sermon Idem hadst thou rather be beholden to a Physitian for thy salvation than to a Preacher thy business is to remember stay not for thy last sickness which may be a Lethargy in which thou mayest forget thine own name and his that gave thee the name of a Christian Christ Jesus himself thy business is to remember and thy time is now stay not till that Angel come which shall say and swear Apo. 10 6. that time shall be no more Remember then and remember now In Die in the day In Die Ps 20.10 The Lord will hear us In die qua invocaverimus in the day that we shall call upon him and in quacunque dei in what day soever we call Ps 137.4 and in quacunque die velociter exaudiet as soon as we call in any day Psa 101.1 But all this is Opus diei a work for the day for in the night in our last night those thoughts that fall upon us they are rather dreams then true remembrings we do rather dream that we repent then repent indeed upon our death-bed To him that travails by night a bush seems a tree and a tree seems a man and a man a spirit nothing hath the true shape to him to him that repents by night on his death-bed neither his own sins nor the mercies of God have their true proportion Fool saies Christ this night they will fetch away thy soul but he neither tels him who they be that shall fetch it nor whether they shall carry it he hath no light but lightnings a sodain flash of horror first and then he goes into fire without light Numquid Deus nobis ignem pacavit non sed Diabolo et Angelis Chrysosto did God ordain hell fire for us no but for the Devil and his Angels And yet we that are vessels so broken as that there is not a sheard left to fetch water at the pit that is no means in our selves Esa 30. to derive one drop of Christs blood upon us nor to wring out one tear of true repentance from us have plung'd our selves into this everlasting and this dark fire which was not prepared for us A wretched covetousness to be intruders upon the Devil a wretched ambition to be usurpers upon damnation God did not make the fire for us but much less did he make us for that fire that is make us to damn us But now the Judgment is given Ite maledicti go ye accursed but yet this is the way of Gods justice and his proceeding that his Judgments are not alwaies executed though they be given The Judgments and Sentences of Medes and Persians are irrevocable but the Judgments and Sentences of God if they be given if they be published they are not executed The Ninevites had perished if the sentence of their destruction had not been given and the sentence preserv'd them so even in this cloud of Ite maledicti go ye accursed we may see the day break and discern beams of saving light even in this Judgment of eternal darkness if the contemplation of his Judgment brings us to remember him in that day in the light and apprehension of his anger and correction In Diebus For this circumstance is enlarged it is not in die but in diebus not in one but in many dayes for God affords us many dayes many lights to see and remember him by This remembrance of God is our regeneration by which we are new creatures and therefore we may consider as many dayes in it as in the first creation The first day was the making of light and our first day is the knowledg of him who saies of himself ego sum lux mundi I am the light of the world Joh. 1. and of whom St. John testifies Erat lux vera he was the true light that lighteth every man into the world This is then our first day the true passion of Christ Jesus God made light first that the other creatures might be seen Ambro. Frustra essent si non viderentur It had been to no purpose to have made creatures if there had been no light to manifest them Our first day is the light and love of the Gospel for the noblest creatures of Princes that is the noblest actions of Princes war and peace and treaties frustra sunt they are good for nothing they are nothing if they be not shew'd and tried by this light by the love and preservation of the Gospel of Christ Jesus God made light first that his other works might appear and he made light first that himself for our example might do all his other works in the light that we also as we had that light shed upon us in our baptism so we might make all our future actions justifiable by that light and not Erubescere Evangelium not be ashamed of being too jealous in this profession of his truth Then God saw that the light was good the seeing implies a consideration that so a religion be not accepted blindly nor implicitly and the seeing it to be good implies an election of that religion which is simply good in it self and not good by reason of advantage or conveniency or other collateral and by-respects And when God had seen the light and seen that it was good then he severed light from darkness and he severed them non tanquam duo positiva not as as two essential and positive and equal things not so as that a brighter and a darker religion a good and a bad should both have a beeing together but tanquam positivum et primitivum light and darkness are primitive and positive and figure this rather that a true religion should be established and continue and darkness utterly removed and then and not till then till this was done light severed from darkness there was a day And since God hath given us this day the brightness of his Gospel that this light is first presented that is all great actions begun with this consideration of the Gospel since all other things are made by this light that is all have relation to the continuance of the Gospel since God hath given us such a head as is sharp-sighted in seeing the several lights wise in discerning the true light powerful in resisting forraign darkness since God hath given us this day qui non humiliabit animam suam in die hac Serm. 20. as Moses speaks of the dayes of Gods institution he that will not remember God now in this day is impious to him and unthankful to that great instrument of his by whom this day spring from an high hath visited us To make shorter dayes of the rest Levit. 23. for we must pass through all the six dayes in a few minuts God in the second day made the firmament to divide between the waters above and the waters below and this firmament in us is terminus cognoscibilium the limits of those things which God hath
not onely to Priests that St. Peter said 1 Pet. 2.9 God had made them a Royal Priesthood not onely of Priests that St. John said God hath made us Kings and Priests There is not so Regal so Soveraign Ap. 5.10 so Monarchical a Prerogative as to have Animum Deosubditum Leo. Corporis sui Rectorem That man who hath a soul in subjection to God and in dominion over his own body that man is a King And then there is not so holy so Priestly an Office as Pietatis hostias de altari Cordis offerre That man who from the Altar of a pure heart Idem offers sacrifices of prayer and praise to God that man is a Priest so all you are or may be Kings and all Priests Nay Chrysost St. Chrysost appropriates this rather to you then to us not to us at all for he read this very Text in Cordibus vestris in your hearts Since then to this intendment you are Priests as we are since altogether make up Clerum Domini the Lords Clergy and his portion do not you make us to be all of the inferiour Ministry and all you selves to be Bishops over us to visit us judge us syndicate us and leave out your selves Plus Sacerdotum vitam quam suum discutientes as St. G. complains that bestow more time in examining the lives of their Pastors then their own Aquin. Quid tibi Malus Minister ubi bonus Dominus says Aquinas upon this As long as thou art sure that the Master of the house will receive thee kindly what carest thou though a surly Fellow let thee in at door Sacramenta ab sunt indigne tractantibus says that Father August An hypocritical preaching of the Word an unclean Administration of the Sacraments shall aggravate the condemnation of that unclean Hypocrite but yet Prosunt digne sumentibus a worthy Receiver receives the vertue and benefit of the Word and Sacraments though from an unworthy Giver I may be bold to say that this City hath the ablest preaching Clergy of any City in Christendom must I be fain to say that the Clergy of this City hath the poorest intertainment of any City that can come into comparison with it it is so And that to which they have pretences and claims to be farther due to them is detained not because that which they have is enough but because that which they claim is too much The circumstance of the quantity and proportion keeps off the consideration of the very right So that this Clergy is therefore poor because they should be rich therefore kept without any part because so great a part seems to belong unto them Grieve not the Spirit of God grieve not the spiritual man the man of God neither Aug. Ex tristitia sermo procedens minus gratus est He that preaches from a sad heart under the sence of a great charge and small means cannot preach cheerfully to you Provide says the Apostle Heb. 13.17 that they who watch over your souls may doe it with joy and not with grief for says he that 's unprofitable for you You receive not so much profit by them as you might doe if they might attend your service intirely when they are distracted with chargeable suites abroad or macerated with penurious fortunes at home Consider how much other Professions of Arms of Merchandise of Agriculture of Law it self are decay'd of late and thence though not only thence it is that so many more in our times then ever before of Honorable and Worshipful Families apply themselves to our Profession to the Ministry Let therefore this light shine in your hearts bless God for this blessed increase and shine in your tongues glorifie God in a good interpretation of the actions of his Ministers and shine in your hands cherish and comfort them so that they be not put to bread and water that give you bread and wine nor mourn in smoaky corners who bring you the Sun-shine of the glorious Gospel the Gospel of consolation into the congregation And so we have done with all the four considerations which made up this first branch our Vocation by this Light consider'd positively The Thing the Time the Place and the Persons A little remains by debt of promise Comparatio to be said of this Comparatively As God commanded light so he hath shin'd in our hearts A little before the Text the act of the Devil is to induce darkness but God illumins Deus hujus saeculi says the Apostle the God of this world that is 1. 14. the Devil blinds the eyes of men Which words by the way give just occasion of making this short note that many times by altercation and vehemence of Disputation the truth of the literal sense is indangered and therefore we should rather content our selves with positive and necessary Divinity then entangle our selves with impertinent controversies The Manichees and those other Hereticks who constituted Duo Principia and consequently two Gods one good and one bad made use of this Text for that opinion That if the Devil were God of this world and if any God did blinde the eyes of man there was an ill God And to elevate and take away that Argument of those Hereticks very many of the ancient Fathers Irenaeus litterally and expresly and expresly and literally S. Chrys too and S. Aug. says most of the Orthodox Fathers would needs read that place with another distinction another interpunction then indeed belongs to it not Deus hujus saeculi The God of this world hath blinded man but Deus hujus saeculi mentes God that is the true God hath blinded the eyes of the men of this world And so for fear of giving the name of God to the Devil they attribute the action of the Devil to God I doe not mean that the Fathers doe it they were far from it but this shift and this inconvenient manner of expressing themselves hath made some later men who think so think that the Fathers thought God to be really positively primarily the author of the excaecation of the Reprobates In what sense that may be said how and how far God concurs to this excaecation we dispute not now We rest in that of St. Aug. Aliud venit de astutia suadentis aliud de nequitia nolentis aliud de justitia punientis August God hath a part a great part in this but not the first First says St. Aug. Satan suggests then man consents then enters God by way of punishment of Justice And how far doth he punish Deserendo he forsakes that sinner he withdraws his Grace and then as upon the departing of the Sun darkness follows but the Sun is not the cause of darkness so upon departing of Grace follows excaecation God our God is the God of light and lightneth every man that cometh into the world So he begun in the Creation so he proceeds in our Vocation As he commanded light
of darkness so he hath shin'd in our hearts First He made light There was none before so first He shines in our hearts by his preventing Grace there was no light before not of Nature by which any man could see any means of salvation not of foreseen Merits that God should light his light at our Candle give us Grace therefore because he saw that we would use that Grace well He made light he infus'd Grace And then He made light first of all Creatures Ut innotescerent says St. Ambr. that by that light all his other Creatures might be seen which is also the use of this other light that shines in our hearts that by that light the love of the Truth and the glory of Christ Jesus all our actions may be manifested to the world and abide that tryal that we look for no other approbation of them then as they are justifiable by that light as they conduce to the maintenance of his Religion and the advancement of his glory not to consider actions as they are wisely done valiantly done learnedly done but onely as they are religiously done and ut abdicemus occulta dedecoris v. 2. as the Apostle speaks That we may renounce the hidden things of dishonesty and not walk in craftiness that is not sin therefore because we see our sins may be hid from the world For says St. Ambrose speaking of Gyges Ring a Ring by which he that wore it became invisible Da sapienti says that Father Give a wise man a man religiously wise that Ring and though he might sin invisibly before men he would not because God sees Nay Seneca even the moral man goes further then that in that point Though I knew says he hominem ignoraturum Deum ignosciturum that man should never know it and that God would forgive it I would not sin for the very soulness that is naturally in sin As God commanded light for the Manifestation of his creatures so he hath shin'd in our hearts that our actions might appear by that light How then made he that light Dixit he said it by his Word In which we note first the means Verbo he did it by his Word and by his Word the preaching of his Word doth he shine in our hearts And we consider also the dispatch how soon he made light Chrysost with a word Dixit id est summa cum celeritate fecit his work cost him but a word Tertul. and then Cogitasse jussisse est his word cost him but a thought So if we consider the dispatch of Christ Jesus in all his Miracles there went but a Tolle Take up thy bed and walk to the lame man but an Ephptata Be opened to the deaf man but a Quid vides What seest thou to the blind man If we consider his dispatch upon the thief on the cross how soon he brought him from reviling to glorifying and if any in this Auditory feel that dispatch of the Holy Ghost in his heart that whereas he came hither but to see he hath heard or if he came to hear the man he hath heard God in the man and is better at this Glass then he was at the first better now then when he came and will go away better then he is yet he that feels this must confess that as God commanded light out of darkness so he hath shin'd in his heart So that is by the same means by his Word and so that is with the same speed and dispatch Again Deus vidit lucem God saw the light he looked upon it he considered it This second light even Religion it self must be looked upon considered not taken implicitely nor occasionally not advantageously but seriously and deliberately and then assuredly and constantly And then vidit quod bona God saw that this light was good God did not see nor say that darkness was good that ignorance how near of kin soever they make it to Devotion was good nor that the waters were good that a flui'd a moving a variable an uncertain irresolution in matter of Religion is good nor that that Abyssus that depth which was before light was good that it is good to surround and enwrap our selves in deep and perplexing School-points but he saw that light evident and fundamental Articles of Religion were good good to clear thee in all scruples good to sustain thee in all tentations God knew that this light would be good before he made it but he did not say so till he saw it God knew every good work that thou shouldest doe every good thought that thou shouldest think to thy end before thy beginning for he of his own goodness imprinted this degree of goodness in thee but yet assure thy self that he loves thee in another manner and another measure then when thou comest really to doe those good works then before or when thou didst only conceive a purpose of doing them he calls them good when he sees them And when he saw this light this good light he separated all darkness from it When thou hast found this light to have shin'd in thy heart God manifested in his way his true Religion separate all darkness the dark inventions and traditions of men and the works of darkness sin and since thou hast light be night not thy self again with relapsing to either The comparison of these two lights created and infus'd light would run in infinitum I shut it up with this that as at the first production of light till light was made there was a general an universal darkness darkness over all but after light was once made there was never any universal darkness because there is no body bigg enough to shadow the whole Sun from the Earth so till this light shine in our hearts we are wholly darkness but when it hath truly and effectually shin'd in us and manifested to us the evidence of our Election in Gods eternal Decree howsoever there may be some Clouds some Eclipses yet there is no total darkness no total no final falling away of Gods Saints And in all these respects the comparison holds As God commanded light out of darkness so he hath shin'd in our hearts and so we have done with all the branches of our second part which implies our Vocation here and we pass to the last Our Glorification hereafter As in our first part we consider'd by occasion of the first Creature light the whole Creation and so the Creation of man Part III. and in our second part by occasion of this shining in our hearts the whole work of our Vocation and proceeding in this world so in this third part by occasion of this glorious manifestation of God in the face of Christ Jesus which is intended principally by this Apostle of the manifestation of God in the Christian Church we shall also as far as that dazling glory will give us leave consider the perfect state of glory in the Kingdom of Heaven So
that first our branches in this third part will be three these three terms 1 Knowledge 2 Glory and then the face of Jesus Christ Divisio And then we must look upon all these three terms two ways first Inchoative how we have an inchoation of this knowledge of this glory in this face of Christ Jesus here in the Church and then Consummative how we shall have a consummation of all this hereafter Scientia To us then who were created of nothing in the first part and called from the Gentiles in the second in this third part our preparation to glory is knowledge The Persons in this part of the Text are as in the former Not only we we the Ministers of Gods Word but you also the hearers thereof for there is a knowledge an art of hearing as well as of speaking Students make up the University as well as Doctors and Hearers make up the Congregation as well as Preachers A good hearer is as much a Doctor as a Preacher A Doctor to him that sits by him in example whilst he is here a Doctor to all his Family in his repetition when he comes home a Doctor to that which is more then the whole world to him his own soul all his life Christ appear'd to this Apostle Act. 26.16 and said I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a Minister and a witness to open the Gentiles eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God There he received his Degree his learning and the use of it but when St. Paul came abroad into the world when he comes to preach 1.12 and to write he says to the Colos The Father hath made us meet to be partakes of the inheritance of the Saints in his light Us says St. Chrysost and so says Theophylact too and many more then they two Us that is all Us Us that preach you that hear you are bound to study this knowledge as well as we And truly a Hearer hath in some respects advantage of the Preacher for a Preacher though in some measure well dispos'd can hardly exuere hominem put off the affections of man by being a Preacher they stick closer to him then his Hood and habit even in the Pulpit Some little Clouds if not of ostentation and vain glory yet of complacencie and self-pleasing will affect him the hearer hath not that tentation but hath herein a more perfect exercise of the most Christian vertue Humility then the preacher hath Though therefore when you cast your eye upon this part of this Text you see in your Book a difference of Character in this word To give to give light c. which seems to fix all upon the person of the Apostle and consequently of the Minister yet that word is not in the Text but the Text is only for the inlightning God hath shin'd for the inlightning c. which is alike upon all and therefore let us all us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light light it self is faith but the armor of light is knowledge an ignorant man is a disarm'd man a naked man Ignorance then is not our Usher into this presence to shew us the face of Christ Jesus almost in every one of the ancient Fathers you shall find some passages wherein they discover an inclination to that opinion that before Christ came in the manifestation of his Gospel for since that coming every man is bound to see him there many Philosophers men of knowledge and learning were sav'd without the knowledge of Christ Christus Ratio says one of them well for Logos is Ratio and not only Verbum Justin Martyr as it is ordinarily translated Christ is Reason rectified Reason and secundum Rationem vixerunt Christiani semper says he Whosoever lives according to rectified Reason which is the Law of nature he is a Christian and therefore when that Father Justin Martyr who had been before a Philosopher amongst the Gentiles came to be a Preacher amongst the Christians he never left off his Philosophers habit because that gave an impression of his learning and an estimation by it That knowledge was a help to salvation the Ancients thought but that is a new Doctrine that men should make a title to God by being ignorant that whereas all the life of man is either an active life or a contemplative they should in the Romane Church make one Order and call them Nullanos men that did nothing in contempt of the active life and in contempt of the contemplative life another Order whom they call Ignorantes men that know nothing There is an annihilation in sin Homines cum peccam nihil sunt August Then when by sin I depart from the Lord my God in whom only I live and move and have my being I am nothing and truly in this sinful profession of thine of doing nothing of knowing nothing they come too neer being nothing What other answer can this knowing nothing here produce at the last day from Christ Jesus but his Nescio vos I know not you As David says of God Psal 18.26 Cum perverso perverteris With the froward God will be froward so Ignorantes ignorabit of the ignorant God will be ignorant not know them that study not knowledge The miracle that Christ wrought in the conversion of the World was not that he wrought upon men by Apostles that were unlearned for the Apostles were not so they were never unprovided to give a pertinent and satisfactory answer to the learnedest of the Philosophers amongst the Gentiles to any of the Gamaliels and Nicodemusses who were true understanders of the Law amongst the Jews to any of their Scribes the perverters of the Law to any of the Pharisees their Separatists and Schismaticks to any of the Sadduces their formal Hereticks nor to any of their Herodians their State-Divines who made Divinity serve present turns and occasions The Apostles were no ignorant men then when they were imployed but in this consisted the Miracle that in an instant Christ by his Spirit infus'd all knowledge necessary for that great function into them If they had not had it they could not have done his work All must have it Intelligite Reges says David for all their business Kings must study for it Erudimini Judices with their other learning Judges must have this The Prophet denounces it for a heavy curse The Prophet shall be a fool Psa 2. Ose 9.7 he that should teach shall not be able to do it and as it follows The spiritual man shall be mad if he have knowledge he shall not know how to use it St. Hierome translates that word Arreptitius he shall be possessed possess'd with the spirit of fear or of flattery others shall speak in him and he become the instrument of men and not of God It was the Devils first advantage knowledge The
man hath Thesaurus malorum Luc. 6. An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evill sayes our Saviour every man hath some sin upon which his heart is set and where your heart is there is your treasure also The Treasures of wickednesse profit nothing sayes Job 't is true but yet treasures of wickedness there are 10.2 Mich. 6.10 Are there not yet Treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked consider the force of that word yet yet though you have the power of a vigilant Prince executed by just Magistrates yet though you have the piety of a religious Prince seconded by the assiduity of a laborious Clergy yet though you have many helps which your Fathers did and your neighbors doe want and have by Gods grace some fruits of those many helps yet for all this Are there not yet Treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked No Are there not scant measures which are an abomination to God sayes the Prophet there which are not only false measures of merchantdize but false measures of men for when God sayes that he intends all this Is there not yet supplantation in Court and misre-presentations of men When Salomon who understood subordination of places which flowed from him as well as the highest which himself possest sayes and sayes experimentally for his own and prophetically for future times If a Ruler a man in great place hearken to lies all his servants are wicked Are there not yet misrepresentations of men in Courts Is there not yet oppression in the Countrey Prov. 29.12 Amos 8.5 a starving of men and pampering of dogs A swallowing of the needy a buying of the poor for a pair of shoes and a selling to the hungry refuse corn Esai 5.23 Is there not yet oppression in the Country Is there not yet extortion in Westminster A justifying of the wicked for a reward and a taking away of the righteousness of the righteous from him Is there not yet extortion in Westminster Is there not yet Collusion and Circumvention in the City would they not seem richer than they are when they deal in private bargains with one another and would they not seem poorer than they are when they are called to contribute for the Publique Exech 28.5 have they not encreased their riches by Trade and lifted up their hearts upon the encrease of their riches Amos 2 8. have they not slackned their Trade and lyen down upon clothes laid to pledge and ennobled themselves by an ignoble and lazie way of gain Is there not yet collusion and circumvention in the City Is there not yet Hypocrisie in the Church In all parts thereof half-preachings and half-hearings hearings and preachings without practise have we not national sins of our own and yet exercise the nature of Islanders in importing the sins of foraign parts And though we better no foragin commodity nor manufactures that we bring in we improve the sins of other Nations And as a weaker grape growing upon the Rhene contracts a stronger nature in the Canaries so doe the sins of other Nations transplanted amongst us Have we not secular sins sins of our own age our own time and yet sin by precedent of former as well as create precedents for future Jos 6.19 and not only Silver and gold but vessels of iron and brasse were brought into the Treasury of the Lord not only the glorious sins of high places and nationall sins and secular sins but the wretchedest begger in the street contributes to this Treasure the Treasure of sin and to this mischievous use to encrease this Treasure The Treasure of sin is a subsidieman he begs in Jesus name and for Gods sake and in the same name curses him that does not give he counterfeits a lameness or he loves his lameness and would not be cur'd for his lameness is his stock it is his demean it is as they call their occupations in the City his mystery Are there not yet Treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked when even they who have no houses but lie in the streets have these Treasures Thesaurus Dei hic There are and then as the nature of treasure is to multiply so does this treasure this treasure of sin it produces another treasure Thesaurizamus iram Ro. 2.5 We treasure up unto our selves wrath against the day of wrath Deut. 32.34 For it is of the sins of the people that God speaks when he saies Is not this laid up in store with me and sealed up amongst my treasures He treasures up the sins of the disobedient but where In the treasury of his Judgments And then that treasury he opens against us in this world his treasure of snow and treasures of hail that is unseasonableness of weather barrenness and famine and he bringeth his winds out of his treasury contrary winds or storms and tempests to disappoint our purposes Job 38.22 And as he saies to Cyrus I will give thee even thee Cyrus though God car'd not for Cyrus Psal 135.7 otherwise then as he had made Cyrus his scourge I will give thee the treasures of darkness Esa 45.3 and the hidden treasures of secret places God will enable enemies though he loves not those enemies to afflict that people that love not him And these war and dearth and sickness are the weapons of Gods displeasure and these he poures out of his treasury in this world Thesaur Dei in â—â—tuâ—o But then for the world to come he shall open our treasury for whatsoever moved our translators to render that word Armory and not Treasury in that place yet evidently it is Treasury and in that very word Otzar which they translate Treasury Jer. 50.25 in all those places of Job and David and Esai which we mentioned before and in all other places he shall open that treasury saies that Prophet and bring forth the weapons not as before of displeasure but in a far heavier word the weapons of his indignation And in the bowels and treasure of his mercy let me beseech you not to call the denouncing of Gods indignation a Satyr of a Poet or an invective of an Orator as Salomon saies there is a time for all things there is a time for consternation of presumptuous hearts as well as for redintegration of broken hearts and the time for that is this time of mortification which we enter into now Now therefore let me have leave to say that the indignation of God is such a thing as a man would be afraid to think he can express it afraid to think he does know it for the knowledg of the indignation of God imples the sense feeling thereof all knowledg of that is experimental and that 's a woful way and a miserable acquisition and purchase of knowledg To recollect treasure is provision for the future no worldly thing is so there is no certain
God and live in his fear to be mercinarij per laborem to be the workmen of God and labour in his Vineyard to be filij per lavacrum to be the sons of God and preserve that Inheritance which was sealed to us at first in Baptism and last of all Amici per virtutem by the good use of his gifts the King of Kings shall be our friend That which he said to his Apostles his Spirit shall say to our spirit here and seal it to us for a Covenant of Salt an everlasting John 15.14 an irrevocable Covenant Henceforth call I you not servants but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father have I made known unto you And the fruition of this friendship which neither slackens in all our life nor ends at our death the Lord of Life for the death of his most innocent Son afford to us all Amen A Serm. 25. SERMON Preached at the SPITTLE Vpon Easter-Munday 1662. SERMON XXV 2 Cor. 4.6 For God who commanded light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ THe first Book of the Bible begins with the beginning In principio says Moses in Genesis In the beginning God created heaven and earth and can there be any thing prius principio before the beginning Before this beginning there is The last Book of the Bible in the order as they were written the Gospel of St. John begins with the same word too In principio says St. John In the beginning was the Word and here Novissimum primum the last beginning is the first St. John's beginning before Moses Moses speaking but of the Creature and St. John of the Creator and of the Creator before he took that name before he came to the act of Creation as the Word was with God and was God from all Eternity Our present Text is an Epitome of both those beginnings of the first beginning the Creation when God commanded light to shine out of darkness and of the other beginning which is indeed the first of Him in whose face we shall have the knowledge of the glory of God Christ Jesus The first Book of the Bible is a Revelation and so is the last in the order as they stand a Revelation too To declare a production of all things out of nothing which is Moses his work that when I do not know and care not whether I know or no what so contemptible a Creature as an Ant is made of but yet would fain know what so vast and so considerable a thing as an Elephant is made of I care not for a mustard seed but I would fain know what a Cedar is made of I can leave out the consideration of the whole Earth but would be glad to know what the Heavens and the glorious bodies in the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars are made of I shall have but one answer from Moses for all that all my Elephants and Cedars and the Heavens that I consider were made of nothing that a Cloud is as nobly born as the Sun in the Heavens and a begger as nobly as the King upon Earth if we consider the great Grand-father of them all to be nothing to produce light of darkness thus is a Revelation a Manifestation of that which till then was not this Moses does St. John's is a Revelation too a Manifestation of that state which shall be and be for ever after all those which were produced of nothing shall be return'd and ressolv'd to nothing again the glorious state of the everlasting Jerusalem the Kingdom of Heaven Now this Text is a Revelation of both these Revelations the first state that which Moses reveals was too dark for man to see for it was nothing The other that which St. John reveals is too bright too dazling for man to look upon for it is no one limited determined Object but all at once glory and the seat and fountain of all glory the face of Christ Jesus The Holy Ghost hath shewed us both these severally in Moses and in St. John and both together in St. Paul in this Text where as the Sun stands in the midst of the Heavens and shews us both the Creatures that are below it upon Earth and the Creatures that are above it the Stars in Heaven so St. Paul as he is made an Apostle of the Gentiles stands in the midst of this Text God hath shin'd in our hearts Ours as we are Apostolical Ministers of the Gospel and he shows us the greatness of God in the Creation which was before when God commanded light out of darkness and the goodness of God which shall be hereafter when he shall give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus So that this Text giving light by which we see light commanded by God out of darkness and the Object which we are to see the knowledge of the glory of God and this Object being brought within a convenient distance to be seen in the face of Jesus Christ And a fit and well-disposed Medium being illumin'd through which we may see it God having shin'd in our hearts established a Ministry of the Gospel for that purpose if you bring but eyes to that which this Text brings Light and Object and Distance and Means then as St. Basil said of the Book of Psalms upon an impossible supposition If all the other Books of Scripture could perish there were enough in that one for the catechising of all that did believe and for the convincing of all that did not so if all the other Writings of St. Paul could perish this Text were enough to carry us through the body of Divinity from the Cradle of the world in the Creation when God commanded light out of darkness to the Grave and beyond the Grave of the world to the last Dissolution and beyond it when we shall have fully the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus Now whilst I am to speak of all this this which is Omne scibile all and more then can fall within the comprehension of a natural man for it is the beginning of this world and it is the way to the next and it is the next world it self I comfort my self at my first setting out with that of St. Gregory Purgatas aures hominum gratiam nancisci nonne Dei donum est I take it for one of Gods great blessings to me if he have given me now an Auditory Purgatae auris of such spiritual and circumcised Ears as come not to hear that Wisdom of Words which may make the Cross of Christ of none effect much less such itching Ears as come to hear popular and seditious Calumnies and Scandals and Reproaches cast upon the present State and Government For a man may make a Sermon a Satyr he
Rule Whensoever thou enter prisest any action says he consider what Socrates what Plato that is what a wise and religious man would have done in that case and do thou so This way our Saviour directs us Ja. 13.15 I have given you an example It is not only Mandatum novum but exemplum Novum That ye should do even as I have done unto you And this is the way that the Apostle directs us to Phil. 3.13 Brethren be followers of me and because he could not be always with them he adds Look on them which walk so as you have us for an example Love the Legends the Lives the Actions and love the sayings the Apopththegms of good men In all tentations like Josephs tentations Gen. 39.9 love Josephs words How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God In all tentations like Jobs tentations love the words of Job Job 2.10 Shall we receive good at the hands of God and shall we not receive evil In all tentations like to Shidrachs and his fellow-Confessors Dan 3.17 love their words Our God is able to deliver us and he will deliver us but if not we will not serve thy god nor worship thine image Certainly without the practise it is scarce to be discern'd what ease and what profit there is in proposing certain and good Examples to our selves And when you have made up your profit that way rectified your self by that course then as your Sons write by Copies and your Daughters work by Samplars be every Father a Copy to his Son every Mother a Samplar to her Daughter and every house will be an University O in how blessed a nearness to their Direction is that Child and that Servant and that Parishioner who when they shall say to Almighty God by way of Prayer What shall I do to get eternal life shall hear God answer to them by his Spirit Do but as thou seest thy Father do do as thou seest thy Master do do as thou seest thy Pastor do To become a precedent govern thy self by precedent first which is all the Doctrine that I intended to deduce out of this second Proposition Sicut Deus As God commanded light out of darkness so he hath shin'd in our hearts God did as he had done before and so we pass from the Idem Deus and the Sicut Deus to the Quid Deus What that is which God hath done here He commanded light out of darkness Quid Deus The drowning of the first world and the repairing that again the burning of this world and establishing another in heaven do not so much strain a mans Reason as the Creation a Creation of all out of nothing For for the repairing of the world after the Flood compared to the Creation it was eight to nothing eight persons to begin a world upon then but in the Creation none And for the glory which we receive in the next world it is in some sort as the stamping of a print upon a Coyn the metal is there already a body and a soul to receive glory but at the Creation there was no soul to receive glory no body to receive a soul no stuff no matter to make a body of The less any thing is the less we know it how invisible how intelligible a thing then is this Nothing We say in the School Deus cognoscibilior Angelis We have better means to know the nature of God then of Angels because God hath appeared and manifested himself more in actions then Angels have done we know what they are by knowing what they have done and it is very little that is related to us what Angels have done what then is there that can bring this Nothing to our understanding what hath that done A Leviathan a Whale from a grain of Spawn an Oke from a buried Akehorn is a great but a great world from nothing is a strange improvement We wonder to see a man rise from nothing to a great Estate but that Nothing is but nothing in comparison but absolutely nothing meerly nothing is more incomprehensible then any thing then all things together It is a state if a man may call it a state that the Devil himself in the midst of his torments cannot wish No man can the Devil himself cannot advisedly deliberately wish himself to be nothing It is truely and safely said in the School That whatsoever can be the subject of a wish if I can desire it wish it it must necessarily be better at least in my opinion then that which I have and whatsoever is better is not nothing whithout doubt it must necessarily produce more thankfulness in me towards God that I am a Christian but certainly more wonder that I am a Creature it is vehemently spoken but yet needs no excuse which Justin Marter says Ne ipsi quidem Domino fidem haberem c. I should scarce believe God himself if he should tell me that any but himself created this world of nothing so infallible and so inseparable a work and so distinctive a Character is it of the Godhead to produce any thing from nothing and that God did when he commanded light out of darkness Moses stands not long upon the Creation in the description thereof no more will we When there went but a word to the making it self why should we make many words in the description thereof We will therefore onely declare the three terms in this Proposition and so proceed first God commanded then he commanded light and light out of darkness For the first that which we translate here commanded is in St. Pauls mouth the same that is Moses Dixit and no more God said it But then if he said it Cui dixit to whom did he say it Procopius asks the Question and he answers himself Dixit Angelis He said it to the Angels For Procopius being of that opinion which very many were of besides himself that God had made the Angels some time before he came to the Creation of particular Creatures he thinks that when he came to that he call'd the Angels that they by seeing of what all other Creatures were made might know also of what stuff themselves were made of the common and general nothing Some others had said that God said this to the Creature it self which was now in fieri as we say in the School in the production ready to be brought forth Athanasius But then says Athanasius God would have said Sis Lux and not Sit Lux He would have said Be thou O Light or appear and come forth O Light and not Let there be Light But what needs all this vexation in Procopius or Athanasius When as Dicere Dei est intelligere ejus practicum Dionysius Carthus when God would produce his Idaea his pre-conception into action that action that production was his Dixit his saying It is as we say in School Actus indicativus practici intellectus Gods outward
Declaration of an inward purpose by execution of that purpose that his Dixit his saying R. Moses It is sufficiently expressed by Rab Moses In Creatione Dicta sunt voluntates In the act of Creation the Will of GOD was the Word of God his Will that it should be was his saying Let it be Of which it is a convenient example which is in the Prophet Jonah 2.10 The Lord spake unto the Fish and it vomited Jonah upon the dry Land that is God would have the Fish to do it and it did it God spake then in the Creation but he spake Ineffabiliter says St. Aug. August without uttering any sound He spake but he spake Intemporaliter says that Father too without spending any time in distinction of syllables But yet when he spoke Aliquis ad fuit as Athanasius presses it Athan. surely there was some body with him there was says he VVho Verbum ejus ad fuit ad fuit Spiritus ejus says he truly the second Person in the Trinity his Eternal VVord and the third Person the Holy Ghost were both there at the Creation and to them he spoke For By the Word of the Lord were the heavens framed and all the host of them Spiritu oris ejus Job 33.4 by that Spirit that proceeded from him says David The Spirit of God hath made me 26. 13. and By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens So that in one word thou who wast nothing hast employed and set on work the heart and hand of all the three Perâ—ons in the blessed and glorious Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost to the making of thee and then what oughtest thou to be and to do in retribution and not to make thee that which thou art now a Christian but even to make thee that wherein 〈◊〉 wast equal to a worm to a grain of dust Hast thou put the whole Trinity to busie themselves upon thee and therefore what shouldst thou be towards them But here in this branch we consider not so much not his noblest Creature Man but his first Creature Light He commanded and he commanded Light And of Light we say no more in this place but this that in all the Scriptures in which the word Light is very often metaphorically applyed it is never applyed in an ill sence Christ is called a Lyon but there is an ill Lyon too that seeks whom he may devour Christ is the serpent that was exalted but there is an ill serpent that did devour us all at once But Christ is the light of the world and no ill thing is call'd light Light was Gods signature by which he set his hand to the Creation and therefore as Princes signe above the Letter and not below God made light first in that first Creature he declared his presence his Majesty the more in that he commanded light out of darkness There was Lumen de Lumine before light of light very God of very God an eternal Son of an eternal Father before But light out of darkness is Musick out of silence It was one distinct plague of Egypt darkness above and one distinct blessing that the children of Israel had light in their dwellings But for some spiritual Applications of light and darkness we shall have room again when after we shall have spoken of our second part our Vocation as God hath shin'd in our hearts positively we shall come to speak of that shining comparatively That God hath so shin'd in our hearts as he commanded light out of darkness And to those two Branches of our second part the positive and comparative Consideration of that shining we are in order come now In the first part we were made in this second we are mended Part II. in the first we were brought into this world in this second we are led through it in the first we are Creatures in this we are Christians God hath shin'd in our hearts In this part Divisio we shall have two Branches a positive and a comparative consideration of the words First the matter it self what this shining is and it is the conversion of Man to God by the ministry of the Gospel and secondly how this manner of expressing it answers the comparison As God commanded light out of darkness so he hath shin'd in our hearts And in the first the positive we shall pass by these few and short steps first Gods action Illuxit he shine it is evidence Manifestation And then the time when this day breaks when this Sun rises Illuxit he hath shin'd he hath done enough already Thirdly the place the sphere in which he shines the Orb which he hath illumin'd in Cordibus if he shine he shines in the heart And lastly the persons upon whom he casts his beams in Cordibus nostris in our hearts And having past these four in the positive part we shall descend to the comparative as God commanded light out of darkness so he hath shin'd in our hearts 1. Lucet First then for Gods action his working in the Christian Church which is our Vocation we consider man to be all to be all Creatures Mar. 16.15 according to that expression of our Saviour's Go preach the Gospel to every Creature and agreeable to that largeness in which he receiv'd it Colos 1.23 the Apostle delivers it The Gospel is preached to every Creature under heaven The properties the qualities of every Creature are in man the Essence the Existence of every Creature is for man so man is every Creature And therefore the Philosopher draws man into too narrow a table when he says he is Microcosmos an Abridgement of the world in little Nazianzen gives him but his due when he calls him Mundum Magnum a world to which all the rest of the world is but subordinate For all the world besides is but Gods Foot-stool Man sits down upon his right hand and howsoever God be in all the world yet how did God dwell in man in the assumption of that nature and what care did GOD take of that dwelling that when that house was demolished would yet dwell in the ruines thereof for the Godhead did not depart from the dead body of Christ Jesus in the Grave And then how much more gloriously then before did he re-edifie that house in raising it again to Glory Man therefore is Cura Divini ingenii Tertul. a creature upon whom not onely the greatness and the goodness but even the study and diligence of God is employed And being thus a greater world then the other he must be greater in all his parts and so in his lights and so he is for instead of this light which the world had at first Man hath a nobler light an immortal a discerning soul the light of reason Instead of the many stars which this world hath man hath had the light of the Law and the succession of the Prophets And instead of that Sun which