of persecution and then we will beleeve him to be King if he will say Nolumus hunc regnare We will admit Christ but we will not admit him to reigne over us to be King if he will be content with a Consulship with a Colleagueship that he and the world may joyn in government that we may give the week to the world and the sabbath unto him and the night to our licentiousnesse that of the day we may give the forenoon to him and the afternoon to our pleasures if this will serve Christ we can be content to admit him but Nolumus regnare We will not admit of his absolute power that whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do we must be troubled to think on him and respect his glorie in every thing if he will say Praecepit Angelis God hath given charge to his Angels and therefore we need not look to our own wayes he hath locked us up safe and lodged us safely under an eternall election and therefore we are sure of salvation if he will walk thus blindely violently wilfully negligently in the true Church though he walk amongst the saphires and pearls and chrysolites which are mentioned there that is in the outward common and fellowship of Gods saints yet he may bruise and break and batter himself asmuch against these as against the stone gods of the Heathen or the stone idols of the Papists for first the place of this falling upon this stone is the true Church Qui jacet in terra He that is alreadie upon the ground can fall no lower till he fall to hell but he whom God hath brought into his Church if he come to a confident securitie that he is gone farre enough in these outward acts of religion he falls though he be upon this stone This is the place of the true Church the falling it self as farre as will fall into one time of consideration now is a falling into some particular sinne but not of such as quenches our faith we fall so as we may rise again S. Jerome expresseth it so Qui cadit tamen credit He that falls and yet beleeves revocatur per poenitentiam ad salutem that man is reserved by Gods purpose to come by repentance to salvation for this man that falls here falls not so desperately as that he feels nothing between him and hell nothing to stop at nothing to check him by the way Cadit super he falls upon something he falls not upon flowers to wallow and tumble in his sinne nor upon feathers to rest and sleep in his sinne nor into a cooling river to disport and refresh and strengthen himself in his sinne but he falls upon a stone where he may receive a bruise and pain upon his fall a remorse of that sinne that he is fallen into And in this fall our infirmities appeare three wayes the first is Impingere in lapidem for though he be upon the right stone in the true religion and have life enough yet Impingimus meridie as the Prophet sayes Even Isa 59. 10. at noon we stumble we have much more light by Christ being come then the Jews had but are sorie we have it when Christ said to us for the better understanding of the Law He that looks and lusts hath committed adulterie he that covets hath stollen he that is angrie hath murdered we stumble at this and we are scandalized with it and we think that other religions are gentler and that Christ hath dealt hardly with us and we had rather Christ had not said so we had rather he had left us to our libertie and discretion to look and covet and give way to our passions as we should finde it most to conduce to our ease and to our ends and this is Impingere to stumble and not to go on in an equall pace not to do the will of God cheerfully And a second degree is Calcitrare to kick and to spurn at this stone to bring some particular sinne and some particular law into comparison to debate thus If I do not this now I shall never have such a time if I slip this I shall never have the like opportunitie if I will be a fool now I shall be a begger all my life and for the law that shall be against it there is but a little evil for a great good and there is a great deal of time to recover and repent that little evil Now to remove a stone that was a land-mark and to hide and cover that stone was all our fault in the Law to hide the will of God from our own conscience with excuses and extenuations this is Calcitrare as much as we can to spurn the stone the land-mark out of the way but the fulnesse and accomplishment of this is in the word of the text Cadere He falls as a piece of money into a river we heare it fall and we see it sink and by and by we see it deep and at last we see it not at all so no man falls at first into any sinne but he heares his own fall there is a tendernesse in his own conscience at the beginning at the entrance into a sinne and he discerns a while the degrees of sinking too but at last he is out of his own sight till he meet this stone some hard reprehension some hard passage of a sermon some hard
the Spirit of God is expressely named so that we do but exercise reason and nature in directing our selves upon God we exercise not Faith and without faith it is impossible to please God till we come to that which is above nature till we apprehend a Trinitie we know God we beleeve in the Trinitie The Gentiles multiplied gods there were almost as many gods as men that beleeved in them and I am got out of that throng and out of that noise when I am come into the knowledge of one God but I am got above stairs got into the bed-chamber when I am come to see the Trinitie and to apprehend not onely that I am in the care of a great powerfull God but that there is a Father that made me a Sonne that redeemed me a holy Ghost that applies this good purpose of the Father and Sonne upon me to me The root of all is God But it is not the way to receive fruits to dig to the root but to reach to the boughs I reach for my creation to the Father for my redemption to the Sonne for my sanctification to the holy Ghost and so I make the knowledge of God a tree of life unto me and not otherwise Truely it is a sad contemplation to see Christians scratch and wound and teare one another with the ignominious invectives and uncharitable names of Heretick and Schismatick about ceremoniall and problematicall and indeed but criticall verball controversies and in the mean time the foundation of all the Trinitie undermined by those numerous those multitudinous ant-hills of Socinians that overflow some parts of the Christian world and multiply every where And therefore the adversaries of the Reformation were wise in their generation when to supplant the credit of both those great assistants of the Reformation Luther Calvin they impute to Calvin fundamentall errour in the divinitie of the second person of the Trinitie the Sonne And they impute to Luther a detestation of the word Trinitie and an expunction thereof in all places of the Liturgie where the Church had received that word They knew well if that slander could prevail against those persons nothing that they could say could prevail upon any good Christians But though in our Doctrine we keep up the Trinitie aright yet God knows in our Practise we do not I hope it cannot be said of any of us that he beleeves not the Trinitie but who amongst us thinks of the Trinitie considers of the Trinitie Father and Sonne do naturally imply and induce one another therefore they fall oftener into our consideration but for the holy Ghost who feels him when he feels him who takes knowledge of his working when he works Indeed our Fathers provided not well enough for the worship of the whole Trinitie nor of the holy Ghost in particular in the endowments of the Church and consecrations of the Churches and possessions in their names what a spirituall dominion in the Prayers worship of the people what a temporall dominion in the possessions of the world had the Virgin Marie Queen of heaven and Queen of earth too She was made joynt-purchaser of the Church with the Sonne and had asmuch of the worship thereof as he though she paid her Fine in milk and he in bloud And till a new sect came in her Sonnes name and in his name the name of Jesus took the Regencie so farre out of that Queen-mothers hands and sued out her sonnes liverie so farre as that though her name be used the Virgin Marie is but a Feofee in trust for them all was hers And if God oppose not these new usurpers of the world posteritie will soon see S. Ignatius worth all the Trinitie in possessions and endowments and that sumptuous and splendid foundation of his first Temple at Rome may well create a conjecture and suspicion Travell no farther Survey but this Citie and of their not one hundred Churches the Virgin Marie hath a dozen The Trinitie hath but one Christ hath but one the holy Ghost hath none But not to go into the Citie nor out of our selves which of us doth truely considerately ascribe the comforts that he receives in dangers or in distresses to that God of all comfort the Comforter the holy Ghost We know who procured us our presentation and our dispensation you know who procured you your offices and your honours Shall I ever forget who gave me my comfort in sicknesse who gave me my comfort in the troubles and perplexities and diffidencies of my conscience The holy Ghost the holy Ghost brought you hither The holy Ghost opens your eares and your hearts here Till in all your distresses you say Veni Creator Spiritus Come holy Ghost and that you feel a comfort in his coming you can never say Veni Domine Jesu Come Lord Jesus come to judgement Never to consider the day of judgement is a fearfull thing but to consider the day of judgement without the holy Ghost is a thousand times more fearfull This seal then this impression this notion of the Trinitie being set upon us in this first plurall word of our Text Faciamus Let us for Father Sonne and holy Ghost made man and this seal being reimprinted upon us in our second Creation or Regeneration in Baptisme man is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost this notion of the Trinitie being our distinctive character from Jew and Gentile this being our specificall form why doth not this our form this soul of our Religion denominate us why are we not called Trinitarians a name that would embrace the profession of all the persons but onely Christians which limits and determines us upon one The first Christians amongst whose manifold persecutions scorn and contempt was not the least in contempt and scorn were called Nazaraei Nazarites in the mouth of the vulgar and Galilaei Galileans in the mouth of Julian Judaei Jews in the mouth of Nero when he imputed the burning of Rome his own art to them and Christiani Christians so that as Tertullian sayes they could accuse Christians of nothing but the name of Christians and yet they could not call them by their right name of Christians which was gentle quiet easie patient men made to be troden upon but they gave them divers names in scorn yet never called them Trinitarians Christians themselves amongst themselves were called by divers names in the Primitive Church for distinction Fideles the Faithfull and Fratres the Brethren and Discipuli Disciples after by common custome at Antioch Christians and after that they say by a councell which the Apostles held at the same Citie at Antioch there passed an expresse Canon of the Church that they should be called so Christians And before they had this name at Antioch first by common usage after by a determinate Canon to be called Christians from Christ at Alexandria they were called most likely from the name of Jesus
frustum de illo corpore I took thee O God sayes that Father to be a globe of fire and my soul to be a spark of that fire thee to be a bodie of light and my soul to be a beam of that light But S. Augustine doth not onely retract that in himself but dispute against it in the Manichees But this image is in our soul as the soul is the wax and this image the seal The comparison is S. Cyrils and he addes well that no seal but that which printed the wax at first can fit that wax and fill that impression after no image but the image of God can fit our soul every other seal is too narrow too shallow for it The magistrate is sealed with the Lion the Wolf will not fit that seal the magistrate hath a power in his hand but not oppression Princes are sealed with the Crown the Mitre will not fit that seal Powerfully and graciously they protect the Church and are supream heads of the Church but they minister not the Sacraments of the Church they give preferments but they give not the capacitie of preferments they give order who shall have but they have not Orders by which they are enabled to have that they have Men of inferiour and laborious callings in the world are sealed with the Crosse a Rose or a bunch of Grapes will not answer that seal ease and plentie in age must not be looked for without crosses and labour and industrie in youth All men Prince and people Clergie and Magistrate are sealed with the image of God with a conformitie to him and worldly seals will not answer that nor fill up that seal We should wonder to see a mother in the midst of many sweet children passing her time in making babies and puppets for her own delight We should wonder to see a man whose chambers and galleries were full of curious master-pieces thrust in a village-fayre to look upon sixpenie pictures three-farthing prints We have all the image of God at home and we all make babies fancies of honour in our ambitions The master-piece is our own in our own bosome and we thrust in countrey-fayres that is we endure the distempers of any unseasonable weather in night-journeys and watchings we endure the oppositions and scorns and triumphs of a rivall and competitour that seeks with us and shares with us We endure the guiltinesse and reproach of having deceived the trust which a confident friend reposes in us and solicite his wife or daughter We endure the decay of fortune of bodie of soul of honour to possesse lovers pictures pictures that are not originals not made by that hand of God Nature but artificiall beauties and for that bodie we give a soul and for that drug which might have been bought where they bought it for a shilling we give an estate The image of God is more worth then all substances and we give it for colours for dreams for shadows But the better to prevent the losse let us consider the having of this image in what respect in what operation this image is in our soul for whether this image be in those faculties which we have in Nature or in those qualifications which we have in Grace or in those super-illustrations which the blessed shall have in Glorie hath exercised the contemplation of many Properly this image is in nature in the naturall reason and other faculties of the immortall soul of man for thereupon doth S. Bernard say Imago Dei uri potest in gehenna non exuri till the soul be burnt to ashes to nothing which cannot be done no not in hell the image of God cannot be burnt out of the soul for it is radically primarily in the very soul it self and whether that soul be infused into the elect or reprobate that image is in that soul as farre as he hath a soul by nature he hath the image of God by nature in it But then the seal is deeper cut or harder pressed or better preserved in some then in others and in some other considerations then meerly naturall therefore we may consider man who was made here to the image of God and of God in three persons to have been made so in Gods intendment three wayes Man had this image in Nature and doth deface it he hath it also in Grace here and so doth refresh it and he shall have it in Glorie hereafter and that shall fix it establish it And in every of these three in this Trinitie in man Nature Grace and Glorie man hath not onely the image of God but the image of all the persons of the Trinitie in every of his three capacities He hath the image of the Father the image of the Sonne the image of the holy Ghost in nature and all these also in grace and all these in glorie too How all these are in all I cannot hope to handle particularly not though I were upon the first grain of our sand upon the first dram of your patience upon the first flash of my strength But a cleare repeating of these many branches that these things are thus that all the persons of the heavenly Trinitie are in their image in every branch of this humane Trinitie in man may at least must suffice In nature then man that is the soul of man hath this image of God of God considered in his unitie entirely altogether in this that this soul is made of nothing proceeds of nothing All other creatures are made of that preexistent matter which God had made before so were our bodies too but our souls of nothing now not to be made at all is to be God himself onely God himself was never made But to be made of nothing to have no other parent but God no other element but the breath of God no other instrument but the purpose of God this is to be the image of God for this is nearest to God himself who was never made at all to be made of nothing And then man considered in nature is otherwise the nearest representation of God too for the steps which we consider are foure First Esse Being for some things have onely a being and no life as stones Secondly Vivere Living for some things have life and no sense as plants and then thirdly Sentire Sense for some things have sense and no understanding which understanding and reason man hath with his being and life and sense and so is in a nearer station to God then any creature and a livelier image of him who is the root of being then all they because man onely hath all the declarations of beings Nay if we consider Gods eternitie the soul of man hath such an image of that as that though man had a beginning which the originall the eternall God himself had not yet man shall no more have an end then the originall the eternall God himself shall have And this image of eternitie this post-meridian this after-noon eternitie that
that so on both sides marriage should have such a degree of eternitie as to have had no beginning of marriage before marriage It should have this degree of eternitie too this qualitie of a circle to have no interruption no breaking in the way by unjust suspicions and jealousies Where there is spiritus immunditiei as S. Paul calls it A spirit of uncleannesse there will necessarily be spiritus zelotypiae as Moses calls it A spirit of jealousie But to raise the devil in the power of the devil to call up one spirit by another spirit by the spirit of jealousie and suspicion to induce the spirit of uncleannesse where it was not if a man conjure up a devil so God knows who shall conjure it down again As jealousie is a care and not a suspicion God is not ashamed to protest of himself that he is a jealous God God commands that no idolatrie be committed Thou shalt not bowe down to a graven image Exod. 20. 5 and before he accuses any man to have bowed down to a graven image before any idolatrie was committed he tells them that he is a jealous God God is jealous before there be any harm done And God presents it as a curse when he sayes My jealousie shall depart from thee and I will be Eze. 16. 42. quiet and no more angrie that is I will leave thee to thy self and take no more care of thee Jealousie that implies care and honour and counsel and tendernesse is rooted in God for God is a jealous God and his servants are jealous servants as S. Paul professes of himself I am jealous over 2. Cor. 11. 2 you with a godly jealousie But jealousie that implies diffidence and suspicion and accusation is rooted in the devil for he is The accuser of the brethren So then this secular marriage should be In aeternum eternall for ever as to have no beginning before and so too as to have no jealous interruption by the way for it is so eternall as that it can have no end in this life Those whom God hath joyned no man no devil can separate so as that it shall not remain a marriage so farre as that if those separated persons will live together again yet they shall not be new married so farre certainly the band of marriage continues still The devil makes no marriages he may have a hand in drawing conveyances in the temporall conditions there may be practise but the marriage is made by God in heaven The devil can break no marriages neither though he can by sinne break off all the good uses and take away all the comforts of marriage I pronounce not now whether adulterie dissolve marriage or no It is S. Augustines wisdome to say When the Scripture is silent let me be silent too and I may go lower then he and say Where the Church is silent let me be silent too and our Church is so farre silent in this as that it hath not said that adulterie dissolves marriage Perchance then it is not the death of marriage but surely it is a deadly wound We have authours in the Romane church that think Fornicationem non vagam that such an incontinent life as is limited to one certain person is no deadly sinne but there are none even amongst them that diminish the crime of adulterie Habere quasi non haberes is Christs counsel to have a wife as though thou hadst none that is for continencie and temperance and forbearance and abstinence upon some occasions But Non habere quasi haberes is not so not to have a wife and yet have her to have her that is anothers this is the devils counsel Of that salutation of the Angel to the blessed Virgin Mary Blessed art thou amongst women we may make ever this interpretation not onely that she was blessed amongst women that is above women but that she was Benedicta Blessed amongst women that all women blest her that no woman had occasion to curse her And this is the eternitie of this secular marriage as farre as this world admits any eternitie that it should have no beginning before no interruption of jealousie in the way no such approach towards dissolution as that incontinencie in all opinions and in all Churches is agreed to be And here also without any scruple of fear or of suspicion of the contrarie there is place for this benediction upon this couple Build O Lord upon thine own foundations in these two and establish thy former graces with future that no person ever complain of either of them nor either of them of one another and so he and she are married in aeternum for ever We are come now in our order proposed at Part. II first to our second part for all is said that I intended of the secular marriage And of this second the spirituall marriage much needs not to be said there is another priest that contracts that another preacher that celebrates that the Spirit of God to our spirit And for the third marriage the eternall marriage it is a boldnesse to offer to say any thing of a thing so inexpressible as the joyes of heaven it is a diminution of them to go about to heighten them it is a shadowing of them to go about to lay any colours or lights upon them But yet your patience may perchance last to a word of each of these three circumstances the persons the action the term both in this spirituall and in the eternall marriage First then as in the former part the secular marriage for the persons there we considered first Adam and Eve and after every man and woman and this couple in particular so in this spirituall marriage we consider first Christ and his Church for the persons but more particularly Christ and my soul And can these persons meet In such a distance and in such a disparagement can persons meet The Sonne of God and the sonne of man When I consider Christ to be Germen Jehovae the bud and blossome the fruit off-spring of Jehovah Jehovah himself and my self before he took me in hand to be not a potters vessel of earth but that earth of which the potter might make a vessel if he would and break it if he would when he had made it when I consider Christ to have been from before all beginnings and to be still the image of the Father the same stamp upon the same metall and my self a piece of rusty copper in which those lines of the image of God which were imprinted in me in my creation are defaced and worn and washed and burnt and ground away by my many and many and many sinnes when I consider Christ in his circle in glorie with his Father before he came into this world establishing a glorious Church when he was in this world and glorifying that Church with that glorie which himself had before when he went out of this world and then consider my self in my circle I
speaking of our state in the generall resurrection That Lambe who was brought to the slaughter and Isa 53. 7. opened not his mouth and I who have opened my mouth and poured out imprecations and curses upon men and execrations and blasphemies against God upon every occasion that Lambe which was slain from the beginning and I who was slain by him who was a murderer from the beginning that Lambe which took away the sinnes of the world and I who brought more sinnes into the world then any sacrifice but the bloud of this Lambe could take away this Lambe and I these are the persons shall meet and marrie there is the action This is not a clandestine marriage not the private seal of Christ in the obsignation of his Spirit and yet such a clandestine marriage is a good marriage nor is it such a parish-marriage as when Christ married me to himself at my baptisme in a Church here and yet that marriage of a Christian soul to Christ in that sacrament is a blessed marriage But this is a marriage in that great and glorious congregation where all my sinnes shall be laid open to the eyes of all the world where all the blessed Virgins shall see all my uncleannesses and all the Martyrs see all my tergiversations and all the Confessours see all my double dealings in Gods cause where Abraham shall see my faithlesnesse in Gods promises and Job my impatience in Gods corrections and Lazarus my hardnesse of heart in distributing Gods blessings to the poore and those Virgins and Martyrs and Confessours and Abraham and Job and Lazarus and all that congregation shall look upon the Lambe and upon me and upon one another as though they would all forbid those banes and say to one another Will this Lambe have any thing to do with this soul And yet there and then this Lambe shall marrie me and marrie me In aeternum For ever which is our last circumstance It is not well done to call it a circumstance for the eternitie is a great part of the essence of that marriage Consider then how poore and needie a thing all the riches of this world how flat and tastlesse a thing all the pleasures of this world how pallid and faint and dilute a thing all the honours of this world are when the very treasure and joy and glorie of heaven it self were unperfect if it were not eternall and my marriage shall be so In aeternum For ever The Angels were not married so they incurred an irreparable divorce from God and are separated for ever and I shall be married to him In aeternum For ever The Angels fell in love when there was no object presented before any thing was created when there was nothing but God and themselves they fell in love with themselves and neglected God and so fell In aeternum For ever I shall see all the beautie and all the glorie of all the Saints of God and love them all and know that the Lambe loves them too without jealousie on his part or theirs or mine and so be married In aeternum For ever without interruption or diminution or change of affections I shall see the sunne black as sackcloth Reve. 6. 12 13 14. of hair and the moon become as bloud and the starres fall as a fig-tree casts her untimely figs and the heavens rolled up together as a scrowl I shall see a divorce between princes and their prerogatives between nature and all her elements between the spheres and all their intelligences between matter it self and all her forms and my marriage shall be In aeternum For ever I shall see an end of faith nothing to be beleeved that I do not know and an end of hope nothing to be wished that I do not enjoy but no end of that love in which I am married to that Lambe for ever yea I shall see an end of some of the offices of the Lambe himself Christ himself shall be no longer a Mediatour an Intercessour an Advocate and yet shall continue a Husband to my soul for ever where I shall be rich enough without joynture for my Husband cannot die and wise enough without experience for no new thing can happen there and healthy enough without physick for no sicknesse can enter and which is by much the highest of all safe enough without grace for no temptation that needs particular grace can attempt me There where the Angels which cannot die could not live this very bodie which cannot choose but die shall live and live as long as that God of life that made it Lighten our darknesse we beseech thee O Lord that in thy light we may see light illustrate our understandings kindle our affections poure oyl to our zeal that we may come to the marriage of this Lambe and that this Lambe may come quickly to this marriage and in the mean time blesse these thy servants with making this secular marriage a type of the spirituall and the spirituall an earnest of that eternall which they and we by thy mercie shall have in that kingdome which thy Sonne our Saviour hath purchased with the inestimable price of his incorruptible bloud To whom c. FINIS A SERMON Upon the xliiii verse of the xxi Chapter of MATTHEW By Dr. DONNE DEAN OF PAVLS ¶ Printed by the Printers to the Vniversitie of CAMBRIDGE MDCXXXIIII Matth. 21. 44. VVhosoever shall fall on this stone he shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will dash him in pieces ALmightie God made us for his glorie and his glorie is not the glorie of a tyrant to destroy us but his glorie is our happinesse he put us in a fair way towards that happinesse in nature in creation that way would have brought us to heaven but there we fell and if we consider our selves irrevocably he put us after into another way through many hedges and plowed lands through the difficulties and encumbrances of all the ceremoniall Law there was no way to heaven but that after he brought us a crosse way by the crosse of Christ Jesus and the application of his Gospel and that is our way now and if we compare one way of nature and our way we went out of that way at the towns end assoon as we were in it Adam died assoon as he lived and fell assoon as he was set on foot if we compare the way of the Law and ours the Jews and the Christians their Synagogue was but as Gods farm our Church is as his dwelling house Locavit vineam He let out his vine to husbandmen and then Peregrè profectus He went into a farre countrey he promised a Messias but deferred his coming a long time But to us Dabitur regnum A kingdome is given here is a good improvement the lease changed into an absolute deed of gift here is a good enlargement of the term he gives therefore he will not take away again he gives a kingdome therefore there is a
upon us and to the mountains to cover and hide us from the wrathfull judgement of God He is Judge then Sine appellatione Without any appeal from him he is so too Sine judiciis Without any evidence from us Now if I be warie in my actions here incarnate devils detractours and informers cannot accuse me if my sinne come not into action but lie onely in my heart the devil himself who is the Accuser of the brethren hath no evidence against me But God knows the heart Doth not he that pondereth the heart understand Prov. 24. 12 it where it is not in that faint word which the vulgar edition hath expressed it in Suspector cordium that God sees the heart but the word is Fochen that is every where to weigh to number to search to examine as the word is used by Solomon again The Lord weigheth the spirits and Prov. 16. 2. it must be a steadie hand and exact scales that shall weigh spirits so though neither man nor devil nay nor my self give evidence against me yea though I know nothing by my self I am not thereby justified Why where is the further danger in this which follows there in S. Paul He that judgeth 1. Cor. 4. 4. me is the Lord and the Lord hath means to know my heart better then my self And therefore S. Augustine makes use of those words Abyssus Psal 42. 9. abyssum invocat One depth calls up another the infinite depth of my sinnes must call upon the infinite depth of Gods mercie for if God who is a Judge in all these respects Judicio detestationis he knows and abhorres evil and Judicio discretionis he discerns every evil person and every evil action and Judicio retributionis he can and will recompense evil with evil and all these Sine appellatione we cannot appeal from him and Sine judiciis he needs no evidence from us if this Judge enter into judgement with me not onely not I but not the most righteous man nay nor the Church whom he hath washed in his bloud that she might be without spot or wrinkle shall appeare righteous in his sight This then being thus that judgement is an inseparable Part. II character of God and God the Father being Fons deitatis the root and spring of the whole deitie how is it said that the Father judgeth no man not that we should conceive a wearinesse or retiring in the Father or a discharging of himself upon the shoulders and labours of another in the administration and judging of this world for as it is truely said that God rested the seventh day that is he rested from working in that kinde from creating so it is true that Christ sayes here My Father worketh yet and I work and so it is truely said here The Father judgeth no man it is truely John 8. 5. said by Christ too of the Father I seek not mine own glorie there is one that seeketh and judgeth still it is true that God hath Judicium detestationis Thy eyes are pure eyes O Lord and cannot behold iniquitie sayes the Prophet still it is true that he hath Judicium discretionis Because they committed Jer. 29. 23. Villanie in Israel even I know it saith the Lord still it is true that he hath Judicium retributionis The Lord killeth and maketh alive he bringeth 1. Sam. 2. 6. down to the grave and bringeth up still it is true that he hath all these Sine appellatione for go to the sea or earth or hell as David makes the distribution and God is there and he hath them Sine judiciis for our witnesse is in heaven and our record on high All this is undeniably true and besides this that great name of God by which he is first called in the Scriptures ELOHIM is not inconveniently derived from Elah which is jurare to swear God is able as a Judge to minister an oath unto us and to draw evidence from our own consciences against our selves so that then the Father judgeth still but he judges as God and not as the Father In the three great judgements of God the whole Trinitie judges In the first judgement before all times which was Gods judiciarie separating of vessels of honour from vessels of dishonour in our election and reprobation In his second judgement which is in execution now which is Gods judiciarie separating of servants from enemies in the seals and in the administration of the Christian Church And in the last judgement which shall be Gods judiciarie separating sheep from goats to everlasting glorie or condemnation In all these three judgements all the three persons of the Trinitie are Judges Consider God all together and so in all outward works all the Trinitie concurres because all are but one God but consider God in relation in distinct persons and so the severall persons of the Trinitie do some things which the other persons of the Trinitie are not interessed in the Sonne had not generation from himself so as he had from the Father and the holy Ghost as a distinct person had none at all the holy Ghost had a proceeding from the Father and the Sonne but from the Sonne a person who had his generation from another but not so from the Father Not to stray into clouds or perplexities in the contemplation God that is the whole Trinitie judges still but so as the Sonne judgeth the Father judgeth not for that judgement he hath committed That we may husband our houre as well and rescribe as much as we can for our two last considerations the Cui and the Quid To whom and that is to the Sonne and what he hath committed and that is all judgement we will not stand much upon this more needs not then this that God in his wisdome foreseeing that man by his weaknesse would not be able to settle himself upon the consideration of God and his judgements as they are meerly spirituall and heavenly out of his abundant goodnesse hath established a judgement and ordained a judge upon earth like himself and like our selves too that as no man hath seen God so no man should go about to see his unsearchable decrees judgements but rest in those sensible and visible means which he hath afforded that is Christ Jesus speaking in his Church and applying his bloud unto us in the sacraments unto the worlds end God might have suffered Abraham to rest in the first generall promise Semen mulieris The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head but he would bring it nearer to a visible to a personall covenant In semine tuo In thy seed shall all nations be blessed he might well have let him rest in that appropriation of his promise to his race but he would proceed further and seal it with a sensible seal in his flesh with circumcision He might have let him rest in that ratification that a Messias should come by that way but he would refresh it by a
our evidence to that kingdome written in his bloud sealed in his wounds yet if he be not our Judge we cannot stand in judgement Shall he be our Judge and is he not our Judge yet long before we were he was our Judge at the separation of the elect and reprobate in Gods eternall decree was he our Judge then and is he not still still he is present in his Church and cleares us in all scruples rectifies us in all errours erects us in all dejections of spirit pronounces peace and reconciliation in all apprehensions of his judgements by his word by his sacraments was he and is he and shall he not be our Judge still I am Job 19. 25. sure my Redemer liveth and he shall stand at the last day on the earth so that Christ Jesus is the same to day and yesterday and for ever before the world began and world without end sicut erat in principio as he was in the beginning he is and shall be ever our Judge So that then these words are not de tempore but de modo there was never any time when Christ was not Judge but there were some manner of judgements which Christ did never exercise And Christ had no commission which he did not execute for he did all his Fathers will First In secularibus in civil and criminall businesses which belong meerly to the judicature and cognisance of the world Judicat neminem Christ judges no man Secondly Secundum carnem so as they to whom Christ spoke this who judged as himself sayes here according to fleshly affections Judicat neminem He judges no man And thirdly Ad internecionem so as that upon that judgement a man should despair of any reconciliation any redintegration with God again and be without hope of pardon or remission of sinnes in this world Judicat neminem He judges no man First Christ usurps upon no mans jurisdictions that were against justice Secondly he imputes no false things to any man that were against charitie Thirdly Christ induces no man to desperation that were against faith and against justice against charitie against faith Judicat neminem First then Christ judges not in secular judgements Part. I and we note his absence therein first in civil matters When one of the companie said unto him Master bid my brother divide the inheritance with me as S. Augustine sayes the partie thought his cause to be just and he thought Christ to be a competent Judge in the cause yet Christ declines the judgement disavows the authoritie and he answers Homo quis me constituit judicem Luk. 12. 14. Man who made me a judge between you two That generall which we had in the morning Omne judicium The Sonne hath all judgement here is an exception of the same Judges making for in secular judgement Nemo constituit He had no commission and therefore Judicat neminem He judges no man he forbore in civil he forbore in criminall matters too For when the woman taken in adulterie was brought before him he condemned her not he undertook no office of a Judge but of a sweet and spirituall counsellour Go and sinne no more for this was his element his tribunall When then Christ sayes of himself with such a pregnant negative Quis me constituit judicem may not we say so too to his pretended Vicar the Bishop of Rome Quis te Who made you a judge of kings and that you should depose them in criminall causes or who made you proprietour of kingdomes that you should dispose of them as of civil inheritance when to countenance such a pretence they detort places of Scripture not onely perversly but senselesly blasphemously and ridiculously as ridiculously as in their pasquils when in an undiscreet shamelesnesse to make their power greater then it is they make their fault greater then it is too and fill their histories with kings deposed by Popes which in truth were not deposed by them for in that they are more innocent then they confesse themselves when some of their authours say that the Primitive Church abstained from deposing of the Emperours onely because she was not strong enough to do it when some of them say that all the Christian kingdomes of the earth may fall into the Church of Rome by faults in those princes when some of them say that de facto the Pope hath alreadie a good title to every Christian kingdome when some of them say the world will never be well governed till the Pope himself puts himself in possession of all all which severall propositions are in severall authours of good reputation amongst them will he not endure Christs own question Quis to constituit Who made you a judge of all this if they say Christ did did he it in his doctrine it is hard to pretend that for such an institution as that must have very cleare very pregnant words to carrie it Did he do it by his example and practise we see he abstained in civil he abstained in criminall causes When they come to their last shift that Christ did exercise judiciarie authoritie when he whipt merchants out of the temple when he cursed the fig-tree and damnified the owner thereof when he destroyed the herd of swine for there say they the devil was but the executioner Christ was the Judge to all these and such as these it is enough to say all these were miraculous and not ordinarie and though it might seem half a miracle how that Bishops should exercise so much authoritie as he hath done over the world yet when we look nearer and see his means that he hath done all this by by massacres that of millions by withdrawing subjects from their allegeance by assassinating and murdering of princes when we know that miracles are without means and we see the means of his proceedings the miracle ceaseth howsoever that Bishop as Christs Vicar can claim no other power then was ordinarie in Christ and so exercised by Christ and so Judicat neminem In secular judgement Christ judges no man and therefore that Bishop as his Vicar should not Secondly Christ judges no man by calumnie Part. II by imputing or laying false aspersions upon him nor true things extrajudicially for that is a degree of calumnie and slander and detraction so large a field as that we may fight out the last drop of our bloud preach out the last gasp of our breath before we overcome it Those to whom Christ spoke here were such as gave perverse judgements and calumniated the censures upon him and so he judges no man we need not insist upon that for it is manifestè verum but that we may see our danger and our dutie what calumnie is and see how to avoid it actively and how to bear it passively I must by your leave stop a little upon it When we would present to you that monster slander and calumnie though it be hard to bring it within any compasse of a division yet