is there comfort in that state why that is the state of hell it self Eternall dying and not dead But for this there is enough said by the Morall man that we may respite divine proofes for divine points anon for our severall Resurrections for this death is meerly naturall and it is enough that the morall man sayes Mors lex tributum officium mortalium First it is lex you were born under that law upon that condition to die Sencea so it is a rebellious thing not to be content to die it opposes the Law Then it is Tributum an imposition which nature the Queen of this world layes upon us and which she will take when and where se lift here a yong man there an old man herea happy there a miserable man And so itis a seditious thing not to be content to die it opposes the prerogative And lastly it is Officium men are to have rheir turnes to take their time and then to give way by death to successors and so it is Incivile inofficiosum not to be content to die it opposes the frame and form of government It comes equally to us all and makes us all equall when it comes The eshes of an Oak in the Chimney are no Epitaph of that Oak to tell me how high or how large that was It tels me not what flocks it sheltered while it stood nor what men it hurt when it fell The dust of great persons graves is speechlesse too it sayes nothing it distinguishes nothing As soon the dust of a wretch whom thou wouldest not as of a Prince whom thou couldest not look upon will trouble thine eyes if the winde blow it thither and when a whirle-winde hath blowne the dust of the Church-yard into the Church and the man sweeps out the dust of the Church into the Church-yard who will undertake to sift those dusts again and to pronounce This is the Patrician this is the noble flowre and this the yeomanly this the Plebeian bran Sois the death of Iesabel Ieabel was a Queen expressed They shall not say this is Iesabel not only not wonder that it is not pity that it should be but they shall not say they shall not know This is Iesabel It comes to all to all alike but not alike welcome to all To die too willingly out ofimpatience to wish or out of violence to hasten death or to die too unwillingly to murmure at Gods purpose reveled by age or by sicknesse are equall distempers and to harbour a disobedient loathnesse all the way or to entertain it at last argues but an irreligious ignorance An ignorance that death is in nature but Expiratio a breathing out and we do that every minute An ignorance that God himself took a day to rest in and a good mans grave is his Sabbath An ignorance that Abel the best of those whom we can compare with him was the first that dyed Howsoever whensoever all times are Gods times Vocantur obni ne diutiús vexentur á noxiis mali ne diutiús bonos persequantur God cals the good to take them from their dangers and God takes the bad to take them from their trumph And therefore neither grudge that thou goest nor that worse stay for God can make his profit of both Aut ideo vivit ut corrigatur aut utper allum bonus exerceatur God reprieves him to mend him or to make another better by his exercise and not to exult in the misery of another but to glorifie God in the wayes of his justice let him know Quantumcunque seró subitó ex hac óitatollitur qui finem praevidere nescivit How long soever he live how long soever he lie sick that man dies a sudden death who never thought of it If we consider death in S. Pauls Statutum est It is decréed that all men must die there death is indifferent If we consider it in his Mori lucrum that is an advantage to die there death is good and so much the vulgat Edition seemes to intimate when Deut. 30. 19 whereas we reade I have set before you life and death that reades it Vitam honum Life and that which is good If then death be at the worst indifferent and to the good good how is it Hostis an enemy to the Kingdome of Christ for that also is Vestigium quintum the fift and next step in this paraphrase First God did not make death saies the Wiseman And therefore S. Augustine makes a reasonable prayer to God Ne permittas Domine quod nonfecisti dominari Creatur ae quam fecisti Suffer not O Lord death whom thou didst not make to have dominion over me whom thou didst Whence then came death The same Wiseman hath shewed us the father Through envy of the devill came death into the world and a wiser then he the holy Ghost himselfe hath shewed us the Mother By sin came death into the world But yet if God have naturalized death taken death into the number of his servants and made Death his Commissioner to punish sin and he doe but that how is Death an enemy First he was an enemy in invading Christ who was not in his Commission because he had no sin and still he is an enemie because still he adheres to the enemy Death hangs upon the edge of every persecutors sword and upon the sting of every calumniators and accusers tongue In the Bull of Phalaris in the Bulls of Basan in the Buls of Babylon the shrewdest Buls of all in temporall in spirituall persecutions ever since God put an enmity between Man and the Serpent from the time of Cain who began in a murther to the time of Antichrist who proceeds in Massacres Death hath adhered to the enemy and so is an enemy Death hath a Commission Stipendium peccati mors est The reward of sin Death but where God gives a Supersedeas upon that Commission Vivo Ego nolo mortem As I live saith the Lord I would have no sinner dye not dye the second death yet Death proceeds to that execution And where as the enemy whom he adheres to Serpent himselfe hath power but In calcaneo upon the heele the lower the mortall part the body of man Death is come up into our windowes saith the Prophet into our best lights Jer. 9.21 our understandings and benights us there either with ignorance before sin or with senselesnesse after And a Sheriffe that should burne him who were condemned to be hanged were a murderer though that man must have dyed To come in by the doore by the way of sicknesse upon the body is but to come in at the window by the way of sin is not deaths Commission God opens not that window So then he is an enemy for they that adhere to the enemy are enemies And adhering is not only a present subministration of supply to the enemy for that death doth not but it is also a disposition to assist the enemy then when he shall
saies he Inter animas terrenas non autem inter Angelicas beatitudines She is not compared with her owne state in Heaven she shall have a better state in that State then she hath here So when Iohn Baptists Office is highliest extolled that he is called The greatest Prophet it is but Inter natos mulierum Amongst the sons of women he is not compared with the Son of God So this Blessednesse appropriated to the pure in heart gives a present assurance of future joy and a present inchoation of that now though the plenary consummation thereof be respited till we see God And first videbunt non contremiscent Videbunt Deum This is a Blessednesse they shall see God and be glad to see him see him in Judgement and be able to stand in Judgement in his sight They shall see him and never trouble the hils to fall upon them nor call the mountains to cover them upon them he shall not steal as a thiefe in the night but because he hath used to stand at their doore and knock and enter they shall look for his comming and be glad of it First they come to a true valuation of this world in S. Pauls Omnia stercora Phil. 3.8 I count all things but Dung but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord When they have found the true value of worldly things they will come to something worth the getting they will come to S. Pauls way of Gain Mors lucrum that to die is gain and advantage Phil. 1.21 When they know that they will conceive a religious covetousnesse of that and so come to S. Pauls Cupio dissolvi to desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ When they have entertained that Desire they will declare it make a petition a suite for it with a Veni Domine Iesu Come Lord Iesu come quickly and they shall have a holy and modest but yet an infallible assurance of this answer to their petition Venite benedicti Come ye blessed of my Father inherite the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundations of the world Mat. 26.34 So Videbunt non contremiscent by this acquainting themselves and accustoming themselves to his presence in all their actions and meditations in this life they shall see him and be glad to see him even in Judgement in the next But the seeing of God principally intended in this place is that Visio beatifica to see God so as that that very seeing makes the seer Blessed They are Blessed therefore because they see him And that is videre Essentiam to see the very Essence and nature of God For that we shall see God in his Essence is evident enough by that place of the Apostle 1 John 3.2 Now we are the Sons of God that is now by this purity of heart and testimony of a rectified conscience we are so And it doth not yet appeare what we shall be that is there are degrees of glory reserved for us that yet do not appeare to our understanding we cannot conceive them But we know that when he shall appeare we shall be like him that is receive incorruption and glory in our bodies as he hath done And then the reason given there of that is For we shall see him sicuti est as he is in his Essence All our Beatification and Glorification in our bodies consists in this that we shall see him sicuti est 1 Cor. 13.12 as he is in his Essence Then sayes S. Paul I shall know even as I am knowne Essentially But whether then in the resurrection and glorification of the body God in his Essence be to be seen with those eyes which the body shall then have is yet and hath been long a question The Scripture goes no farther then to S. Iohns Sicuti est I shall see him as he is and to S. Pauls Cognoscam I shall know him as I am knowne but with what eyes I shall see him without any perplexing curiosities we will look a little into the Fathers and into the School and conclude so as may best advance our edification For the Fathers it may be sufficient to insist upon S. Augustine not because he is alwayes to be preferred before all but because in this point he hath best collected all that were before him and is best followed of all that come after S. Augustine had written against a Bishop who was of the Sect of the Anthropomorphits whose Heresie was that God had a Body and in opposition of him S. Augustine had said Istius corporis oculos nec videre Deum nec visuros That God was so far from having a Body that our bodily eyes howsoever glorified should never see God In that Treatise S. Augustine had been very bitter against that Bishop and being warned of it in another Epistle to another Bishop Fortunatianus he repents and retracts his bitternesse but his opinion his doctrine That our bodily eyes should never see God S. Augustine never retracted He professes ingenuously Longè tolerabilius corpori arrogare quà m Deo derogare That he could be more easily brought to attribute so much too much to the body of man as to say that with these bodily eyes he should see God then to derogate so much from God as to say that he had a body that might be seen but because he saw that one might follow on the other he denyed both and did no more beleeve that mans eyes should see God then that God had a body to be seen And this negative opinion of his S. Augustine builds upon S. Ambrose and upon S. Hierome too who seem to deny that the Angels themselves see the Essence of God and upon Athanasius who against the Arrians opinion That God the Father only was invisible but the Son who was not equall to the Father and the Holy Ghost who was not equall to the Son might be seen argues and maintains that the whole Trinity is equall in it self and equally invisible to us So doth he also assist himself with that of Nazianzen Quando Deus visus salva sua invisibilitate visus howsoever God be said to have been seen it is said in some such sense as that even then when he was seen he was invisible He might have added Chrysostomes testimony too Ipsum quod Deus est nec Angeli viderunt nec Archangeli Neither Angel nor Archangel did ever see that Nature which is the very Essence of God And he might have added Areopagita too who expresses it with equall elegancy and vehemency Dei nec sententia est nec ratio nec opinio nec sensus nec phantasia If we bring the very Nature and Essence of God into question we can give no judgement upon it non sententia we can make no probable discourse of it non ratio we can frame no likely opinion or conjecture in it non opinio we cannot prepare our selves with any thing which hath fallen
no man would ever have thought of of himself nor might have prayed for if he could have imagined it this Mercy of the Father is the object of our Thankfulness The Merit of the Son That into a man but of our nature and equall to us in infirmities there should be superinfused such another nature such a divinity as that any act of that Person so composed of those two natures should be even in the rigour of Justice a sufficient ransome for all the sins of all the Werld is the object of our admiration But the object of our consolation which is the subject of this Text is this That the Holy Ghost by his presence and by inanimating the Ordinances of Christ in the Ministery of the Gospell applies this mercy and this merit to me to thee to every soul that answers his motions In that Contract that past between Solomon and Hiram for commerce and trade between their Nations 1 Kâ—â—g 5. That Solomon should send him Corne and Oyle and Hiram should send him Cedar and other rich materials for Building that people of God received an honor and an assurance in that present Contract for future trade and commerce So did the World in that Contract which past betweene the Father and the Son That the Father should send downe God and the World should deliver up Man The nature of Man to be assumed by that Son and so a Redemption should be wrought after in the fulnesse of Time And then in the performance of this Contract when Hiram sent downe those rich materials from Libanon to the Sea and by Sea in Flotes to the place assigned Ver. 9. where Solomon received them that people of God received a reall profit in that actuall performance of that which was but in contract before So did the World too when in the fulnesse of Time and in the place assigned by God in the Prophet Micah which was Bethlem the Son of God came in our flesh and after dyed for us His Blood was the Substance the Materials of our ransome and actually and really delivered and deposited for us which was the performance of the former Contract between his Father and him But then was the dignity of that people of God accomplisht when those rich Materials so sent were really imploied in the building of the Temple when the Altar and the Oracle were cloathed with that Gold when the Cherubim and the Olive-Trees and the other Figures were made of that rich stuffe which was provided when certaine chiefe Officers and three thousand three hundred under-Officers Ver. 15. Ver. 14. were appointed to over-see the Work and ten thousand that attended by monthly courses and seaven score ten thousand that were alwaies resident upon the Work And so is our comfort accomplisht to us when the Holy Ghost distributes these materials the Blood and the Merits of Christ upon severall Congregations and that by his higher Officers Reverend and Vigilant Bishops and others that have part in the Government of the Church and then by those who like Solomons ten thousand performed the service by monthly courses and those who like his seaven score and ten thousand are alwayes resident upon fixt places that salvation of soules so decreed at first by the Father and so accomplished after by the Son is by the Holy Ghost shed and spred upon particular men When as the world began in a community that every thing was every bodies but improved it selfe to a propriety and came to a Meum Tuum that every man knew his owne so that which is Salus Domini The Salvation of the Lord as it is in the first Decree and that which is Salus Mundi The Salvation of the World as it is in the accomplishment of the Decree by Christ may be Mea Tua My Salvation and thy Salvation as it is applyed by the Holy Ghost in the Ministry of the Church Salvation in the Decree is as the Bezar stone in the maw of that creature there it growes Salvation in Christs death is as that Bezar in the Merchants or Apothecaries provision But salvation in the Church in the distribution and application thereof by the Holy Ghost is as that Bezar working in my veines expelling my peccant humours and rectifying my former defects The last work the Seale and Consummation of all is of the Holy Ghost And therefore as the Manifestation of the whole Trinity seemes to have been reserved for Christ so Christ seemes to have reserved the Manifestation of the Holy Ghost for his last Doctrine For this is the last Sermon that Christ preached And this is a Sermon recorded only by that last Euangelist who as he considered the Divine Nature of Christ more then the rest did and so took it higher so did he also consider the future state and succession of the Church more then the rest did and so carried it lower For S. Iohn was a Prophet as well as an Euangelist Therefore in this last and lasting Euangelist and in this last Sermon Christ declares this last work in this world that is the Consummation of our Redemption in the application of the Holy Ghost For herein consists our comfort that it is He the Holy Ghost that ministers this comfort Christ had told them before that there should be a Comforter sent Ver. 16. But he did not tell them then that that Comforter was the Holy Ghost Here he does at last he does and he ends all in that that we might end and determine our comfort in that too This God gives me by the Holy Ghost For we mistake false comforts for true We comfort our selves in things that come not at all from God in things which are but vanities and conduce not all to any true comfort And we comfort our selves in things which though they doe come from God yet are not signed nor sealed by the Holy Ghost For Wealth and Honour and Power and Favour are of God but we have but stolne them from God or received them by the hand of the Devil if we be come to them by ill meanes And if we have them from the hand of God by having acquired them by good meanes yet if we make them occasions of sin in the ill use of them after we lose the comfort of the Holy Ghost which requires the testimony of a rectified conscience that all was well got and is well used Therefore as Christ puts the Origination of our Redemption upon the Father I came but to doe my Fathers will and as he takes the execution of that Decree upon himselfe I am the way and the truth and the life and the Resurrection I am all so he puts the comfort of all upon the Holy Ghost Discomfort and Disconsolation Sadnesse and Dejection Damnation and Damnation aggravated and this aggravated Damnation multiplied upon that soule that findes no comfort in the Holy Ghost If I have no Adventure in an East-Indian Returne though I be not the
richer yet neither am I poorer then I was for that But if I have no comfort from the Holy Ghost I am worse then if all mankinde had been left in the Putrifaction of Adams loynes and in the condemnation of Adams sin For then I should have had but my equall part in the common misery But now having had that extraordinary favour of an offer of the Holy Ghost if I feele no comfort in that I must have an extraordinary condemnation The Father came neare me when he breathed the breath of life into me and gave me my flesh The Son came neare me when he took my flesh upon him and laid downe his life for me The Holy Ghost is alwaies neare me alwaies with me with me now if now I shed any drops of his dew his Manna upon you With me anon if anon I turne any thing that I say to you now to good nourishment in my selfe then and doe then as I say now With me when I eate or drink to say Grace at my meale and to blesse Gods Blessings to me With me in my sleep to keep out the Tempter from the fancy and imagination which is his proper Sceane and Spheare That he triumph not in that in such dreames as may be effects of sin or causes of sin or sins themselves The Father is a Propitious Person The Son is a Meritorious Person The Holy Ghost is a Familiar Person The Heavens must open to shew me the Son of Man at the right hand of the Father as they did to Steven But if I doe but open my heart to my selfe I may see the Holy Ghost there and in him all that the Father hath Thought and Decreed all that the Son hath Said and Done and Suffered for the whole World made mine Accustome your selves therefore to the Contemplation to the Meditation of this Blessed Person of the glorious Trinity Keep up that holy cheerefulnesse which Christ makes the Ballast of a Christian and his Fraight too to give him a rich Returne in the Heavenly Jerusalem Be alwayes comforted and alwayes determine your comfort in the Holy Ghost For that is Christs promise here in this first Branch A Comforter which is the Holy Ghost And Him sayes our second Branch the Father shall send There was a Mission of the Son Missio God sent his Son There was a Mission of the Holy Ghost This day God sent the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost But betweene these two Missions that of the Son and this of the holy Ghost we consider this difference that the first the sending of the Son was without any merit preceding There could be nothing but the meere mercy of God to move God to send his Son Man was so far from meriting that that as we said before he could not nor might if he could have wisht it But for this second Mission the sending of the holy Ghost there was a preceding merit Christ by his dying had merited that mankinde who by the fall of Adam had lost as S. August speaks Possibilitatem boni All possibilitie of Redintegration should not only be restored to a possibility of Salvation but that actually that that was done should be pursued farther and that by this Mission and Operation of the holy Ghost actually really effectually men should be saved So that as the work of our Redemption fals under our consideration that is not in the Decree but in the execution of the Decree in this Mission of the holy Ghost into the World Man hath so far an interest not any particular man but Man as all Mankind was in Christ as that we may truly say The holy Ghost was due to us Luâ—â— 24. And as Christ said of himselfe Nonne haec oportuit pati Ought not Christ to suffer all this Was not Christ bound to all this by the Contract betweene him and his Father to which Contract himselfe had a Privity it was his owne Act He signed it He sealed it so we may say Nonne hunc oportuit mitti Ought not the holy Ghost to be sent Had not Christ merited that the holy Ghost should be sent to perfect the worke of the Redemption So that in such a respect and in such a holy and devout sense we may say that the holy Ghost is more ours then either of the other Persons of the Trinity Because though Christ be so ours as that he is our selves the same nature and flesh and blood The holy Ghost is so ours as that we we in Christ Christ in our nature merited the holy Ghost purchased the holy Ghost bought the holy Ghost Which is a sanctified Simony and hath a faire and a pious truth in it We we in Christ Christ in our nature bought the holy Ghost that is merited the holy Ghost Christ then was so sent A Patre as that till we consider the Contract which was his owne Act there was no Oportuit pati no obligation upon him that he must have been sent The Holy Ghost was so sent as that the Merit of Christ of Christ who was Man as well as God which was the Act of another required and deserved that he should bee sent Therefore he was sent A Patre By the Father Now not so by the Father as not by the Son too For there is an Ego mittam If I depart I will send him unto you But Iohn 16.7 cleane thorough Christs History in all his proceedings still you may observe that he ascribes all that he does as to his Superiour to his Father though in one Capacity as he was God he were equall to the Father yet to declare the meekenesse and the humility of his Soule still he makes his recourse to his inferiour state and to his lower nature and still ascribes all to his Father Thouh he might say and doe say there I will send him yet every where the Father enters I will send him saies he Whom Luke 24.49 I will send the Promise of my Father Still the Father hath all the glory and Christ sinks downe to his inferiour state and lower nature In the World it is far otherwise Here men for the most part doe all things according to their greatest capacity If they be Bishops if they be Counsellors if they be Justices nay if they be but Constables they will doe every thing according to that capacity As though that authority confined to certaine places limited in certaine persons and determined in certaine times gave them alwaies the same power in all actions And because to some purposes hee may be my superiour he will be my equall no where in nothing Christ still withdrew himselfe to his lower capacity And howsoever worldly men engrosse the thanks of the world to themselves Christ cast all the honour of all the benefits that he bestowed upon others upon his Father And in his Veruntamen Yet not my will but thine O Father be done He humbled himselfe as low as David in his Non nobis
Learning Plato never stopped at any knowledge till he came to consider the holy Ghost Vnum inveni quod cuncta operatur I have saies Plato found One who made all things Et unum per quod cuncta efficiuntur And I have found another by whom all things were made Tertium autem non potui invenire A Third besides those two I could never finde Though all the mysteries of the Trinity be things equally easie to faith when God infuses that yet to our reason even as reason serves faith and presents things to that things are not so equall but that S. Basil himselfe saw that the eternall generation of the Son was too hard for Reason but yet it is in the proceeding of the Holy Ghost that he clearely professes his ignorance Si cuncta putarem nostra cogitatione posse comprehendi vererer fortè ignorantiam profiteri If I thought that all things might bee knowne by man I should bee as much afraid and ashamed as another man to be ignorant but saies he since we all see that there are many things whereof we are ignorant Cur non de Spiritu sancto absque rubore ignorantiam faterer Why should I be ashamed to confesse mine ignorance in many things concerning the Holy Ghost There is then a difficulty no lesse then an impossibility Possibilitas in searching after the Holy Ghost but it is in those things which appertain not to us But in others there is a possibility a facility and easinesse For there are two processions of the holy Ghost Aeterna and Temporaria his proceeding from the Father and the Son and his proceeding into us The first we shall never understand if we reade all the books of the world The other we shall not choose but understand if we study our own consciences In the first the darknesse and difficulty is recompenced in this That though it be hard to finde any thing yet it is but little that we are to seek It is only to finde that there is a holy Ghost proceeding from Father and Son for in searching farther the danger is noted by S. Basil to be thus great Qui quomodo interrogas ubi ut in loco quando ut in tempore interrogabis If thou give thy curiosity the liberty to ask How the holy Ghost proceeded thou wilt ask where it was done as though there were severall roomes and distinct places in that which is infinite And thou wilt ask when it was done as though there were pieces of time in that which is eternall Et quaeres non ut fidem sed ut infidelitatem invenias which is excellently added by that Father The end of thy enquiring will not be that thou mightest finde any thing to establish thy beliefe but to finde something that might excuse thine unbeliefe All thy curious questions are not in hope that thou shalt receive satisfaction but in hope that the weaknesse of the answer may justifie thy infidelity Thus it is if we will be over curious in the first the eternall proceeding of the Holy Ghost In the other the proceeding of the holy Ghost into us we are to consider that as in our naturall persons the body and soul do not make a perfect man except they be united except our spirits which are the active part of the blood do fit this body and soule for one anothers working So though the body of our religion may seem to be determined in these two our Creation which is commonly attributed to the Father Tanquam fonti Deitatis As the fountaine of the Godhead for Christ is God of God And our Redemption which belongs to the Son yet for this body there is a spirit that is the holy Ghost that takes this man upon whom the Father hath wrought by Creation and the Son included within his Redemption and he works in him a Vocation a Justification and a sanctification and leads him from that Esse which the Father gave him in the Creation And that Bene esse which he hath in being admitted into the body of his Son the visible Church and Congregation to an Optimè esse to that perfection which is an assurance of the inhabitation of this Spirit in him and an inchoation of eternall blessednesse here by a heavenly and sanctified conversation without which Spirit No man can say that Iesus is the Lord because he is not otherwise in a perfect obedience to him if he embrace not the means ordained by him in his Church So that this Spirit disposes and dispenses distributes and disperses and orders all the power of the Father and all the wisdome of the Son and all the graces of God It is a Center to all So S. Bernard sayes upon those words of the Apostle We approve our selves as the Ministers of God But by what By watching by fasting by suffering by the holy Ghost by love unfained Vide tanquam omnia ordinantem quomodo in medio virtutum sicut cor in medio corporis constituit Spiritum Sanctum As the heart is in the midst of the body so between these vertues of fasting and suffering before and love unfained after the Apostle places the holy Ghost who only gives life and soule to all Morall and all Theologicall vertues And as S. Bernard observes that in particular men so doth S. Augustine of the whole Church Quod in corpore nostro anima id in corpore Christi Ecclesia Spiritus Sanctus That office which the soule performes to our body the holy Ghost performes in the body of Christ which is the Church And therefore since the holy Ghost is thus necessary and thus neare as at the Creation the whole Trinity was intimated in that plurall word Elohim creavit Dii but no person of the Trinity is distinctly named in the Creation but the holy Ghost The Spirit of God moved upon the waters As the holy Ghost was first conveyed to our knowledge in the Creation so in our Regeneration by which we are new creatures though our Creation and our Redemption be religious subjects of our continuall meditation yet let us be sure to hold this that is nearest us to keep a neare a familiar and daily acquaintance and conversation with the holy Ghost and to be watchfull to cherish his light and working in us Homines docent quaerere solus ipse qui docet invenire habere frui Bernard Men can teach us wayes how to finde somethings The Pilot how to finde a Land The Astronomer how to finde a Star Men can teach us wayes how to finde God The naturall man in the book of creatures The Morall man in an exemplar life The Jew in the Law The Christian in generall in the Gospell But Solus ipse qui docet invenire habere frui Only the holy Ghost enables us to finde God so as to make him ours and to enjoy him 1 Cor. 2.14 First you must get more light then nature gives for The naturall man perceiveth not the things
an emphaticall denotation for to this purpose Ille and Ipse is all one And then you know the Emphasis of that Ipse Ipse conteret He or It shall bruise the Serpents head denotes the Messias though there be no Messias named This Ipse is so emphaticall a denotation as that the Church of Rome and the Church of God strives for it for they will needs reade it Ipsa and so refer our salvation in the bruising of the Serpents head to the Virgin Mary we refer it according to the truth of the doctrine and of the letter to Christ himselfe and therefore reade it Ipse He. If there were no more but that in David Psal 100.3 Rom. 8.16 It is He that hath made us every man would conclude that that He is God And if S. Paul had said Ipse alone and not Ipse spiritus That He and not He the Spirit beares witnesse with our spirit every spirit would have understood this to be the holy Spirit the holy Ghost If in our text there had been no more but such a denotation of a person that should speak to the hearts of all the world that that I lle that He would proceed thus we must necessarily have seen an Almighty power in that denotation But because that denotation might have carried terrour in it being taken alone therefore we are not left to that but have a relation to a former name and specification of the holy Ghost The Comforter For the establishment of Christs divinity Esay 9.6 Christ is called The mighty God for his relation to us he hath divers names As we were all In massa damnata Forfeited lost he is Redemptor Esay 59.20 A Redeemer for that that is past The Redeemer shall come to Sion sayes the Prophet Job 19.2 and so Iob saw His Redeemer one that should redeem him from those miseries that oppressed him As Christ was pleased to provide for the future so he is Salvator Mat. 1.21 A Saviour Therefore the Angel gave him that name Iesus For he shall save his people from their sins So because to this purpose Christ consists of two natures God and man he is called our Mediator 1 Tim. 2.5 There is one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Iesus Because he presents those merits which are his as ours and in our behalfe he is called an Advocate 1 John 2.1 Rom. 2.6 Acts 10.42 1 Cor. 12.3 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous And because every man is to expect according to his actions he is called the Judge We testifie that it is he that is ordained of God to bee the Iudge of quick and dead Now for Christs first name which is the roote of all which is The mighty God No man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost And there is our first comfort in knowing that Christ is God for he were an Intruder for that which is past no Redeemer he were a weak Saviour for the future an insufficient Mediator a silenced Advocate and a Judge that might be misinformed if he were not God And though he were God he might be all these to my discomfort if there were not a holy Ghost to make all these offices comfortable unto me To be a Redeemer and not a Saviour is but to pay my debts and leave me nothing to live on To be a Mediator a person capable by his composition of two natures to intercede between God and man and not to be my Advocate is but to be a good Counsellor but not of counsell with me To be a Judge of quick and dead and to proceed out of outward evidence and not out of his bosome mercy is but an acceleration of my conviction I were better lie in Prison still then appeare at that Assize better lye in the dust of the grave for ever then come to that judgement But as there is Mens in anima There is a minde in the soule and every man hath a soule but every man hath not a minde that is a Consideration an Actuation an Application of the faculties of the soule to particulars so there is Spiritus in Spiritu a Holy Ghost in all the holy offices of Christ which offices being in a great part directed upon the whole world are made comfortable to me by being by this holy Spirit turned upon me and appropriated to me for so even that name of Christ which might most make me afraid 〈◊〉 The name of Judge becomes a comfort to me To this purpose does S. Baesil call the holy Ghost Verbum Dei quia interpres filii The Son of God is the word of God because he manifests the Father and the Holy Ghost is the word of God because he applies the Son Esay 62.11 Christ comes with that loud Proclamation Ecce auditum fecit Behold the Lord hath proclaimed it to the end of the world Ecce Salvator and Ecce Merces Behold his Salvation Behold thy Reward This is his publication in the manifest Ordinances of the Church And then the Holy Ghost whispers to thy soule as thou standest in the Congregation in that voyce that he promises Sibilabo populum meum I will hisse Zach. 10.8 I will whisper to my people by soft and inward inspirations Christ came to tell us all That to as many as received him he gave power to become the Sons of God Iohn 1.12 The Holy Ghost comes to tell thee that thou art one of them The Holy Ghost is therefore Legatus and Legatum Christi He is Christs Ambassadour sent unto us and he is his Legacy bequeathed unto us by his Will his Will made of force by his death and proved by his Ascension Now when those dayes were come that the Bridegroome was to bee taken from them Christ Jesus to be removed from their personall sight and conversation and therefore even the children of the mariage Chamber were to mourne and fast Mat. 9.15 Cant. when that Church that mourned and lamented his absence when she was but his Spouse must necessarily mourn now in a more vehement manner when she was to be in some sense his Widow when that Shepheard was not onely to be smitten and so the flock dispersed Mat. 26.21 this was done in his passion but he was to be taken away in his Ascension what a powerfull Comforter had that need to be that should be able to recompence the absence of Christ Jesus himselfe and to infuse comfort into his Orphans the children of his mariage Chamber into his Widow the desolate and disconsolate Church into his flock his amazed his distressed and as we may properly enough say in this case his beheaded Apostles and Disciples Quantus ergo Deus qui dat Deum Aug. Lesse then God could not minister this comfort How great a God is he that sends a God to comfort us and how powerfull a Comforter hee who
This is my beloved Son this day have I begotten him And with such Copies it seemes both Iustin Martyr and Irenaeus met for they reade these words so and interpret them accordingly But these words are misplaced and mis-transferred out of the second Psalme where they are And as they change the words and in stead of In quo complacui In whom I am well pleased reade This day have I begotten thee S. Cyprian addes other words to the end of these which are Hunc audite Heare him Which words when these words were repeated at the Transfiguration were spoken but here at the Baptisme they were not what Copy soever misled S. Cyprian or whether it were the failing of his own memory But S. Chrysostome gives an expresse reason why those words were spoken at the Transfiguration and not here Because saies he Here was onely a purpose of a Manifestation of the Trinity so farre as to declare their persons who they were and no more At the Trans-figuration where Moses and Elias appeared with Christ there God had a purpose to preferre the Gospel above the Law and the Prophets and therefore in that place he addes that Hunc audite Heare him who first fulfills all the Law and the Prophets and then preaches the Gospel He was so well pleased in him as that he was content to give all them that received him Eph. 1.6 power to become the Sons of God too as the Apostle sayes By his grace he hath made us accepted in his beloved Beloved That you may be so Come up from your Baptisme as it is said that Christ did Rise and ascend to that growth which your Baptisme prepared you to And the heavens shall open as then even Cataractae coeli All the windowes of heaven shall open and raine downe blessings of all kindes in abundance And the Holy Ghost shall descend upon you as a Dove in his peacefull comming in your simple and sincere receiving him And he shall rest upon you to effect and accomplish his purposes in you If he rebuke you as Christ when he promises the Holy Ghost though he call him a Comforter John 16.7 sayes That he shall rebuke the world of divers things yet he shall dwell upon you as a Dove Quae si mordet osculando mordet sayes S. Augustine If the Dove bite it bites with kissing if the Holy Ghost rebuke he rebukes with comforting And so baptized and so pursuing the contract of your Baptisme and so crowned with the residence of his blessed Spirit in your holy conversation hee shall breathe a soule into your soule by that voyce of eternall life You are my beloved Sonnes in whom I am well pleased SERM. XLIV Preached at S. Dunstanes upon Trinity-Sunday 1627. REV. 4.8 And the foure Beasts had each of them sixe wings about him and they were full of eyes within And they rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come THese words are part of that Scripture which our Church hath appointed to be read for the Epistle of this day This day which besides that it is the Lords day the Sabbath day is also especially consecrated to the memory and honour of the whole Trinity The Feast of the Nativity of Christ Christmas day which S. Chrysostome calls Metropolin omnium festorum The Metropolitane festivall of the Church is intended principally to the honour of the Father who was glorified in that humiliation of that Son that day because in that was laid the foundation and first stone of that house and Kingdome in which God intended to glorifie himselfe in this world that is the Christian Church The Feast of Easter is intended principally to the honour of the Son himselfe who upon that day began to lift up his head above all those waters which had surrounded him and to shake off the chaines of death and the grave and hell in a glorious Reserrection And then the Feast of Pentecost was appropriated to the honour of the Holy Ghost who by a personall falling upon the Apostles that day inabled them to propagate this Glory of the Father and this death and Resurrection of the Son to the ends of the world to the ends in Extention to all places to the ends in Duration to all times Now as S. Augustine sayes Nullus eorum extra quemlibet eorum est Every Person of the Trinity is so in every other person as that you cannot think of a Father as a Father but that there falls a Son into the same thought nor think of a person that proceeds from others but that they from whom he whom ye think of proceeds falls into the same thought as every person is in every person And as these three persons are contracted in their essence into one God-head so the Church hath also contracted the honour belonging to them in this kinde of Worship to one day in which the Father and Son and Holy Ghost as they are severally in those three severall dayes might bee celebrated joyntly and altogether It was long before the Church did institute a particular Festivall to this purpose For before they made account that that verse which was upon so many occasions repeated in the Liturgy and Church Service Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost had a convenient sufficiency in it to keep men in a continuall remembrance of the Trinity But when by that extreame inundation and increase of Arians these notions of distinct Persons in the Trinity came to be obliterated and discontinued the Church began to refresh her selfe in admitting into to the formes of Common Prayer some more particular notifications and remembrances of the Trnity And at last though it were very long first for this Festivall of this Trinity-Sunday was not instituted above foure hundred yeares since they came to ordaine this day Which day our Church according to that peacefull wisedome wherewithall the God of Peace of Unity and Concord had inspired her did in the Reformation retaine and continue out of her generall religious tendernesse and holy loathnesse to innovate any thing in those matters which might bee safely and without superstition continued and entertained For our Church in the Reformation proposed not that for her end how shee might goe from Rome but how she might come to the Truth nor to cast away all such things as Rome had depraved but to purge away those depravations and conserve the things themselves so restored to their first good use For this day then were these words appointed by our Church Divisic And therefore we are sure that in the notion and apprehension and construction of our Church these words appertaine to the Trinity In them therefore we shall consider first what these foure creatures were which are notified and designed to us in the names and figures of foure Beasts And then what these foure creatures did Their Persons and their Action will be our two
exceed theirs of love and error he ingaged his sister the Lady Elsmore to joyn with him to procure her Lord to discharge M. Donne the place he held under his Lordship And although Sir George were remembred that Errors might be over-punisht and therefore was desired to forbeare till second considerations had cleered some scruples yet he was restlesse untill his suit was granted and the punishment executed The Lord Chancellor then at M. Donnes dismission protesting he thought him a Secretary fitter for a King then a Subject But this physick of M. Donnes dismission was not strong enough to purge out all Sir George his choler who was not satisfied till M. Donne and his Compupill in Cambridge that married him M. Samuel Brooke who was after D. in D. and Master of Trinity Colledge in that University and his brother M. Christopher Brook of Lincolns Inne who gave M. Donne his Wife and witnessed the Mariage were all committed to severall Prisons M. Donne was first inlarged who neither gave rest to his body his braine nor any friend in whom he might hope to have any interest untill he had procured the inlargement of his two imprisoned friends He was now at liberty but his dayes were still cloudie and being past this trouble others did still multiply for his Wife to her extreame sorrow was detained from him Genes 29. And though with Iacob he endured not a hard service for her yet he lost a good one and was forced to get possession of her by a long suit in Law which proved very chargeable and more troublesome It was not long but that Time and M. Donnes behaviour which when it would intice had a strange kind of irresistible art had so dispassioned his Father in Law That as the world had approved his Daughters choice so he also could not choose but see a more then ordinary merit in his new Sonne which melted him into so much remorse that he secretly laboured his sons restauration into his place using his owne and his sisters power but with no successe The Lord Chancellor replying That although he was unfainedly sorry for what he had done yet it stood not with his credit to discharge and re-admit servants at the request of passionate Petitioners Within a short time Sir George appeared to be so far reconciled as to wish their happinesse or say so And being asked for his paternal blessing did not deny it but refused to contribute any meanes that might conduce to their livelyhood M. Donnes Portion was the greatest part spent in many and chargeable travels the rest disburst in some few Books and deare bought experience he out of all imployment that might yeeld a support for himselfe and Wife who had been curiously and plentifully educated his nature generous and he accustomed to confer not to receive curtesies These and other considerations but chiefly that his deare Wife was to bear a part in his sufferings surrounded him with many and sad thoughts and some apparent apprehensions of want But his sorrow was lessened and his wants prevented by the seasonable curtesies of their noble Kinsman Sir Francis Wally of Pirford who intreated them to a co-habitation with him where they remained with very much freedome to themselves and equall content to him for many yeares And as their charge increased she had yearly a child so did his love and bounty With him they continued till his death a little before which time Sir Francis was so happy as to make a perfect reconciliation betwixt that good man Sir George More and his forsaken sonne and daughter Sir George then giving Bond to pay M. Donne 800 l. at a certain day as a Portion with his wife and to pay him for their maintenance 20. l. quarterly as the Interest of it untill the said Portion were paid Most of those yeares that he lived with Sir Francis he studied the Civil and Canon Lawes In which he acquired such a perfection as was judged to hold some proportion with many who had made that study the imployment of their whole life Sir Francis being dead and that happy family dissolved M. Donne tooke a house at Micham neere unto Croydon in Surrey where his wife and family remained constantly and for himselfe having occasions to be often in London he tooke lodgings neere unto White-hall where he was frequently visited by men of greatest learning and judgement in this Kingdome his company being loved and much desired by many of the Nobility of this Nation who used him in their counsels of greatest considerations Nor did our owne Nobility onely favour him but his acquaintance and friendship was usually sought for by most Ambassadors of forraigne Nations and by many other strangers whose learning or employment occasioned their stay in this Kingdome He was much importuned by friends to make his residence in London which he could not doe having setled his dear wife and children at Micham whither he often retired himselfe and then studied incessantly some Points of Controversie But at last the perswasion of friends was so powerfull as to cause the removall of himselfe and family to London where that honourable Gentleman Sir Robert Drury assigned him a very convenient house rent-free next his own in Drury-lane and was also a daily cherisher of his studies and such a friend as sympathiz'd with him and his in their joy and sorrow Divers of the Nobility were watchfull and solicitous to the King for some preferment for him His Majesty had formerly both knowne and much valued him and had given him some hopes of a State employment being much pleased that M. Donne attended him especially at his meales where there was usually many deep discourses of Learning and often friendly disputes of Religion betwixt the King and those Divines whose places required their attendance on his Majestie Particularly the Right Reverend Bishop Montague then Deane of the Chappel who was the publisher of the eloquent and learned Works of his Majestie and the most learned Doctor Andrewes then his Majesties Almoner and at his death Bishop of Winchester About this time grew many disputes in England that concerned the Oath of Supremacy and Allegeance in which the King had appeared and ingaged himselfe by his publique writings now extant And his Majestie occasionally talking with M. Donne concerning many of those Arguments urged by the Romanists apprehended such a validity and cleerenesse in his answers that he commanded him to state the Points and bring his Reasons to him in writing to which he presently applyed himselfe and within sixe weeks brought them to his Majestie fairely written under his owne hand as they be now printed in his Pseudo-Martyr When the King had read and considered that Book he perswaded M. Donne to enter into the Ministery to which he appeared and was un-inclinable apprehending it such was his mistaking modesty too weighty for his abilities But from that time though many friends mediated with his Majestie to prefer him to some civil
addition of comelinesse His aspect was cheerfull and such as gave a silent testimony of a cleere knowing soule and of a conscience at peace with it selfe His melting eye shewed he had a soft heart full of noble pity of too brave a spirit to offer injuries and too much a Christian not to pardon them in others His fancie was un-imitable high equalled by his great wit both being made usefull by a commanding judgement His mind was liberall and unwearied in the search of knowledge with which his vigorous soule is now satisfied and employed in a continuall praise of that God that first breathed it into his active body which once was a Temple of the holy Ghost and is now become a small quantity of Christian dust But I shall see it re-inanimated Iz Wa IOHANNES DONNE SAC THEOL PROFESSOR POST VARIA STUDIA QVIBUS AB ANNIS TENERRIMIS FIDELITER NEC INFELICITER INCUBUIT INSTINCTU ET IMPULSU SPIR S ti MONITU ET HORTATU REGIS IACOBI ORDINES SACROS AMPLEXUS Aº SUI JESU 1614. ET SUAE AETATIS 42. DECANATU HUJUS ECCLESIAE INDUTUS XXVII NOVEMBRIS 1621. EXUTUS MORTE ULTIMO DIE MARTII 1631. Hic licet in Occiduo Cinere Aspicit Eum Cujus Nomen est ORIENS A Table directing to the severall Texts of SCRIPTURE handled by the Author in this BOOK SERM. I. COLOS. 1.19 20. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulnesse dwell And having made peace through the bloud of his Crosse by Him to reconcile all things to himselfe by Him whether they be things in earth or things in heaven page 1 SERM. II. ESAIAH 7.14 Therefore the Lord shall give you a signe Behold a Virgin shall conceive and beare a Son and shall call his name Immanuel pa. 11 SERM. III. GALAT. 4.4 5. But when the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth his Sonne made of a woman made under the Law to redeeme them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons pa. 20 SERM. IV. LUKE 2.29 30. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word For mine eyes have seene thy salvation pa. 29. SERM. V. EXOD. 4.13 O my Lord send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send pa. 39 SERM. VI. Lord who hath beleeved our report pa. 52 SERM. VII JOHN 10.10 I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly pa. 62 SERM. VIII MAT. 5.16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven pa. 77 SERM. IX ROM 13.7 Render therefore to all men their dues pa. 86 SERM. X. ROM 12.20 Therefore if thine enemie hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head pa. 96 SERM. XI MAT. 9.2 And Iesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsie My son be of good chear thy sins be forgiven thee pa. 102 SERM. XII MAT. 5.2 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God pa. 112 SERM. XIII JOB 16. ver 17 18 19. Not for any injustice in my hands Also my prayer is pure O earth cover thou not my bloud and let my cry have no place Also now behold my Witnesse is in heaven and my Record is on high pa. 127 SERM. XIV AMOS 5.18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord what have ye to doe with it the day of the Lord is darknesse and not light pa. 136 SERM. XV. 1 COR 15.26 The last Enemie that shall be destroyed is Death pa. 144 SERM. XVI JOHN 11.35 Iesus wept pa. 153 SERM. XVII MAT. 19.17 And he said unto him Why callest thou me Good There is none Good but One that is God pa. 163 SERM. XVIII ACTS 2.36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly That God hath made that same Iesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ pa. 175 SERM. XIX APOC. 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection pa. 183 SERM. XX. JOHN 5.28 29. Marvell not at this for the houre is comming in the which all that are in the graves shall heare his voice And shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life And they that have done evill unto the Resurrection of damnation pa. 192 SERM. XXI 1 COR. 15.29 Else what shall they do that are baptized for dead If the dead rise not at all why are they then baptized for dead pa. 120 SERM. XXII HEB. 11.35 Women received their dead raised to life againe And others were tortured not accepting a deliverance that they might obtaine a better Resurrection pa. 213 SERM. XXIII 1 COR. 13.12 For now we see through a glasse darkly But then face to face Now I know in part But then I shall know even as also I am knowne pa. 224 SERM. XXIV JOB 4.18 Behold he put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly pa. 233 SERM. XXV MAT. 28.6 He is not here for he is risen as he said Come See the place where the Lord lay pa. 242 SERM. XXVI 1 THES 4.17 Then we which are alive and remaine shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the ayre and so shall we be ever with the Lord. pa. 254 SERM. XXVII PSAL. 89.47 What man is he that liveth and shall not see death pa. 267 SERM. XXVIII XXIX JOHN 14.26 But the Comforter which is the holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you pa. 277. 286 SERM. XXX JOHN 14.20 At that day shall ye know That I am in my Father and you in me and I in you pa. 294 SERM. XXXI GEN. 1.2 And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters pa. 303 SERM. XXXII 1 COR. 12.3 Also no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost p. 312 SERM. XXXIII ACTS 10.44 While Peter yet spake these words the holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the Word pa. 321 SERM. XXXIV ROM 8.16 The Spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God pa. 332 SERM. XXXV MAT. 12.31 Wherefore I say unto you All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men But the Blasphemy against the holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men pa. 341 SERM. XXXVI XXXVII JOHN 16.8 9 10 11. And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousnesse and of judgement Of sin because ye beleeve not on me Of righteousnesse because I goe to my Father and ye see me no more Of judgement because the Prince of this world is judged pa. 351. 361 SERM. XXXVIII 2 COR. 1.3 Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ
JOHN 11.21 Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not dyed pa. 816 NOVEMB 29. 1639. Imprimatur THO BROUN SERMONS Preached upon Christmas-day SERMON I. PREACHED AT St. PAVLS upon Christmas day 1622. Coloss 1.19 20. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulnesse dwell And having made peace through the bloud of his Crosse by Him to reconcile all things to himselfe by Him whether they be things in Earth or things in heaven THE whole journey of a Christian is in these words and therefore we were better set out early then ride too fast better enter presently into the parts then be forced to passe thorow them too hastily First then wee consider the Collation and Reference of the Text and then the Illation and Inference thereof For the Text looks back to all that was said from the twelfth verse For the first word of the text For which is a particle of connexion as well as of argumentation is a seale of all that was said from that place And then the Text looks forward to the 23 ver where all these blessings are sealed to us with that Condition If ye continue setled in the Gospell This is the Collation the Reference of the text for the Illation and Inference the first clause thereof For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulnesse dwell presents a double Instruction First that we are not bound to accept matters of Religion meerely without all reason and probable inducements And secondly with what modesty we are to proceed and in what bounds we are to limit that inquisition that search of Reason in matters of that nature When the Apostle presents to us here the great mystery of our reconciliation to God he in whose power it was not to infuse faith into every reader of his Epistle proceeds by reason He tels us V. 13. That the Father hath translated us into the Kingdome of his deare Son the Son of his love That were well if we were sure of it If our consciences did not accuse us and suggest to us our owne unworthinesse and thereby an impossibility of being so translated Why no sayes the Apostle V. 14. there is no such impossibility now For Now we have Redemption and forgivenesse of sinnes Who should procure us that If a man sin against God who shall plead for him What man is able to mediate 1 Sam. 2.25 and stand in the gap between God and man You say true sayes the Apostle no man is able to doe it and therefore He that is the Image of the invisible God V. 15. he by whom all things were created and by whom all things consist he hath done it Hath God reconciled me to God And reconciled me by way of satisfaction for that I know his justice requires What could God pay for me What could God suffer God himselfe could not V. 18. and therefore God hath taken a body that could And as he is the Head of that body he is passible so he may suffer And as he is the first born of the dead he did suffer so that he was defective in nothing not in Power as God not in passibility as man for Complacuit It pleased the Father that in him All fulnesse a full capacity to all purposes should dwell Thus farre we are to trace the reason of our redemption intimated in that first word For. And then we are to limit and determine our reason in the next Quia complacuit because it was his will his pleasure to proceed so and no otherwise Christ himselfe goes no farther then so Mat. 11.25 in a case of much strangenesse That God had hid his mysteries from the wise and revealed them unto babes This was a strange course but Ita est quia Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight I would faine be able to prove to my selfe that my redemption is accomplished and therefore I search the Scriptures and I grow sure that Christ hath redeemed the world and I search the Scriptures again to finde what marks are upon them that are of the participation of that Redemption and I grow to a religious and modest assurance that those marks are upon me I finde reasons to prove to me that God does love my soule but why God should love men better then his own Son or why God should love me better then other men I must end in the reason of the text Quia complacuit and in the reason of Christ himself Ita est quia It is so O Father because thy good pleasure was it should be so To passe then from the Collation and Reference Divisio by which the text hath his Cohaerence with the precedent and subsequent passages and the Illation and Inference by which you have seene the generall doctrine That reason is not to be excluded in religion but yet to be tenderly and modestly pressed we have here the Person that redeemed us and his Qualification for that great office That all fulnesse should dwell in him And then we have the Pacification and the Meanes thereof Peace was made through the bloud of his Crosse And then the Effect the application of all this to them for whom it was wrought That all things in earth and heaven might be reconciled to God by him In the qualification of the person we finde plenitudinem fulnesse and omnem plenitudinem all fulnesse and omnem plenitudinem inhabitantem all fulnesse dwelling permanent And yet even this dwelling fulnesse even in this person Christ Jesus by no title of merit in himselfe but onely quia complacuit because it pleased the Father it should be so In the pacification which is our second part Peace was made by the bloud of his Crosse we shall see first quod bellum what the warre was and then quae pax what the peace is and lastly quis modus how this peace was made which was strange per sanguinem by bloud to save bloud and yet by bloud And per sanguinem ejus by his bloud his who was victoriously to triumph in this peace and per sanguinem Crucis ejus by the bloud of his Crosse that is his death the bloud of his Circumcision the bloud of his Agony the bloud of his scourging was not enough It must be and so it was the bloud of his Crosse And these peeces constitute our second part the Pacification And then in the third the Application That all things might be reconciled to God we shall see first what this Reconciliation is and then how it extends to all things on earth which we might thinke were not capable of it and all things in heaven which we might think stood in no need of it And in these three parts The person and his qualification The thing it selfe The Pacification The effect of this The Reconciliation the Application wee shall determine all First 1. Part. Plenitudo In the person that redeemes us we finde fulnesse And there
not Christ meerly as the Son of God but the Son of Mary too And that generation the Holy Ghost hath told us was in the fulnesse of time When the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth c. In which words Divisio we have these three considerations First the time of Christs comming and that was the fulnesse of time And then the maner of his comming which is expressed in two degrees of humiliation one that he was made of a woman the other that he was made under the Law And then the third part is the purpose of his comming which also was twofold for first he came to redeem them who were under the Law All And secondly he came that we we the elect of God in him might receive adoption When the fulnesse of time was come c. For the full consideration of this fulnesse of time 〈◊〉 we shall first consider this fulnesse in respect of the Jews and then in respect of all Nations and lastly in respect of our selves The Jews might have seen the fulnesse of time the Gentiles did in some measure see it and we must if we will have any benefit by it see it too It is an observation of S. Cyril That none of the Saints of God nor such as were noted to be exemplarily religious and sanctified men did ever celebrate with any festivall solemnity their own birth-day Pharaoh celebrated his own Nativity 〈◊〉 40.22 but who would make Pharaoh his example and besides he polluted that festivall with the bloud of one of his servants Herod celebrated his Nativity but who would think it an honor to be like Herod and besides he polluted that festivall with the blood of Iohn Baptist But the just contemplation of the miseries and calamities of this life into which our birth-day is the doore and the entrance is so far from giving any just occasion of a festivall as it hath often transported the best disposed Saints and servants of God to a distemper to a malediction and cursing of their birth-day 〈…〉 Cursed be the day wherein I was born and let not that day wherein my mother bare me be blessed Let the day perish wherein I was born let that day be darknesse Job 3. and let not God regard it from above How much misery is presaged to us when we come so generally weeping into the world that perchance in the whole body of history we reade but of one childe Zoroaster that laughed at his birth What miserable revolutions and changes what downfals what break-necks and precipitations may we justly think our selves ordained to if we consider that in our comming into this world out of our mothers womb we doe not make account that a childe comes right except it come with the head forward and thereby prefigure that headlong falling into calamities which it must suffer after Though therefore the dayes of the Martyrs which are for our example celebrated in the Christian Church be ordinarily called natalitia Martyrum the birth-day of the Martyrs yet that is not intended of their birth in this world but of their birth in the next when by death their soules were new delivered of their prisons here and they newly born into the kingdome of heaven that day upon that reason the day of their death was called their birth-day and celebrated in the Church by that name Onely to Christ Jesus the fulnesse of time was at his birth not because he also had not a painfull life to passe through but because the work of our redemption was an intire work and all that Christ said or did or suffered concurred to our salvation as well his mothers swathing him in little clouts as Iosephs shrowding him in a funerall sheete as well his cold lying in the Manger as his cold dying upon the Crosse as well the puer natus as the consummatum est as well his birth as his death is said to have been the fulnesse of time First we consider it to have been so to the Jews for this was that fulnesse Indeic in which all the prophecies concerning the Messias were exactly fulfilled Dan. 2. Hagg. 2. Mich. 5. Esay 7. That he must come whilest the Monarchy of Rome flourished And before the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed That he must be born in Bethlem That he must be born of a Virgin His person his actions his passion so distinctly prophecyed so exactly accomplished as no word being left unfulfilled this must necessarily be a fulnesse of time So fully was the time of the Messias comming come that though some of the Jews say now that there is no certain time revealed in the Scriptures when the Messias shall come and others of them say that there was a time determined and revealed and that this time was the time but by reason of their great sins he did not come at his time yet when they examine their own supputations they are so convinced with that evidence that this was that fulnesse of time that now they expresse a kinde of conditionall acknowledgement of it by this barbarous and inhumane custome of theirs that they alwayes keep in readinesse the blood of some Christian with which they anoint the body of any that dyes amongst them with these words if Jesus Christ were the Messias then may the blood of this Christian availe thee to salvation So that by their doubt and their implyed consent in this action this was the fulnesse of time when Christ Jesus did come that the Messias should come It was so to the Jews and it was so to the Gentiles too Gontibus It filled those wise men which dwelt so far in the East that they followed the star from thence to Jerusalem Herod was so full of it that he filled the Countrey with streames of innocent bloud and lest he should spare that one innocent childe killed all The two Emperours of Rome Vespasian and Domitian were so full of it that in jealousie of a Messias to come then from that race they took speciall care for the destruction of all of the posterity of David All the whole people were so full of it that divers false-Messiahs Barcocab and Moses of Crete and others rose up and drew and deceived the people as if they had been the Messiah because that was ordinarily knowne and received to be the time of his comming And the Devill himself was so full of it as that in his Oracles he gave that answer That an Hebrew childe should be God over all gods and brought the Emperour to erect an Altar to this Messiah Christ Jesus though he knew not what he did This was the fulnesse that filled Jew and Gentile Kings and Philosophers strangers and inhabitants counterfaits and devils to the expectation of a Messiah and when comes this fulnesse of time to us that we feele this Messiah born in our selves In this fulnesse in this comming of our Saviour into us Nobis we should
finde a threefold fullnesse in our selves we should finde a fulnesse of nature because not only of spirituall but of naturall and temporall things all the right which we have in this world is in and for and by Christ for so we end all our prayers of all sorts with that clause per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum Grant this O Lord for our Lord and Saviour Christ Iesus sake And we should finde a fulnesse of grace a daily sense of improvement growth in grace a filling of all former vacuities a supplying of all emptinesses in our soules till we came to Stephens fulnesse Acts 6.3 ver 5. 8. Full of the holy Ghost and wisdome and full of the holy Ghost and Faith and full of faith and power And so we should come to finde a fulnesse of glory that is an apprehension and inchoation of heaven in this life for the glory of the next world is not in the measure of that glory but in the measure of my capacity it is not that I shall have as much as any soule hath but that I shall have as much as my soul can receive it is not in an equality with the rest but in a fulnesse in my self And so as I shall have a fulnesse of nature that is such an ability and such a use of naturall faculties and such a portion of the naturall things of this world as shall serve to fill up Gods purpose in me And as I shall have a fulnesse of grace that is such a measure of grace as shall make me discern a tentation and resist a tentation or at least repent it if I have not effectually resisted it so even here I shall have a fulnesse of glory that is as much of that glory as a way-faring soul is capable of in this world All these fulnesses I shall have if I can finde and feele in my selfe this birth of Christ His eternall birth in heaven is unexpressible where he was born without a mother His birth on earth is unexpressible too where he was born without a father but thou shalt feele the joy of his third birth in thy soul most inexpressible this day where he is born this day if thou wilt without father or mother that is without any former or any other reason then his own meere goodnesse that should beget that love in him towards thee and without any matter or merit in thee which should enable thee to conceive him He had a heavenly birth by which he was the eternall Son of God and without that he had not been a person able to redeem thee He had a humane birth by which he was the Son of Mary and without that he had not been sensible in himself of thine infirmities and necessities but this day if thou wilt he hath a spirituall birth in thy soul without which both his divine and his humane birth are utterly unprofitable to thee and thou art no better then if there had never been Son of God in heaven nor Son of Mary upon earth Even the Stork in the aire knoweth her appointed time Jer. 8. and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their comming but my people knoweth not the judgements of the Lord. For if you doe know your time you know that now is your fulnesse of time This is your particular Christmas-day when if you be but as carefull to cleanse your soules as you are your houses if you will but follow that counsell of S. Augustine Quicquid non vis inveniri in domo tua non inveniat Deus in anima tua That uncleannesse which you would be loth your neighbour should finde in your houses let not God nor his Angels finde in your soules Christ Jesus is certainly born and will as certainly grow up in your soules We passe from this 2 Part. to our second part The manner of his comming where we proposed two degrees of Christs humiliation That he was made of a woman and made under the Law In the first alone are two degrees too that he takes the name of the Son of a woman and wanes the glorious name of the Son of God And then that he takes the name of the son of a woman Mulieris non Dei. and wanes the miraculous name of the son of a Virgin For the first Christ ever refers himself to his Father As he sayes The Father which sent me Joh. 12. gave me a commandement what I should say and what I should speak so for all that which he did or suffered Joh. 4. Joh. 16. he sayes My meate is to doe his will that sent me and to finish his work And so though he say I am come out from the Father and am come into the world yet be where he will still Ego pater unum sumus He and his Father were all one But devesting that glory or slumbring it in his flesh till the Father glorifie him againe with that glory which he had with him from the beginning in his Ascension he humbles himselfe here to that addition The Son of a woman made of a woman Christ waned the glorious Name of Son of God Non Virginis and the miraculous Name of Son of a Virgin to which is not omitted to draw into doubt the perpetuall Virginity of the Blessed Virgin the Mother of Christ she is not called a woman as though she were not a Maid when it is said Joseph knew her not donec peperit till she brought forth her Son this did not imply his knowledge of her after no more then when God sayes to Christ donec ponam sit at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstoole that imports that Christ should remove from his right hand after For here is a perpetuall donec in both places for evermore the ancient Expositors have understood that place of Ezekiel Ezek. 44.2 to be intended of the perpetuall Virginitie of Mary This gate shall be shut and shall not be opened and no man shall enter by it Solomon hath an exclamation Is there any thing whereof a man may say Behold this is new and he answers himselfe immediately before There is no new thing under the Sun But behold here is a greater then Solomon and he sayes now in action by being borne of a Virgin as he had said long before in Prophesie The Lord hath created a new thing upon earth a woman shall compasse a man Jer. 31. If this had been spoken of such a woman as were no Maid this had been no new thing As it was it was without example and without naturall reason si ratio reddi posset sayes St. Bernard non esset mirabile si exempla haberemus non esset singulare If there were reason for it it were no miracle if there were precedents for it it were not singular and God intended both that it should be a miracle and that it should be done but once we see in
fornications and goes very farre in carnall And yet for all this we are capable of this Conception Christ may be borne in us for all this As God said unto the Prophet Take thee a wife of fornications and children of fornications so is Christ Jesus content to take our soules though too often mothers of fornications As long as we are united and incorporated in his beloved Spouse the Church conforme our selves to her grow up in her hearken to his word in her feed upon his Sacraments in her acknowledge a seale of reconciliation by the absolution of the Minister in her so long how unclean soever we have bin if wee abhorre and forsake our uncleannesse now wee participate of the chastity of that Spouse of his the Church and in her are made capable of this conception of Christ Jesus and so it is as true this houre of us as it was when the Apostle spoke these words This is the fulnesse of time when God sent his Son c. Now you remember Sub lege that in this second part the manner of Christs comming we proposed two degrees of humiliation One which we have handled in a double respect as he is made filius mulieris non Dei the son of a woman and not the Son of God the other as he is filius mulieris non Virginis The son of a woman and not called the son of a Virgin The second remaines that he was sub lege under the law now this phrase to be under the law is not alwayes so narrowly limited in the Scriptures as to signifie onely the law of Moses for so onely the Jews were under the law and so Christs comming for them who were under the law his Death and Merits should belong onely to the Jews But St. Augustine observes that when Christ sent the message of his birth to the wise men in the East by a starre and to the shepheards about Bethlem by an Angel In pastoribus Iudaei in magis Gentes vocatae The Jews had their calling in that manifestation to the shepheards and the Gentiles in that to the wise men in the East But besides that Christ did submit himselfe to all the waight even of the Ceremoniall law of Moses he was under a heavyer law then that under that lex decreti the contract and covenant with God the Father under that oportuit pati This he ought to suffer before he could enter into glory So that his being under the law may be accounted not a part of his Humiliation as his being made of a woman was but rather the whole history and frame of his humiliation All that concernes his obedience even to that law which the Father had laid upon him for the life and death of Christ from the Ave Maria to the consummatum est from his comming into this World in his Conception to his transmigration upon the Crosse was all under this law heavier then any law that any man is under the law of the contract and covenant between the Father and him Though therefore we may think judging by the law of reason that since Christ came to gather a Church and to draw the world to him it would more have advanced that purpose of his to have been borne at Rome where the seat of the Empire and the confluence of all Nations was then in Iury and if he would offer the Gospel first to the Jews better to have been borne at Ierusalem where all the outward publique solemne worship of the Jews was then at obscure Bethlem and in Bethlem in some better place then in an Inne in a Stable in a Manger though we may think thus in the law of reason yet non cogitationes meae cogitationes vestrae sayes God in the Prophet Esay 55. My thoughts are not your thoughts nor my lawes your lawes for I am sub lege decreti under another manner of law then falls within your reading under an obedience to that covenant which hath passed betweene my Father and me and by those Degrees and no other way was my humiliation for your Redemption to be expressed Though we may thinke in the law of Reason that his work of propagating the Gospel would have gone better forward if he had taken for his Apostles some Tullies or Hortensii or Senecaes great and perswading Orators in stead of his Peter and Iohn and Matthew and those Fishermen and tent-makers and toll-gatherers Though we might think in reason and in piety too that when he would humble himselfe to take our salvation into his care it had beene enough to have beene under the law of Moses to live innocently and righteously without shedding of his bloud If he would shed bloud it might have beene enough to have done so in the Circumcision and scourging without dying If he would die it might have been enough to have dyed some lesse accursed and lesse ignominious death then the death of the Crosse though we might reasonably enough and piously enough think thus yet non cogitationes vestrae cogitationes meae sayes the Lord your way is not my way your law is not my law for Christ was sub lege decreti and thus as he did and no other way it became him to fulfill all righteousnesse that is all that Decree of God which he had accepted and acknowledged as Righteous He was so much under Moses law as he would be so much under that law as that he suffered that law to be wrested against him and to bee pretended to be broken by him and to be endited and condemned by that law The Jews pressed that law non sines veneficū vivere Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live Exod. 22. when they attributed all his glorious miracles to the power of the devil and the Romans were incensed against him for treason and sedition as though he aliened and withdrew the people from Caesar But he was under a heavyer law then Jews or Romanes the Law of his Father and his owne eternall Decree so farre as that he came to that sense of the waight thereof Eli Eli My God My God why hast thou forsaken me and was never delivered from the burden of this law till he pleaded the performance of all conditions between his Father and him and delivered up all the evidence thereof in those words In manus tuas Into thy hands O Lord I give my spirit and so presented both the righteousnesse of his soule which had fulfilled the law and the soule it selfe which was under the law He dyed in Execution and so discharged all And so we have done with our second part The manner of his comming We are come now in our Order to our third part The purpose of Christs comming 3. Part. and in that we consider two objects that Christ had and two subjects to work upon two kindes of work and two kindes of persons First to Redeeme and then to Adopt Those are his works his objects And then To redeeme
those that were under the law that is all but to Adopt those whom he had chosen us And those are the persons the subjects that he works upon by his comming First then to begin with the persons those of the first kinde Sub lege those that were under the Law for them as we told you before the law must not be so narrowly restrained here as to be intended onely of Moses Law for Christs purpose was not onely upon the Jews for else Naaman the Syrian by whom God fought great battailes 2 Reg. 5. before he was cured of his leprosie and who when he was cured was so zealous of the worship of the true God that he would needs carry holy earth to make Altars of from the place where the Prophet dwelt And else Iob who though he were of the land of Hus hath good testimony of being an upright and just man and one that feared God And else the Widow of Sarepta 1. Reg. 17. whose meale and oyle God preserved unwasted and whose dead sonne God raised againe at the prayer of Eliah All these and all others whom the searching Spirit of God seales to his service in all the corners of the earth because they are strangers in the land of Israel should not be under the Law and so should have no profit by Christs being made under the Law if the Law should be understood onely of the Law of Moses And therefore to be under the Law signifies here thus much To be a debter to the law of nature to have a testimony in our hearts and consciences that there lyes a law upon us which we have no power in our selves to performe that to those lawes To love God with all our powers and to love our neighbour as our selves and to doe as we would be done to we finde our selves naturally bound and yet wee finde our selves naturally unable to performe them and so to need the assistance of another which must be Christ Jesus to performe them for us And so all men Jews and Gentiles are under the Law because naturally they feele a law upon them which they breake And therefore wheresoever our power becomes defective in the performance of this law if our will be not defective too if we come not to say God hath given us an impossible Law and therefore it is lost labour to goe about to performe it or God hath given us another to performe this Law for us and therefore nothing is required at our hands If we abstaine from these quarrels to the law and these murmurings at our owne infirmity wee shall finde that the fulnesse of time is this day come this day Christ is come to all that are under the Law that is to all mankinde to all because all are unable to performe that Law which they all see by the light of nature to lye upon them These then be the persons of the first kinde Redemit All all the world Dilexit mundum God so loved the world that he gave his Son for it for all the world And accordingly venit salvare mundum the obedience of the Son was as large as the love of the Father Hee came to save all the world and he did save all the world God would have all men and Christ did save all men It is therefore fearefully and scarce allowably said that Christ did contrary to his Fathers will when he called those to grace of whom he knew his Fathers pleasure to bee that they should have no grace It is fearefully and dangerously said Absurdum non esse Deum interdum falsa loqui falsum loquenti credendum that it is not absurd to say that is that it may truly be said that God does sometimes speake untruly and that we are bound to beleeve God when he does so for if we consider the soveraigne balme of our soules the blood of Christ Jesus there is enough for all the world if we consider the application of this physick by the Ministers of Christ Jesus in the Church hee hath given us that spreading Commission To goe and preach to every creature we are bid to offer to apply to minister this to all the world Christ hath excommunicated no Nation no shire no house no man Hee gives none of his Ministers leave to say to any man thou art not Redeemed he gives no wounded nor afflicted conscience leave to say to it selfe I am not Redeemed There may be meat enough brought into the house for all the house though some be so weake as they cannot which is the case of the Gentiles some so stubborne as they will not eate which is the case of the carnall man though in the Christian Church He came to all There are the persons and to Redeeme all there is his errand but how to Redeeme S. Hierome saies Gentes non Redimuntur sed emuntur The Gentiles saies hee are not properly Christs by way of Redeeming but by an absolute purchase To which purpose those words are also applied which the Apostle saies to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a price S. Hieroms meaning therein is that if we compare the Jews and the Gentiles though God permitted the Jews in punishment of their rebellions to bee captivated by the devill in Idolatries yet the Jews were but as in a mortgage for they had beene Gods peculiar people before But the Gentiles were as the devils inheritance for God had never claimed them nor owned them for his and therefore God sayes to Christ Ps 2.8 Postula à me Aske of me and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance as though they were not his yet or not his by that title as the Jews were So that in S. Hieromes construction the Jewes which were Gods people before were properly Redeemed the Gentiles to whom God made no title before are rather bought then redeemed But Nullum tempus occurrit Regi against the King of Kings there runnes no prescription no man can devest his Allegeance to his Prince and say he will be subject no longer And therefore since the Gentiles were his by his first title of Creation for it is he that hath made us and not we our selves nor the devill neither when all we by our generall revolt and prevarication as we were all collectively in Adams loynes came to be under that law morte morieris Thou shalt dye the death when Christ came in the fulnesse of time and delivered us from the sharpest and heaviest clause of that Law which is the second death then he Redeemed us properly because though not by the same title of Covenant as the Jews were yet we were his and sold over to his enemy These then were the persons All none can say that he did not need him none can say that he may not have him And this was his first worke to Redeeme to vindicate them from the usurper to deliver them from the intruder to emancipate them
Gods first is not truly his Kings nor his own And then God does not sell him back againe to his parents at a racked at an improved price He sels a Lord or a King back againe to the world as cheap as a Yeoman he takes one and the same price for all God made all Mankinde of one blood and with one blood the blood of his Son he bought all Mankinde again At one price and upon the same conditions he hath delivered over all into this world Tantummodo crede and then fac hoc vives is the price of all Beleeve and live well More he asks not lesse he takes not for any man upon any pretence of any unconditioned decree At the time of this presentation there were to be offered a paire of Turtles or a paire of Pigeons Columbae The Sacrifice was indifferent Turtles that live solitarily and Pigeons that live sociably were all one to God God in Christ may be had in an active and sociable life denoted in the Pigeon and in the solitary and contemplative life denoted in the Turtle Let not Westminster despise the Church nor the Church the Exchange nor the Exchange and trade despise Armes God in Christ may be had in every lawfull calling And then the Pigeon was an embleme of fecundity and fruitfulnesse in marriage And the Turtle may be an Embleme of chaste widowhood for I thinke we finde no Bigamy in the Turtle But in these Sacrifices we finde no Embleme of a naturall or of a vowed barrennesse Nothing that countenances a vowed virginity to the dishonour or undervaluing of marriage Thus was our Saviour presented to God And in this especially was that fulfilled Agg. 2.9 The glory of the later house shall be greater then the glory of the former The later Temple exceeded the former in this that the Lord the God of this house was in the house bodily as one of the congregation And the little body of a sucking childe was a Chappell in that Temple infinitely more glorious then the Temple it selfe How was the joy of Noah at the return of the Dove into the Ark multiplied upon Simeon at the bringing of this Dove into the Temple At how cheape a price was Christ tumbled up and down in this world It does almost take off our pious scorn of the low price at which Iudas sold him to consider that his Father sold him to the world for nothing and then when he had him again by this new title of primogeniture and presentation he sold him to the world again if not for a Turtle or for a Pigeon yet at most for 5. shekels which at most is but 10. shillings And yet you have had him cheaper then that to day in the Sacrament whom hath Christ cost 5. shekels there As Christ was presented to God in the Temple so is hee presented to God in the Sacrament not sucking but bleeding And God gives him back again to thee And at what price upon this exchange Take his first born Christ Jesus and give him thine Who is thine Cor primogenitum sayes S. August The heart is the first part of the body that lives Give him that And then as it is in nature it shall be in grace too the last part that dyes for it shall never dye Joh 6.50 If a man eat the bread that commeth down from heaven he shall not die sayes Christ If a man in exchange of his heart receive Christ Jesus himselfe he can no more die then Christ Jesus himselfe can die That which Eschines said to Socrates admits a faire accommodation here He saw every body give Socrates some present and he said Because I have nothing else to give I will give thee my selfe Do so sayes Socrates and I will give thee back again to thy self better then when I received thee If thou have truly given thy selfe to him in the Sacrament God hath given thee thy selfe back so much mended as that thou hast received thy self and him too Thy selfe in a holy liberty to walk in the world in a calling and himself in giving a blessing upon all the works of thy calling and imprinting in thee a holy desire to do all those works to his glory And so having thus far made this profit of these circumstances in the action it self appliable to us as receivers of the Sacrament that as the childe Jesus was first presented to God in the Temple so for your children the children of your bodies and the children of your mindes and the children of your hands all your actions and intentions that you direct them first upon God and God in the Temple that is God manifested in the Church before you assigne them or determine them upon any other worldly courses and then that as God returned Christ as all other children at a certain price so God delivers man upon certain and upon the same conditions He comes not into the world nor he comes not to the Sacrament as to a Lottery where perchance he may draw Salvation but it is ten to one he misses but upon these few and easie conditions Beleeve Love he may be sure And then also that the Sacrifice Pigeons or Turtles was indifferent so it were offered to God for any honest calling is acceptable to God if Gods glory be intended in it That of marriage and of widowhood we have some typicall intimations in the Law in the Pigeon and in the Turtle but of a vow of virginity begun in the parents for their temporall ends and forced upon their children for those ends we have no shadow at all That Christ who was sold after by Iudas for a little money was sold in this presentation by his Father for lesse and yet for lesse then that to us this day in the Sacrament Having made these uses of these circumstances in the action it selfe we passeion now to the consideration of some such qualities and dispositions of this person Simeon as may be appliable to us in our having received the Sacrament First then we receive it though not literally and expresly in the story Senex yet by convenient implication there and by generall tradition from all that Simeon was now come to a great age a very old Man For so S. August argues That God raised up two witnesses for Christ in the Temple one of each Sex and both of much reverence for age Anna whose age is expressed and Simeon who is recommended in the same respect saies that Father for age too And Nicephorus and others with him make him very old as it is likely he was if he were as Pet Galatinus makes him the son of Rabbi Hillel Hillel the master of Gamaliel the master of S. Paul So then we accept him A person in a reverend age Even in nature Age was the center of reverence the channell the valley to which all reverence flowed temporall jurisdiction and spirituall jurisdiction the Magistracy and the Priesthood were appropriated to
at the Kings table certain portions of bread are made bread of Essay to passe over every dish whether for safety or for Majesty not only so civilly changed but changed supernaturally no nor Theophylacts transformatus est which seemes to be the word that goes farthest of all for this transforming cannot be intended of the outward form and fashion for that is not changed but be it of that internall form which is the very essence and nature of the bread so it is transformed so the bread hath received a new form a new essence a new nature because whereas the nature of bread is but to nourish the body the nature of this bread now is to nourish the soule And therefore Cum non dubitavit Dominus dicere hoc est corpus meum August cum signum daret corporis Since Christ forbore not to say This is my body when he gave the sign of his body why should we forbeare to say of that bread this is Christs body which is the Sacrament of his body You would have said at noone this light is the Sun and you will say now this light is the Candle That light was not the Sun this light is not the Candle but it is that portion of aire which the Sun did then and which the Candle doth now enlighten We say the Sacramentall bread is the body of Christ because God hath shed his Ordinance upon it and made it of another nature in the use though not in the substance Almost 600. years agoe the Romane Church made Berengarius sweare sensualiter tangitur frangitur teritur corpus Christs That the body of Christ was sensibly handled and broken and chewed They are ashamed of that now and have mollified it with many modifications and God knowes whether 100. yeares hence they will not bee as much ashamed of their Transubstantiation and see as much unnaturall absurdity in their Trent Canon or Lateran Canoâ—â— â—s they doe in Berengarius oath As they that deny the body of Christ to be in the Sacrament lose their footing in departing from their ground the expresse Scriptures so they that will assign a particular manner how that body is there have no footing no ground at all no Scripture to Anchor upon And so diving in a bottomlesse sea they poppe sometimes above water to take breath to appeare to say something and then snatch at a loose preposition that swims upon the face of the waters and so the Roman Church hath catched a Trans and others a Con and a Sub and an In and varied their poetry into a Transubstantiation and a Consubstantiation and the rest and rymed themselves beyond reason into absurdities and heresies and by a young figure of similiter cadens they are fallen alike into error though the errors that they are fallen into be not of a like nature nor danger We offer to goe no farther then according to his Word In the Sacrament our eyes see his salvation according to that so far as that hath manifested unto us and in that light wee depart in peace without scruple in our owne without offence to other mens consciences Having thus seene Simeon in these his Dimensions with these holy impressions 2 Part. these blessed characters upon him first 1 A man in a reverend age then 2 In a holy function and calling and with that 3 Righteous in the eyes of men and withall 4 Devout in the eyes of God 5 And made a Prophet upon himselfe by the holy Ghost 6 still wayting Gods time and his leasure 7 And in that desiring that his joy might be spread upon the whole Israel of God 8 Frequenting holy places the Temple 9 And that upon holy motions and there 10 seeing the salvation of the Lord that is Discerning the application of salvation in the Ordinances of the Church 11 And lastly contenting himselfe with so much therein as was according to his word and not inquiring farther then God had beene pleased to reveale and having reflected all these severall beames upon every worthy Receiver of the Sacrament the whole Quire of such worthy receivers may joyne with Simeon in this Antiphon Nunc Dimittis Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace c. S. Ambrose reades not this place as we doe Nunc dimittis but Nunc dimitte not Lord thou doest so but Lord doe so and so he gives it the forme of a prayer and implyes not only a patience and a contentednesse but a desire and an ambition that he might die at least such an indifferency and equanimity as Israel had when he had seen Ioseph Gen. 46.30 Now let me die since I have seen thy face after he had seen his face the next face that he desired to see was the face of God For howsoever there may bee some disorder some irregularity in S. Pauls Anathema pro fratribus that he desired to be separated from Christ rather then his brethren should that may scarce be drawen into consequence or made a wish for us to imitate yet to S. Pauls Cupio dissolvi to an expresse and to a deliberate desire to be dissolved here and to be united to Christ in heaven still with a primary relation to the glory of God and a reservation of the will of God a godly a rectified and a well-disposed man may safely come And so I know not upon what grounds Nicephorus fayes Simeon did wish and had his wish he prayed that he might die and actually he did die then Neither can a man at any time be fitter to make and obtain this wish then when his eyes have seen his salvation in the Sacrament At least make this an argument of your having beene worthy receivers thereof that you are in Aequilibriâ—o in an evennesse in an indifferency in an equanimity whether ye die this night or no. For howsoever S. Ambrose seem to make it a direct prayer that he might die he intends but such an equanimity such an indifferency Quasi servus nonrefugit vitae obsequium quasi sapiem lucrum mortis amplectitur sayes that Father Simeon is so good a servant as that he is content to serve his old master still in his old place in this world but yet he is so good a husband too as that hee sees what a gainer he might be if he might be made free by death If thou desire not death that is the case of very few to doe so in a rectified conscience and without distemper if thou beest not equally disposed towards death that should be the case of all and yet we are far from condemning all that are not come to that equanimity yet if thou now feare death inordinately I should feare that thine eyes have not seen thy salvation to day who can feare the darknesse of death that hath had the light of this world and of the next too who can feare death this night that hath had the Lord of life in his hand to day It is a question of
send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send tasts of most vehemence and as it may seem of some passion in Moses He sayes first Quis ego I am not worthy of this employment That 's true but thou art able to qualifie me for it and that objection is taken away Quod nomen I know not thy name how thou wilt be called and how thou wilt be called upon by men I have not studied that But thou hast revealed unto me the knowledge of fundamentall doctrines necessary for salvation and that objection is removed Non facundus I am not eloquent not of ready speech defective in those naturall faculties But the spirit of eloquence and the irresistiblenesse of perswasion is in that mouth in which thou speakest and that excuse is taken away too Non credent I know their stubbornnesse to whom I goe they will not beleeve me But thou hast put the power of Miracles into my hands as well as knowledge into my heart God makes sometimes a plaine and simple mans good life as powerfull as the eloquentest Sermon All this I acknowledge sayes Moses But yet O Lord when thou shalt have done all this in me and in them made me worthy by thy power taught me thy Name by thy grace infused a perswasibility into them and a perswasivenesse into me by thy Spirit yet there is One who is to be sent One whom I know thou wilt send One whom pursuing thine owne Decree thou shouldst send One whose shooe-latchet I shall not be worthy to untie then when thou shalt have multiplyed all these qualifications upon me and therefore O my Lord send I pray thee by his hand send him send Christ now So then with the ancient Fathers with Iustin Martyr with S. Basil with Tertullian with more many very many more we may safely take this to be a supplication That God would be pleased to hasten the comming of the Messias Of our later writers Calvin departs from the Ancients herein so farre as to say nimis coacta it seemes somewhat a forced somewhat an unnaturall sense to interpret these words of the comming of Christ but he proceeds no farther But another of the same sub-division is as he uses to be more assured more confident and he saies Piscator est omnimoda praecisa recusatio It is an absolute refusall in Moses to obey the commandement of God And that truly needed not to have beene said Now when wee consider the exposition in the Roman Church Tostat when their great Bishop I mean their great writing Bishop departs from the Ancients does not understand these words of the comming of Christ Pererius a Jesuit is so bold with that Bishop their order forbids them to be Bishops but not to be Controllers over Bishops as to tell him levis objectio that he departs from a good foundation Eugubinus the Fathers and that upon a light reason And when another Author in that Church proceeds farther to so much vehemence so much violence as to say that it is not only an incommodious but a superstitious sense to interpret these words of the comming of Christ Peterius Cornelius two Jesuits correct him almost in the same words for in the waies of contumely and defamation they agree well and say audacter obstrepit he does but sawcily bark and kick against the ancient Fathers quibus ipse saies Pererius to whom himselfe is not to be compared neither for learning in himselfe nor for place and dignity in the Church nor for sanctity and holinesse of life in the world They may bee as bold with one another as they please Indeed they are so used to uncharitable phrases towards all others as sometimes they cannot spare one another For our part wee lay no such imputations upon any of our later men that accept not that sense of these words but yet we cannot doubt of leave to accompany the Fathers in that Exposition that these words O my Lord send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send are a petition and not a reluctation against God And that not as Lyra takes them Lyra takes them to be a petition and not a reluctation but a petition of Moses that hee would send Aaron That if he would send any he should send a man of better parts and abilities then himselfe and this is a rare modesty when a man is named for any place to become suter for another to that place Moses was the meekest man upon earth but this was not his meaning here Nor as Rabbi Solomon takes it hee takes it for a Petition and no reluctation but a Petition that God would send Iosuah For sayes that Rabbi Moses had had a Revelation that Iosuah and not he should be the man that should bring that People into the Land of Promise and therefore since Iosuah was to have the honour of the action Moses would have laid the burden upon him too but this makes Moses a more fashionall a more particular a more selfe-considering man for his owne estimation then he was But with the Ancients and later devout men wee piously beleeve Moses in these words to have extended his Devotion towards his Nation and the whole world together Ferus as farre as one of them hath extended the Exposition quid prodest ex Egypto exire in peccatis manere saies he what shall they bee the better for comming out of the pressures of Egypt if they must remaine still under the oppression of a sinfull conscience And that must be their case if thou send but a Moses and not a Christ to their succour Quid Pharaonem essugere non Diabolum saies he what shall they get in being delivered from Pharaoh if they be not delivered from the Devill Intrare in terram promissam non in coelum What preferment is it to dwell in a good Land and to bee banished out of heaven And this will be their case if thou send but a Moses and not a Christ for their deliverance He carries it from them to God himselfe Quid unum populum è servitute temporali liberare totum genus humanum relinquere sub potestate Diaboli What glory will it bee to thee O God who studiest thine owne glory to deliver one Nation from a temporall bondage and leave all Mankinde under everlasting condemnation And that must be the case of all if thou send but a Moses and not a Christ Moses may by thine abundant goodnesse doe some good but there is one one appointed to be sent that will doe all which Moses should doe better then Moses and infinitely more then Moses can doe or of himselfe so much as wish to bee done and therefore send him send him now to doe all together And so these words are a Petition and no Reluctation though some men have taken them so and a Petition for the sending of Christ and no Aaron no Iosuah no other man
grace in this world I shall have that more abundantly in Heaven for there my terme shall bee a terme for three lives for those three that as long as the Father and the Son and the holy Ghost live I shall not dye And to this glorious Son of God and the most almighty Father c. SERMONS Preached upon Candlemas-day SERMON VIII Preached upon Candlemas Day MAT. 5.16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven EIther of the names of this day were Text enough for a Sermon Purification or Candlemas Joyne we them together and raise we only this one note from both that all true purification is in the light corner purity clandestine purity conventicle purity is not purity Christ gave himself for us Tit. 2.14 sayes the Apostle that he might purifie to himself a peculiar people How shall this purification appeare It follows They shall be zealous of good works They shall not wrangle about faith and works but be actually zealous of goods works For purification was accompanied with an oblation something was to be given A Lamb a Dove Levit. 12.6 a Turtle All emblemes of mildnesse true purity is milde meek humble and to despise and undervalue others is an inseparable mark of false purity The oblation of this dayes purification is light so the day names it Candlemas-day so your custome celebrates it with many lights Now when God received lights into his Tabernacle hee received none of Tallow the Oxe hath hornes he received none of Waxe the Bee hath his sting but he received only lampes of oyle And though from many fruits and berries they pressed oyle yet God admitted no oyle into the service of the Church but only of the Olive the Olive the embleme of peace Our purification is with an oblation our oblation is light our light is good works our peace is rather to exhort you to them then to institute any solemne or other then occasionall comparison between faith and them Every good work hath faith for the roote but every faith hath not good works for the fruit thereof And it is observable that in all this great Sermon of our Saviours in the Mount which possesseth this and the two next Chapters there is no mention of faith by way of perswasion or exhortation thereunto but the whole Sermon is spent upon good works For good works presuppose faith Mat. 6.30 and therefore he concludes that they had but little faith because they were so solicitous about the things of this world O ye of little faith And as Christ concludes an unstedfastnesse in their faith out of their solicitude for this world so may the world justly conclude an establishment in their faith if they see them exercise themselves in the works of mercy and so let their light shine before men that they may see their good works and glorifie their Father which is in heaven These are words spoken by our Saviour to his Disciples in the Mount Divisio a treasure deposited in those disciples but in those disciples as depositaries for us an Oracle uttered to those disciples but through those disciples to us Paradise convayed to those disciples but to those disciples as feoffees in trust for us to every one of us in them from him that rides with his hundreds of Torches to him that crawles with his rush-candle our Saviour sayes Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works c. The words have two parts so must our explication of them first a precept Sic luceat Let your light so shine before men and then the reason the purpose the end the effect ut videant that men may see your good works and c. From the first bough will divers branches spring and divers from the other all of good taste and nourishment if wee might stay to presse the fruits thereof We cannot yet in the first we shall insist a while upon each of these three First the light it self what that is Sic luceat lux Let your light so shine And then secondly what this propriety is lux vestra let your light shine yours And lastly what this emanation of this light upon others is coram hominibus let your light shine before men The second part which is the reason or the effect of this precept ut videant that men may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven abounds in particular considerations and I should weary you if I should make you stand all the while under so heavy a load as to charge your memories with all those particulars so long before I come to handle them Reserving them therefore to their due time anon proceed we now to the three branches of our first part first the light in it self then the propriety in us lastly the emanation upon others Let your light so shine before men First 1 Part. Lux. John 1.9 for the light it self There is a light that lightneth every man that commeth into the world And even this universall light is Christ sayes S. Iohn He was that light that lighteth every man that commeth into the world And this universall enunciation He lightneth every man moved S. Cyril to take this light for the light of nature and naturall reason John 1.3 Colos 1.16 For even nature and naturall reason is from Christ All things were made by him sayes S. Iohn even nature it self And By him and for him all things visible and invisible were created sayes the Apostle And therefore our latter men of the Reformation are not to be blamed who for the most part pursuing S. Cyrils interpretation interpret this universall light that lightneth every man to be the light of nature Divers others of the Fathers take this universall light because Christ is said to be this light to be Baptisme For in the primitive Church as the Nativity of Christ was called the Epiphany Manifestation so Baptisme was called Illumination And so Christ lightens every man that comes into the world that is into the Christian world by that Sacrament of Illumination Baptisme S. Augustine brought the exposition of that universall proposition into a narrow roome That he enlightned all that came into the world that is all that were enlightned in the world were enlightned by him there was no other light and so he makes this light to be the light of faith and the light of effectuall grace which all have not but they that have have it from Christ Now which of these lights is intended in our Text Let you light shine out is it of the light of nature at our comming into the world or the light of Baptisme and that generall grace that accompanies all Gods Ordinances at our comming into the Church or the light of faith and particular grace sealing our adoption and spirituall filiation there Properly our light is none of these three and yet
all claimes and encumbrances upon his childrens children Psal 37.26 The righteous is mercifull and lendeth saies David Mercifull as his Father in Heaven is mercifull that is in perpetuall not transitory endowments for God did not set up his lights his Sun and his Moone for a day but for ever and such should our light or good works be too Hee is mercifull and he lendeth to whom for to the poore he giveth he looks for no returne from them for they are the waters upon which he casts his bread Yet he lendeth Eccles 11.1 Prov. 19.17 He that hath pity on the poore lendeth to the Lord. The righteous is mercifull and lendeth and then as David addes there His seed is blessed Blessed in this which followes there that he shall inherit the land Psal 37.29 Psal 112.4 and dwell therein for ever which he ratifies againe Surely he shall not be moved for ever that is he shall never be moved in his posterity And as he is blessed that way blessed in the establishment of his possession upon his childrens children so is he blessed in this that his honour and good name shall bee poured out as a fragrant oyle upon his posterity Ibid. The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance Their memory shall be alwaies alive Prov. 10.7 Prov. 11.30 and alwaies fresh in their posterity when The name of the wicked shall rot So then the fruit of the righteous is the tree of life saies Solomon that is the righteous shall produce plants that shall grow up and flourish so his posterity shall be a tree of life to many generations Prov. 17.6 and then The glory of children are their Fathers saies that wise King As Fathers receive comfort from good children so children receive glory from good parents in this are children glorified that they had righteous Fathers that lent unto the Lord. So that to recollect these peeces it is no small reward that God affords you if men seeing your good workes glorifie that is esteeme and respect and love and honour your children upon earth But it is not onely that your good workes shall bee an occasion of carrying glory upon the right object They shall glorifie your Father which is in heaven It is not the Father which is in Heaven Non Patrem that they should glorifie God as the common Father of all by creation For for that they need not your light your good works The Heavens declare the glory of God Psal 19.1 saies David that is glorifie him in an acknowledgement that he is the Father of them Deut. 32.6 and of all other things by creation Is not hee thy Father hath he not made thee is an interrogatory ministred by Moses to which all things must answer with the Prophet Malachie Malac. 2.10 yes He is our Father for he hath made us But that 's not the paternity of this text as God is Father of us all by creation Nor as he is a Father of some in a more particular consideration in giving them large portions great patrimonies in this world for thus he may be my Father and yet disinherit me hee may give me plenty of temporall blessings and withhold from me spirituall and eternall blessings Now to see this men need not your light your good workes for they see dayly That he maketh his sun to shine on the evill Mat. 5.45 and on the good and causeth it to raine on the just and the unjust He feeds Goates as well as Sheepe he gives the wicked temporall blessings as well as the righteous These then are not the paternities of our text that men by this occasion glorifie God as the Father of all men by creation nor as the Father of all rich men by their large patrimonies not as he is the Father not as he is a Father but as he is your Father as he is made yours as he is become yours by that particular grace of using the temporall blessings which he hath given you to his glory in letting your light shine before men For it were better God disinherited us so as to give us nothing then that he gave us not the grace to use that that he gave us well without this all his bread were stone Mat. 7.9 and all his fishes serpents all his temporall liberality malediction How much happier had that man beene that hath wasted thousands in play in riot in wantonnesse in sinfull excesses if his parents had left him no more at first then he hath left himselfe at last How much nearer to a kingdome in Heaven had hee beene if he had beene borne a begger here Nay though he have done no ill of such excessive kinds how much happier had he beene if he had had nothing left him if hee have done no good There cannot be a more fearfull commination upon man nor a more dangerous dereliction from God Ps 50.8 12. then when God saies I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices Though thou offer none I care not I le never tell thee of it nor reprove thee for it I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices And when he saies as he does there If I bee hungry I will not tell thee I will not awake thy charity I will not excite thee not provoke thee with any occasion of feeding me in feeding the poore When God shall say to me I care not whether you come to Church or no whether you pray or no repent or no confesse receive or no this is a fearfull dereliction so is it when he saies to a rich man I care not whether your light shine out or no whether men see your good works or no I can provide for my glory other waies For certainly God hath not determined his purpose and his glory so much in that to make some men rich that the poore might be relieved for that ends in bodily reliefe as in this that he hath made some men poore whereby the rich might have occasion to exercise their charity for that reaches to spirituall happinesse for which use the poore doe not so much need the rich as the rich need the poore the poore may better be saved without the rich then the rich without the poore But when men shall see that that God who is the Father of us all by creating us and the father of all the rich by enriching them is also become your father yours by adoption yours by infusion of that particular grace to doe good with your goods then are you made blessed instruments of that which God seeks here his glory They shall glorifie your father which is in heaven Glory is so inseparable to God as that God himself is called Glory They changed their Glory into the similitude of an Oxe Their glory their true God into an inglorious Idol Gloria Psal 106.20 Psal 85.10 That glory may dwell in our land sayes he that is that God may dwell therein The
and he from a Rabbi of the Jews Aben Ezra takes this to be an adjuration of the Earth as Gregory does but not as Gregory does in the person of Christ but of Iob himselfe That Iob adjures the earth not to cover his blood that is not to cover the shedding of his blood not to conspire with the malice of his enemies so much as to deny him buriall when he was dead that they which trod him downe alive might not triumph over him after his death or conclude that God did certainly forsake him alive since he continued these declarations against him when he was dead And this also may have good use but yet it is too narrow and too shallow to bee the sense of this phrase this elegancy this vehemency of the Holy Ghost in the mouth of Iob. S. Chrysostome I think was the first that gave light to the sense of this place He saies that such men as are as they thinke over-punished have naturally a desire that the world knew their faults that so by comparing their faults with their punishments there might arise some pitty and commiseration of their state And surely this that Chrysostome sayes is true and naturall for if two men were to be executed together by one kinde of death the one for stealing a Sheep perchance in hunger the other for killing his Father certainly he that had but stollen the Sheep would be sorry the world should think their cases alike or that he had killed a Father too And in such an affection Iob sayes I am so far from being guilty of those things that are imputed to me that I would be content that all that ever I have done were knowne to all the world This light which S. Chrysost gave to this place shined not out I think till the Reformation for I have not observed any Author between Chrysostome and the Reformation that hath taken knowledge of this interpretation nor any of the Reformation as from him from Chrysostome But since our Authors of the Reformation have somewhat generally pursued that sense Calvin hath done so and so Tremellius and so Piscator and many many more now one Author of the Romane Church one as curious and diligent in interpreting obscure places of Scripture as any amongst them and then more bold and confident in departing from their vulgar and frivolous and impertinent interpretations of Scriptures then any amongst them the Capuchin Bolduc hath also pursued that sense That sense is that in this adjuration or imprecation O Earth cover not thou my blood Blood is not literally bodily blood but spirituall blood the blood of the soule exhausted by many and hainous sins such as they insimulated Iob of For in this signification is that word Blood often taken in the Scriptures When God sayes when you stretch forth your hands Esay 1.15 Psal 51.14 they are full of blood there blood is all manner of rapine of oppression of concussion of violence When David prayes to be delivered from blood-guiltinesse it is not intended onely of an actuall shedding of blood for it is in the Originall à sanguinibus in the plurall other crimes then the actuall shedding of blood are bloody crimes Ezech 7.23 Therefore sayes one Prophet the land is full of bloody crimes And another blood toucheth blood Hosea 4.2 whom the Chalde Paraprase expresses aright Aggregant peccata peccatis blood toucheth blood when sin induces sin Which place of Hosea S. Gregory interprets too then blood touches blood cum ante oculos Dei adjunctis peccatis cruentatur anima Then God sees a soule in her blood when she wounds and wounds her selfe againe with variation of divers or iteration of the same sins This then being thus established that blood in this Text is the blood of the soule exhausted by sin for every sin is an incision of the soule a Lancination a Phlebotomy a letting of the soule blood and then a delight in sin is a going with open veines into a warme bath and bleeding to death This will be the force of Iobs Admiration or Imprecation O Earth cover not thou my blood I am content to stand as naked now as I shall doe at the day of Judgement when all men shall see all mens actions I desire no disguise I deny I excuse I extenuate nothing that ever I did I would mine enemies knew my worst that they might study some other reason of Gods thus proceeding with me then those hainous sinnes which from these afflictions they will necessarily conclude against me But had Iob been able to have stood out this triall Was Iob so innocent as that he need not care though all the world knew all Perchance there may have been some excesse some inordinatenesse in his manner of his expressing it we cannot excuse the vehemence of some holy men in such expressions We cannot say that there was no excesse in Moses his Dele me Pardon this people or blot my name out of thy booke or that there was no excesse in S. Pauls Anathema pro fratribus That he wished to be accursed to be separated from Christ for his brethren But for Iob we shall not need this excuse for either we may restraine his words to those sins which they imputed to him and then they have but the nature of that protestation which David made so often to God Iudge me O Lord according to my righteousnesse according to mine innocency according to the cleannesse of my hands which was not spoken by David simply but respectively not of all his sins but of those which Saul pursued him for Or if we enlarge Iobs words generally to all his sins we must consider them to be spoken after his repentance and reconciliation to God thereupon If they knew may Iob have said how it stood between God and my soule how earnestly I have repented how fully he hath forgiven they would never say these afflictions proceeded from those sins And truly so may I so may every soule say that is rectified refreshed restored re-established by the seales of Gods pardon and his mercy so the world would take knowledge of the consequences of my sins as well as of the sins themselves and read my leafes on both sides and heare the second part of my story as well as the first so the world would look upon my temporall calamities the bodily sicknesses and the penuriousnesse of my fortune contracted by my sins and upon my spirituall calamities dejections of spirit sadnesse of heart declinations towards a diffidence and distrust in the mercy of God and then when the world sees me in this agony and bloody sweat in this agony and bloody sweat would also see the Angels of heaven ministring comforts unto me so they would consider me in my Peccavi and God in his Transtulit Me in my earnest Confessions God in his powerfull Absolutions Me drawne out of one Sea of blood the blood of mine owne soule and cast into another Sea the
middle nature above the Philosophers and below the Scriptures the Apocryphall books and I know it is said there Comfort thy selfe for thou-shalt do him no good that is dead Ecclus. 38.6 Et teipsum pessimabis as the vulgat reads it thou shalt make thy self worse and worse in the worst degree But yet all this is but of inordinate lamentation for in the same place the same Wise man sayes My Son let thy tears fall down over the dead weep bitterly and make great moane as he is worthy When our Saviour Christ had uttered his consummatum est all was finished and their rage could do him no more harm when he had uttered his In manus tuas he had delivered and God had received his soul yet how did the whole frame of nature mourn in Eclipses and tremble in earth-quakes and dissolve and shed in pieces in the opening of the Temple Quia mortuus because he was dead Truly to see the hand of a great and mighty Monarch that hand that hath governed the civill sword the sword of Justice at home and drawn and sheathed the forraigne sword the sword of war abroad to see that hand lie dead and not be able to nip or fillip away one of his own wormes and then Quis homo what man though he be one of those men of whom God hath said Ye are gods yet Quis homo what man is there that lives and shall not see death To see the brain of a great and religious Counsellor and God blesse all from making all from calling any great that is not religious to see that brain that produced means to becalme gusts at Councell tables stormes in Parliaments tempests in popular commotions to see that brain produce nothing but swarmes of wormes and no Proclamation to disperse them To see a reverend Prelate that hath resisted Heretiques Schismatiques all his life fall like one of them by death perchance be called one of them when he is dead To re-collect all to see great men made no men to be sure that they shall never come to us not to be sure that we shall know them when we come to them to see the Lieutenants and Images of God Kings the sinews of the State religious Counsellors the spirit of the Church zealous Prelates And then to see vulgar lgnorant wicked and facinorous men thrown all by one hand of death into one Cart into one common Tide-boate one Hospitall one Almeshouse one Prison the grave in whose dust no man can say This is the King this is the Slave this is the Bishop this is the Heretique this is the Counsellor this is the Foole even this miserable equality of so unequall persons by so foule a hand is the subject of this lamentation even Quia mortuus because Lazarus was dead Iesus wept He wept even in that respect Quia non abhibita media Quia mortuus and he wept in this respect too Quia non adhibita media because those means which in appearance might have saved his life by his default were not used for when he came to the house one sister Martha sayes to him Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not dyed and then the other sister Mary sayes so too Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not dyed They all cry out that he who only only by comming might have saved his life would not come Our Saviour knew in himself that he abstained to better purpose and to the farther glory of God for when he heard of his death he said to his Disciples I am glad for your sakes that I was not there Christ had certain reserved purposes which conduced to a better establishing of their faith and to a better advancing of Gods Kingdome the working of that miracle But yet because others were able to say to him it was in you to have saved him and he did not even this Quia non adhibita media affected him and Iesus wept He wept Etsi quatriduanus Etsi quatriduanus though they said unto him He hath been foure dayes dead and stinkes Christ doth not say there is no such matter he doth not stink but though he do my friend shall not lack my help Good friends usefull friends though they may commit some errors and though for some misbehaviours they may stink in our nostrils must not be derelicted abandoned to themselves Many a son many a good heire findes an ill ayre from his Father his Fathers life stinkes in the nostrils of all the world and he heares every where exclamations upon his Fathers usury and extortion and oppression yet it becomes him by a betterlife and by all other means to rectifie and redeem his Fathers fame Quatriduanus est is no plea for my negligence in my family to say My son or my servant hath proceeded so far in ill courses that now it is to no purpose to go about to reform him because Quatriduanus est Quatriduanus est is no plea in my pastorall charge to say that seducers and practisers and perswaders and sollicitors for superstition enter so boldly into every family that now it is to no purpose to preach religious warinesse religious discretion religious constancy Quatriduanus est is no plea for my Usury for my Simony to say I do but as all the world doth and hath used to do a long time To preach there where reprehension of growing sin is acceptable is to preach in season where it is not acceptable it is out of season but yet we must preach in season and out of season too And when men are so refractary as that they forbeare to heare or heare and resist our preaching we must pray and where they dispise or forbid our praying we must lament them we must weep Quatriduanus erat Lazarus was far spent yet Iesus wept He wept Etsisuscitandus Though he knew that Lazarus were to be restored and raised to life again for as he meant to declare a great good will to him at last so he would utter some by the way he would do a great miracle for him as he was a mighty God but he would weep for him too as he was a good natured man Truly it is no very charitable disposition if I give all at my death to others if I keep all all my life to my self For how many families have we seen shaked ruined by this distemper that though the Father mean to alien nothing of the inheritance from the Son at his death yet because he affords him not a competent maintenance in his life he submits his Son to an encumbring of his fame with ignominious shiftings and an encumbring of the estare with irrecoverable debts I may mean to feast a man plentifully at Christmas and that man may starve before in Lent Great persons may think it in their power to give life to persons and actions by their benefits when they will and before that will be up and ready both
yet his third teares his pontificall teares which accompany his sacrifice Those teares we called the Sea but a Sea which must now be bounded with a very little sand To saile apace through this Sea 3. Part. these teares the teares of his Crosse were expressed by that inestimable waight the sinnes of all the world If all the body were eye argues the Apostle in another place why here all the body was eye every pore of his body made an eye by teares of blood and every inch of his body made an eye by their bloody scourges And if Christs looking upon Peter made Peter weep shall not his looking upon us here with teares in his eyes such teares in such eyes springs of teares rivers of teares seas of teares make us weep too Peter who wept under the waight of his particular sin wept bitterly how bitterly wept Christ under the waight of all the sins of all the world In the first teares Christ humane teares those we called a spring we fetched water at one house we condoled a private calamity in another Lazarus was dead In his second teares his Propheticall teares wee went to the condoling of a whole Nation and those we called a River In these third teares his pontificall teares teares for sin for all sins those we call a Sea here is Mare liberum a Sea free and open to all Every man may saile home home to himselfe and lament his own sins there I am farre ftom concluding all to be impenitent that doe not actually weep and shed teares I know there are constitutions complexions that doe not afford them And yet the worst Epithet which the best Poet could fixe upon Pluto himselfe was to call him Illachrymabilis a person that could not weep But to weep for other things and not to weep for sin or if not to teares yet not to come to that tendernesse to that melting to that thawing that resolving of the bowels which good soules feele this is a spunge I said before every man is a spunge this is a spunge dried up into a Pumice stone the lightnesse the hollownesse of a spunge is there still but as the Pumice is dried the Aetnaes of lust of ambition of other flames in this world I have but three words to say of these teares of this weeping What it is what it is for what it does the nature the use the benefit of these teares is all And in the first I forbeare to insist upon S. Basils Metaphor Lachrymae sudor animi male sani Sin is my sicknesse the blood of Christ Jesus is my Bezar teares is the sweat that that produceth I forbeare Greg. Nyssens metaphor too Lachryma sanguis cordis defoecatus Teares are out best blood so agitated so ventilated so purified so rarified into spirits as that thereby I become Idem spiritus one spirit with my God That is large enough and imbraces all which S. Gregory sayes That man weeps truly that soul sheds true teares that considers seriously first ubi fuit in innocentia the blessed state which man was in in his integrity at first ubifuit and then considers ubi est in tentationibus the weak estate that man is in now in the midst of tentations where if he had no more himself were tentation too much ubi est and yet considers farther ubi erit in gehenna the insupportable and for all that the inevitable theirreparable and for all that undeterminable torments of hell ubi erit and lastly ubi non erit in coelis the unexpressible joy and glory which he loses in heaven ubi non erit where he shall never be These foure to consider seriously where man was where he is where he shall be where he shall never be are foure such Rivers as constitute a Paradise And as a ground may be a weeping ground though it have no running River no constant spring no gathering of waters in it so a soule that can poure out it self into these religious considerations may be a weeping soule though it have a dry eye This weeping then is but a true sorrow that was our first and then what this true sorrow is given us for and that is our next Consideration As water is in nature a thing indifferent in may give life Ad quid so the first livin things that were were in the water and it may destroy life so all things living upon the earth were destroyed in the water but yet though water may though it have done good and bad yet water does now one good office which no ill quality that is in it can equall it washes our soules in Bap isme so though there be good teares and bad teares teares that wash away sin and teares that are sin yet all teares have this degree of good in them that they are all some kinde of argument of good nature of a tender heart and the Holy Ghost loves to work in Waxe and not in Marble I hope that is but meerly Poeticall which the Poet saies Discunt lachrymare decenter that some study to weep with a good grace Quoque volunt plorant empore quoquemode they make use and advantage of their teares and weep when they will But of those who weep not when they would but when they would not do half imploy their teares upon thatfor which God hath given them that sacrifice upon sin God made the Firmament which he called Heaven after it had divided the waters After we have distinguished our teares naturall from spirituall worldly from heavenly then there is a Firmament established in us then there is a heaven opened to us and truly to cast Pearles before Swine will scarce be better resembled then to shed teares which resemble pearles for worldly losses Are there examples of menopassionately enamored upon age or if upon age upon deformity If there be example of that are they not examples of scorn too doe not all others laugh at their teares and yet such is our passionate doting upon this world Mundi facies sayes S. Augustine and even S. Augustine himselfe hath scarce said any thing more pathetically tanta rerani labe contrita ut etiam speciem seductionis amiserit The face of the whold world is so defaced so wrinkled so ruined so deformed as that man might be trusted with this world and there is no jealousie no suspition that this world should be able to minister any occasion of tentation to man Speciem seductionis amisit And yet Qui in seipso aruit in nobis floret sayes S. Gregory as wittily as S. Augustine as it is easie to be witty easie to extend an Epigram to a Satyre and a Satyre to an Invective in declaiming against this world that world which findes it selfe truly in an Autumne in it selfe findes it selfe in a spring in our imaginations Labenti haeremus sayes that Father Et cum labentem sistere non possumus cum ipso labimur The world passes away and yet wee cleave to it and
know and of those whom we did know how few did we care much for In Heaven we shall have Communion of Joy and Glory with all Aug. alwaies Vbi non intrat inimicus nec amicus exit Where never any man shall come in that loves us not nor go from us that does Beloved I thinke you could be content to heare I could be content to speake of this Resurrection our glorious state by the low way of the grave till God by that gate of earth let us in at the other of precious Stones And blessed and holy is he who in a rectified conscience desires that resurrection now But we shall not depart far from this consideration by departing into our last branch or conclusion That this first Resurrection may also be understood to be the first riser Christ Jesus and Blessed and holy is he that hath part in that first Resurrection This first Resurrection is then without any detorting 4 Part. any violence very appliable to Christ himself who was Primitiae dormientium in that that action That he rosc again he is become sayes the Apostle the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15.20 Hier. in Mat. 27.52 He did rise and rise first others rose with him none before him for S. Hierome taking the words as he finds them in that Euangelist makes this note That though the graves were opened at the instant of Christs death death was overcome the City opened the gates yet the bodies did not rise till after Christs Resurrection For for such Resurrections as are spoken of That women received their dead raised to life again Heb. 11.35 and such as are recorded in the old and new Testament they were all unperfect and temporary resurrections such as S. Hierome sayes of them all Resurgebant iterum morituri They were but reprieved not pardoned Hier. They had a Resurrection to life but yet a Resurrection to another death Christ is the first Resurrection others were raised but he only rose they by a forraine and extrinsique he by his owne power But we call him not the first in that respect onely for so he was not onely the first but the onely he alone arose by his owne power but with relation to all our future Resurrections he is the first Resurrection First If Christ be not raised your faith is in vaine 1 Cor. 15.17 saies the Apostle You have a vaine faith if you beleeve in a dead man He might be true Man though he remained in death but it concernes you to beleeve that he was the Son of God too And he was declared to be the Son of God Rom. 11.4 by the Resurrection from the dead That was the declaration of himselfe his Justification he was justified by the Spirit when he was proved to be God by raising himselfe But thus our Justification is also in his Resurrection For He was raised from the dead for our Iustification how for ours Rom. 4. ult That we should be also in the likenesse of his Resurrection What is that that he hath told us before Our Resurrection in Christ is that we should walke in newnesse of life Rom. 6.4 So that then Christ is the first Resurrection first Efficiently the onely cause of his owne Resurrection First Meritoriously the onely cause of our Resurrection first Exemplarily the onely patterne how we should rise and how we should walke when we are up and therefore Blessed and happy are we if we referre all our resurrections to this first Resurrection Christ Jesus For as Iob said of Comforters so miserable Resurrections are they all without him If therefore thou need and seeke this first Resurrection in the first acceptation a Resurrection from persecutions and calamities as they oppresse thee here have thy recourse to him to Christ Remember that at the death of Christ there were earthquakes the whole earth trembled There were rendings of the Temple Schismes Convulsions distractions in the Church will be But then the graves opened in the midst of those commotions Then when thou thinkest thy selfe swallowed and buried in affliction as the Angell did his Christ Jesus shall remove thy grave stone and give thee a resurrection but if thou thinke to remove it by thine owne wit thine owne power or the favour of potent Friends Digitus Dei non est hic The hand of God is not in all this and the stone shall lye still upon thee till thou putrifie into desperation and thou shalt have no part in this first Resurrection If thou need and seek this first resurrection in the second acceptation from the fearfull death of hainous sin have thy recourse to him to Christ Jesus remember the waight of the sins that lay upon him All thy sins and all thy Fathers and all thy childrens sins all those sins that did induce the first flood and shall induce the last fire upon this world All those sins which that we might take example by them to scape them are recorded and which lest we should take example by them to imitate them are left unrecorded all sins of all ages all sexes all places al times all callings sins heavy in their substance sins aggravated by their circumstances all kinds of sins and all particular sins of every kind were upon him upon Christ Jesus and yet he raised his holy Head his royall Head though under thornes yet crowned with those thornes and triumphed in this first Resurrection and his body was not left in the Grave nor his soule in Hell Christs first tongue was a tongue that might be heard He spoke to the Shepheards by Angels His second tongue was a Star a tongue which might be seene He spoke to the Wisemen of the East by that Hearken after him these two waies As he speakes to thine eare and to thy soul by it in the preaching of his Word as he speakes to thine eye and so to thy soule by that in the exhibiting of his Sacraments And thou shalt have thy part in this first Resurrection But if thou thinke to overcome this death this sense of sin by diversions by worldly delights by mirth and musique and society or by good works with a confidence of merit in them or with a relation to God himselfe but not as God hath manifested himselfe to thee not in Christ Jesus The stone shall lye still upon thee till thou putrifie into desperation and then hast thou no part in this first Resurrection If thou desire this first Resurrection in the third acceptation as S. Paul did To be dissolved and to be with Christ go Christs way to that also He desired that glory that thou doest and he could have laid down his soul when he would but he staid his houre sayes the Gospel He could have ascended immediatly immediatly in time yet he staid to descend into hell first and he could have ascended immediatly of himself by going up yet he staid till he was taken up Thou hast
in seriousnesse he sayes plainly enough Non damno Bigamos imo nec Trigamos nec si dici potest octogamos I condemne no man for marrying two or three or if he have a minde to it eight wives And so also in his former Epistle Abjicimus de Ecclesia Digamos absit God forbid we should deny any Church assistance to any for twice marrying but yet sayes that blessed Father Monogamos ad continentiam provocamus Let me have leave to perswade them who have been married and are at liberty to continency now at last Those Fathers departed not from the Apostles Nubat in Domino Let them marry in the Lord but they would fain bring the Lord to the making of every marriage and not only the world and worldly respects For the Lord himself who honoured marriage even with the first fruits of his miracles yet perswades continency Mat. 19.22 He that is able to receive it let him receive it The fault which those Fathers did and we may reprehend is that men do not try whether they be able to receive it or no In all Treaties of marriage in all Contracts for Portion and Joynture who ever ask their children who ever aske themselves whether they can live continently or no Or what triall what experiment can have been made of this in Cradle-marriages Marriage was given for a remedy but not before any apparance of a danger And given for Physick but not before any apparance of a disease And do any Parents lay up a medicine against the falling sicknesse for their new-born children because those children may have the falling sicknesse The peace of neighbouring States the uniting of great Families for good ends may present just occasions of departing from severe rules I only intend as I take most of those Fathers to have done to leave all persons to their Christian liberty as the Lord hath done and yet as the Lord hath done too to perswade them to consider themselves and those who are theirs how far they need the use of that Liberty and not to exceed that And thus much Aquinas Expositors who would needs understand the Women in this Text to be Wives have occasioned us to say in this point In our order proposed we passe now to the other consideration who these women were whom the Apostle makes his Examples for they are but two and may soon be considered The first is the Widow of Zareptha in whose house Elias the Prophet sojourned 1 King 17. She was a Widow and a poore Widow and might need the labour or the providence of a husband in that respect Yet she solicites not nor Elias endeavours not the raising of her dead husband to life againe A Widow that is A Widow indeed 1 Tim. 5.3 as the Apostle speaks may have in that state of such a Widowhood more assistances towards the next world then she should have for this by taking another husband For for that Widow Quae in tumulo mariti sepeliit voluptates Who hath buried all her affections towards this world in her husbands grave the Apostle in that place ordaines honour Hieron Honour Widows that are Widows indeed And when he sayes Honour and speaks of poore Widows he speaks not of such honour as such poore soules are incapable of but of that Honour which that word signifies ordinarily in the Scriptures Qui non tam in salutationibus quam in elecmosynis sayes S. Chrysostome which rather consists in Almes and Reliefe then in Salutations and Reverences or such respects For so as S. Ierome notes in particular when we are commanded to honour our Parents it is intended wee should relieve and maintain our Parents if they be decayed And such honour the Apostle perswades to be given and such honour God will provide that is Peace in the possession of their estate if they have any estate and reliefe from others if they have none for Widows that are Widows indeed In which qualification of theirs that they be Widows indeed Ver. 9. we may well take in that addition which the Apostle makes That she have been the wise of one man For though we make not that an only or an essentiall Character of a Widow indeed to have had but one husband yet we note as Calvin doth that the Church received Widows in yeares therefore Quia timendum er at ne ad novas nuptias aspirarent because the Church feared that they would marry again And certainly if the Church feared they would the Church had rather they would not It is as Calvin adds there Pignus continentiae pudoris though Calvin were no man to be suspected to countenance the perversnesse of the Romane Church in defaming or undervaluing marriage yet he sayes so it is a good Pawne and Evidence of Continency to have rested in one husband This Widow of Zareptha then importunes not the Prophet to restore her dead husband Shee beares her widows estate well enough but for her dead Son she doth importune him in the agony and vehemence of a Passion she sayes at her first encounter with the Prophet V. 18. Quid mihi tibi What have I to do with thee Shee doth almost renounce the means In irregular passion a disconsolate soule comes to say what have I to do with Prayers with Sermons with Sacraments I see that God hath forsaken me but yet shee collects her self What have I to do with thee O thou man of God When she confesses him to be the man of God she doth not renounce him When we consider the meanes to be means ordained by God we finde comfort in them Yet she cannot contain the bitternesse of her passion Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to kill my Son She implyes thus much Shall my soule never be at peace Shall no repentance from my heart no absolution from thy mouth make me sure that God hath forgiven and forgotten my sins But when I have received all Seales of Reconciliation will God still punish those sins which he pretends to have forgiven and punish them with so high a hand as the taking away of my only Childe And we may see an exaltation of this womans passion not only in the losse but in the recovery of her childe too For when she had received her childe alive she comes to that passionate acclamation Now by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth V. 14. As though if this had not been done she would not have beleeved that How then sayes our Apostle in this Text That this woman received her dead Son by faith when she declares this inordinatenesse this dis-composednesse and fluctuation of passion This question made S. Chrysostome refer this faith that the Apostle speakes of to the Prophet that raised the childe and not to the mother For she seemes to him to have had none And so the Syriack translates this place
that Wealth that Honour that is in God that is God himselfe The other blinde man that importuned Christ Mark 10.46 Iesus thou Son of David have mercy on me when Christ asked him What wilt thou that I shall doe unto thee Had presently that answer Lord that I may receive my sight And we may easily think that if Christ had asked him a second question What wouldst thou see when thou hast received thy sight he would have answered Lord I would see thee For when he had his sight and Christ said to him Goe thy way he had no way to goe from Christ but as the Text sayes there He followed him All that he cared for was seeing all that he cared to see was Christ Whether he would see a Peace or a Warre may be a States-mans Probleme whether he would see plenty or scarcity of some commodity may be a Merchants Probleme whether he would see Rome or Spaine grow in greatnesse may be a Jesuits Probleme But whether I had not rather see God then any thing is no Problematicall matter All sight is blindnesse that was our first all knowledge is Ignorance till we come to God that is our next Consideration The first act of the will is love sayes the Schoole for till the will love till it would have something it is not a will But then Amare nisi nota non possumus Scientia Aug. It is impossible to love any thing till we know it First our Understanding must present it as Verum as a Knowne truth and then our Will imbraces it as Bonum as Good and worthy to be loved Therefore the Philosopher concludes easily as a thing that admits no contradiction That naturally all men desire to know that they may love But then as the addition of an honest man varies the signification with the profession and calling of the man for he is a honest man at Court that oppresses no man with his power and at the Exchange he is the honest man that keeps his word and in an Army the Valiant man is the honest man so the Addition of learned and understanding varies with the man The Divine the Physitian the Lawyer are not qualified nor denominated by the same kinde of learning But yet as it is for honesty there is no honest man at Court or Exchange or Army if he beleeve not in God so there is no knowledge in the Physitian nor Lawyer if he know not God Neither does any man know God except he know him so as God hath made himselfe known that is In Christ Therefore as S. Paul desires to know nothing else so let no man pretend to know any thing but Christ Crucified that is Crucified for him made his In the eighth verse of this Chapt. he sayes Prophesie shall faile and Tongues shall faile and Knowledge shall vanish but this knowledge of God in Christ made mine by being Crucified for me shall dwell with me for ever And so from this generall consideration All sight is blindnesse all knowledge is ignorance but of God we passe to the particular Consideration of that twofold sight and knowledge of God expressed in this Text Now we see through a glasse c. First then we consider 2. Part. Visio before we come to our knowledge of God our sight of God in this world and that is sayes our Apostle In speculo we see as in a glasse But how doe we see in a glasse Truly that is not easily determined The old Writers in the Optiques said That when we see a thing in a glasse we see not the thing it selfe but a representation onely All the later men say we doe see the thing it selfe but not by direct but by reflected beames It is a uselesse labour for the present to reconcile them This may well consist with both That as that which we see in a glasse assures us that such a thing there is for we cannot see a dreame in a glasse nor a fancy nor a Chimera so this sight of God which our Apostle sayes we have in a glasse is enough to assure us that a God there is This glasse is better then the water The water gives a crookednesse and false dimensions to things that it shewes as we see by an Oare when we row a Boat and as the Poet describes a wry and distorted face Qui faciem sub aqua Phoebe natant is habes That he looked like a man that swomme under water But in the glasse which the Apostle intends we may see God directly that is see directly that there is a God And therefore S. Cyrils addition in this Text is a Diminution Videmus quasi in fumo sayes he we see God as in a smoak we see him better then so for it is a true sight of God though it be not a perfect sight which we have this way This way our Theatre where we sit to see God is the whole frame of nature our medium our glasse in which we see him is the Creature and our light by which we see him is Naturall Reason Aquinas calls this Theatre Theatrum Mundus where we sit and see God the whole world And David compasses the world and findes God every where and sayes at last Whither shall I flie from thy presence Psal 138.8 If I ascend up into heaven thou art there At Babel they thought to build to heaven but did any men ever pretend to get above heaven above the power of winds or the impression of other malignant Meteors some high hils are got But can any man get above the power of God If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea there thy right hand shall hold me and lead me If we saile to the waters above the Firmament it is so too Nay take a place which God never made a place which grew out of our sins that is Hell yet If we make our bed in hell God is there too It is a wofull Inne to make our bed in Hell and so much the more wofull as it is more then an Inne an everlasting dwelling But even there God is and so much more strangely then in any other place because he is there without any emanation of any beame of comfort from him who is the God of all consolation or any beame of light from him who is the Father of all lights In a word whether we be in the Easterne parts of the world from whom the truth of Religion is passed or in the Westerne to which it is not yet come whether we be in the darknesse of ignorance or darknesse of the works of darknesse or darknesse of oppression of spirit in sadnesse The world is the Theatre that represents God and every where every man may nay must see him The whole frame of the world is the Theatre Medium Creatura and every creature the stage the medium the glasse in which we may see God Moses made
thirteenth Homily upon S. Luke And as evident that S. Hierom himselfe upon the first verse of the sixt Chapter of Micheas thought and taught That those good Angels whom God appoints for the tuition of certaine men and certaine places in this world shall give an account at the day of Judgement of the execution of their office whether the men committed to them have not fallen sometimes by their fault and their dereliction for so does he and not he only understand that place That we shall judge the Angels 1 Cor. 6.3 As also those words in the beginning of the Revelation which S. Iohn is commanded by Christ to write to the Angels of certaine Churches that Father S. Hierom interprets not only of figurative and Metaphoricall Angels the Bishops of those Churches but literally of the Angels of Heaven So then Calvin is from any singularity in that That the good Angels considered in themselves may be defective but because he may be singular in interpreting this Text of good Angels as for ought I have observed he is this singularity of his may be a just reason of suspending our assent but not a just reason presently to condemne his exposition The Church must beas just to him as it was to S. Augustine that is to examine his grounds And truly his ground is faire his ground is firme It is this that though this seeme to derogato from the honour of Angels that being confirmed they should be subject to weaknesse yet saies he we must not pervert nor force any place of Scripture for the honour of the Angels For indeed the perverting and forcing of Scriptures for the over-honouring of Saints hath induced a chain of Heresies in the Romane Church And that this is a forcing of Scripture to understand this Text of fallen Angels Calvin argues rationally That those Angels which are spoken of here are called the servants of God And devils are but his slaves not his servants They execute his will but against their will Good Angels are the servants of God Nor shall we easily finde that Title The servant of God applyed to ill persons in the Scriptures Therefore as he notes usefully God doth not charge Angels in this Text with rebellion or obstination or any haynous crime but only with folly weaknesse infirmity from which in all degrees none but God himself can be free Though therefore there be no such necessity of accepting this exposition as should produce that confident asseveration which he comes to Dubium non est It can admit no doubt but this place must be thus understood for by his favour it may admit a doubt yet neither is there any such newnesse in it because it is grounded upon Truth and all Truth is ancient but that it may very well be received And therefore as the sense that is most fit to advance his purpose that speakes it which is one principall thing to be considered in every place as the sense that most conduces to Eliphaz his end and to prove that which he intends to Iob without laying obligation upon any to think so or imputation upon any that doth not think so we accept this interpretation of these words that they are spoken of Angels which was our first and of good Angels which was our second disquifition and now proceed to our third what their confirmation is and how it works if for all that God put no trust in those servants but charged those Angels with folly That Moses did speak nothing of the fall or of the confirmation of Angels Confirmatiâ— may justly seem a convenient reason to think that he meant to speak nothing of the creation of Angels neither If Moses had intended to have told us of the creation of Angels he would have told us of their fall and confirmation too as having told us so particularly of the making of man he tells us as particularly of the fall of man and the restitution of man by the promise of a Messiah in Paradise And therefore that the Angels are wrapped up in that word of Moses The Heavens and that they were made when the heavens were made or that they are wrapped up in that word of Moses The Light and that they were made when Light was made is all but conjecturall cloudy Neither doth any article of that Creed which we call the Apostles direct us upon any consideration of Angels That they were created long before this world all the Greek Fathers of the Eastern Church did constandy think And in the Westerne Church amongst the Latine Fathers S. Ierome himself was so cleare in it as to say Sex millia nostri orbis nondum implentur anni Our world is not yet six thousand yeares old Et quantas aternitates quantas saeculorum origines sayes that Father what infinite revolutions of ages what infinite eternities did the Powers and Principalities and Thrones and Angels of God serve God in before Theodoret that thinkes not so thinks it not against any article of Faith to think that it was so Aquinas that thinkes not so will not call it an errour to think so out of a reverence to Athanasius and Nazianzen who did think so for that is an indelible character which S. Ierome hath imprinted printed upon those two Fathers That no man ever durst impute errour to Athanasius or Nazianzen Therefore S. Augustine sayes moderately and with that discreet and charitable temper which becomes every man in matters that are not fundamentall Vt volet unusquisq accipiat I forbid no man sayes he either opinion That the Angels were made before the world or with it Dum non Deo coaeternos de vera foelicitate securos non ambigat Only this I forbid him that he do not beleeve the Angels to be coeternall with God For if they were never made but subsist of themselves then they are God If they be not creatures they are Creators And then this I forbid him too sayes he That he do not think the Angels now in any danger of falling So that S. Augustine makes this matter of faith That the Angels cannot fall Nor hath S. Augustine any adversary in that point we only inquire how they acquired this Infallibility and assurance in their station For if they were made so long before this world and fell when this world was made since they that had stood so long fell then why may not they that stand yet fall now They are supported and established by a confirmation sayes the Schoole And that is our present and ordinary answer and it is enough But how or when was this confirmation sealed upon them or how doth it work in them if God doe not yet trust these servants but charge these Angels with folly That the Angels were created Viatores Viatores and not Beati in a possibility of everlasting blessednesse but not in actuall possession of it admits no doubt because some of them did actually fall Of whom S. Augustine sayes
upon beauty in that face that misleads thee or upon honour in that place that possesses thee And let the opening of thine eyes be to look upon God in every object to represent to thy self the beauty of his holinesse and the honour of his service in every action And in this rapture and in this twinkling of an eye will thy Resurrection soon though not suddenly speedily though not instantly be accomplished And if God take thee out of the world before thou think it throughly accomplished yet he shall call thine inchoation consummation thine endeavour performance and thy desire effect For all Gods works are intire and done in him at once and perfect as soon as begun And this spirituall Resurrection is his work and therefore quickned even in the Conception and borne even in the quickning and grown up even in the birth that is perfected in the eyes of God as soone as it is seriously intended in our heart And farther we carry not your consideration upon those two Branches which constitute our second Part That some shall be alive at Christs comming That they that are alive shall receive such a change as shall be a true death and a true Resurrection And so shall be caught up into the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Aire and so be with the Lord for ever which are the Circumstances of our third and last Part. In this last part we proposed it for the first Consideration 3 Part. Resurrectio justorum that the Apostle determines the Consideration of the Resurrection in those two Them and Us They that slept in Christ and We that expect the comming of Christ Of any Resurrection of the wicked here is no mention Not that there is not one but that the resurrection of the wicked conduced not to the Apostles purpose which was to minister comfort in the losse of the dead because they were to come again and to meet the Lord and to be with him for ever whereas in the Resurrection of the wicked who are only to rise that they may fall lower there is no argument of comfort And therefore our Saviour Christ determines his Commission in that This is the Fathers will that sent me John 6.39 that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day This was his not losing if it were raised again but he hath only them in charge to raise at the last day whom the Father had given him given him so as that they were to be with him for ever for others he never mentions And upon this much very much depends For Chiliasts this forbearing to mention the resurrection of the wicked with the righteous gave occasion to many in the Primitive Church to imagine a two-fold a former and a later Resurrection which was furthered by their mistaking of those words in S. Iohn Apoc. 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection which words being intended of the Resurrection from sin by grace in this life the Chiliasts the Millenarians interpreted of this Resurrection in our Text That at Christs comming the righteous should rise and live a thousand yeares as S. Iohn sayes in all temporall abundances with Christ here in recompence of those temporall calamities and oppressions which here they had suffered and then after those thousand yeares so spent with Christ in temporall abundances should follow the resurrection of the wicked and then the wicked and the righteous should be disposed and distributed and setled in those Mansions in which they should remain for ever And of this errour as very many of the Fathers persisted in it to the end S. Augustine himself had a touch and a tincture at beginning And this errour S. Hierome also though truly I think S. Hierome was never touched with it himselfe out of a reverence to those many and great men that were Irenaeus Tertullian Lactantius and the rest would never call an Heresie nor an Errour nor by any sharper name then an opinion which is no word of heavy detestation And as those blessed Fathers of tender bowels Pagani enlarged themselves in this distribution and apportioning the mercy of God that it consisted best with the nature of his mercy that as his Saints had suffered temporall calamities in this world in this world they should be recompenced with temporall abundances so did they inlarge this mercy farther and carry it even to the Gentiles to the Pagans that had no knowledge of Christ in any established Church You shall not finde a Trumegistus a Numa Pompilius a Plato a Socrates for whose salvation you shall not finde some Father or some Ancient and Reverend Author an Advocate In which liberality of Gods mercy those tender Fathers proceed partly upon that rule That in Trismegistus and in the rest they finde evident impressions and testimonies that they knew the Son of God and knew the Trinity and then say they why should not these good men beleeving a Trinity be saved and partly they goe upon that rule which goes through so many of the Fathers Facienti quod in se est That to that man who does as much as he can by the light of nature God never denies grace and then say they why should not these men that doe so be saved And upon this ground S. Dionyse the Areopagite sayes That from the beginning of the world God hath called some men of all Nations and of all sorts by the ministry of Angels though not by the ministry of the Church To me to whom God hath revealed his Son in a Gospel by a Church there can be no way of salvation but by applying that Son of God by that Gospel in that Church Nor is there any other foundation for any nor other name by which any can be saved but the name of Jesus But how this foundation is presented and how this name of Jesus is notified to them amongst whom there is no Gospel preached no Church established I am not curious in inquiring I know God can be as mercifull as those tender Fathers present him to be and I would be as charitable as they are And therefore humbly imbracing that manifestation of his Son which he hath afforded me I leave God to his unsearchable waies of working upon others without farther inquisition Neither did those tender Fathers then Angeli lopsi in Coelis much lesse the School after consist in carying this overflowing and inexhaustible mercy of God upon his Saints after their Resurrection in temporall abundances nor upon the Gentiles who had no solemne nor cleare knowledge of Christ Psal 138.2 Psal 17.7 which is Magnificare misericordiam to magnifie to extend to stretch the mercy of God but Mirificant misericordiam as David also speaks they stretch this mercy miraculously for they carry this mercy even to hell it self For first for the Angels that fell in heaven from the time that they
roome at his owne right hand for that body when that shall be re-united in a blessed Resurrection And so The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters SERM. XXXII Preached upon Whitsunday 1 COR. 12.3 Also no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost WE read that in the Tribe of Benjamin Iudg. 20.16 which is by interpretation Filius dextrae The Son of the right hand there were seven hundred left-handed Men that could sling stones at a haires breadth and not faile S. Paul was of that Tribe and though he were from the beginning in the purpose of God Filius dextrae A man ordained to be a dextrous Instrument of his glory yet he was for a time a left-handed man and tooke sinister wayes and in those wayes a good mark-man a laborious and exquisite persecutor of Gods Church And therefore it is that Tertullian sayes of him Paulum mihi etiam Genesis olim repromisit I had a promise of Paul in Moses Gen 49. Then when Moses said Iacob blessed Benjamin thus Benjamin shall ravin as a Wolfe In the morning he shall devoure the prey and at night he shall divide the spoilc that is At the beginning Paul shall scatter the flocke of Christ but at last he shall gather and re-unite the Nations to his service Acts 9.1 Chrysost As he had breathed threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord so he became Os orbi sufficiens A mouth loud enough for all the world to heare And as he had drawne and sucked the blood of Christs mysticall body the Church so in that proportion that God enabled him to he recompensed that damage Colos 1.14 by effusion of his owne blood He fulfilled the sufferings of Christ in his flesh as himselfe saies to the Colossians And then he bequeathed to all posterity these Epistles which are as S. Augustine cals them Vbera Ecclesia The Paps the Breasts the Udders of the Church Numb 13.24 And which are as that cluster of Grapes of the Land of Canaan which was borne by two for here every couple every paire may have their load Jew and Gentile Learned and Ignorant Man and Wife Master and Servant Father and Children Prince and People Counsaile and Client how distinct soever they thinke their callings to be towards the world yet here every paire must equally submit their necks to this sweet and easie yoake of confessing Jesus to be the Lord and acknowledging that Confession to proceed from the working of the Holy Ghost for No man can say that Iesus is the Lord without the Holy Ghost In which words Divisio these shall be the three things that we will consider now first The generall impotency of man in spirituall duties Nemo potest no man can do this no man can doe any thing secondly How and what those spirituall duties are expressed to be It is a profession of Jesus to be the Lord to say it to declare it And thirdly the meanes of repairing this naturall impotency and rectifying this naturall obliquity in man That man by the Holy Ghost may be enabled to do this spirituall duty to professe sincerely Jesus to be the Lord. In the first we shall see first the universality of this flood the generality of our losse in Adam Nemo none not one hath any any power which notes their blasphemy that exempt any person from the infection of sin And secondly we shall see the impotency the infirmity where it lies It is in homine no man which notes their blasphemy that say Man may be saved by his naturall faculties as he is man And thirdly by just occasion of that word Potest he can he is able we shall see also the lazinesse of man which though he can doe nothing effectually and primarily yet he does not so much as he might doe And in those three we shall determine our first part In the second what this spirituall duty wherein we are all so impotent is It is first an outward act a profession not that an outward act is enough but that the inward affection alone is not enough neither To thinke it to beleeve it is not enough but we must say it professe it And what why first That Jesus is not only assent to the history and matter of fact that Jesus was and did all that is reported and recorded of him but that he is still that which he pretended to be Caesar is not Caesar still nor Alexander Alexander But Jesus is Jesus still and shall be for ever This we must professe That he is And then That he is the Lord He was not sent hither as the greatest of the Prophets nor as the greatest of the Priests His worke consists not only in having preached to us and instructed us nor in having sacrificed himselfe thereby to be an example to us to walk in those wayes after him but he is Lord he purchased a Dominion he bought us with his Blood He is Lord And lastly he is The Lord not only the Lord Paramount the highest Lord but The Lord the only Lord no other hath a Lordship in our soules no other hath any part in the saving of them but he And so far we must necessarily enlarge our second consideration And in the third part which is That this cannot be done but by the holy Ghost we shall see that in that But is first implyed an exclusion of all means but one And therefore that one must necessarily be hard to be compassed The knowledge and discerning of the holy Ghost is a difficult thing And yet as this But hath an exclusion of all meanes but one so it hath an inclusion an admission an allowance of that one It is a necessary duty nothing can effect it but the having of the holy Ghost and therefore the holy Ghost may be had And in those two points The hardnesse of it And the possibility of it will our last consideration be employed For the first branch of the first part The generality that reaches to us all 1. Part. Generalitas and to us all over to all our persons and to all our faculties Perdidimus per peccatum bonum possibilitatis sayes S. Augustine We have lost our possession and our possibility of recovering by Adams sin Adam at his best had but a possibility of standing we are fallen from that and from all possibility of rising by any power derived from him We have not only by this fall broke our armes or our legs but our necks not our selves not any other man can raise us Every thing hath in it as Physitians use to call it Naturale Balsamum A naturall Balsamum which if any wound or hurt which that creature hath received be kept clean from extrinsique putrefaction will heale of it self We are so far from that naturall Balsamum as that we have a naturall poyson in us Originall sin for that originall sin as it hath relation to God
the Schoolemen have called all these six not without just reason and good use by that heavy name And some of the Fathers have extended it farther then to these six S. Bernard in particular sayes Nolle obedire To resist lawfull Authority And another Simulata poenitentia To delude God with relapses counterfait repentances and another also Omne schisma All schismaticall renting of the peace of the Church All these they call in that sense Sins against the Holy Ghost Now all sins against the Holy Ghost are not irremissible Stephen told his persecutors Acts 7.51.60 They resisted the Holy Ghost and yet he prayed for them But because these sins may and ordinarily doe come to that sin stop betimes David was far from the murder of Vriah when he did but looke upon his Wife as she was bathing A man is far from defying the holy Ghost when he does but neglect him and yet David did come and he will come to the bottome quickly It may make some impression in you to tell and to apply a short story In a great Schisme at Rome Ladislaus tooke that occasion to debauch and corrupt some of the Nobility It was discerned and then to those seven Governors whom they had before whom they called Sapientes Wise men they added seven more and called them Bonos Good men honest men and relied and confided in them Goodnesse is the Attribute of the Holy Ghost If you have Greatness you may seeme to have some of the Father for Power is his If you have Wisdome you may seeme to have some of the Son for that is his If you have Goodnesse you have the Holy Ghost who shall lead you into all truth And Goodnesse is To be good and easie in receiving his impressions and good and constant in retaining them and good and diffusive in deriving them upon others To embrace the Gospel to hold fast the Gospel to propagate the Gospel this is the goodnesse of the Holy Ghost And to resist the entrance of the Gospel to abandon it after we have professed it to forsake them whom we should assist and succour in the maintenance of it This is to depart from the goodnesse of the Holy Ghost and by these sins against him to come too neare the sin the irremissible sin in which the calamities of this world shall enwrap us and deliver us over to the everlasting condemnation of the next This is as much as these words do justly occasion us to say of that sin and into a more curious search thereof it is not holy sobriety to pierce SERM. XXXVI Preached upon Whitsunday JOHN 16.8 9 10 11. And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousnesse and of judgement Of sin because ye belceve not on me Of righteousnesse because I goe to my Father and ye see me no more Of judgement because the Prince of this world is judged OUr Panis quotidianus Our daily bread is that Iuge sacrificium That daily sacrifice of meditating upon God Our Panis hodiernus This dayes bread is to meditate upon the holy Ghost To day if ye will heare his voice to day ye are with him in Paradise For wheresoever the holy Ghost is Luk. 23.43 he creates a Paradise The day is not past yet As our Saviour said to Peter Hodie in nocte hac Mar. 14.10 This day even in this night thou shalt deny me so Hodie in nocte hac Even now though evening the day-spring from on high visits you Esay 38.8 God carries back the shadow of your Sun-dyall as to Hezechias And now God brings you to the beginning of this day if now you take knowledge that he is come who when he comes Reproves the world of sin c. The solemnity of the day requires Divisio and the method of the words offers for our first consideration the Person who is not named in our text but designed by a most emphaticall denotation Ille He He who is all and doth all But the word hath relation to a name proper to the holy Ghost for in the verse immediatly preceding our Saviour tels his disciples That he will send them the Comforter So forbearing all other mysterious considerations of the holy Ghost we receive him in that notion and function in which Christ sends him The Comforter And therefore in this capacity as The Comforter we must consider his action Arguet He shall reprove Reprove and yet Comfort nay therefore comfort because reprove And then the subject of his action Mundum The world the whole world no part left unreproved yet no part left without comfort And after that what he reproves the world of That multiplies Of sin of righteousnesse of judgement Can there be comfort in reproofe for sin Or can there lie a reproofe upon righteousnesse or upon judgement Very justly Though the evidence seem at first as strange as the crime for though that be good evidence against the sin of the world That they beleeve not in Christ Of sin because ye beleeve not on me yet to be Reproved of righteousnesse because Christ goes to his Father and they see him no more And to be Reproved of judgement because the Prince of this world is judged this seemes strange and yet this must be done and done to our comfort For this must be done Cum venerit Then when the holy Ghost and he in that function as the Comforter is come is present is working Beloved Reproofes upon others without charity rather to defame them then amend them Reproofes upon thy selfe without shewing mercy to thine own soule diffidences and jealousies and suspitions of God either that he hated thee before thy sin or hates thee irremediably irreconciliably irrecoverably irreparably for thy sin These are Reproofes but they are Absente spiritu In the absence of the holy Ghost before he comes or when he is gone When he comes and stayes He shall reprove and reprove all the world and all the world of those errours sin and righteousnesse and judgement and those errours upon those evidences Of sin because ye beleeve not on me c. But in all this proceeding he shall never devest the nature of a Comforter In that capacity he is sent in that he comes and works I doubt I shall see an end of my houre and your patience before I shall have passed those branches which appertaine most properly to the celebration of this day the Person the Comforter his action Reproofe the subject thereof the world and the Time Cum venerit When he comes The inditement of what the accusation is and the evidence how it is proved may exercise your devotion at other times Acts 2.2 This day the holy Ghost is said to have come suddenly and therefore in that pace we proceed and make haste to the consideration of the Person Ille When he He the holy Ghost the Comforter is come Ille Spiritus sanctus Gen. 3.15 Ille alone He is
Malediction not physick but poyson As it is in another Psalme Increpasti periit Thou hast rebuked them and they perished Psal 9.6 In these cases there is a working of the holy Ghost and that as the holy Ghost is a Comforter for it is a comfort to them for whose deliverances God executes these judgements upon others that they are executed but we consider a rebuke a reproofe that ministers comfort even to them upon whom it fals and so in that sense we shall see that this Comforter reproves the world in all those significations of the world which wee named before As the world is the whole frame of the world God hath put into it a reproofe Mundus magnus a rebuke lest it should seem eternall which is a sensible decay and age in the whole frame of the world and every piece thereof The seasons of the yeare irregular and distempered the Sun fainter and languishing men lesse in stature and shorter-lived No addition but only every yeare new sorts new species of wormes and flies and sicknesses which argue more and more putrefaction of which they are engendred And the Angels of heaven which did so familiarly converse with men in the beginning of the world though they may not be doubted to perform to us still their ministeriall assistances yet they seem so far to have deserted this world as that they do not appeare to us as they did to those our Fathers S. Cyprian observed this in his time when writing to Demetrianus Cyprian who imputed all those calamities which afflicted the world then to the impiety of the Christians who would not joyne with them in the worship of their gods Cyprian went no farther for the cause of these calamities but Ad senescentem mundum To the age and impotency of the whole world And therefore sayes he Imputent senes Christianis quòd minùs valeant in senectutem Old men were best accuse Christians that they are more sickly in their age then they were in their youth Is the fault in our religion or in their decay Canos in pueris videmus nec aetas in senectute desinit sed incipit à senectute We see gray haires in children and we do not die old and yet we are borne old Lest the world as the world signifies the whole frame of the world should glorifie it selfe or flatter and abuse us with an opinion of eternity we may admit usefully though we do not conclude peremptorily this observation to be true that there is a reproofe a rebuke born in it a sensible decay and mortality of the whole world But is this a reproofe agreeable to our Text A reproofe that carries comfort with it Consolatio Rom. 8.19 Comfort to the world it selfe that it is not eternall Truly it is As S. Paul hath most pathetically expressed it The creature that is the world is in anearnest expectation The creature waiteth The whole creation groaneth and travelleth in pain Therefore the creature that is the world receives a perfect comfort in being delivered at last and an inchoative comfort in knowing now that it shall be delivered From what From subjection to vanity Ver. 20. 21. from the bondage of corruption That whereas the world is now subject to mutability and corruption at the Resurrection it shall no longer be so but in that measure and in that degree which it is capable of Ver. 21. It shall enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God that is be as free from corruption or change in that state wherein it shall be glorified Esay 30.26 2 Pet. 3.13 as the Saints shall be in the glory of their state for The light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold And there shall be new heavens and new earth Which is a state that this world could not attaine to if it were eternally to last in that condition in which it is now a condition subject to vanity impotency corruption and therefore there is a comfort in this reproofe even to this world That it is not eternall This world is the happier for that As the world Mundus homines Mat. 18.7 in a second sense signifies all the men of the world so it is Wo unto the world because of offences There is a reproofe born in every man which reproofe is an uncontrollable sense and an unresistible remorse and chiding of himselfe inwardly when he is about to sin and a horrour of the Majesty of God whom when he is alone he is forced and forced by himselfe to feare and to beleeve though he would fain make the world beleeve that he did not beleeve in God but lived at peace and subsisted of himselfe without being beholding to God For as in nature heavy things will ascend and light descend rather then admit a vacuity so in religion the devill will get into Gods roome rather then the heart of man shall be without the opinion of God There is no Atheist They that oppose the true do yet worship a false god and hee that sayes there is no God doth for all that set up some God to himselfe Every man hath this reproofe borne in him that he doth ill that he offends a God that he breaks a law when he sins Consolatio And this reproofe is a reproofe within our Text for it hath this comfort with it That howsoever some men labour to overcome the naturall tendernesse of the conscience and so triumph over their own ruine and rejoyce when they can sleep and wake again without any noise in their conscience or sense of sin yet in truth this candle cannot be blowne out this remorse cannot be overcome But were it not a greater comfort to me if I could overcome it No. For though this remorse which is but a naturall impression and common to all men be not grace yet this remorse which is the naturall reproofe of the soule is that that grace works upon Grace doth not ordinarily work upon the stifnesse of the soule upon the silence upon the frowardnesse upon the aversnesse of the soule but when the soule is soupled and mellowed and feels this reproofe this remorse in it self that reproofe that remorse becomes as the matter and grace enters as the form that becomes the body and grace becomes the soule and that is the comfort of this naturall reproofe of the world that is of every man First that it will not be quenched in it selfe and then that ordinarily it induces a nobler light then it selfe which is effectuall and true Repentance As the world in a third sense Mundus mali Heb. 11.7 2 Pet. 2.5 signifies only the wicked world so it is Noah in preparing an Ark condemned the world And so God spared not the old world That world the world of the wicked suffer many reproofes many rebukes in their hearts which they will not discover because they
envy God that glory We reade of divers great actors in the first persecutions of the Christians who being fearefully tormented in body and soule at their deaths took care only that the Christians might not know what they suffered lest they should receive comfort and their God glory therein Certainly Herod would have been more affected if he had thought that we should have knowne how his pride was punished with those sudden wormes Acts 12.23 then with the punishment it selfe This is a self-reproofe even in this though he will not suffer it to break out to the edification of others there is some kinde of chiding himself for some thing mis-done But is there any comfort in this reproofe Consolatio Truly beloved I can hardly speak comfortably of such a man after he is dead that dyes in such a dis-affection loath that God should receive glory or his servants edification by these judgements But even with such a man if I assisted at his death-bed I would proceed with a hope to infuse comfort even from that dis-affection of his As long as I saw him in any acknowledgement though a negligent nay though a malignant a despitefull acknowledgement of God as long as I found him loath that God should receive glory even from that loathnesse from that reproofe from that acknowledgement That there is a God to whom glory is due I would hope to draw him to glorifie that God before his last gasp My zeale should last as long as his wives officiousnesse or his childrens or friends or servants obsequiousnesse or the solicitude of his Physitians should as long as there were breath they would minister some help as long as there were any sense of God I would hope to do some good And so much comfort may arise even out of this reproofe of the world as the world is only the wicked world In the last sense the world signifies the Saints the Elect the good men of the world Mundus sancti John 14.31 John 17.21 beleeving and persevering men Of those Christ sayes The world shall know that I love the Father And That the world may beleeve that thou hast sent me And this world that is the godliest of this world have many reproofes many corrections upon them That outwardly they are the prey of the wicked and inwardly have that Stimulum carnis which is the devils Solicitor and round about them they see nothing but profanation of his word mis-imployment of his works his creatures mis-constructions of his actions his judgements blasphemy of his name negligence and under-valuation of his Sacraments violation of his Sabbaths and holy convocations O what a bitter reproofe what a manifest evidence of the infirmity nay of the malignity of man is this if it be put home and throughly considered That even the goodnesse of man gets to no higher a degree but to have been the occasion of the greatest ill the greatest cruelty that ever was done the crucifying of the Lord of life The better a man is the more he concurred towards being the cause of Christs death which is a strange but a true and a pious consideration Dilexit mundum He loved the world and he came to save the world That is most especially and effectually those that should beleeve in him in the world and live according to that beliefe and die according to that life If there had been no such Christ had not died never been crucified So that impenitent men mis-beleeving men have not put Christ to death but it is we we whom he loves we that love him that have crucified him In what rank then of opposition against Christ shall we place our sins since even our faith and good works have been so farre the cause why Christ died that but for the salvation of such men Beleevers Workers Perseverers Christ had not died This then is the reproofe of the world that is of the Saints of God in the world Psal 84.10 that though I had rather be a doore-keeper in the house of my God I must dwell in the tents of wickednesse That though my zeale consume me because mine enemies have forgotten thy words Psal 119.138 I must stay amongst them that have forgotten thy words But this and all other reproofes that arise in the godly that we may still keep up that consideration that he that reproves us is The Comforter have this comfort in them that these faults that I indure in others God hath either pardoned in me or kept from me and that though this world be wicked yet when I shall come to the next world I shall finde Noah that had been drunk and Lot Gen. 9.21 Gen. 19.33 Numb 11.11 that had been incestuous and Moses that murmured at Gods proceedings and Iob and Ieremy and Ionas impatient even to imprecations against themselves Christs owne Disciples ambitious of worldly preferment his Apostles forsaking him his great Apostle forswearing him And Mary Magdalen that had been I know not what sinner and David that had been all I leave none so ill in this world but I may carry one that was or finde some that had been as ill as they in heaven and that blood of Christ Jesus which hath brought them thither is offered to them that are here who may be successors in their repentance as they are in their sins And so have you all intended for the Person the Comforter and the Action Reproofe and the Subject the World remaines only that for which there remaines but a little time the Time Cum venerit When the Comforter comes he will proceed thus We use to note three Advents three commings of Christ Cum venerit An Advent of Humiliation when he came in the flesh an Advent of glory when he shall come to judgement and between these an Advent of grace in his gracious working in us in this life and this middlemost Advent of Christ is the Advent of the Holy Ghost in this text when Christ works in us the Holy Ghost comes to us And so powerfull is his comming that whereas he that sent him Christ Jesus himself Came unto his own and his own received him not John 1.11 The Holy Ghost never comes to his owne but they receive him for onely by receiving him they are his owne for besides his title of Creation by which we are all his with the Father and the Son as there is a particular title accrewed to the Son by Redemption so is there to the Holy Ghost of certaine persons upon whom he sheds the comfort of his application The Holy Ghost picks out and chooses whom he will Spirat ubi vult perchance me that speake perchance him that heares perchance him that shut his eyes yester-night and opened them this morning in the guiltinesse of sin and repents it now perchance him that hath been in the meditation of an usurious contract of an ambitious supplantation of a licentious solicitation since he came hither into Gods
house and deprehends himselfe in that sinfull purpose now This is his Advent this is his Pentecost As he came this day with a Manifestation so if he come into thee this evening he comes with a Declaration a Declaration in operation Pater meus usque modo operatur ego operor John 5.17 My Father works even now and I work was Christs answer when he was accused to have broken the Sabbath day that the Father wrought that day as well as he So also Christ assignes other reasons of working upon the Sabbath Luke 14.5 Cujus Bos Whose Oxe is in danger Mat. 12.3 5. and the owner will not relieve him Nonne legistis Have ye not read how David ate the Shew-bread And Annon legistis Did not the Priests breake the Sabbath in their service in the Temple But the Sabbath is the Holy Ghosts greatest working day The Holy Ghost works more upon the Sunday then all the week In other dayes he picks and chooses but upon these dayes of holy Convocation I am surer that God speakes to me Tertul. then at home in any private inspiration For as the Congregation besieges God in publique prayers Agmine facto so the Holy Ghost casts a net over the whole Congregation in this Ordinance of preaching and catches all that break not out If he be come into thee he is come to reprove thee to make thee reprove thy selfe But doe that Cum vencrit when the Holy Ghost is come If thou have beene slack in the outward acts of Religion and findest that thou art the worse thought of amongst men for that respect the more open to some penall Laws for those omissions and for these reasons onely beginnest to correct and reprove thy selfe this is a reproofe Antequam Spiritus vener it before the Holy Ghost is come into thee or hath breathed upon thee and inanimated thine actions If the powerfulnesse and the piercing of the mercies of thy Saviour have sometimes in the preaching thereof entendered and melted thy heart and yet upon the confidence of the readinesse and easinesse of that mercy thou returne to thy vomit to the re-pursuite of those halfe-repented sins and thinkest it time enough to goe forward upon thy death-bed this is a reproofe Postquam abierit Spiritus After the Holy Ghost is departed from thee If the burden of thy sins oppresse thee if thou beest ready to cast thy selfe from the Pinacle of the Temple from the participation of the comforts afforded thee in the Absolution and Sacraments of the Church If this appeare to thee in a kinde of humility and reverence to the Majesty of God That thou darest not come into his sight not to his table not to speake to him in prayer whom thou hast so infinitely offended this is a reproofe Cum Spiritus Sanctus simulatur when the Holy Ghost is counterfaited when Satan is transformed into an Angel of light and makes thy dismayed conscience beleeve that that affection which is truly a higher Treason against God then all thy other sins which is a diffident suspecting of Gods mercy is such a reverend feare and trembling as he looks for Reprove thy selfe but doe it by convincing not by a downe-right stupefaction of the conscience but by a consideration of the nature of thy sin and a contemplation of the infinite proportion between God and thee and so between that sin and the mercy of God for thou canst not be so absolutely so intirely so essentially sinfull as God is absolutely and intirely and essentially mercifull Doe what thou canst there is still some goodnesse in thee that nature that God made is good still Doe God what hee will hee cannot strip himselfe not devest himselfe of mercy If thou couldst doe as much as God can pardon thou wert a Manichaean God a God of evill as infinite as the God of goodnesse is Doe it Cum venerit Spiritus when the Holy Ghost pleads on thy side not cum venerit homo not when mans reason argues for thee and sayes It were injustice in God to punish one for another the soule for the body Much lesse Cum venerit inimicus homo when the Devill pleads and pleads against thee that thy sins are greater then God can forgive Reprove any over-bold presumption that God cannot forsake thee with remembring who it was that said My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Even Christ himselfe could apprehend a dereliction Reprove any distrust in God with remembring to whom it was said Hodiè mecum eris in Paradiso Even the thiefe himselfe who never saw him never met him but at both their executions was carryed up with him the first day of his acquaintance If either thy cheerefulnesse or thy sadnesse bee conceived of the Holy Ghost there is a good ground of thy Noli timere feare neither So the Angel proceeded with Ioseph Feare not to take Mary for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost Feare not thou that a chearefulnesse and alacrity in using Gods blessings feare not that a moderate delight in musique in conversation in recreations shall be imputed to thee for a fault for it is conceived by the Holy Ghost and is the off-spring of a peacefull conscience Embrace therefore his working Qui omnia opera nostra operatus est nobis Thou O Lord hast wrought all our works in us Esay 26.12 And whose working none shall be able to frustrate in us Operabitur quis avertit Esay 43.13 I will worke and who shall let it And as the Son concurred with the Father and the Holy Ghost with the Son in working in our behalfe so Operemur nos let us also worke out our Salvation with feare and trembling by reproving the errors in our understanding and the perversenesses of our conversation that way in which the Holy Ghost is our guide by reproving that is chiding and convincing the conscience but still with comfort that is stedfast application of the merits of Christ Jesus SERM. XXXVII Preached upon Whitsunday JOHN 16.8 9 10 11. And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousnesse and of judgement Of sin because ye beleeve not on me Of righteousnesse because I goe to my Father and ye see me no more Of judgement because the Prince of this world is judged IN a former Sermon upon these words we have established this That the Person whom our Saviour promises here being by himselfe promised in the verse before the text in the name and quality of The Comforter All that this Person is to do in this text is to be done so as the World upon which it is to be done may receive comfort in it Therfore this word Reproof admitting a double signification one by way of authority as it is a rebuke an increpation the other as it is a convincing by argument by way of instruction and information because the first way cannot be applied to all the
all our other faculties were August so omnium voluntates in Adam all our wils were in Adam and we sinned wilfully when he did so and so Originall sin is a voluntary sin Our will is poysoned in the fountaine and as soone as our will is able to exercise any election we are willing to sin as soone as we can and sorry we can sin no sooner and sorry no longer we are willing before the Devill is willing and willing after the Devill is weary and seek occasions of tentation when he presents none And so as the breach of the Law of Nature and as the deluge of Originall sin hath surrounded the whole world the whole world is under sinne That all the world is so requires not much proofe But then does the Holy Ghost An arguat Spiritus sanctus by his comming reprove that is convince the whole world that it is so The Holy Ghost is able to doe it and he hath good cause to doe it But does he doe it Is this Cum venerit when he comes come Is he come to this purpose to make all the world know their sinfull condition God knowes they know it not Howsoever they may have some knowledge of the breach of the Law of Nature yet they have no knowledge of any remedy after and so lack all comfort and therefore this is no knowledge from the Holy Ghost from the Comforter And for the knowledge of Originall sin which lies more heavy upon them then upon us who have the ease of Baptisme which slackens and weakens Originall sin in us they are so farre from knowing that that sin is derived from Adam as that they doe not know that they themselves are derived from Adam not that there is such a sin not that there was such an Adam How then doth the Holy Ghost who is come according to Christs promise according to his promise Reprove that is Convince the world of sinne since this being to bee done by the Holy Ghost implies a knowledge of Christ and a way of comfort in the doing thereof This one word Arguet He shall reprove convince admits three acceptations First Antequam abierit in the future as it is here presented He shall and so the Cum venerit When he comes signifies Antequam abierit Before he departs He came at Pentecost and presently set on foot his Commission by the Apostles to reprove convince the world of sin and hath proceeded ever since by their successors in reducing Nation after Nation and before the consummation of the world before he retire to rest eternally in the bosome of the Father and the Son from whom he proceeded he shall reprove the whole world of sin that is bring them to a knowledge That in the breach of the law of nature and in the guiltinesse of originall sin they are all under a burthen which none of them all of themselves can discharge This work S. Paul seemes to hasten sooner Rom. 10.18 To convince the Jews of their infidelity he argues thus Have not they heard the Gospell They that is the Gentiles and if They much more You And that They had heard it he proves by the application of those words In omnem terram Psal 19.3 Their voice is gone through all the earth and their words to the end of the world That is the voice of the Apostles in the preaching of the Gospell Hence grew that distraction and perplexity which we finde in the Fathers Whether it could be truly said that the Gospell had been preached over all the world in those times If we number the Fathers most are of that opinion That before the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem this was fulfilled Of those that think the contrary some proceed upon reasons ill grounded particularly Origen Quid de Britannis Germanis Origen qui nec adhuc audierunt verbum Euangelii What shall we say of Britanny and Germany who have not heard of the Gospell yet For before Origens time though Origen were 1400. yeares since in what darknesse soever he mistook us to be we had a blessed and a glorious discovery of the Gospell of Christ Jesus in this Iland S. Hierome Hierom. who denies this universall preaching of the Gospell before the destruction of the Temple yet doubts not but that the fulfilling of that prophecy was then in action and in a great forwardnesse I am completum aut brevi ternimus complendum Already we see it performed sayes he Or at least so earnestly pursued as that it must necessarily very soon be performed Nec puto aliquam remanere gentem quae Christi nomen ignor at I do not think sayes that Father more then 1200. yeares since that there is any nation that hath not heard of Christ Et quanquam non habuerit praedicatorem ex viciais c. If they have not had expresse Preachers themselves yet from their neighbours they have had some Echoes of this voice some reflexions of this light The later Divines and the School that finde not this early and generall preaching over the world to lye in proofe proceed to a more safe way That there was then Odor Euangelii A sweet savour of the Gospell issued though it were not yet arrived to all parts As if a plentifull and diffusive perfume were set up in a house we would say The house were perfumed though that perfume were not yet come to every corner of the house But not to thrust the world into so narrow a straite as it is when a Decree is said to have gone out from Augustus Luk. 2.1 Acts 2.5 to taxe all the world for this was but the Romane world Nor That there were men dwelling at Ierusalem devout men of every nation under heaven for this was but of nations discovered and traded withall then nor when S. Paul sayes Rom. 11.18 Mat. 24.14 That the faith of the Romanes was published to the world for that was as far as he had gone those words of our Saviour This Gospell of the kingdome shall be preached in all the world for a witnesse to all nations and then shall the end come have evermore by all Ancient and Modern Fathers and School Preachers and Writers Expositors and Controverters been literally understood that before the end of the world the Gospell shall be actually really evidently efectually preached to all nations and so Cum venerit When the holy Ghost comes that is Antequam abierit Before he go he shall reprove convince the whole world of sin and this as he is a Comforter by accompanying their knowledge of sin with the knowledge of the Gospell for the remission of sins It agrees with the nature of goodnesse to be so diffusive communicable to all It agrees with the nature of God Gen. 7.11 who is goodnesse That as all the fountaines of the great Deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened and so came the flood over all
one or few such fooles but emphaticall because that foole that any way denies God is the foole the veryest foole of all kinds of foolishnesse Now as God himselfe so his religion amongst us hath many enemies Enemies that deny God as Atheists And enemies that multiply gods that make many gods as Idolaters And enemies that deny those divers persons in the Godhead which they should confesse The Trinity as Jews and Turks So in his Religion and outward worship we have enemies that deny God his House that deny us any Church any Sacrament any Priesthood any Salvation as Papists And enemies that deny Gods house any furniture any stuffe any beauty any ornament any order as non-Conformitans And enemies that are glad to see Gods house richly furnished for a while that they may come to the spoile thereof as sacrilegious usurpers of Gods part But for Atheisticall enemies I call not upon them here to answer me Let them answer their own terrors and horrors alone at mid-night and tell themselves whence that proceeds if there be no God For Papisticall enemies I call not upon them to answer me Let them answer our Laws as well as our Preaching because theirs is a religion mixt as well of Treason as of Idolatry For our refractary and schismaticall enemies I call not upon them to answer me neither Let them answer the Church of God in what nation in what age was there ever seen a Church of that form that they have dreamt and beleeve their own dream And for our sacrilegious enemies let them answer out of the body of Story and give one example of prosperity upon sacriledge But leaving all these to that which hath heretofore or may hereafter be said of them I have bent my meditations for those dayes which this Terme will afford upon that which is the character and mark of all Christians in generall The Trinity the three Persons in one God not by way of subtile disputation as to persons that doubted but by way of godly declaration as to persons disposed to make use of it not as though I feared your faith needed it nor as though I hoped I could make your reason comprehend it but because I presume that the consideration of God the Father and his Power and the sins directed against God in that notion as the Father and the consideration of God the Son and his Wisedome and the sins against God in that apprehension the Son and the consideration of God the Holy Ghost and his Goodnesse and the sins against God in that acceptation may conduce as much at least to our edification as any Doctrine more controverted And of the first glorious person of this blessed Trinity the Almighty Father is this Text Blessed be God c. In these words Divisio the Apostle having tasted having been fed with the sense of the power and of the mercies of God in his gracious deliverance delivers a short Catechisme of all our duties So short as that there is but one action Benedicamus Let us blesse Nor but one object to direct that blessing upon Benedicamus Deum Let us blesse God It is but one God to exclude an Idolatrous multiplicity of Gods But it is one God notified and manifested to us in a triplicity of persons of which the first is literally expressed here That he is a Father And him we consider In Paternitate aeterna As he is the eternall Father Even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ sayes our Text And then In Paternitate interna as we have the Spirit of Adoption by which we cry Abba Father As he is Pater miserationum The Father of mercies And as he expresses these mercies by the seale and demonstration of comfort as he is the God of comfort and Totius consolationis Of all comfort Receive the summe of this and all that arises from it in this short Paraphrase The duty required of a Christian is Blessing Praise Thanksgiving To whom To God to God onely to the onely God There is but one But this one God is such◠tree as hath divers boughs to shadow and refresh thee divers branches to shed fruit upon thee divers armes to spread out and reach and imbrace thee And here hee visits thee as a Father From all eternity a Father of Christ Iesus and now thy Father in him in that which thou needest most A Father of mercy when thou wast in misery And a God of comfort when thou foundest no comfort in this world And a God of all comfort even of spirituall comfort in the anguishes and distresses of thy conscience Blessed bee God even the Father c. First then 1 Part. Benedictus the duty which God by this Apostle requires of man is a duty arising out of that which God hath wrought upon him It is not a consideration a contemplation of God sitting in heaven but of God working upon the earth not in the making of his eternall Decree there but in the execution of those Decrees here not in saying God knowes who are his and therefore they cannot faile but in saying in a rectified conscience God by his ordinary marks hath let me know that I am his and therefore I look to my wayes that I doe not fall S. Paul out of a religious sense what God had done for him comes to this duty to blesse him There is not a better Grammar to learne then to learne how to blesse God and therefore it may be no levity to use some Grammar termes herein God blesses man Dativè He gives good to him man blesses God Optativè He wishes well to him and he blesses him Vocativè He speaks well of him For though towards God as well as towards man 1 Sam. 25.27 2 King 5.15 reall actions are called blessings so Abigail called the present which she brought to David A blessing and so Naaman called that which he offered to Elisha A blessing though reall sacrifices to God and his cause sacrifices of Almes sacrifices of Armes sacrifices of Money sacrifices of Sermons advancing a good publique cause may come under the name of blessing yet the word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is properly a blessing in speech in discourse in conference in words in praise in thanks The dead doe not praise thee sayes David The dead men civilly dead allegorically dead dead and buryed in an uselesse silence in a Cloyster or Colledge may praise God but not in words of edification as it is required here and they are but dead and doe not praise God so and God is not the God of the dead but of the living of those that delight to praise and blesse God and to declare his goodnesse We represent the Angels to our selves and to the world with wings they are able to flie and yet when Iacob saw them aseending and descending Gen. 28.12 even those winged Angels had a Ladder they went by degrees There is an immediate blessing of God by the heart but God
gods as there are Creatures from God and more then that as many gods as they could fancie or imagine in making Chimera's of their owne for not onely that which was not God but that which was not at all was made a God And then as in narrow channels that cannot containe the water the water over-flowes and yet that water that does so over flow flies out and spreads to such a shallownesse as will not beare a Boat to any use so when by this narrownesse in the Gentiles God had over-flowne this bank this limitation of God in an unity all the rest was too shallow to beare any such notion any such consideration of God as appertained to him They could not think him an Omnipotent God when if one God would not another would nor an Infinite God when they had appeales from one God to another and without Omnipotence and without Infinitenesse they could not truly conceive a God They had cantoned a glorious Monarchy into petty States that could not subsist of themselves nor assist another and so imagined a God for every state and every action that a man must have applied himselfe to one God when he shipped and when he landed to another and if he travailed farther change his God by the way as often as he changed coynes or post-horses Deut. 6.4 But Heare O Israel the Lord thy God is one God As though this were all that were to be heard all that were to be learned they are called to heare and then there is no more said but that The Lord thy God is one God There are men that will say and sweare they do not meane to make God the Author of sin but yet when they say That God made man therefore that he might have something to damne and that he made him sin therefore that he might have something to damne him for truly they come too neare making God the Author of sin for all their modest protestation of abstaining So there are men that will say and sweare they do not meane to make Saints Gods but yet when they will aske the same things at Saints hands which they do at Gods and in the same phrase and manner of expression when they will pray the Virgin Mary to assist her Son nay to command her Son and make her a Chancellor to mitigate his common Law truly they come too neare making more Gods then one And so do we too when we give particular sins dominion over us Quot vitia tot Deos recentes sayes Hierom As the Apostle sayes Covetousnesse is Idolatry so sayes that Father is voluptuousnesse and licentiousnesse and every habituall sin Non alienum sayes God Thou shalt have no other God but me But Quis similis sayes God too Who is like me Hee will have nothing made like him not made so like a God as they make their Saints nor made so like a God as we make our sins Wee thinke one King Soveraigne enough and one friend counsellor enough and one Wife helper enough and he is strangely insatiable that thinks not one God God enough especially since when thou hast called this God what thou canst Hâ—â—â—r he is more then thou hast said of him Cum definitur ipse sua definitione crescit When thou hast defined him to be the God of justice and tremblest he is more then that he is the God of mercy too and gives thee comfort When thou hast defined him to be all eye He sees all thy sins he is more then that he is all patience and covers all thy sins And though he be in his nature incomprehensible and inaccessible in his light yet this is his infinite largenesse that being thus infinitely One he hath manifested himselfe to us in three Persons to be the more easily discerned by us and the more closely and effectually applied to us Now these notions that we have of God as a Father as a Son as a Holy Ghost Trinitas as a Spirit working in us are so many handles by which we may take hold of God and so many breasts by which we may suck such a knowledge of God as that by it wee may grow up into him And as wee cannot take hold of a torch by the light but by the staffe we may so though we cannot take hold of God as God who is incomprehensible and inapprehensible yet as a Father as a Son as a Spirit dwelling in us we can There is nothing in Nature that can fully represent and bring home the notion of the Trinity to us There is an elder booke in the World then the Scriptures It is not well said in the World for it is the World it selfe the whole booke of Creatures And indeed the Scriptures are but a paraphrase but a comment but an illustration of that booke of Creatures And therefore though the Scriptures onely deliver us the doctrine of the Trinity clearely yet there are some impressions some obumbrations of it in Nature too Take but one in our selves in the soule The understanding of man that is as the Father begets discourse ratiocination and that is as the Son and out of these two proceed conclusions and that is as the Holy Ghost Such as these there are many many sprinkled in the Schoole many scattered in the Fathers but God knowes poore and faint expressions of the Trinity But yet Praemisit Deus naturam magistram Tertul. submissurus prophetiam Though God meant to give us degrees in the University that is increase of knowledge in his Scriptures after yet he gave us a pedagogy he sent us to Schoole in Nature before Vt faciliùs credas prophetiae discipulus naturae That comming out of that Schoole thou mightest profit the better in that University having well considered Nature thou mightest be established in the Scriptures He is therefore inexcusable that considers not God in the Creature that comming into a faire Garden sayes onely Here is a good Gardiner and not Here is a good God and when he sees any great change sayes onely This is a strange accident and not a strange Judgement Hence is it that in the books of the Platonique Philosophers and in others much ancienter then they if the books of Hermes Trismegistus and others be as ancient as is pretended in their behalfe we finde as cleare expressing of the Trinity as in the Old Testament at least And hence is it that in the Talmud of the Jews and in the Alcoran of the Turks though they both oppose the Trinity yet when they handle not that point there fall often from them as cleare confessions of the three Persons as from any of the elder of those Philosophers who were altogether dis-interested in that Controversie But because God is seene Per creaturas ut per speculum per verbum ut per lucem Aleus In the creature and in nature but by reflection In the Word and in the Scriptures directly we rest in the knowledge which we
the father of Musique And so Horace calls Ennius the father of one kind of Poeme how absolutely is God our Father who may I say invented us made us found us out in the depth and darknesse of nothing at all He is Pater and Pater luminum Father and Father of lights of all kinds of lights Lux lucifica Iam. 1.17 as S. Augustine expresses it The light from which all the lights which we have whether of nature or grace or glory have their emanation Take these Lights of which God is said to be the Father to be the Angels so some of the Fathers take it and so S. Paul calls them Angels of light And so Nazianzen calls them Secundos splendores primi splendoris administros 2 Cor. 11.14 second lights that serve the first light Or take these Lights of which God is said to be the Father to be the Ministers of the Gospel the Angels of the Church so some Fathers take them too and so Christ sayes to them in the Apostles Mat. 5.14 You are the light of the world Or take these Lights to be those faithfull servants of God who have received an illustration in themselves and a coruscation towards others who by having lived in the presence of God in the houshold of his faithfull in the true Church are become as Iohn Baptist was burning and shining lamps as S. Paul sayes of the faithfull Phil. 2.15 You shine as lights in this world And as Moses had contracted a glorious shining in his face by his conversation with God Or take this light to be a fainter light then that and yet that which S. Iames doth most literally intend in that place The light of naturall understanding That which Plinie calls serenitatem animi when the mind of man dis-encumbred of all Eclipses and all clouds of passion or inordinate love of earthly things is enlightned so far as to discerne God in nature Or take this light to be but the light of a shadow for umbrae non sunt tenebrae sed densior lux shadows are not darknesses shadows are but a grosser kind of light Take it to be that shadow that designe that delineation that obumbration of God which the creatures of God exhibit to us that which Plinie calls Coelilaetitiam when the heavens and all that they imbrace in an opennesse and cheerefulnesse of countenance manifest God unto us Take these Lights of which S. Iames speaks in any apprehension any way Angels of heaven who are ministring spirits Angels of the Church who are spirituall Ministers Take it for the light of faith from hearing the light of reason from discoursing or the light flowing from the creature to us by contemplation and observation of nature Every way by every light we see that he is Pater luminum the Father of lights all these lights are from him and by all these lights we see that he is A Father and Our Father So that as the Apostle uses this phrase in another place Si opertum Euangelium 2 Cor. 4.3 If the Gospel be hid with wonder and admiration Is it possible can it be that this Gospel should be hid So it is here Si invocatis If ye call God Father that is as it is certaine you doe as it is impossible but you should because you cannot ascribe to any but him your Being your preservation in that Being your exaltation in that Being to a well-Being in the possession of all temporall and spirituall conveniencies And then there is thus much more force in this particle Si If which is as you have seene Si concessionis non dubitationis an If that implyes a confession and acknowledgement not a hesitation or a doubt That it is also Si progressionis Si conclusionis an If that carryes you farther and that concludes you at last If you doe it that is Since you do it Since you do call God Father since you have passed that act of Recognition since not onely by having been produced by nature but by having beene regenerated by the Gospel you confesse God to bee your Father and your Father in his Son in Christ Jesus Since you make that profession Of his owne will begate he us Iames 1.18 with the word of Truth If you call him Father since you call him Father thus goe on farther Timete Feare him If yee call him Father feare him c. Now Timete for this feare of God which is the beginning of wisedome and the end of wisedome too we are a little too wise at least too subtile sometimes in distinguishing too narrowly between a filiall feare and a servile feare as though this filiall feare were nothing but a reverend love of God as he is good and not a doubt and suspition of incurring those evils Prov. 8.13 that are punishments or that produce punishments The feare of the Lord is to hate evill It is a holy detestation of that evill which is Malum culpae The evill of sin and it is a holy trembling under a tender apprehension of that other evill which we call Malum poenae The evill of punishment for sin God presents to us the joyes of heaven often to draw us Origen and as often the torments of hell to avert us Origen sayes aright As Abraham had two sons one of a Bond-woman another of a Free but yet both sons of Abraham so God is served by two feares and the later feare the feare of future torment is not the perfect feare but yet even that feare is the servant and instrument of God too Quis tam insensatus Chrysost Who can so absolutely devest all sense Qui non fluctuante Civitate imminente naufragio But that when the whole City is in a combustion and commotion or when the Ship that he is in strikes desperately and irrecoverably upon a rock hee is otherwise affected toward God then then when every day in a quietnesse and calme of holy affections he heares a Sermon Gehennae timor sayes the same Father regni nos affert coronam Gen. 15.12 Exod. 3.6 Even the feare of hell gets us heaven Upon Abraham there fell A horrour of great darknesse And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God And that way towards that dejected look does God bend his countenance Vpon this man will I look Esay 66.12 even to him that is poore and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word As there are both impressions in security vitious and vertuous good and bad so there are both in feare also There is a wicked security in the wicked by which they make shift to put off all Providence in God and to think God like themselves indifferent what becomes of this world There is an ill security in the godly when for the time in their prosperity they grow ill husbands of Gods graces and negligent of his mercies In my prosperity sayes David himself Psal 30.6 of
it shewed that there might be such a thing He that curseth Father or Mother shall surely dye sayes Moses Exod. 21.17 Deut. 21.18 And he that is but stubborne towards them shall dye too The dutifull love of children to Parents is so rooted in nature that Demosthenes sayes it is against the impressions and against the Law of nature for any child ever to love that man that hath done execution upon his Father though by way of Justice And this naturall Obligation is not conditioned with the limitations of a good or a bad Father Natura te non bono patri sed patri conciliavit Epictetus sayes that little great Philosopher Nature hath not bound thee to thy father as hee is a good Father but meerely as he is thy Father Now for the power of Fathers over their children by the Law of Nations that is the generall practise of Civill States the Father had power upon the life of his child It fell away by discontinuance in a great part and after was abrogated by particular Laws but yet by a connivence admitted in some cases too For as in Nature man is Microcosmus a little World so in nature a family is a little State a little Commonwealth and what power the Magistrate hath in that Aristor the Father hath in this Ipsum regnū suaptenatura imperium est paternum The power of a King if it be kept within the bounds of the nature of that Office Tertul. is onely to be a Father to his people And Gratius est nomen pietatis quam potestatis Authority is presented in a more acceptable name when I am called a Father then when I am called a Master and therefore sayes Seneca our Ancestors mollified it thus Vt invidiam Dominis contumcliam servis detraherent That there might accrue no envy to the Master for so great a title nor contempt upon the servant for so low a title they called the Master Patremfamilias The Father of a houshould and they called the servants familiares parts and pieces of the family So that in the name of Father they understand all power and the first Law that passed amongst the Romans against Parricides L. Pompeia was Contra interfectores Patrum Dominorum They were made equall Fathers and Soveraignes And in the Law of God it selfe Honour thy Father wee see all the honour and feare and reverence that belongs to the Magistrate is conveyed in that name in that person the Father is all as in the State of that people before they came to be settled both the Civill part of the Government and the Spirituall part was all in the Father that Father was King and Priest over all that family Present God to thy self then as a Father and thou wilt feare him and take knowledg that the Son might not sue the Father Enter no actiō against God why he made thee not richer nor wiser nor fairer no nor why he elects or refuses without respect of good or bad works But take knowledge too that when by the Law the Father might punish the Son with death he might not kill his Son before he was passed three yeares in age before hee was come to some demonstration of an ill and rebellious nature and disposition Whatsoever God may doe of his absolute Power beleeve that he will not execute that power upon thee to thy condemnation till thine actuall sins have made thee incapable of his love What he may do dispute not but be sure he will do thee no harme if thou feare him as a Father Now to bring that nearer to you Sacerdotalis which principally we intended which is the consideration and precaution of those sins which violate this Power of God notified in this name of Father we consider a threefold emanation or exercise of Power in this Father by occasion of a threefold repeating of this part of the Text in the Scripture The words are waighty alwayes at the bottome for we have these words in the last of the Prophets in Malachie and in the last of the Euangelists in Iohn And here in this Apostle we have them of the last Judgement Mal. 1.6 In Malachi he sayes A Son honoureth his Father if then I be a Father where is my honour This God speaks there to the Priest to the Levite Exod. 32.29 for the Tribe of Levi had before as Moses bade them consecrated their hands to God and punished by a zealous execution the Idolatry of the golden Calfe and for this service God fastned the Priesthood upon them But when they came in Malachies time to connive at Idolatry it selfe God who was himselfe the roote of the Priesthood and had trusted them with it and they had abused that trust and the Priesthood Then when the Prophet was become a foole Hose 9.7 and the spirituall Man mad or as S. Hierom reads it Arreptitius that is possessed by others God first of all turnes upon the Priest himselfe rebukes the Priest interminates his judgement upon the Priest for God is our high Priest And therefore feare this Father in that notion in that apprehension as a Priest as thy high Priest that refuses or receives thy sacrifices as he finds them conditioned and if he looke narrowly is able to finde some spot in thy purest Lambe some sin in thy holiest action some deviation in thy prayer some ostentation in thine almes some vaine glory in thy Preaching some hypocrisie in thy hearing some concealing in thy confessions some reservation in thy restitutions some relapses in thy reconciliations since thou callest him Father feare him as thy high Priest So the words have their force in Malachie and they appertaine Ad potestatem Sacerdotalem To the power of the Priest despise not that And then Civilis Iohn 8.42 in the second place which is in S. Iohn Christ sayes If God were your Father you would love me And this Christ speakes to the Pharisees and to them not as Sectaries in Religion but as to persons in Authority and command in the State as to Rulers to Governours to Magistrates So Christ sayes to Pilate Iohn 19.11 Rom. 13.11 Thou couldst have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above And so S. Paul There is no power but of God The powers that be be ordained of God Christ then charges the Pharisees that they having the secular Power in their hands they went about to kill him when he was doing the will of his Father who is the roote as of Priesthood so of all Civill power and Magistracy also Feare this Father then as the Civill Sword the Sword of Justice is in his hand He can open thee to the malicious prosecutions of adversaries and submit thee to the penalties of those Lawes which in truth thou hast never transgressed Thy Fathers thy Grandfathers have sinned against him and thou hast been but reprieved for two sessions for two generations and now maiest come
Solomon do for the most part hold in Christ Christ is for the most part the Wisdome of that book And for that book which is called altogether The book of Wisdome Isidore sayes that a Rabbi of the Jews told him That that book was heretofore in the Canonicall Scripture and so received by the Jews till after Christs Crucifying when they observed what evident testimonies there were in that book for Christ they removed it from the Canon This I know is not true but I remember it therefore because all assists us to consider Wisdome in Christ as that does also That the greatest Temple of the Christians in Constantinople was dedicated in that name Sophia to Wisdome by implication to Christ And in some apparitions where the Son of God is said to have appeared he cals himself by that name Sapientiam Dei He is Wisdome therefore because he reveales the Will of the Father to us and therefore is no man wise but he that knowes the Father in him Isidore makes this difference Inter sapientem prudentem that the first The wise man attends the next world the last The prudent man but this world But wisdome even heavenly wisdome does not exclude that prudence though the principall or rather the ordinary object thereof be this world And therefore sins against the second Person are sins against Wisdome in either extreame either in affected and grosse ignorance or in overrefined and sublimed curiosity As we place this Ignorance in Practicall things of this world so it is Stupidity and as we place it in Doctrinall things of the next world so Ignorance is Implicite Beliefe And Curiosity as we place it upon Practical things is Craft and upon Doctrinal things Subtilty And this Stupidity and this Implicite faith and then this Craft and this Subtilty are sins directed against the Son who is true and onely Wisdome First then A stupid and negligent passage through this world as though thou wert no part of it without embarking thy selfe in any calling To crosse Gods purpose so much Stupiditas as that whereas he produced every thing out of nothing to be something thou wilt go so far back towards nothing againe as to be good for nothing that when as our Lawes call a Calling an Addition thou wilt have no Addition And when as S. Augustine saies Musca Soli praeferenda quia vivit A Fly is a nobler Creature then the Sun in this respect because a Fly hath life in it selfe and the Sun hath none so any Artificer is a better part of a State then any retired or contemplative man that embraces no Calling These chippings of the world these fragmentary and incoherent men trespasse against the Son against the second Person as he is Wisdome And so doe they in doctrinall things that swallow any particular religion upon an implicite faith When Christ declared a very forward knowledge in the Temple at twelve yeares with the Doctors yet he was there Audiens interrogans He heard what they would say and he moved questions to heare what they could say for Ejusdem scientiae est scire quid interroges quidve respondeas Luke 2.46 Origen It is a testimony of as much knowledge to aske a pertinent question as to give a pertinent answer But never to have beene able to give answer never to have asked question in matter of Religion this is such an Implicitenesse and indifferency as transgresses against the Son of God who is Wisdome It is so too in the other extreame Curiosity And this in Practicall things is Craft Curiositas in Doctrinall Subtilty Craft is properly and narrowly To go towards good ends by ill wayes And though this be not so ill as when neither ends nor wayes be good yet this is ill too The Civilians use to say of the Canonists and Casuists That they consider nothing but Crassam aequitatem fat Equity downe-right Truths things obvious and apprehensible by every naturall man and to doe but so to be but honest men and no more they thinke a diminution To stay within the limits of a profession within the limits of precedents within the limits of time is to over-active men contemptible nothing is wisdome till it be exalted to Craft and got above other men And so it is with some with many in Doctrinall things too To rest in Positive Divinity and Articles confessed by all Churches To be content with Salvation at last and raise no estimation no emulation no opinion of singularity by the way only to edifie an Auditory and not to amaze them onely to bring them to an assent and to a practise and not to an admiration This is but home-spun Divinity but Country-learning but Catechisticall doctrine Let me know say these high-flying men what God meant to doe with man before ever God meant to make man I care not for that Law that Moses hath written That every man can read That he might have received from God in one day Let me know the Cabal that which passed betweene God and him in all the rest of the forty dayes I care not for Gods revealed Will his Acts of Parliament his publique Proclamations Let me know his Cabinet Counsailes his bosome his pocket dispatches Is there not another kinde of Predestination then that which is revealed in Scriptures which seemes to be onely of those that beleeve in Christ May not a man be saved though he doe not and may not a man bee damned though he doe performe those Conditions which seeme to make sure his salvation in the Scriptures Beloved our Countrey man Holkot upon the booke of Wisdome sayes well of this Wisdome which we must seeke in the Booke of God After he hath magnified it in his harmonious manner which was the style of that time after he had said Cujus authore nihil sublimius That the Author of the Scripture was the highest Author for that was God Cujus tenore nihil solidius That the assurance of the Scripture was the safest foundation for it was a Rock Cujus valore nihil locupletius That the riches of the Scripture was the best treasure for it defrayed us in the next World After he had pursued his way of Elegancy and called it Munimentum Majestatis That Majesty and Soveraignty it selfe was established by the Scriptures and Fundamentum firmitatis That all true constancy was built upon that and Complementum potestatis That the exercise of all power was to be directed by that he reserves the force of all to the last and contracts all to that Emolumentum proprietatis The profit which I have in appropriating the power and the wisdome of the Scriptures to my selfe All wisdome is nothing to me if it be not mine and I have title to nothing that is not conveyed to me by God in his Scriptures and in the wisdome manifested to me there I rest I looke upon Gods Decrees in the execution of those Decrees and I try whether I be within that Decree
to doe as the salvation of soules he would make use of my tongue And being to save the world by his word that I should speak that word Docendo vos quod per se faciliùs suaviùs posset That he calls me up hither to teach you that which he could teach you better and sooner at home by his Spirit Indulgentia ejus est non indigentia It is the largenesse of his mercy towards you not any narrownesse in his power that he needs me And so have you this Angel in our text in all the acceptations in which our Expositors have delivered him It is Christ It is the Angels of heaven It is the Ministery of the Gospel And this Angell whosoever whatsoever S. Iohn saw come from the East I saw an Angel come from the East which was our second Branch and fals next into consideration This addition is intended for a particular addition to our comfort Ab oriente it is a particular endowment or inlargement of strength and power in this Angel that he comes from the East If we take it to goe the same way that we went before first of naturall Angels even the Westerne Angels Qui habuere occasum Those Angels which have had their Sun-set their fall they came from the East too Quomodo cecidisti decoelo Lucifer filius orientis Esay 14 12. How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer the Son of the morning He had his begetting his Creation in the East in the light and there might have stayed for any necessity of falling that God laid upon him Take the Angel of the text to be the Angel of the Covenant Christ Jesus and his name is The East he cannot be knowne he cannot bee said to have any West Zech. 6.12 Ecce vir Oriens nomen ejus so the vulgat reads that place Behold the Man whose name is the East you can call him nothing else for so the other Zachary the Zachary of the New Testament cals him too Luke 1.78 Per viscera misericordiae Through the tender bowels of his mercy Visitavit nos Oriens The East the day spring from on high hath visited us And he was derived à Patre luminum He came from the East begotten from all eternity of the Father of lights Iohn 16.28 I came out from the Father and came into the world Take this Angel to be the Preacher of the Gospel literally really the Gospell came out of the East where Christ lived and dyed and Typically figuratively Paradise which also figured the place to which the Gospel is to carry us Heaven that also was planted in the East and therefore S. Basil assignes that for the reason why in the Church service we turne to the East when we pray Quia antiquam requirimus patriam Wee looke towards our ancient country where the Gospel of our salvation was literally acted and accomplished and where Heaven the end of the Gospel was represented in Paradise Every way the Gospel is an Angel of the East But this is that which we take to be principally intended in it That as the East is the fountaine of light so all our illumination is to be taken from the Gospell Spread we this a little thinner and we shall better see through it If the calamities of the world or the heavy consideration of thine own sins have benummed and benighted thy soule in the vale of darknesse and in the shadow of death If thou thinke to wrastle and bustle through these strong stormes and thick clouds with a strong hand If thou thinke thy money thy bribes shall conjure thee up stronger spirits then those that oppose thee If thou seek ease in thy calamities that way to shake and shipwrack thine enemies In these crosse winds in these countermines to oppresse as thou art oppressed all this is but a turning to the North to blow away and scatter these sadnesses with a false an illusory and a sinfull comfort If thou thinke to ease thy selfe in the contemplation of thine honour thine offices thy favour thy riches thy health this is but a turning to the South the Sun-shine of worldly prosperity If thou sinke under thy afflictions and canst not finde nourishment but poyson in Gods corrections nor justice but cruelty in his judgements nor mercy but slacknesse in his forbearance till now If thou suffer thy soule to set in a cloud a dark cloud of ignorance of Gods providence and proceedings or in a darker of diffidence of his performance towards thee this is a turning to the West and all these are perverse and awry But turne to the East and to the Angel that comes from thence The Ministery of the Gospel of Christ Jesus in his Church It is true thou mayst find some darke places in the Scriptures Basil and Est silentii species obscuritas To speake darkly and obscurely is a kinde of silence I were as good not be spoken to as not be made to understand that which is spoken yet fixe thy selfe upon this Angel of the East the preaching of the Word the Ordinance of God and thine understanding shall be enlightned and thy beliefe established and thy conscience thus far unburthened that though the sins which thou hast done cannot be undone yet neither shalt thou bee undone by them There where thou art afraid of them in judgement they shall never meet thee but as in the round frame of the World the farthest West is East where the West ends the East begins So in thee who art a World too thy West and thy East shall joyne and when thy Sun thy soule comes to set in thy death-bed the Son of Grace shall suck it up into glory Our Angel comes from the East Angelus Ascendens a denotation of splendor and illustration of understanding and conscience and there is more he comes Ascending I saw an Angel ascend from the East that is still growing more cleare and more powerfull upon us Take the Angel here of naturall Angels 1 Sam. 28.13 and then when the Witch of Endor though an evill Spirit appeared to her yet saw him appeare so Ascending she attributes that glory to it I see gods Ascending out of the earth Take the Angel to be Christ and then his Ascension was Foelix clausula totius itinerarii Bernar. The glorious shutting up of all his progresse and though his descending from Heaven to earth and his descending from earth to hell gave us our title his Ascending by which he carried up our flesh to the right hand of his Father gave us our possession His Descent his humiliation gave us Ius ad rem but his Ascension Ius in re But as this Angel is the Ministery of the Gospel God gave it a glorious ascent in the Primitive Church Psal 19.6 when as this Sun Exultavit ut gigas ad currendam viam ascended quickly beyond the reach of Heretiques wits and Persecutors swords and as glorious an ascent in the
Reformation when in no long time the number of them that had forsaken Rome was as great as of them that staid with her Now to give way to this ascent of this Angel in thy selfe make the way smooth and make thy soule souple finde thou a growth of the Gospel in thy faith and let us finde it in thy life It is not in thy power to say to this Angel as Ioshua said to the Sun Siste Iosh 10.12 stand still It will not stand still If thou finde it not ascending it descends If thy comforts in the Gospel of Christ Jesus grow not they decay If thou profit not by the Gospel thou losest by it If thou live not by it nothing can redeeme thee thou dyest by it Wee speake of going up and downe a staire it is all one staire of going to and from the City it is all one way of comming in and going out of a house it is all one doore So is there a savour of life unto life and a savour of death unto death in the Gospel but it is all one Gospel If this Angel of the East have appeared unto thee the light of the Gospel have shined upon thee and it have not ascended in thee if it have not made thee wiser and wiser and better and better too thou hast stopped that light vexed grieved quenched that Spirit for the naturall progresse of this Angel of the East is to ascend the naturall motion and working of the Gospel is to make thee more and more confident in Gods deliverance lesse and lesse subject to rely upon the weake helps and miserable comforts of this world To this purpose this Angel ascends that is proceeds in the manifestation of his Power and of his readinesse to succour us Of his Power in this That he hath the seales of the living God I saw an Angel ascending from the East which had the seale of the living God which is our next Consideration Of the living God The gods of the Nations are all dead gods Sigillum Dei viventis either such Gods as never had life stones and gold and silver or such gods at best as were never gods till they were dead for men that had benefited the world in any publique and generall invention or otherwise were made gods after their deaths which was a miserable deification a miserable godhead that grew out of corruption a miserable eternity that begun at all but especially that begun in death and they were not gods till they dyed But our Angel had the Seale of the living God that is Power to give life to others Now if we seeke for this seale in the naturall Angels they have it not for this Seale is some visible thing whereby we are assisted to salvation and the Angels have no such They are made keepers of this seale sometimes but permanently they have it not This Seale of comfort was put into an Angels hand Ezek. 9.4 when he was to set a marke upon the foreheads of all them that mourned He had a visible thing Inke to marke them withall But it was not said to him Vade signa omnes Creaturas Go and set this marke upon every Creature as it was to the Minister of the Gospel Go and preach to every Creature Marke 16.15 If wee seeke this seale in the great Angel the Angel of the Covenant Christ Jesus It is true he hath it for Omnis potestas dâ—ta All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth and Omne judicium Mat. 28.18 Iohn 5.22 The Father hath committed all judgement to the Son Christ as the Son of man executes a Judgement and hath a Power which he hath not but by gift by Commission by vertue of this Seale from his Father But because it is not onely so in him That he hath the Seale of the living God but He is this Seale himselfe Colos 1.15 Heb. 1.3 Iohn 6.27 Hee is the Image of the invisible God He is the brightnesse of his glory and the expresse Image of his Person It is not onely his Commission that is sealed but his Nature He himselfe is sealed Him hath God the Father sealed since I say naturall Angels though they have sometimes this seale they have it not alwaies they have not a Commission from God to apply his mercies to man by any ordinary and visible meanes since the Angel of the Covenant Christ Jesus hath it but hath it so as that he is it too the third sort of Angels the Church-Angels the Ministers of the Gospell are they who most properly can be said to have this Seale by a fixed and permanent possession and a power to apply it to particular men in all emergent necessities according to the institution of that living God whose seale it is Now the great power which is given by God in giving this seale to these Angels hath a lively representation such as a shadow can give in the history of Ioseph Pharaoh sayes to him Thou shalt be over my house and over all the land of Egypt Gen. 41.40 steward of the Kings house and steward of the Kingdome And at thy word shall all my people be armed Constable and Marshall too and to invest him in all these and more Pharaoh gave him his ring his seale not his seale onely to those severall patents to himselfe but the keeping of that seale for the good of others This temporall seale of Pharoh was a representation of the seale of the living God But there is a more expresse type of it in Exodus Thou shalt grave sayes God to Moses upon a plate of pure gold Lxod. 28.36 as Signets are graved Holinesse to the Lord and it shall be upon the forehead of Aaron What to do That the people may be accepted of him There must be a holinesse to the Lord and that presented by Aaron the Priest to God that the people may be acceptable to the Lord So that this seale of the living God in these Angels of our text is The Sacraments of the New Testament and the Absolution of sinnes by which when Gods people come to a Holinesse to the Lord in a true repentance and that that holinesse that is that repentance is made knowne to Aaron to the Priest and he presents it to the Lord that Priest his Minister seals to them in those his Ordinances Gods acceptation of this degree of holinesse he seals this Reconciliation between God and his people And a contract of future concurrence with his subsequent grace This is the power given by God to this ascending Angel and we extend that no farther but hasten to his haste his readinesse to succour us in which we proposed for the first consideration That this Angel of light manifested and discovered to us who our enemies were He cryed out to them who were ready to do mischiefe with a loud voyce so that we might heare him and know them Though in all Court-cases it be
any subject a falling for for our bodies we say a man is falne sick And for his state falne poore And for his mind falne mad And for his conscience falne desperate we are borne low and yet we fall every way lower so universall is our falling sicknesse Sin it selfe is but a falling The irremediable sin of the Angels The undeterminable sinne of Adam is called but so The fall of Adam The fall of Angels And therefore the effectuall visitation of the holy Ghost to man is called a falling too we are fallen so low as that when the holy Ghost is pleased to fetch us againe and to infuse his grace he is still said to fall upon us But the fall which we consider in the Text is not a figurative falling not into a decay of estate nor decay of health nor a spirituall falling into sin a decay of grace but it is a medicinall falling a falling under Gods hand but such a falling under his hand as that he takes not off his hand from him that is falne but throwes him downe therefore that he may raise him To this posture he brings Paul now when he was to re-inanimate him with his spirit rather to pre-inanimate him for indeed no man hath a soule till he have grace Christ who in his humane nature hath received from the Father all Judgement and power and dominion over this world hath received all this upon that condition that he shall governe in this manner Psal 2.8 Aske of me and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance sayes the Father How is he to use them when he hath them Thus Thou shalt breake them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potters vessell Now God meant well to the Nations in this bruising and breaking of them God intended not an annihilation of the Nations but a reformarion for Christ askes the Nations for an Inheritance not for a triumph therefore it is intended of his way of governing them and his way is to bruise and beat them that is first to cast them downe before he can raise them up first to breake them before he can make them in his fashion August Novit Dominus vulnerare ad amorem The Lord and onely the Lord knowes how to wound us out of love more then that how to wound us into love more then all that to wound us into love not onely with him that wounds us but into love with the wound it selfe with the very affliction that he inflicts upon us The Lord knowes how to strike us so as that we shall lay hold upon that hand that strikes us and kisse that hand that wounds us Ad vitam interficit ad exaltationem prosternit sayes the same Father No man kills his enemy therefore that his enemy might have a better life in heaven that is not his end in killing him It is Gods end Therefore he brings us to death that by that gate he might lead us into life everlasting And he hath not discovered but made that Northerne passage to passe by the frozen Sea of calamity and tribulation to Paradise to the heavenly Jerusalem There are fruits that ripen not but by frost There are natures there are scarce any other that dispose not themselves to God but by affliction And as Nature lookes for the season for ripening and does not all before so Grace lookes for the assent of the soule and does not perfect the whole worke till that come It is Nature that brings the season and it is Grace that brings the assent but till the season for the fruit till the assent of the soule come all is not done Therefore God begun in this way with Saul and in this way he led him all his life Tot pertulit mortes quot vixit dies He dyed as many deaths as he lived dayes Chrysost for so himselfe sayes Quotidie morior I die daily God gave him sucke in blood and his owne blood was his daily drink He catechized him with calamities at first and calamities were his daily Sermons and meditations after and to authorize the hands of others upon him and to accustome him to submit himself to the hands of others without murmuring Christ himself strikes the first blow and with that Cecidit he fell which was our first consideration in his humiliation and then Cecidit in terram He fell to the ground which is our next I take no farther occasion from this Circumstance but to arme you with consolation In terram how low soever God be pleased to cast you Though it be to the earth yet he does not so much cast you downe in doing that as bring you home Death is not a banishing of you out of this world but it is a visitation of your kindred that lie in the earth neither are any nearer of kin to you then the earth it selfe and the wormes of the earth You heap earth upon your soules and encumber them with more and more flesh by a superfluous and luxuriant diet You adde earth to earth in new purchases and measure not by Acres but by Manors nor by Manors but by Shires And there is a little Quillet a little Close worth all these A quiet Grave And therefore when thou readest That God makes thy bed in thy sicknesse rejoyce in this not onely that he makes that bed where thou dost lie but that bed where thou shalt lie That that God that made the whole earth is now making thy bed in the earth a quiet grave where thou shalt sleep in peace till the Angels Trumpet wake thee at the Resurrection to that Judgement where thy peace shall be made before thou commest and writ and sealed in the blood of the Lamb. Saul falls to the earth So farre But he falls no lower God brings his servants to a great lownesse here but he brings upon no man a perverse sense or a distrustfull suspition of falling lower hereafter His hand strikes us to the earth by way of humiliation But it is not his hand that strikes us into hell by way of desperation Will you tell me that you have observed and studied Gods way upon you all your life and out of that can conclude what God meanes to doe with you after this life That God took away your Parents in your infancy and left you Orphanes then That he hath crossed you in all your labours in your calling ever since That he hath opened you to dishonours and calumnies and mis-interpretations in things well intended by you That he hath multiplied ficknesses upon you and given you thereby an assurance of a miserable and a short life of few and evill dayes nay That he hath suffered you to fall into sins that you your selves have hated To continue in sins that you your selves have been weary of To relapse into sins that you your selves have repented And will you conclude out of this that God had no good purpose upon you that if ever
Christ Ephes 2.12 for so S. Paul sayes to the Ephesians Absque Christo absque Deo If ye be without Christ ye are without God For as it is the same absurdity in nature to say There is no Sun and to say This that you call the Sun is not the Sun this that shines out upon you this that produces your fruits and distinguishes your seasons is not the Sun so is it the same Atheisme in these dayes of light to say There is no God and to say This Christ whom you call the Son of God is not God That he in whom God hath manifested himselfe He whom God hath made Head of the Church and Judge of the world is not God This then is our double Sadduce Davids Atheist that beleeves not God S. Pauls Atheist that beleeves not Christ And as our Sadduce is so is our Pharisee twofold also There is a Pharisee Duplex Pharisaeus that by following private expositions separates himselfe from our Church principally for matter of Government and Discipline and imagines a Church that shall be defective in nothing and does not onely think himself to be of that Church but sometimes to be that Church for none but himselfe is of that perswasion And there is a Pharisee that dreames of such an union such an identification with God in this life as that he understands all things not by benefit of the senses and impressions in the fancy and imagination or by discourse and ratiocination as we poore soules doe but by immediate and continuall infusions and inspirations from God himselfe That he loves God not by participation of his successive Grace more and more as he receives more and more grace but by a communication of God himselfe to him intirely and irrevocably That he shall be without any need and above all use of Scriptures and that the Scriptures shall be no more to him then a Catechisme to our greatest Doctors That all that God commands him to doe in this world is but as an easie walk downe a hill That he can doe all that easily and as much more as shall make God beholden to him and bring God into his debt and that he may assigne any man to whom God shall pay the arrerages due to him that is appoint God upon-what man he shall confer the benefit of his works of Supererogation For in such Propositions as these and in such Paradoxes as these doe the Authors in the Roman Church delight to expresse and celebrate their Pharisaicall purity as we find it frequently abundantly in them In a word some of our home-Pharisees will say That there are some who by benefit of a certaine Election cannot sin That the Adulteries and Blasphemies of the Elect are not sins But the Rome-Pharisee will say that some of them are not onely without sin in themselves but that they can save others from sin or the punishment of sin by their works of Supererogation and that they are so united so identified with God already as that they are in possession of the beatificall Vision of God and see him essentially and as he is in this life for that Ignatius the father of the Jesuits did so Sandaeus Theolog pâ—r 1. fo 760. some of his Disciples say it is at least probable if not certaine And that they have done all that they had to doe for their owne salvation long agoe and stay in the world now onely to gather treasure for others and to worke out their salvation So that these men are in better state in this life then the Saints are in heaven There the Saints may pray for others but they cannot merit for others These men here can merit for other men and work out the salvation of others Nay they may be said in some respect to exceed Christ himselfe for Christ did save no man here but by dying for him These men save other men with living well for them and working out their salvation These are our double Sadduces our double Pharisees now beloved Dissentio if we would goe so far in S. Pauls way as to set this two-fold Sadduce Davids Atheist without God and S. Pauls Atheist without Christ against our twofold Pharisee our home-Catharist and our Rome-Catharist If we would spend all our wit and all our time all our Inke and our gall in shewing them the deformities and iniquities of one another by our preaching and writing against them The truth and the true Church might as S. Paul did in our Text scape the better But when we we that differ in no such points tear and wound and mangle one another with opprobrious contumelies and odious names of sub-division in Religion our Home-Pharisee and our Rome-Pharisee maligners of our Discipline and maligners of our Doctrine gaine upon ns and make their advantages of our contentions and both the Sadduces Davids Atheist that denies God and S. Pauls Atheist that denies Christ joyne in a scornfull asking us Where is now your God Are not we as well that deny him absolutely as you that professe him with wrangling But stop we the floodgates of this consideration it would melt us into teares Sadducaei Pharisaei interni End we all with this That we have all all these Sadduces and Pharisees in our owne bosomes Sadduces that deny spirits carnall apprehensions that are apt to say Is your God all Spirit and hath bodily eyes to see sin All Spirit and hath bodily hands to strike for a sinne Is your soule all spirit and hath a fleshly heart to feare All spirit and hath sensible sinews to feele a materiall fire Was your God who is all Spirit wounded when you quarrelled or did your soule which is all spirit drink when you were drunk Sins of presumption and carnall confidence are our Sadduces and then our Pharisees are our sins of separation of division of diffidence and distrust in the mercies of our God when we are apt to say after a sin Cares God who is all Spirit for my eloquent prayers or for my passionate teares Is the giving of my goods to the poore or of my body to the fire any thing to God who is all Spirit My spirit and nothing but my spirit my soule and nothing but my soule must satisfie the justice the anger of God and be separated from him for ever My Sadduce my Presumption suggests that there is no spirit no soule to suffer for sin and my Pharisee my Desperation suggests That my soule must perish irremediably irrecoverably for every sinne that my body commits Now if I go S. Pauls way to put a dissention between these my Sadduces and my Pharisees Via Pauli to put a jealousie between my presumption my desperation to make my presumption see that my desperation lies in wait for her and to consider seriously that my presumption will end in desperation I may as S. Paul did in the Text scape the better for that But if without farther
for so is it twice taken in one verse Psal 58.4 Their poison is like the poison of a Serpent so that this Hot displeasure is that poison of the soule obduration here and that extention of this obduration a finall impenitence in this life and an infinite impenitiblenesse in the next to dye without any actuall penitence here and live without all possibility of future penitence for ever hereafter David therefore foresees that if God Rebuke in anger it will come to a Chastening in hot displeasure 1 Sam. 2.25 For what should stop him For If a man sinne against the Lord who will plead for him sayes Eli Plead thou my cause sayes David It is onely the Lord that can be of counsell with him and plead for him and that Lord is both the Judge and angry too So Davids prayer hath this force Rebuke me not in anger for though I were able to stand under that yet thou wilt also Chasten mee in thine hot displeasure and that no soule can beare for as long as Gods anger lasts so long he is going on towards our utter destruction In that State it is not a State in that Exinanition in that annihilation of the soule it is not an annihilation the soule is not so happy as to come to nothing but in that misery which can no more receive a name then an end all Gods corrections are borne with grudging with murmuring with comparing our righteousnesse with others righteousnesse Job 7.20 In Iobs impatience Quare posuisti me contrarium tibi Why hast thou set me up as a marke against thee O Thou preserver of men Thou that preservest other men hast bent thy bow I. am 3.12 and made me a mark for thine arrowes sayes the Lamentation In that state we cannot cry to him that he might answer us If we doe cry and he answer we cannot heare Job 9.16 if we doe heare we cannot beleeve that it is he Cum invocantem exaudierit sayes Iob If I cry and he answer yet I doe not beleeve that he heard my voyce We had rather perish utterly Ver. 23. then stay his leisure in recovering us Si flagellat occidat semel sayes Iob in the Vulgat If God have a minde to destroy me let him doe it at one blow Et non de poenis rideat Let him not sport himselfe with my misery Whatsoever come after we would be content to be out of this world so we might but change our torment whether it be a temporall calamity that oppresses our state or body or a spirituall burthen a perplexity that sinks our understanding or a guiltinesse that depresses our conscience Vt in inferno protegas Job 14.13 as Iob also speaks O that thou wouldest hide me In inferno In the grave sayes the afflicted soule but in Inferno In hell it selfe sayes the dispairing soule rather then keepe me in this torment in this world This is the miserable condition or danger that David abhors and deprecates in this Text To be rebuked in anger without any purpose in God to amend him and to be chastned in his hot displeasure so as that we can finde no interest in the gracious promises of the Gospel no conditions no power of revocation in the severe threatnings of the Law no difference between those torments which have attached us here and the everlasting torments of Hell it selfe That we have lost all our joy in this life and all our hope of the next That we would faine die though it were by our own hands and though that death doe but unlock us a doore to passe from one Hell into another This is Ira tua Domine faror tuus Thy anger O Lord and Thy hot displeasure For as long as it is but Ira patris the anger of my Father which hath dis-inherited me Gold is thine and silver is thine and thou canst provide me As long as it is but Ira Regis some mis-information to the King some mis-apprehension in the King Cor Regis in manu tua The Kings heart is in thy hand and thou canst rectifie it againe As long as it is but Furor febris The rage and distemper of a pestilent Fever or Furor furoris The rage of madnesse it selfe thou wilt consider me and accept me and reckon with me according to those better times before those distempers overtooke me and overthrew me But when it comes to be Ira tua furor tuus Thy anger and Thy displeasure as David did so let every Christian finde comfort if he be able to say faithfully this Verse this Text O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure for as long as he can pray against it he is not yet so fallen under it but that he hath yet his part in all Gods blessings which we shed upon the Congregation in our Sermons and which we seale to every soule in the Sacrament of Reconcilation SERM. LI. Preached upon the Penitentiall Psalmes PSAL. 6.2 3. Have mercy upon me O Lord for I am weake O Lord heale me for my bones are vexed My soule is also sore vexed But thou O Lord how long THis whole Psalme is prayer And the whole prayer is either Deprecatory as in the first verse or Postulatory Something David would have forborne and something done And in that Postulatory part of Davids prayer which goes through six verses of this Psalme we consider the Petitions and the Inducements What David asks And why of both which there are some mingled in these two verses which constitute our Text. And therefore in them we shall necessarily take knowledge of some of the Petitions and some of the Reasons For in the Prayer there are five petitions First Miserere Have mercy upon me Thinke of me looke graciously towards me prevent me with thy mercy And then Sana me O Lord heale me Thou didst create me in health but my parents begot me in sicknesse and I have complicated other sicknesses with that Actuall with Originall sin O Lord heale me give me physick for them And thirdly Convertere Returne O Lord Thou didst visit me in nature returne in grace Thou didst visit me in Baptisme returne in the other Sacrament Thou doest visit me now returne at the houre of my death And in a fourth petition Eripe O Lord deliver my soule Every blessing of thine because a snare unto me and thy benefits I make occasions of sinne In all conversation and even in my solitude I admit such tentations from others or I produce such tentations in my selfe as that whensoever thou art pleased to returne to me thou findest me at the brinke of some sinne and therefore Eripe me O Lord take hold of me and deliver me And lastly Salvum me fac O Lord save me Manifest thy good purpose upon me so that I may never be shaken or never overthrown in the faithfull hope of that salvation which thou hast preordained for me These are
to a particular consideration of the waight of his sins nor to a comparison betwixt his sin and the mercy of God yet he comes to a Miserere mei Domine To a sudden ejaculation O Lord be mercifull unto me how dare I doe this in the sight of my God It is much such an affection as is sometimes in a Felon taken in the manner or in a condemned person brought to execution One desires the Justice to be good to him and yet he sees not how he can Baile him the other desires the Sherife to be good to him and yet he knowes he must doe his Office A sinner desires God to have mercy upon him and yet he hath not descended to particular considerations requisite in that businesse But yet this spirituall Malefactor is in better case then the temporall are They desire them to be good to them who can doe them no good but God is still able and still ready to reprieve them and to put off the execution of his Judgements which execution were to take them out of this world under the guiltinesse and condemnation of unrepented sins And therefore as S. Basil sayes In scala prima ascensio est ab humo Basal He that makes but one step up a staire though he be not got much nearer to the top of the house yet he is got from the ground and delivered from the foulnesse and dampnesse of that so in this first step of prayer Miscrere mei O Lord be mercifull unto me though a man be not established in heaven yet he is stept from the world and the miserable comforters thereof He that committeth sin is of the Devill Yea he is of him in a direct line 1 Iohn 3.8 and in the nearest degree he is the Off-spring the son of the Devill Iohn 8.44 Ex patre vestro estis sayes Christ You are of your father the Devill Now Qui se à maligni patris affinitate submoverit He that withdraws himself from such a Fathers house though he be not presently come to meanes to live of himself Basil Quam feliciter patre suo orbatus How blessed how happy an Orphan is he become How much better shall he finde it to be fatherlesse in respect of such a father then masterlesse in respect of such a Lord as he turnes towards in this first ejaculation and generall application of the soule Miserere mei Have mercy upon me O Lord so much mercy as to looke graciously towards me And therefore as it was by infinite degrees a greater work to make earth of nothing then to make the best creatures of earth So in the regeneration of a sinner when he is to be made up a new creature his first beginning his first application of himselfe to God is the hardest matter But though he come not presently to looke God fully in the face nor conceive not presently an assurance of an established reconciliation a fulnesse of pardon a cancelling of all former debts in an instant Though hee dare not come to touch God and lay hold of himselfe by receiving his Body and Blood in the Sacrament yet the Euangelist calls thee to a contemplation of much comfort to thy soule in certaine preparatory accesses and approaches Behold sayes he that is Look up and consider thy patterne Behold Mat. 9.20 a woman diseased came behinde Christ and touched the hem of his garment for she said in her self If I may but touch the hem of his garment onely I shall be whole She knew there was vertue to come out of his Body and she came as neare that as she durst she had a desire to speake but she went no farther but to speak to her selfe she said to her selfe sayes that Gospel if I may but touch c. But Christ Jesus supplied all performed all on his part abundantly Presently he turned about sayes the Text And this was not a transitory glance but a full sight and exhibiting of himselfe to the fruition of her eye that she might see him He saw her sayes S. Matthew Her he did not direct himselfe upon others and leave out her And then hee spake to her to overcome her bashfulnesse he called her Daughter to overcome her diffidence He bids her be of comfort for she had met a more powerfull Physitian then those upon whom she had spent her time and her estate one that could cure her one that would one that had already for so he sayes presently Thy faith hath made thee whole From how little a spark how great a fire From how little a beginning how great a proceeding She desired but the hem of his garment and had all him Beloved in him his power and his goodnesse ended not in her Mat. 14.36 All that were sick were brought that they might but touch the hem of his garment and as many as touched it were made whole It was farre from a perfect faith that made them whole To have a desire to touch his garment seemes not was not much Neither was that desire that was alwayes in themselves but in them that brought them But yet come thou so farre Come or be content to be brought to be brought by example to be brought by a statute to be brought by curiosity come any way to touch the hem of his garment yea the hem of his servant of Aarons garment and thou shalt participate of the sweet ointment which flowes from the head to the hem of the garment Come to the house of God his Church Joyne with the Congregation of the Saints Love the body and love the garments too that is The Order the Discipline the Decency the Unity of the Church Love even the hem of the garment that that almost touches the ground that is Such Ceremonies as had a good use in their first institution for raising devotion and are freed and purged from that superstition which as a rust was growne upon them though they may seeme to touch the earth that is to have been induced by earthly men and not immediate institutions from God yet love that hem of that garment those outward assistances of devotion in the Church Bring with thee a disposition to incorporate thy selfe with Gods people here and though thou beest not yet come to a particular consideration of thy sins and of the remedies Though that spirit that possesses thee that sin that governes thee lie still a while and sleepe under all the thunders which wee denounce from this place so that for a while thou beest not moved nor affected with all that is said yet Appropinquas nescis as S. Augustine said when he came onely out of curiosity to heare S. Ambrose preach at Milan Thou doest come nearer and nearer to God though thou discerne it not and at one time or other this blessed exorcisme this holy Charme this Ordinance of God the word of God in the mouth of his servant shall provoke and awaken that spirit of security in
of presumptuous sins and a Saviour in the vallies in the dejection of inordinate melancholy too A Saviour of the East of rising and growing men and a Saviour of the West of withering declining languishing fortunes too A Saviour in the state of nature by having infused the knowledge of himselfe into some men then before the light and help of the Law was afforded to the world A Saviour in the state of the Law by having made to some men then even Types Accomplishments and Prophesies Histories And as himself Cals things that are not as though they were So he made those men see things that were not as though they were for so Abraham saw his day and rejoyced A Saviour in the state of the Gospel and so as that he saves some there for the fundamentall Gospels sake that is for standing fast in the fundamentall Articles thereof though they may have been darkned with some ignorances or may have strayed into some errors in some Circumstantiall points A Saviour of all the world of all the conditions in the world of all times through the world of all places of the world such a Saviour is no man called but Christ Jesus only For when it is said that Pharaoh called Ioseph Salvatorem mundi A Saviour of the world besides Gen. 41.45 that if it were so that which is called all the world can be referred but to that part of the world which was then under Pharaoh as when it is said that Augustus taxed the world that is intended De orbe Romano so much of the world as was under the Romanes there is a manifest error in that Translation which cals Ioseph so for that name which was given to Ioseph there in that language in which it was given doth truly signifie Revelatorem Secretorum and no more a Revealer a Discoverer a Decypherer of secret and mysterious things according to the occasion upon which that name was then given which was the Decyphering the Interpreting of Pharaohs Dreame Be this then thus establisht that David for our example considers and referres all salvation Psal 98.2 to salvation in Christ As he does also where he sayes after Notum fecit salutare tuum The Lord hath made known his salvation Quid est salutare tuum saies S. Basil Luke 2. What is the Lords salvation And he makes a safe answer out Simeons mouth Mine eyes have seene thy salvation when he had seen Christ Iesus This then is he which is not only Satvator populi sui The Saviour of his people the Jews to whom he hath betrothed himselfe In Pacto salis A Covenant of salt an everlasting Covenant Nor onely Salvator corporis sui The Saviour of his own body as the Apostle calls him of that body which he hath gathered from the Gentiles in the Christian Church Nor only Salvator mundi A Saviour of the world so as that which he did and suffered was sufficient in it selfe and was accepted by the Father for the salvation of the world but as Tertullian for the most part reads the word he was Salutificator not only a Saviour because God made him an instrument of salvation as though he had no interest in our salvation till in his flesh he died for us but he is Salutificator so the Author of this salvation as that from all eternity he was at the making of the Decree as well as in the fulnesse of time he was at the executing thereof In the work of our salvation if we consider the merit Christ was sole and alone no Father no Holy Ghost trod the Wine-presse with him And if in the work of our salvation we consider the mercy there though Christ were not sole and alone for that mercy in the Decree was the joynt-act of the whole Trinity yet even in that Christ was equall to the Father and the Holy Ghost So he is Salutificator the very Author of this salvation as that when it came to the act he and not they died for us and when it was in Councell he as well as they and as soone as they decreed it for us As therefore the Church of God scarce presents any petition any prayer to God but it is subscribed by Christ the Name of Christ is for the most part the end and the seale of all our Collects all our prayers in the Liturgy though they be but for temporall things for Plenty or Peace or Faire-weather are shut up so Grant this O Lord for our Lord and Saviour Christ Iesus sake So David for our example drives all his petitions in this Text to this Conclusion Salvum me fac O Lord save me that is apply that salvation Christ Jesus to me Now beloved you may know that your selves have a part in those means which God uses to that purpose your selves are instruments though not causes of your own salvation Salvus factus es pro nihilo non de nihilo tamen Bernard Thou bringest nothing for thy salvation yet something to thy salvation nothing worth it but yet somthing with it Thy new Creation by which thou art a new creature that is thy Regeneration is wrought as the first Creation was wrought God made heaven and earth of nothing but hee produced the other creatures out of that matter which he had made Thou hadst nothing to doe in the first work of thy Regeneration Thou couldst not so much as wish it But in all the rest thou art a fellow-worker with God because before that there are seeds of former grace shed in thee And therefore when thou commest to this last Petition Salvum me fac O Lord save me remember still that thou hast something to doe as well as to say that so thou maist have a comfortable answer in thy soule to the whole prayer Returne O Lord Deliver my soule and Save me And so we have done with our first Part which was the Prayer it selfe and the second which is the Reasons of the Prayer we must reserve for a second exercise SERM. LIII Preached upon the Penitentiall Psalmes PSAL. 6.4 5. Returne O Lord Deliver my soule O Lord save me for thy mercie sake For in Death there is no Remembrance of thee and in the Grave who shall give thee thanks WEE come now to the Reasons of these Petitions in Davids Prayer For as every Prayer must bee made with faith I must beleeve that God will grant my Prayer if it conduce to his glory and my good to doe so that is the limit of my faith so I must have reason to ground a likelyhood and a faire probability that that particular which I pray for doth conduce to his glory and my good and that therefore God is likely to grant it Davids first Reason here is grounded on God himselfe Propter misericordiam Doe it for thy mercy sake and in his second Reason though David himselfe and all men with him seeme to have a part yet at last we shall see the Reason it selfe to
shall damne him but not a saving God a Iesus Beloved in the bowels of that Jesus not onely the riches and honours and pleasures of this world and the favour of Princes are as Iob speaks Onerosi consolatores Miserable comforters are they all all this world but even of God himselfe be it spoken with piety and reverence and far from misconstruction we may say Onerosa consolatio It is but a miserable comfort which we can have in God himselfe It is but a faint remembrance which we retaine of God himselfe It is but a lame confession which we make to God himselfe Si non Tui Si non Tibi If we remember not Thee If we confesse not Thee our onely Lord and Saviour Christ Iesus It is not halfe our worke to be godly men to confesse a God in generall we must be Christians too to confesse God so as God hath manifested himselfe to us I to whom God hath manifested himselfe in the Christian Church am as much an Atheist if I deny Christ as if I deny God And I deny Christ as much if I deny him in the truth of his Worship in my Religion as if I denyed him in his Person And therefore Si non Tui Si non Tibi If I doe not remember Thee If I doe not professe Thee in thy Truth I am falne into this Death and buried in this Grave which David deprecates in this Text For in death there is no remembrance of thee c. SERM. LIV. Preached to the KING at White-hall upon the occasion of the Fast April 5. 1628. PSAL. 6.6 7. I am weary with my groaning All the night make I my bed to swin I water my couch with my teares Mine eye is consumed because of griefe It waxeth old because of all mine-enemies THis is Davids humiliation and comming after his repentance and reconciliation Davids penance And yet here is no Fast It is true No Fast named David had had experience that as the wisest actions of Kings of Kings as Kings over Subjects so the devoutest actions of Kings of Kings as humble Subjects to the King of Kings the God of Heaven had been misinterpreted Of sighing and groaning and weeping and languishing as in this Text David speaks often very very often in the Psalmes and they let him sigh and groane and weepe and languish they neglect his Passion and are not affected with that but that is all they afflict him no farther But when he comes to fasting they deride him they reproach him Cares God whether you eat or fast But thrice in all the Psalmes does David speake of his fasting and in all three places it was mis-interpreted and reproachfully mis-interpreted I humbled my soule with fasting Psal 35.13 and my prayer returned into mine own bosome He did this as he sayes there for others that needed it and they would not thanke him for it but reproached him When I wept and chastned my soule with fasting Psal 69.10 Psal 109.24 that was to my reproach So also my bones are weake through fasting and I became a reproach unto them And therefore no wonder that David does not so often mention and publish his fasting as his other mortifications No wonder that in all his seaven penetentiall Psalmes which are the Churches Tropicks for mortification and humiliation there is no mention of his fasting But for his practise though he speak not so much of it in the Psalmes in his history where others not himselfe speake of him we know that when he mourned and prayed for his sick childe he fasted too And we doubt not 2 Sam. 2.15 but that when he was thus wearied I am weary with my groaning All the night make I my bed to swim I water my Couch with my teares Mine eye is consumed because of griefe It waxeth old because of all mine enemies he fasted too He fasted oftner then he tells us of it As S. Hierome sayes Iejunium non perfecta virtus sed caeterarum virtutum fundamentum Hieron If we must not call fasting as fasting is but a bodily abstinence a religious act an act of Gods worship yet it is a Basis and a foundation upon which other religious acts and acts of Gods worship are the better advanced It is so at all times but it is so especially when it is enjoyned by Soveraigne authority and upon manifest occasion as now to us Semper virtutis Cibus Iejunium fuit It is elegantly and usefully said At all times Leo. Religion feeds upon fasting and feasts upon fasting and grows the stronger for fasting But Quod pium est agere non indictum impium est negligere praedicatum Idem It is a godly thing to fast uncommanded but to neglect it being commanded is an ungodly an impious a refractary perversnesse sayes the same Father But then another carries it to a higher expression Desperationis genus est tunc manducare cum abstinere debeas Maximus de jejunio Ninevitarum Not to fast when the times require it and when Authority enjoynes it or not to beleeve that God will be affected and moved with that fasting and be the better enclined for it is desperationis genus a despairing of the State a despairing of the Church a despairing of the grace of God to both or of his mercy upon both And truly there cannot be a more disloyall affection then that desper are rem publicam to forespeak great Councels to be witch great actions to despaire of good ends in things well intended And in our distresses where can we hope but in God and how shall we have accesse to God but in humiliation We doubt not therefore but that this act of humiliation his fasting was spread over Davids other acts in this Text and that as a sinner in his private person and as a King in his publique and exemplar office he fasted also though he sayes not so when he said he was wearied I am weary with my groaning all the night make I my bed to swim I water my couch with my teares mine eye is consumed because of griefe It waxeth old because of all mine enemies But though this fasting and these other penall acts of humiliation be the body that carries and declares yet the soule that inanimates and quickens all is prayer and therefore this whole Psalme is a prayer And the prayer is partly Deprecatory In some things David desires that God would forbeare him as v. 1. Correct me not for if thou correct me others will trample upon me Rebuke me not for if thou rebuke me others will calumniate me And partly Postulatory that some things God would give him as Health and Deliverance and that which is all Salvation in the other verses Both parts of the prayer are as all prayer must be grounded upon reasons and the reasons are from divers rootes some from the consideration of himselfe and they argue his humiliation some from the contemplation of God and they testifie
thereof does not wholly extinguish Grace nor grieve the Spirit of God in us And such sinnes God covers saies David here Now what is his way of covering these sins As Sin in this notion is not so deepe a wound upon God as Transgression in the other Covering so Covering here extends not so far as Forgiving did there There forgiving was a taking away of sin by taking that way That Christ should beare all our sins it was a suffering a dying it was a penall part and a part of Gods justice executed upon his one and onely Son here it is a part of Gods mercy in spreading and applying the merits and satisfaction of Christ upon all them whom God by the Holy Ghost hath gathered in the profession of Christ and so called to the apprehending and embracing of this mantle this garment this covering the righteousnesse of Christ in the Christian Christ In which Church and by his visible Ordinances therein the Word and Sacraments God covers hides conceales even from the inquisition of his owne justice those smaller sins which his servants commit and does not turne them out of his service for those sins So the word the word is Casah which we translate Covering is used Prov. 12.23 A wise man concealeth knowledge that is Does not pretend to know so much as indeed he does So our mercifull God when he sees us under this mantle this covering Christ spread upon his Church conceales his knowledge of our sins and suffers them not to reflect upon our consciences in a consternation thereof So then as the Forgiving was Auferre ferendo a taking away of sin by taking all sin upon his owne person So this Covering is Tegere attingendo To cover sin by comming to it by applying himselfe to our sinfull consciences in the meanes instituted by him in his Church for they have in that language another word Sacac which signifies Tegere obumbrando To cover by overshadowing by refreshing This is Tegere obumbrando To cover by shadowing when I defend mine eye from the offence of the Sun by interposing my hand betweene the Sun and mine eye at this distance a far off But Tegere attingendo is when thus I lay my hand upon mine eye and cover it close by that touching In the knowledge that Christ hath taken all the sins of all the world upon himselfe that there is enough done for the salvation of all mankinde I have a shadowing a refreshing But because I can have no testimony that this generall redemption belongs to me who am still a sinner except there passe some act betweene God and me some seale some investiture some acquittance of my debts my sins therefore this second beame of Davids Blessednesse in this his Catechisme shines upon me in this That God hath not onely sowed and planted herbs and Simples in the world medicinall for all diseases of the world but God hath gathered and prepared those Simples and presented them so prepared to me for my recovery from my disease God hath not onely received a full satisfaction for all sinne in Christ but Christ in his Ordinances in his Church offers me an application of all that for my selfe and covers my sin from the eye of his Father not onely obumbrando as hee hath spread himselfe as a Cloud refreshing the whole World in the value of the satisfaction but Attingendo by comming to me by spreading himself upon me as the Prophet did upon the dead Child Mouth to mouth Hand to hand In the mouth of his Minister he speaks to me In the hand of the Minister he delivers himselfe to me and so by these visible acts and seales of my Reconciliation Tegit attingendo He covers me by touching me He touches my conscience with a sense and remorse of my sins in his Word and he touches my soule with a faith of having received him and all the benefit of his Death in the Sacrament And so he covers sin that is keepes our sins of infirmity and all such sins as do not in their nature quench the light of his grace from comming into his Fathers presence or calling for vengeance there Forgiving of transgressions is the generall satisfaction for all the world and restoring the world to a possibility of salvation in the Death of Christ Covering of sin is the benefit of discharging and easing the conscience by those blessed helps which God hath afforded to those whom he hath gathered in the bosome and quickned in the wombe of the Christian Church And this is the second beame of Blessedness cast out by David here and then the third is The not imputing of iniquity Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity In this also Impute as in the two former we did we consider this Imputing and then this Iniquity in the roote and Original signification of the two words When in this place the Lord is said not to impute sinne it is meant That the Lord shall not suffer me to impute sinne to my selfe The word is Cashab and Cashab imports such a thinking such a surmising as may be subject to error and mistaking To that purpose we finde the word where Hannah was praying 1 Sam. 1.12 and Eli the Priest who saw her lips move and heard no prayer come from her thought she had been drunke Imputed drunkennesse unto her and said How long wilt thou be drunke put away thy wine So that this Imputing is such an Imputing of ours as may be erronious that is an Imputing from our selves in a diffidence and jealousie and suspition of Gods goodnesse towards us To which purpose we consider also that this word which we translate here Iniquity Gnavah is oftentimes in the Scripture used for punishment as well as for sinne and so indifferently for both as that if we will compare Translation with Translation and Exposition with Exposition it will be hard for us to say Gen. 4.13 whether Cain said Mine iniquity is greater then can be pardoned or My punishment is greater then I can beare and our last Translation which seems to have been most carefull of the Originall takes it rather so My punishment in the Text and lays the other My sinne aside in the Margin So then this Imputing being an Imputing which arises from our selves and so may be accompanied with error and mistaking that we Impute that to our selves which God doth not impute And this mis-imputing of Gods anger to our selves arising out of his punishments and his corrections inflicted upon us That because we have crosses in the world we cannot beleeve that we stand well in the sight of God or that the forgiving of Transgressions or Covering of sinnes appertains unto us we justly conceive that this not Imputing of Iniquity is that Serenitas Conscientiae That brightnesse that clearnesse that peace and tranquillity that calme and serenity that acquiescence and security of the Conscience in which I am delivered from all scruples and
3.7 It is not onely Iob that complains That he was a burden to himselfe but even Absaloms haire was a burden to him till it was polled It is not onely Ieremy that complains Aggravavit compedes That God had made their fetters and their chains heavy to them but the workmen in harvest complaine That God had made a faire day heavy unto them Mat. 20.12 Pro. 27.3 We have borne the heat and the burden of the day Sand is heavy sayes Solomon And how many suffer so under a sand-hill of crosses daily hourely afflictions that are heavy by their number if not by their single waight And a stone is heavy sayes he in the same place And how many suffer so How many without any former preparatory crosse or comminatory or commonitory crosse even in the midst of prosperity and security fall under some one stone some grind-stone some mil-stone some one insupportable crosse that ruines them But then sayes Solomon there A fooles anger is heavier then both And how many children and servants and wives suffer under the anger and morosity and peevishnesse and jealousie of foolish Masters and Parents and Husbands though they must not say so David and Solomon have cryed out That all this world is vanity and levity And God knowes all is waight and burden and heavinesse and oppression And if there were not a waight of future glory to counterpoyse it we should all sinke into nothing I aske not Mary Magdalen whether lightnesse were not a burden for sin is certainly sensibly a burden But I aske Susanna whether even chast beauty were not a burden to her And I aske Ioseph whether personall comelinesse were not a burden to him I aske not Dives who perished in the next world the question but I aske them who are made examples of Solomons Rule Eccles 5.13 of that sore evill as he calls it Riches kept to the owners thereof for their hurt whether Riches be not a burden All our life is a continuall burden yet we must not groane A continuall squeasing yet we must not pant And as in the tendernesse of our childhood we suffer and yet are whipt if we cry so we are complained of if we complaine and made delinquents if we call the times ill And that which addes waight to waight and multiplies the sadnesse of this consideration is this That still the best men have had most laid upon them As soone as I heare God say that he hath found an upright man that feares God and eschews evill in the next lines I finde a Commission to Satan to bring in Sabeans and Chaldeans upon his cattell and servants and fire and tempest upon his children and loathsome diseases upon himselfe As soone as I heare God say That he hath found a man according to his own heart I see his sonnes ravish his daughters and then murder one another Mat. 3.17 and then rebell against the Father and put him into straites for his life As soone as I heare God testifie of Christ at his Baptisme This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased I finde that Sonne of his led up by the Spirit to be tempted of the Devill Matt. 4.1 Matt. 17.5 And after I heare God ratifie the same testimony againe at his Transfiguration This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased I finde that beloved Sonne of his deserted abandoned and given over to Scribes and Pharisees and Publicans and Herodians and Priests and Souldiers and people and Judges and witnesses and executioners and he that was called the beloved Sonne of God and made partaker of the glory of heaven in this world in his Transfiguration is made now the Sewer of all the corruption of all the sinnes of this world as no Sonne of God but a meere man as no man but a contemptible worme As though the greatest weaknesse in this world were man and the greatest fault in man were to be good man is more miserable then other creatures and good men more miserable then any other men But then there is Pondus Gloriae An exceeding waight of eternall glory Afflictio spiritualis and that turnes the scale for as it makes all worldly prosperity as dung so it makes all worldly adversity as feathers And so it had need for in the scale against it there are not onely put temporall afflictions but spirituall too And to these two kinds we may accommodate those words He that fals upon this stone upon temporall afflictions may be bruised Matt. 21.44 broken But he upon whom that stone falls spirituall afflictions is in danger to be ground to powder And then the great and yet ordinary danger is That these spirituall afflictions grow out of temporall Murmuring and diffidence in God and obduration out of worldly calamities And so against nature the fruit is greater and heavier then the Tree spirituall heavier then temporall afflictions They who write of Naturall story propose that Plant for the greatest wonder in nature Plin. l. 27.11 Lithospermus which being no firmer then a bull-rush or a reed produces and beares for the fruit thereof no other but an intire and very hard stone That temporall affliction should produce spirituall stoninesse and obduration is unnaturall yet ordinary Therefore doth God propose it as one of those greatest blessings which he multiplies upon his people I will take away your stony hearts and give you hearts of flesh And Ezek. 11.19 36.26 Plin. Plutar. Lord let mee have a fleshly heart in any sense rather then a stony heart Wee finde mention amongst the observers of rarities in Nature of hairy hearts hearts of men that have beene overgrowne with haire but of petrified hearts hearts of men growne into stone we read not for this petrefaction of the heart this stupefaction of a man is the last blow of Gods hand upon the heart of man in this world Revel 16. Those great afflictions which are powred out of the Vials of the seven Angels upon the world are still accompanied with that heavy effect that that affliction hardned them They were scorched with heats and plagues by the fourth Angel and it followes They blasphemed the name of God and repented not ver 9. to give him glory Darknesse was induced upon them by the fift Angel and it followes ver 11. They blasphemed the God of heaven and repented not of their deeds And from the seventh Angel there fell hailestones of the waight of talents ver 29. perchance foure pound waight upon men And yet these men had so much life left as to blaspheme God out of that respect which alone should have brought them to glorifie God Because the plague thereof was exceeding great And when a great plague brings them to blaspheme how great shall that second plague be that comes upon them for blaspheming Let me wither and weare out mine age in a discomfortable in an unwholesome in a penurious prison and
Father and see him made ours in him And then a third beame of this Consolation is That in this house of his Fathers Mansiones thus by him made ours there are Mansions In which word the Consolation is not placed I doe not say that there is not truth in it but the Consolation is not placed in this That some of these Mansions are below some above staires some better seated better lighted better vaulted better fretted better furnished then others but onely in this That they are Mansions which word in the Originall and Latin and our Language signifies a Remaining and denotes the perpetuity the everlastingnesse of that state A state but of one Day because no Night shall over-take or determine it but such a Day as is not of a thousand yeares which is the longest measure in the Scriptures but of a thousand millions of millions of generations August Qui nec praeceditur hesterno nec excluditur crastino A day that hath no pridie nor postridie yesterday doth not usher it in nor to morrow shall not drive it out Methusalem with all his hundreds of yeares was but a Mushrome of a nights growth to this day And all the foure Monarchies with all their thousands of yeares And all the powerfull Kings and all the beautifull Queenes of this world were but as a bed of flowers some gathered at six some at seaven some at eight All in one Morning in respect of this Day In all the two thousand yeares of Nature before the Law given by Moses And the two thousand yeares of Law before the Gospel given by Christ And the two thousand of Grace which are running now of which last houre we have heard three quarters strike more then fifteen hundred of this last two thousand spent In all this six thousand and in all those which God may be pleased to adde In domo patris In this House of his Fathers there was never heard quarter clock to strike never seen minute glasse to turne No time lesse then it selfe would serve to expresse this time which is intended in this word Mansions which is also exalted with another beame that they are Multa In my Fathers House there are many Mansions In this Circumstance Multa an Essentiall a Substantiall Circumstance we would consider the joy of our society and conversation in heaven since society and conversation is one great element and ingredient into the joy which we have in this world We shall have an association with Christ himselfe for where he is it is his promise that we also shall be We shall have an association with the Angels and such a one as we shall be such as they We shall have an association with the Saints and not onely so to be such as they but to be they Mat. 8.11 And with all who come from the East and from the West and from the North and from the South and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of heaven Where we shall be so far from being enemies to one another as that we shall not be strangers to one another And so far from envying one another as that all that every one hath shall be every others possession where all soules shall be so intirely knit together as if all were but one soule and God so intirely knit to every soule as if there were as many Gods as soules Be comforted then sayes Christ to them for This which is a House and not a Ship not subject to stormes by the way nor wrecks in the end My Fathers House not a strangers in whom I had no interest A House of Mansions a dwelling not a sojourning And of many Mansions not an Abridgement a Modell of a House not a Monastery of many Cells but an extension of many Houses into the City of the living God This house shall be yours though I depart from you Christ is nearer us when we behold him with the eyes of faith in Heaven then when we seeke him in a piece of bread or in a sacramentall box here Drive him not away from thee by wrangling and disputing how he is present with thee unnecessary doubts of his presence may induce fearfull assurances of his absence The best determination of the Reall presence is to be sure that thou be really present with him by an ascending faith Make sure thine own Reall presence and doubt not of his Thou art not the farther from him by his being gone thither before thee No nor though Peter be gone thither before thee neither which was the other point in which the Apostles needed consolation They were troubled that Christ would goe and none of them and troubled that Peter might goe and none but he What men soever God take into heaven before thee though thy Father that should give thee thy education though thy Pastor that should give thee thy instruction though these men may be such in the state and such in the Church as thou mayest thinke the Church and state cannot subsist without them Discourage not thy selfe neither admit a jealousie or suspition of the providence and good purpose of God for as God hath his panier full of Manna and of Quailes and can powre out to morrow though he have powred them out plentifully upon his friends before so God hath his Quiver full of arrows and can shoot as powerfully as heretofore upon his Enemies I forbid thee not S. Pauls wish Cupio dissolvi To desire to be dissolved therefore that thou mayest be with Christ I forbid thee not Davids sigh Hei mihi Woe is me that I must dwell so long with them that love not peace I onely enjoyne thee thy Saviours Veruntamen Yet not mine but thy will O Father be done That all thy wishes may have relation to his purposes and all thy prayers may be inanimated with that Lord manifest thy will unto me and conforme my will unto thine So shalt thou not be afrighted as though God aymed at thee when he shoots about the marke and thou seest a thousand fall at thy right hand and ten thousand at thy left Nor discouraged as though God had left out thee when thou seest him take others into garrison and leave thee in the field assume others to Triumph and leave thee in the Battell still For as Christ Jesus would have come down from heaven to have dyed for thee though there had been no soule to have been saved but thine So is he gone up to heaven to prepare a place for thee though all the soules in this world were to be saved as well as thine Trouble not thy selfe with dignity and priority and precedency in Heaven for Consolation and Devotion consist not in that and thou wilt be the lesse troubled with dignity and priority and precedency in this world for Rest and Quietnesse consist not in that SERM. LXXIV Preached at VVhite-hall the 30. Aprill 1620 PSAL. 144.15 Being the first Psalme for the day Blessed
without recourse to God without acknowledging God in that action he is for that particular an Atheist he is without God in that and if hee doe so in most of his actions he is for the most part an Atheist If he be an Atheist every where but in his Catechisme if onely then he confesse a God when hee is asked Doest thou beleeve that there is a God and never confesse him never consider him in his actions it shall do him no good to say at the last day that he was no speculative Atheist he never thought in his heart that there was no God if hee lived a practique Atherst proceeded in all his actions without any consideration of him But accustome thy selfe to find the presence of God in all thy gettings in all thy preferments in all thy studies and he will be abundantly sufficient to thee for all Quantumlibet sis avarus saith S. Augustine sufficit tibi Deus Be as covetous as thou wilt bee as ambitious as thou canst the more the better God is treasure God is honour enough for thee Avaritia terram quaerit saith the same Father adde Coelum wouldst thou have all this world wouldst thou have all the next world too Plus est qui fecit coelum terram He that made heaven and earth is more then all that and thou mayest have all him And this appropriates him so neare to us Noster as that hee is thereby Deus noster For it is not enough to finde Deum a God a great and incomprehensible power that sits in luce in light but in luce inaccessibili in light that we cannot comprehend A God that enjoyes his owne eternity his owne peace his owne blessedness but respects not us reflects not upon us communicates nothing to us But it is a God that is Deus noster Ours as we are his creatures ours as we are like him made to his image ours as he is like us in assuming our nature ours as he hath descended to us in his Incarnation and ours as we are ascended with him in his glorification So that wee doe not consider God as our God except we come to the consideration of God in Christ God and man It is not enough to find Deum a God in generall nor to find Deum meum a God so particularly my God as that he is a God of my making That I should seeke God by any other motions or know God by any other notions or worship God in any other fashions then the true Church of God doth for there he is Deus noster as hee is received in the unanime consent of the Catholique Church Sects are not bodies they are but rotten boughes gangrened limmes fragmentary chips blowne off by their owne spirit of turbulency fallen off by the waight of their owne pride or hewen off by the Excommunications and censures of the Church Sects are no bodies for there is Nihil nostrum nothing in common amongst them nothing that goes through them all all is singular all is meum and tuum my spirit and thy spirit my opinion and thy opinion my God and thy God no such apprehension no such worship of God as the whole Church hath evermore been acquainted withall and contented with It is true that every man must appropriate God so narrowly as to find him to be Deum suum his God that all the promises of the Prophets and all the performances of the Gospell all that Christ Jesus said and did and suffered belongs to him and his soule but yet God is Deus meus as he is Deus noster my God as he is our God as I am a part of that Church with which he hath promised to be till the end of the world and as I am an obedient sonne of that Mother who is the Spouse of Christ Jesus For as S. Augustine saith of that Petition Give us this day our daily bread Vnde dicimus Da nostrum How come we to ask that which is ours Quomodo nostrum quomodo da if we be put to ask it why doe wee call it ours and then answers himselfe Tuum confitendo non eris ingratus It is a thankfull part to confesse that thou hast some that thou hast received some blessings and then Ab illo petendo non eris vacuus It is a wise and a provident part to ask more of him whose store is inexhaustible So if I feele God as hee is Deus meus as his Spirit works in me and thankfully acknowledge that Non sum ingratus But if I derive this Pipe from the Cistern this Deus meus from Deus noster my knowledge and sense of God from that knowledge which is communicated by his Church in the preaching of his Word in the administration of his Sacraments in those other meanes which he hath instituted in his Church for the assistance and reparation of my soule that way Non er o vacuus I shall have a fuller satisfaction a more abundant refection then if I rely upon my private inspirations for there he is Deus noster Now as we are thus to acknowledge a God and thus to appropriate that God Dominus so we must be sure to confer this honour upon the right God upon him who is the Lord. Now this name of God which is translated the Lord here is not the name of God which presents him with relation to his Creatures for so it is a problematicall a disputable thing Whether God could be called the Lord before there were any Creatures Tertullian denies absolutely that he could be called Lord till then S. Augustin is more modest he sayes Non audeo dicere I dare not say that he was not but he does not affirme that he was Howsoever the name here is not the name of Relation but it is the name of his Essence of his Eternity that name which of late hath beene ordinarily called Iebovah So that we are not to trust in those Lords Whose breath is in their nostrils Esay 2. ult as the Prophet sayes For wherein are they to be esteemed sayes he we are lesse to trust in them whose breath was never in their nostrils such imaginary Saints as are so far from hearing us in Heaven as that they are not there and so far from being there as that they were never here so farre from being Saints as that they were never men but are either fabulous illusions or at least but symbolicall and allegoricall allusions Our Lord is the Lord of life and being who gave us not onely a well-being in this life for that other Lords can pretend to doe and doe indeed by preferments here nor a beginning of a temporary being in this life for that our Parents pretend and pretend truly to have done nor onely an enlarging of our being in this life for that the King can doe by a Pardon and the Physitians by a Cordiall but he hath given us an immortall being which neither our Parents began in
be diffusive that the object of our affections be the Publique To depart with nothing which we call our owne Nothing in our goods nothing in our opinions nothing in the present exercise of our liberty is not to be liberall To presse too farre the advancing of one part to the depressing of another especially where that other is the Head is not liberall dealing Therefore said Christ to Iames and Iohn Mat. 20.23 August Non est meum dare vobis It is not mine to give to set you on my right and on my left hand Non vobis quia singuli separatim ab aliis rogatis not to you because you consider but your selves and petition for your selves to the prejudice and exclusion of others Joh. 4.16 Chrysost Therefore Christ bad the Samaritan woman call her husband too when shee desired the water of life Ne sola gratiam acciperet saith S. Chrysostome That he might so doe good to her as that others might have good by it too For Adpatriam quâitur August Which way think you to goe home to the heavenly Jerusalem Per ipsum mare sed in ligno You must passe thorow Seas of difficulties and therefore by ship and in a ship you are not safe except other passengers in the same ship be safe too Cant. 1.4 The Spouse saith Trahe me post te Draw me after thee When it is but a Me in the singular but one part considered there is a violence a difficulty a drawing But presently after when there is an uniting in a plurall there is an alacrity a concurrence a willingnesse Curremus post te We We will runne after thee If we would joyne in publique considerations we should runne together This is true Liberality in Gods people to depart with some things of their owne though in goods though in opinions though in present use of liberty for the publique safety These Liberall things these Liberall men King Magistrate and People shall devise and by Liberall things they shall stand The King shall devise Liberall things Cogitabit Rex that is study and propose Directions and commit the execution thereof to persons studious of the glory of God and the publique good Magistratus And that is his Devising of Liberall things The Princes Magistrates Officers shall study to execute aright those gracious Directions received from their royall Master and not retard his holy alacrity in the wayes of Justice by any slacknesse of theirs nor by casting a dampe or blasting a good man or a good cause in the eyes or eares of the King And that is their Devising of Liberall things The people shall devest all personall respects and ill affections towards other men and all private respects of their owne and spend all their faculties of mind of body of fortune upon the Publique And that is their Devising of Liberall things And by these Liberall things Stabit Rex Magistratus these Liberall men shall stand The King shall stand stand in safety at home and stand in triumph abroad The Magistrate shall stand stand in a due reverence of his place from below and in safe possession of his place from above neither be contemned by his Inferiours nor suspiciously and guiltily inquired into by his Superiours Populus neither feare petitions against him nor commissions upon him And the People shall stand stand upon their right Basis that is an inward feeling and an outward declaration that they are safe onely in the Publique safety And they shall all stand in the Sunshine and serenity of a cleere conscience which serenity of conscience is one faire beame even of the glory of God and of the joy of heaven upon that soule that enjoyes it This is Esays Prophecie of the times of an Hezekias of a Iosias the blessing of this civill and morall Liberality in all these persons And it is time to passe to our other generall part from the civill to the spirituall and from applying these words to the good times of a good King to that which is evidently the principall purpose of the Holy Ghost That in the time of Christ Jesus and the reigne of his Gospel this and all other vertues should bee in a higher exaltation then any civill or morall respect can carry them to As an Hezekias 2 Part. Liberalitas a Iosias is a Type of Christ but yet but a Type of Christ so this civill Liberality which we have hitherto spoken of is a Type but yet but a Type of our spirituall Liberality For here we doe not onely change termes the temporall to spirituall and to call that which we called Liberality in the former part Charity in this part nor do we onely make the difference in the proportion measure that that which was a Benefit in the other part should be an Almes in this But we invest the whole consideration in a meere spirituall nature and so that Liberality which was in the former acceptation but a relieving but a refreshing but a repairing of defects and dilapidations in the body or fortune is now in this second part in this spirituall acceptation the raising of a dejected spirit the redintegration of a broken heart the resuscitation of a buried soule the re-consolidation of a scattered conscience not with the glues and cements of this world mirth and inusique and comedies and conversation and wine and women miserable comforters are they all nor with that Meteor that hangs betweene two worlds that is Philosophy and morall constancy which is somewhat above the carnall man but yet far below the man truly Christian and religious But this is the Liberality of which the Holy Ghost himselfe is content to be the Steward of the holy blessed and glorious Trinity and to be notified and qualified by that distinctive notion and specification The Comforter To finde a languishing wretch in a sordid corner not onely in a penurious fortune but in an oppressed conscience His eyes under a diverse suffocation sinothered with smoake and smothered with teares His eares estranged from all salutations and visits and all sounds but his owne sighes and the stormes and thunders and earthquakes of his owne despaire To enable this man to open his eyes and see that Christ Jesus stands before him and sayes Behold and see if ever there were any sorrow like my sorrow and my sorrow is overcome why is not thine To open this mans eares and make him heare that voyce that sayes I was dead and am alive and behold I live for evermore Amen Revel 1.18 and so mayest thou To bow downe those Heavens and bring them into his sad Chamber To set Christ Jesus before him to out-sigh him out-weepe him out-bleed him out-dye him To transferre all the fasts all the scornes all the scourges all the nailes all the speares of Christ Jesus upon him and so making him the Crucified man in the sight of the Father because all the actions and passions of the
thine eyes and then wipe all teares from thine eyes and he will doe both Tell him that he did as much for David as thou needest That he came later to the Thiefe upon the Crosse then thou putst him to And Davids Transtulit peccatum shall be transferred upon thee And that thiefs Hodie mecum eris shall waft and guard and convey thy soule thither Thinke not thy God a false God that bids me call thee and meanes not that thou heare nor an impotent God that would save thee but that there is a Decree in the way nor a cruell God that made thee to damne thee that he might laugh at thy destruction Thy King thy Christ is a liberall God His Officers his Ministers by his instructions declare plentifull redemption Be liberall to thy selfe in the apprehension and application thereof and by these liberall things we shall all stand The King himselfe stands by it Stabit Rex Christus Minister Christ himselfe It destroys the nature the office the merit of Christ himselfe to make his redemption so penurious so illiberall We his officers his Ministers stand by it It overthrowes the credit and evacuates the purpose of our employment and our Ministery if we must offer salvation to the whole Congregation and must not be beleeved that he that sends it means it The people every particular soule stands by it For if he cannot beleeve God to have been more liberall to him then he hath been to any other man he is in an ill case because he knowes more ill by himselfe then he can know by any other man Beleeve therefore liberall purposes in thy God Accept liberall propositions from his Ministers And apply them liberally and chearfully to thine own soule for The liberall man deviseth liberall things and by liberall things he shall stand SERM. LXXVI Preached to the Earle of Carlile and his Company at Sion MARK 16.16 He that beleeveth not shall be damned THe first words that are recorded in the Scriptures to have been spoken by our Saviour are those which he spoke to his father and mother then when they had lost him at Jerusalem Luk. 2.49 How is it that you sought me knew yee not that I must be about my Fathers businesse And the last words which are in this Euangelist recorded to have been spoken by him to his Apostles are then also when they were to lose him in Jerusalem when he was to depart out of their presence and set himselfe in the heavenly Jerusalem at the right hand of his Father of which last words of his this Text is a part In his first words those to his father and mother he doth not rebuke their care in seeking him nor their tendernesse in seeking him as they told him they did with heavy hearts But he lets them know that if not the band of nature nor the reverentiall respect due to parents then no respect in the world should hold him from a diligent proceeding in that worke which he came for the advancing the kingdome of God in the salvation of mankinde In his last words to his Apostles he doth not discomfort them by his absence Mat. 28.20 for he sayes I am with you alwayes even unto the end of the world But he incourageth them to a chearfull undertaking of their great worke the preaching of the Gospel to all Nations by many arguments many inducements of which one of the waightiest is That their preaching of the Gospel was not like to be uneffectuall because he had given them the sharpest spur and the strongest bridle upon mankinde Praemium poenam Authority to reward the obedient and authority to punish the rebellious and refractary man he put into their hands the double key of Heaven and of Hell power to convey to the beleever Salvation and upon him that beleeved not to inflict eternall condemnation He that beleeveth not shall be damned That then which man was to beleeve upon paine of damnation Divisio if he did not being this Commission which Christ gave to his Apostles we shall make it our first part of this Exercise to consider the Commission it selfe the subject of every mans necessary beliefe And our second part shall be The penalty the inevitable the irreparable the intolerable the inexpressible penalty everlasting condemnation He that beleeveth not shall be damned In the first of these parts we shall first consider some circumstantiall and then the substantiall parts of the Commission for though they be essentiall things yet because they are not of the body of the Commission we call them branches circumstantiall First An sit whether there be such a Commission or no secondly the Vbi where this Commission is and then the Vnde from whence this Commission proceeds And lastly the Quò how farre it extends and reaches And having passed thorow these wee must looke back for the substance of the Commission for in the Text He that beleeveth not is implied this particle this this word this Hee that beleeveth not this that is that which Christ hath said to his Apostles immediatly before the Text which is indeed the substance of the Commission consisting of three parts Ite praedicate goe and preach the Gospel Ite Baptizate goe and baptize them Itedocete goe and teach them to doe and to practise all that I have commanded And after all these which doe but make up the first part we shall descend to the second which is the penalty and as farre as the narrownesse of the time and the narrownesse of your patience and the narrownesse of my comprehension can reach wee shall shew you the horror the terror of that fearefull intermination Damnabitur He that beleeveth not shall be damned First then it is within this Credererit that is It is matter of faith to beleeve 1 Part. An sit that such a Commission there is that God hath established meanes of salvation and propagation of his Gospel here If then this be matter of faith where is the root of this faith from whence springs it Is there any such thing writ in the heart of man that God hath proceeded so Certainly as it is in Agendis in those things which we are bound to do which are all comprehended in the Decalogue in the Ten Commandements that there is nothing written there in those stone Tables which was not written before in the heart of man exemplifie it in that Commandement which seemes most removed from naturall reason which is the observing of the Sabbath yet even for that for a Sabbath man naturally finds this holy impression and religious instinct in his heart That there must bee an outward worship of that God that hath made and preserved him and that is the substance and morall part of that Commandement of the Sabbath And it is in Agendis that all things that all men are bound to doe all men have means to know And as it is in Sperandis in Petendis of those things which man
Element of Fire Indulgences some new Philosophers have made this an argument that it is improbable and impertinent to admit an Element that produceth no Creatures A matter more subtill then all the rest and yet work upon nothing in it A region more spacious then all the rest and yet have nothing in it to worke upon All the other three Elements Earth and Water and Ayre abound with inhabitants proper to each of them onely the Fire produces nothing Here is a fire that recompences that defect The fire of the Roman Purgatory hath produced Indulgences and Indulgences are multiplied to such a number as that no heards of Cattell upon earth can equall them when they meet by millions at a Jubile no shoales no spawne of fish at Sea can equall them when they are transported in whole Tuns to the West Indies where of late yeares their best Market hath beene No flocks no flights of birds in the Ayre can equall them when as they say of S. Francis at every prayer that he made a man might have seene the Ayre as full of soules flying out of Purgatory as sparkles from a Smiths Anvill beating a hot Iron The Apostle complains of them that made Mercaturam animarum Merchandise of mens soules but these men make Ludibrium animarum a Jest of mens soules For if that sad and serious consideration that this doctrine concernes that part of man which nothing but the incorruptible blood of the Sonne of God could redeeme the soul did not cast a devout and a religious bridle upon it it were impossible to speake of these Indulgences otherwise then merrily They do make merchandise of soules and yet they make a jest of them too These then these Indulgences are the children the generation of that Viper the Salamanders of that fire Pliny Purgatory And then Inter omnia venenata sayes Pliny Of all the venemous creatures in the world the Salamander is Maximi sceleris the most mischievous for whereas others singulos feriunt as the same Author sayes they sting but one at once the Salamander destroyes whole families whole Cities together for all that eat the fruit of any tree that hee hath touched perish We need not apply this Our fathers did and our neighbours doe feele the manifold mischiefes that these mercenary Indulgences work in the world and to what desperate and bloody actions men are induced and animated by them what knives these Indulgences have whet in Courts and what Armies they have payed in the open field A cheape discharge and easie Subsidy we have seene Copper coyned and we have read of leather coyned but here they coyne paper and in an Indulgence which require but as much paper as a Ballad they send a man more salvation then the whole Bible can give them Men that will not see light or not watch by the light will not see this Men that delight to wallow still in the mire can digest this Etiam Salamandra à suibus manditur sayes Pliny As venemous as a Salamander is a Sow will eat a Salamander As the citizens of the lowest fire of hell it selfe entred into the heard of swine so these children of this other fire of Purgatory these Indulgences enter into swinish men that consider not their owne foulnesse but think themselves cleane when they have eaten a Salamander that is bought an Indulgence But though they have had a spurious generation and yet have lasted longer then spurious generations use to doe for they have spread into three generations Prayer for the dead begot Purgatory and Purgatory Indulgences yet they have had a viperous generation too for they have eaten out the wombe of their owne Mother and these Salamanders these Indulgences retaine still the nature of Plinies Salamanders Non gignunt They beget no more they proceed no farther For in this enormous excesse of Indulgences the Roman Church tooke her deaths wound from this extreme abuse of Indulgences arose the occasion of the Reformation which God advanced and prospered so miraculously in the hands of Luther upon the indignation that the world took upon these Indulgences How they rose how they grew how they fell is a historicall knowledge and not much necessary to be insisted upon here though indeed our danger be greater from these Indulgences then either from prayer for the Dead or from Purgatory though all three be equally erronious in matter of doctrine yet for matter of fact and danger Indulgences are the most pernicious because that opinion of an immediate passing to Heaven thereupon animates men to any undertakings But as the Christians in abolishing the Idolatry of the Gentiles in some places some times left some of their Idols standing lest the Gentiles should come to deny that ever they had worshipped such monsters So it hath pleased the Holy Ghost to hover over the Authors and Writers in the Roman Church so as that they have left some impressions of the iniquity of these Indulgences in their bookes From them we are able to declare That Indulgencies in the Primitive Church were nothing but relaxations moderations of those severe penances which the Canons called Penitentiall inflicted upon particular sins which Canons were for the most part the Rule of the whole Church and which penances enjoyned by those Canons every Bishop in his owne Dioces might according to his holy discretion moderate according to the bodily infirmity or the spirituall amendment of the penitent sinner That in time the Bishops of Rome drew into their hands all this power of remitting penances reserving to themselves and shedding upon other Bishops as much and as little as they were pleased That after they had extended this overflowing power over this world they enlarged it farther to the next world too to Purgatory And this not long since Postquam aliquandiu ad Purgatorium trepidatum est coepere indulgentiae Roffens sayes a good Author of theirs of our Nation that Bishop of Rochester whose service they recompensed with a Cardinals Hat but somewhat late for his head was off before his hat came After the vapours of Purgatory had blinded mens eyes after men had beene made afraid of those fires for a good while sayes that Bishop then they began to set on foote their Indulgencies This beginning was not above three hundred yeares since and within one hundred they came to that height that though in their Schooles they make the paines of Purgatory to be so violent that they say no soule is likely to remaine there above ten yeares yet they give Indulgencies for infinite thousands of yeares They give one day Plenam and the next pleniorem and after plenissimam They forgive all to day and to morrow the rest and then they finde something beyond that which was beyond all So that as Seneca sayes of the excesse in Libraries in his time That they had Bibliothecas pro Supellectile No man thought his house well furnished if he had not a Library though he understood
119.136 Rivers of waters ran 161. E. 135.7 He causeth the vapours 264. B. 136.4 Facit mirabilia magna 215. C. 139.21 Doe not I hate them 99. C. 145.15 The eyes of all wait 684. D. 146.3 Put not your trust in Princes 483. A. PROVERBS 11.13 The fruit of the righteous 84. A. 12.23 A wise man concealeth 565. C. 13.22 The wealth of the sinner c. 83. C. 14.23 He shall have hope 83. D. 17.6 The glory of children 84. A. 25.16 Fill not thy selfe with honey 63. E. ECCLES 10.10 If the iron be blunt we must 356. C. 10.20 Those that have wings 92. D. 38.9 Myson in thy sicknesse c. 110. C. CANTICLES 1.8 O thou fairest among women 119. E. 2.15 Take us the little Foxes for they devoure the Vine 117. A. 782. B. 4.12 My Sister my Spouse is a garden en closed 515. C. 8.6 Set me as a seal on thy heart 456. D. ESAY 7.13 Is it a small thing to weary men 15. A. 9.6 A childe is given to us a Son is borne to us 86. C. 9.6 Counsellor The mighty God 6. B. 14.12 How art thou faln from heaven 187. B. 18.1 Wo to the land shadowing with wings 671. B. 27.7 Hath he smitten him as he smote those that smote him 505. D. 36.21 They held their peace and 410. B. 38.2 Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed 251. D. 40.15 As a drop upon the Bucket 64. D. 40.31 They that waite upon the Lord shall renew their strength 637. C. 53.10 It pleased the Lord to bruise him but 181. A. 55.8 My thoughts are not your 25. B. 58.11 Thou shalt be a spring of water 660. D. 60.1 Arise shine for thy light is come 188. E. JEREMIAH 1.10 Behold I have this day 734. B. 5.1 Run to and fro through the streets of 422. A. 18.2 Arise and goe downe 147. B. LAMENTATIONS 1.2 She weepeth continually in the night 540. A. 2.19 Poure out thy heart like water 591. D. 2.10 Women eat their children of a span long 146. D. 215. D. 4.8 My skin cleaves to my bones 519. B. EZECHIEL 9.4 Set a mark upon the foreheads 537. E. 16.29 Thou hast multiplied thy fornications c. 24. C. 44.2 This gate shall be shut c. 22. E. HOSEA 14.2 Take unto you words and turn 578. C. MICAH 2.13 The breaker is gone up before 181. B. HABAKKUK 2.4 The just shall live c. 79. C. 2.18 What good can an Idol or c 117. D. HAGGAI 2.9 The glory of the later house c. 30. D. ECCLUS 7.36 Remember the end and 371. B. 38.1 Honour a Physitian with 187. B. 38.15 He that sinneth before his 187. B. MATTHEVV 1.25 Till she brought forth her Son 22. E. 5.48 Be yee perfect as your Father in heaven is 823. A. 5.23 If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and 33. C. 7.19 He taught them as one 690. E. 9.2 My sonne be of good cheare 343. C. 10.39 He that finds his life 150. C. 16.24 He that will follow me let 732. C. 16.28 There be some standing here 259. A. 19.28 In the regeneration 181. A. 20.23 It is not mine to give 761. E. 21.44 He that falls upon this stone 665. B. 24.20 Pray that your flight be not in the Winter 580. B. 28.19 Goe and teach all Nations 47. B. MARKE 9.24 Lord I beleeve 669. C. LUKE 1.28 Blessed art thou amongst women 18. C. 4.23 Physitian heale thy selfe 420. B. 4.32 They were astonished at his 691. A. 7.29 The Pharisees and Lawyers rejected 366. D. 12.32 Feare not little flock for c. 45. C. 228. B. JOHN 1.3 4. All things were made by him 667. E. 1.16 Grace for grace 310. E. 1.9 He was that light c. 78. B. 345. C. 1.16 Of his fulnesse have all we received and grace for grace 4. C. 2.4 Woman what have I to doe with thee 23. D. 5.25 Verily verily I say unto you the houre 150. E. 5.17 My Father worketh 240. A. 5.39 Search the Scriptures 339. B. 8.11 Sin no more 110. A. 9.10 I am the doore 752. D. 10.3 His sheep heare his voice 66. D. 10.11 The good shepheard giveth his life for the sheepe 63. A. 19.29 They put it upon Hyssop 646. A. 20.16 Touch me not for 821. D. ACTS 1.22 There was a necessity of one 180. C. 17.11 The Bereans searched the c. 472. E. 20.22 I goe bound in the Spirit 473. C. ROMANS 6.21 What fruit had yee then 65. D. 8.15 Whereby we cry Abba Father 27. D. 8.21 The creature it selfe also shall be delivered from the bondage c. 9. D. 8.23 Our selves have the first fruits 293. B. 1 CORINTHIANS 1.20 God hath made the wisedome of this world foolishnesse 180. B. 6.3 We shall judge the Angels 235. A. 6.20 Yee are bought with a price 26. D. 10.13 No tentation shall befall us but 789. B. 15.8 As of one borne out of due 460. D. 15.3 Christ dyed for our sins 397. B. 15.28 God shall be all in all 231. B. 15.29 For the dead 56. D. 2 CORINTHIANS 7.1 Let us cleanse our selves 118. A. 12.7 A thorne in the flesh the messenger of Satan 526. E. 527. A. 12.9 My grace is sufficient for thee 527. D. EPHESIANS 1.10 That God might gather in one 9. D. 2.12 Without Christ without God 71. C. 3.19 That they are filled with all the 4. C. 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest 188. E. 11.6 Without faith it is impossible 105. A. PHILIPPIANS 4.8 If there be any vertue 681. A. COLOSSIANS 3.5 Mortifie your members 151. B. 1 THESSALONIANS 4.7 God hath not called us to c. 117. E. 5.25 I pray God your spirit 335. E. 1 TIM 2.1 I exhort you that supplications and prayers c. 510. D. TITUS 2.14 Christ gave himselfe for us 77. C. HEBREVVES 4.12 The Word of God pierces c. 335. D. 517. B. 4.12 A two edged sword 139. B. 11.35 Others were tortured c. 150. C. 13.22 I beseech you brethren suffer 610. D. JAMES 1.17 The Father of lights 385. B. 5.3 Your gold and your silver c. 81. B. 5.11 You have seene the end c. 399. A. 1 PETER 2.5 Built of lively stones 35. A. 2 PETER 1.19 We have also a more sure word of prophecie 59. E. 1 JOHN 3.2 Now we are the sonnes of God 120. C. 5.16 There is a sin unto death 348. E. REVELATION 3.14 Thus saith Amen 53. A. 12.4 The Dragons taile drew the 240. E. 12.7 Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon 146. E. 17.2 The great Whore sitteth upon 310. B. 22.11 He that is holy 594. D. ⧠The Table of such Authors as are either cited illustrated or refelled in this BOOKE A ABulensis 7. A. B. 50. A. 314. D. 763. C. Aerius 781. B. Alcazar 184. B. Alvarez 693. C. Alexander Alensis 379. D. 603. C. Alcoranum 379. C. 744. C. Ambrosius 18. A. 24. A. 38. A. 88. A. 105. D. 106. A. 110. E. 262. D.
be preferred before that of the Body 110. C. 755. A What a Blessing the Bodily Health is 754. A. B. Hearing the Word against the neglect of it 331. A. B Against Hearing only 455. C Heart no inward part of man ascribed unto God beside the Heart 64. B Heaven the joyes of it 73. C. D. 223. A. B. C 266. A The Glory 682. A The Dotes or Endowments of the Saints of Heaven 266. B. 189. A. B. c. 824. C Heresie of the severall Heresies against the person of Christ 316. D Of that of the Photinians and Nativitarians 344. C Heretiques of severall wayes of dealing with them 355. C. D. 356. B. C. D Of History and returning the memory of man to things that are past and gone 290. B The Holy Ghost not so easily apprehended by the light of Reason as the other persons of the Trinity 318. C. D In the Procession especially ibid. E. 327. A. B. C 335. B The manner how he works upon man 322. C. D Three branches of sins against the Holy Ghost in the Schoole 349. E Refusing of lawfull Authority is sin against the Holy Ghost in St. Bernards judgement 350. B The power of the Holy Ghost in blowing where he lists 364. B. C His operations in meere morall men 365. A St. Paul beleeved of many to be the H. Ghost 461. E Holy Ghost only Dogmaticall the best men but Problematicall 658. A Hope how imperfect a Christian mans Hope is 820. A How a hatefull and a damnable Monosyllable 301. D Honour and Reputation which so many stand upon what it is 410. A Honey what is meant by it in Scripture 712. C Hospitalite the commendation and benefit of it 414. D. E. 415. A. B Houses of Progresse and standing Houses for God Heaven and the Church 747. B Humane learning how necessary to the making of a good Divine 562. A Hypocrisie the good use and benefit that may be made by it 297. E. 636. B Against the wicked practise of it 585. D I OF those Idaeas which are in God 667. E Against Idlenesse and lazinesse and taking of no Calling 45. D. 411. B Jehovah the right pronouncing of that Name the meanes whereby Christ did Miracles according to the calumniating Jewes 502. C Not pronounced till of late ibid. D Jesuites their uncharitablenesse even to their owne Authors in defaming and disgracing of them though their betters 50. A The pride of their Denomination from Jesus 687. D How boldly they depart from the Fathers and their Authority 740. B. C. 796. C D Their pride in taking upon them the name of Fathers 798. A Jesus of the name of Jesus 503. C How S. Paul delights himselfe in that Name 503. D. 688. A Jewes not one of them in all the world a Souldier 5. D Their opinion of Christs comming 21. C Their impious custome of anointing such as die with the blood of a Christian Infant ibid. Ignorance the severall Divisions and subdivisions of it in the Schoole 287. B. How full the most knowing men are of it ibid. C. D A learned Ignorance what 295. E Of the severall Imperfections in our Faith in our Hope and in our Charity 819.820 A. B. C. D Imprecations in Scripture are often only Prophecies 401. C Not allowed us D. but in some cases 555. E Against Impossibility of Falling 240. B Incarnation the mystery of it 16. C. D. 395. E. 396. A. D E Inconsideration the miseries of it 246. D. E. 247. A. 296. E. 297. B. C. D In case of Zeale the more pardonable ib. B Indignation for sinne how great it ought to be 542. C Of that Individuality wherein man is to bee considered 710. D Of that Infallibility with which the Holy Ghost proposeth his Dictates in the scripture and how farre it is from that possibility probability and verisimilitude of the Church of Rome 657. C Jnfidels of their right unto the things of this world 214. D Indulgencies the vanity the Church of Rome was growne to in preaching and extolling of them 773. B. C The multiplicity of them 788. A The Reformation arose from them ibid. D Indulgencies what they were in the Primitive Church 788. E. Against Ingratitude for mercies and Diliverances past 88. B. 577. E Why so seldome condemned in the scripture 550. A Injuries of patience in suffering them 410. A. B Innovations the difference between Innovations and Renovations 735. A Inquisition of torturing men in the Romish Inquisition and the uncertainty of such kinde of Tryalls 194.195 C. D Intentions the best mens best intentions usually misconstrued 344. E Instinct the difference between the Reason of Man and the instinct of Beast what it is and wherein it consisteth 227. B. C Inward speculations inward zeale inward prayer are not full performances of a Christian mans duty 700. B Jordan the River Jordan why so called 718. E Ioyes of Heaven of their eternity 73. C. D 223. A. B. C. 266. A. 340. D. 747. E Heaven represented in Joy and Glory 672. A Joy of the wicked which they have in this world counterfeit 635. C Of the Joy of the godly which they have in this world 671. E. 672. c. 673. A. B Cheerefulnesse and Joy commended 816. B Judging of other men condemned 128. D. 479. A In doubtfull cases we are ever to encline towards Charity 164. E There may be sinne in a charitable Iudging of some holy mens Actions 488. D Judgement of the day of Judgement and the uncertainty thereof 271. D Gods Judgements have not exactly the name of Punishments 544. C How unwilling God is to speak of or to come to Judgement 676. C Justificare to Justifie taken three severall wayes 366. C Neither Works nor Faith the cause of our Justification 367. E K KIngs the best forme of Government by Kings 51. B Our duty and debt unto them 91. C The Releiving of them more necessary than giving of Almes 92. A What Humility and Reverence in Subjects is due unto them ibid. D And afforded in the very Scripture ibid. Not only their substantiall but their circumstantiall and ceremoniall wants to be prevented by the Subjects Giving 100. E Their Crowne of Thornes 137. B Kings a particular ordinance of God and nothing resulting out of the tacite consent of the people 391. C The King to institute and order matters in the publique service of God 698. A He is Keeper of both the Tables D Against those disloyall jealousies and suspicions which the people have of the King and of his affection to Religion 699. D In matters of favour the King is one of the people saith the Law 754. C. D Kisses of their treacherous carnall and sacred uses 405.406 A. B. C Used of Kinsfolkes 407. C As a Recognition of Power D In comming and going E In religious reverence E In signe of concord 408. A Kneeling the necessitie of it in the time of prayer 72. E. 73. A Of the Kneeling at the Sacrament 115. D. 116. A. B. Knowledge of
disease both in Church and State that Occasionall things have diverted the principall and hindered them from being done 797. C Often contemplation of death takes much from the feare of it 473. E Old against growing old in sinne 543. C Opinion in a middle station between ignorance and knowledge 354. C Foolish and fantasticall Opinions should not so much as be disputed against ibid. D Of gayning a good Opinion amongst men 481. E Oppression against Oppression and Extortion 94. A Originall sin how full we are of it 2. E It is a Naturall poyson in us and how it workes 313. D The Gentiles how purged of Originall sin in the judgement of some Romanists 314. D How Originall sin is voluntarie in us 363. A Ostracisme amongst the Athenians what 479. C P PAinting and adorning of themselves how used how abused of men and women 196. B. C. 541. C. 714. A The limits of it not so narrow as some conceive them 643. C Parents the honour due unto them 217. D Patience in suffering of injuries the power and benefit of it 410. B Peace the consideration and the benefit of it 145. E. 146. A. B The lovelinesse and amiablenesse of it considered 753. B. C Of Peace and plenty ibid. Penance different Penances upon different sinnes yet practised in our Church 402. B Publick Penances in the Primitive Church and why 545. D No satisfaction to Gods justice in them 544 B. C. D How to understand the Fathers enclining that way 545. E Perplexities of the severall kinds of them 606. C Persecution of the Primitive Church described 185. B. C Perfect there is nothing in the world perfect no not in spirituall things 817. D. 818. A Of Persevering and not trusting to our former goodnes 165. C. D. 303. A. B. 331. A. 547. D. E Petalisme amongst the Syracusians what it was 479. C S. Peters being at Rome how believed and how not 404. E. 733. E. 744. D S. Peter and S. Paul how magnified by S. Chrysostome 462. B. C Philosophers what knowledge many of them had of Christ 68. E Pilgrimages how they begun and grew on in the Church of Rome 252. B The abuses of them taxed by the Romanists themselves ibid. C And by sundry Fathers ibid. D Places Consecrated of their honour use 251. D Against being over-homely and over-fellowly with God and them 691. C Place and Precedency the fond contentions about it 730. E Especially amongst the severall Orders of Friars who all pretend to the most humble Names that can be 731. D Against the sinne of night-Pollutions 129. C. D Popularity the sinne and danger of it 482. C The vanitie of it 660. A Poverty and Riches which occasioneth most sinnes 658. D. 659. D What kind of Poverty is a blessing 728. D. E Power of that Power that is in us to discerne our owne Actions and assist our selves in our own Salvation 118. B. C. D Prayer for the dead no precept no example of it in the Law or Gospel 780. A First used of the Gentiles and of them taken up by the Jewes ibid. B. C Then of the Christians and how ibid. D. E Why the Fathers did not oppose the practise of it 780. D. E. 781. B Turtullian the first that tooke knowledge of it 781. A Aerius did oppose it but not harkened to and why 781. C How farre allowed by Epiphanius ibid. D. What the Fathers meant by Praying for the dead out of Dennis the Areopagite 735. E which is allowed by the Apologie for the Confession of Auspourg 786. B Prayer A set forme of Prayer used of the Gentiles 689. A The Office of Conditor precum what it was ib. Their Prayers received every five yeares ibid. A. 771. E Prayer how wee may Pray earnestly and yet wait the Lords leisure 34. D Of Prayer at home and at Church 35. C. c 90. B. 264. E. 370. B. 688. E Unseasonable Prayers not accepted of God 50. E. 521. B Prayers to be said kneeling 72. E Prayer and Preaching 89. E Against ex tempore Prayers 90. C. 130. C. 668. B. C. And Praying to severall Saints for severall things 90. D What Prayer is properly called Ours 130. A The condition of pure Prayer 131. A Not alwayes heard of God and why 133. B. C. 553. C. Against fashionall and customary Prayer 512. E Of the importunity impudency and violence of Prayer 522. B Against incogitancy in Prayer 555. B Against irreverence in Gods House in the time of Prayer 692. A Of the severall errours that are easily committed and doe all frustrate our Prayers 692. D The duties and dignities of Prayer 804. B Repeating the same Prayer often no idle thing 812 B Of those distractions which the best of us have in Prayer 820. B. C. Of the abuses of Prayer in the Church of Rome ibid. We are to descend to particulars in our Prayers 822. A Of that fervency and importunity which is required in our Prayers ibid. B. C Praise and thanksgiving all our Religion is nothing else 88. C The necessity and benefit of it ibid. D Of such Praise as is due to the good actions of men 167 A. B. C. c. Praise what it is 679. D That it may be fought of good men ibid. Praise to be directed upon three Objects 680. C We may Praise and yet not flatter D. E Of Praying and Praising 804. C. 805. B Preaching and Praying the benefit and use of either 689. B. C. D Preaching more frequent in the Primitive Times than now and good reason why 324. C Preaching often ex tempore and Preaching of other mens Sermons ordinary ibid. D Against the sodaine extemporall Preaching of this time 325. A Some points of Divinity not fit to bee Preached 561. D. E In what sense it is good for a man to Preach himselfe 574. B. C. D Against popular Preaching 660. B Of Abuses offered to Preaching 693. A The severall Names of Preaching 758. D No resemblance of Preaching amongst the Gentiles 771. E Preisthood the honour and dignitie of it 32. D 391 D. E That the particular way of ennobling men amongst the Jewes ibid. 32. E The Priest to be sent for before the Physitian 110. C In extraordinary cases above the King but not otherwise 396. B The Egyptian Kings killed themselves when the Priest bid them 485. C Of the Pretences and coverings and excuses which we find out for our sinnes 570. B Against Pride 65. A Pride the first sin of the Angels 622. C All Pride is not forbidden Man ibid. D What is not Pride 623. B. 727. D How early a sin Pride is 726. D Nothing so contrary to God as Pride is 727. E 728. A Against Prodigalitie 94. C Of that Progresse which a man is to make be he never so learned or religious 427. B. C. D. 616. D Promises the difference betweene the Promises of the Messias and the Performance of them by Christs comming in the Flesh 68. B. 406. E Prophet no visible calling
Silence which is good 576. B. C Silence which is bad 577. D Good to be Silent sometimes even in good things and when 576. E Simple-men of this world why chosen for Christs Apostles 719. C Singular Gods speakes of things of grace in the Singular but of heavie things in the plurall number ever 711. A Single instances no safe concluding from them 460. E Neither in the case of the Thiefe on the Crosse nor S. Paul 461. B Singularity not ground enough to condemne every opinion 234. C Against Singularity 51. D. 177. C. 573. D. 722. B Of a Single testimony 234. B Sinne the cause of all sicknesses 109. C Little light and customarie Sinnes how dangerous 117. B. 164. C. D. 585. E All Sin is from our selves not from any thing in God 118. A. 330. D The Sin of the Heart the greatest of all Sin and why 140. D How well some Men husband their Sin 147. A That it is good for men to fall into some Sinnes 171. B. C Sinne is a fall and how 186. D. 187. C Whether it have rationem demeriti and may properly offend God 342. C Sinne not meerly nothing 342. E Not so much of any thing as of Sinne 343. C How soone Sinne is followed of Repentance 540. C How Sinne rises by little and little in us 585. C Against sitting in the time of Divine Service 72. D Socinians their monstrous opinions 317. C And nicknaming of Athanasius Sathanasius 654. D Against the growth of that pestilent Heresie of Socinianisme 821. B Sorrow for the dead how lawfull 157. C. D. E. 822. D Of the end lesse Sorrow of the wicked 632. B No communication of their Sorrow 634. D The Soule of the miseries of it in the body 190. A Of the lazinesse of the Soule in the disquisition of any Divine Truths 190. B C Of her excellency of knowledge in the next world ibid. C. D Of bending the Soule up to her proper height and putting of her home 483. D Soule and Spirit what the Fathers understand by them in Scripture 517. C Subjects how to looke upon the faults and errors of their Governors 13. C How reverent to be towards their Princes 92. D Supererogation against Workes of Supererogation and of the fondnesse of them 390. C 494. E. 495. A. 547. C. 732. E Superstition better than Prophanesse and why 69. A The danger of it to be prevented but how 485. E Supplications how they differ from Petitions or Prayers 553. E Synedrion the Originall and power of the Synedrion or Sanhedrim amongst the Jewes 491. E Herod called before it but not when hee was King 492. A T TEares against their inordinatenesse 155. A Never ascribed to God 156. D Well employed for the dead though they be at rest 157. A Of those whose constitution will afford no Teares 160. D Foure considerations that will enforce Teares 160. E. 161. A Of Teares shed for worldly losses ib. C. D. 162. A For sinne 539. B Of the effect of Teares 162. B How God is said in Scripture to heare Teares that make no sound 552. E Teares the humidum-radicale of the Soule 577. E Temporall blessings how seldome prayed for in Antiquitie 750. D. E They are blessings but blessings of the left hand 751. D Nothing permanent in them 823. D Tentations all men not alike enabled against them 310. E Whether it be lawfull to pray against all kind of Tentations 527. C One of the Divels greatest Tentations it is to make us think our selves above Tentations or Tentation-proofe that they cannot hurt us 603. E The use and necessity of them 789. C Thanksgiving the duty of thanksgiving better than that of Prayer 549. D How small it is if proportioned to the love of God unto us 550. B Thoughts of the greatnesse of sinnes of thought 140. D. 543. D Titles and bare empty Names how men are puffed up with them 734. D Torturing whether or no to be admitted in case of Religion 194. D Tongue how many it hath damned 344. B Tradition against the making of Traditions articles of Faith 779. D Transubstantiation the riddles and contradictions of it 36. E What true Transubstantiation in the Sacrament may be admitted 693. C Tribulations the benefit of them 563. B 604. A. B Spirituall Tribulations and afflictions heavier than Temporall 665. B. D. E Tribulation and affliction part of our daily bread which wee ought to pray for and how 787. B Tribute God never wrought miracle in the matter of money but onely for Tribute to Caesar 91. E Trinitie the knowledge of it not by naturall reason attained 301. B Not one of a thousand knows what himselfe meanes when he speakes of the Trinity 307. E Some obumbrations of the Trinity even in nature 379 What are illustrations of it to us Christians are no Arguments unto the Jewes 417. B Foure severall trinities 417. E. 418. A It is the onely rule of our Faith the Trinitie 426. E To be believed first of all but not last of all to be understood 428. C. D The opinions of severall Hereticks concerning it 429. D The severall wayes of expressing it by figures and letters 429. E Troubles five severall sorts of Troubles 518. D The universality and inevitablenesse of them 664. B Truth not alwaies to be spoken 576. E Turning of Gods Turning to us and of our Turning to God 524. B. C. D. 525. A. B. 526. A. B V VAgabonds and incorrigible rogues against receiving or harbouring of them 415. B. C Vaine things in themselves may be brought to a religious use 226. E Vbiquetaries 67. E Confuted by the Angels Argument 248. C Of that Vicissitude which is in all temporall things 823. D Vigils why discontinued in the Primitive Church 813. A Virginitie The dignity and prayse of it 17. C. D Three Heresies impeaching the Virginity of the blessed Lady 17. D Against vowed Virginitie 30. D Virgin Mary The errour of Tertullian about her 18. A Of the Manichees and Anabaptists 23. D Against appeales to her in heaven 46. A Borne in Originall sinne 314. A Called of the Fathers Deipara but not Christipara and why 400. D Threatned at a siege of Constantinople to bee drowned if shee did not drowne the enemy 418. E The Church onely in the Virgin Mary according to the Schoole 603. C Against Vncharitable objecting of repented sinnes 499. D Vnitie the Devils way to breake it 138. D The Vnsatiablenesse of sinne 709 C Vprightnesse what Vprightnesse is required of man in this world 677 B. C What it is to bee Vpright in heart ibid. 678. A. B. C Against Vsury 753. E. 754. A. Vulgate Edition of the Antiquity and Authority of it 542. E Not to be preferred before the originall ibid. W VVArre the miseries and incommodities of it 146. C. D Waters those of Baptisme sinne tribulation and death 309. C. c What is meant by Waters in Scripture 598. D Waiting upon Gods time how it consists with fervent Prayer 34. D Wings the severall acceptations of the Word in Scripture 671. B Winning upon God by prayer how well God likes it 513. E Wisdome of sinnes against it especially ignorance and curiosity 411. B Witnesse the credit of the Testimony dependeth much upon his credit that is the Witnesse 238. B Women our Saviour came from such as were dangerously suspected and noted in Scripture for their incontinence 24. A Never any good Angell appeared in the likenesse of a Woman 242. D Whether Women were created after Gods Image a question in S. Ambrose his Commentaries upon the Epistles that hath called those Commentaries in doubt 242. E Of Womens able in State affaires and matters of Government ibid. Powerfull in matters of Religion both on the right hand and on the left 243. A Wonder the difference between the Philosophers and the Fathers about wondering 194. A Word of God the very Angels of heaven referre themselves unto it 249. E Stronger than any reason to a Christian 394. B 815. A The onely rule of Doctrine 738. E The World is a sea and in how many respects 735. C Workes wee no enemies to good workes as the Adversarie doth traduce us 82. A. c No Faith without them 136. A We are to continue in them 554. B Workes good when to a good end 82. E To be done of what 83. A How they may be seene of men 141. B Sometimes there is good use in concealing our Workes of mortification 538. E Of those imperfections which are in the best of our Good Works 820 D. E Wounds of love how God doth so wound us that we kisse that hand that strikes us 463. A Z ZEale to be reconciled to discretion 10. A How the devill makes it his Instrument 42. B Of the Zeale we ought to have to Gods service 72. D Zeale distempered what it will doe 237. A Zeale and uncharitablenesse are two incompatible things 480. E Of Daniels Zeale in praying against the expresse Proclamation of the King 814. A. B. C Zoroastes he only laughed when he was born 21. A FINIS Errata Pag. line reade 22 39 waives 22 40 waives 22 50 waives 110 52 when he 116 40 may come 142 31 the Cato's 164 39 Manours 196 15 in indignifying 420 32 man 426 45 blown 534 35 Topicks 710 46 exorcised 751 43 or any people 782 63 Interimists In the life Pag. 15 line 12 for merit reade mercy Pag. 16. line 40. for friends reade friend