sermon Idem hadst thou rather be beholden to a Physitian for thy salvation than to a Preacher thy business is to remember stay not for thy last sickness which may be a Lethargy in which thou mayest forget thine own name and his that gave thee the name of a Christian Christ Jesus himself thy business is to remember and thy time is now stay not till that Angel come which shall say and swear Apo. 10 6. that time shall be no more Remember then and remember now In Die in the day In Die Ps 20.10 The Lord will hear us In die qua invocaverimus in the day that we shall call upon him and in quacunque dei in what day soever we call Ps 137.4 and in quacunque die velociter exaudiet as soon as we call in any day Psa 101.1 But all this is Opus diei a work for the day for in the night in our last night those thoughts that fall upon us they are rather dreams then true remembrings we do rather dream that we repent then repent indeed upon our death-bed To him that travails by night a bush seems a tree and a tree seems a man and a man a spirit nothing hath the true shape to him to him that repents by night on his death-bed neither his own sins nor the mercies of God have their true proportion Fool saies Christ this night they will fetch away thy soul but he neither tels him who they be that shall fetch it nor whether they shall carry it he hath no light but lightnings a sodain flash of horror first and then he goes into fire without light Numquid Deus nobis ignem pacavit non sed Diabolo et Angelis Chrysosto did God ordain hell fire for us no but for the Devil and his Angels And yet we that are vessels so broken as that there is not a sheard left to fetch water at the pit that is no means in our selves Esa 30. to derive one drop of Christs blood upon us nor to wring out one tear of true repentance from us have plung'd our selves into this everlasting and this dark fire which was not prepared for us A wretched covetousness to be intruders upon the Devil a wretched ambition to be usurpers upon damnation God did not make the fire for us but much less did he make us for that fire that is make us to damn us But now the Judgment is given Ite maledicti go ye accursed but yet this is the way of Gods justice and his proceeding that his Judgments are not alwaies executed though they be given The Judgments and Sentences of Medes and Persians are irrevocable but the Judgments and Sentences of God if they be given if they be published they are not executed The Ninevites had perished if the sentence of their destruction had not been given and the sentence preserv'd them so even in this cloud of Ite maledicti go ye accursed we may see the day break and discern beams of saving light even in this Judgment of eternal darkness if the contemplation of his Judgment brings us to remember him in that day in the light and apprehension of his anger and correction In Diebus For this circumstance is enlarged it is not in die but in diebus not in one but in many dayes for God affords us many dayes many lights to see and remember him by This remembrance of God is our regeneration by which we are new creatures and therefore we may consider as many dayes in it as in the first creation The first day was the making of light and our first day is the knowledg of him who saies of himself ego sum lux mundi I am the light of the world Joh. 1. and of whom St. John testifies Erat lux vera he was the true light that lighteth every man into the world This is then our first day the true passion of Christ Jesus God made light first that the other creatures might be seen Ambro. Frustra essent si non viderentur It had been to no purpose to have made creatures if there had been no light to manifest them Our first day is the light and love of the Gospel for the noblest creatures of Princes that is the noblest actions of Princes war and peace and treaties frustra sunt they are good for nothing they are nothing if they be not shew'd and tried by this light by the love and preservation of the Gospel of Christ Jesus God made light first that his other works might appear and he made light first that himself for our example might do all his other works in the light that we also as we had that light shed upon us in our baptism so we might make all our future actions justifiable by that light and not Erubescere Evangelium not be ashamed of being too jealous in this profession of his truth Then God saw that the light was good the seeing implies a consideration that so a religion be not accepted blindly nor implicitly and the seeing it to be good implies an election of that religion which is simply good in it self and not good by reason of advantage or conveniency or other collateral and by-respects And when God had seen the light and seen that it was good then he severed light from darkness and he severed them non tanquam duo positiva not as as two essential and positive and equal things not so as that a brighter and a darker religion a good and a bad should both have a beeing together but tanquam positivum et primitivum light and darkness are primitive and positive and figure this rather that a true religion should be established and continue and darkness utterly removed and then and not till then till this was done light severed from darkness there was a day And since God hath given us this day the brightness of his Gospel that this light is first presented that is all great actions begun with this consideration of the Gospel since all other things are made by this light that is all have relation to the continuance of the Gospel since God hath given us such a head as is sharp-sighted in seeing the several lights wise in discerning the true light powerful in resisting forraign darkness since God hath given us this day qui non humiliabit animam suam in die hac Serm. 20. as Moses speaks of the dayes of Gods institution he that will not remember God now in this day is impious to him and unthankful to that great instrument of his by whom this day spring from an high hath visited us To make shorter dayes of the rest Levit. 23. for we must pass through all the six dayes in a few minuts God in the second day made the firmament to divide between the waters above and the waters below and this firmament in us is terminus cognoscibilium the limits of those things which God hath
God and live in his fear to be mercinarij per laborem to be the workmen of God and labour in his Vineyard to be filij per lavacrum to be the sons of God and preserve that Inheritance which was sealed to us at first in Baptism and last of all Amici per virtutem by the good use of his gifts the King of Kings shall be our friend That which he said to his Apostles his Spirit shall say to our spirit here and seal it to us for a Covenant of Salt an everlasting John 15.14 an irrevocable Covenant Henceforth call I you not servants but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father have I made known unto you And the fruition of this friendship which neither slackens in all our life nor ends at our death the Lord of Life for the death of his most innocent Son afford to us all Amen A Serm. 25. SERMON Preached at the SPITTLE Vpon Easter-Munday 1662. SERMON XXV 2 Cor. 4.6 For God who commanded light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ THe first Book of the Bible begins with the beginning In principio says Moses in Genesis In the beginning God created heaven and earth and can there be any thing prius principio before the beginning Before this beginning there is The last Book of the Bible in the order as they were written the Gospel of St. John begins with the same word too In principio says St. John In the beginning was the Word and here Novissimum primum the last beginning is the first St. John's beginning before Moses Moses speaking but of the Creature and St. John of the Creator and of the Creator before he took that name before he came to the act of Creation as the Word was with God and was God from all Eternity Our present Text is an Epitome of both those beginnings of the first beginning the Creation when God commanded light to shine out of darkness and of the other beginning which is indeed the first of Him in whose face we shall have the knowledge of the glory of God Christ Jesus The first Book of the Bible is a Revelation and so is the last in the order as they stand a Revelation too To declare a production of all things out of nothing which is Moses his work that when I do not know and care not whether I know or no what so contemptible a Creature as an Ant is made of but yet would fain know what so vast and so considerable a thing as an Elephant is made of I care not for a mustard seed but I would fain know what a Cedar is made of I can leave out the consideration of the whole Earth but would be glad to know what the Heavens and the glorious bodies in the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars are made of I shall have but one answer from Moses for all that all my Elephants and Cedars and the Heavens that I consider were made of nothing that a Cloud is as nobly born as the Sun in the Heavens and a begger as nobly as the King upon Earth if we consider the great Grand-father of them all to be nothing to produce light of darkness thus is a Revelation a Manifestation of that which till then was not this Moses does St. John's is a Revelation too a Manifestation of that state which shall be and be for ever after all those which were produced of nothing shall be return'd and ressolv'd to nothing again the glorious state of the everlasting Jerusalem the Kingdom of Heaven Now this Text is a Revelation of both these Revelations the first state that which Moses reveals was too dark for man to see for it was nothing The other that which St. John reveals is too bright too dazling for man to look upon for it is no one limited determined Object but all at once glory and the seat and fountain of all glory the face of Christ Jesus The Holy Ghost hath shewed us both these severally in Moses and in St. John and both together in St. Paul in this Text where as the Sun stands in the midst of the Heavens and shews us both the Creatures that are below it upon Earth and the Creatures that are above it the Stars in Heaven so St. Paul as he is made an Apostle of the Gentiles stands in the midst of this Text God hath shin'd in our hearts Ours as we are Apostolical Ministers of the Gospel and he shows us the greatness of God in the Creation which was before when God commanded light out of darkness and the goodness of God which shall be hereafter when he shall give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus So that this Text giving light by which we see light commanded by God out of darkness and the Object which we are to see the knowledge of the glory of God and this Object being brought within a convenient distance to be seen in the face of Jesus Christ And a fit and well-disposed Medium being illumin'd through which we may see it God having shin'd in our hearts established a Ministry of the Gospel for that purpose if you bring but eyes to that which this Text brings Light and Object and Distance and Means then as St. Basil said of the Book of Psalms upon an impossible supposition If all the other Books of Scripture could perish there were enough in that one for the catechising of all that did believe and for the convincing of all that did not so if all the other Writings of St. Paul could perish this Text were enough to carry us through the body of Divinity from the Cradle of the world in the Creation when God commanded light out of darkness to the Grave and beyond the Grave of the world to the last Dissolution and beyond it when we shall have fully the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus Now whilst I am to speak of all this this which is Omne scibile all and more then can fall within the comprehension of a natural man for it is the beginning of this world and it is the way to the next and it is the next world it self I comfort my self at my first setting out with that of St. Gregory Purgatas aures hominum gratiam nancisci nonne Dei donum est I take it for one of Gods great blessings to me if he have given me now an Auditory Purgatae auris of such spiritual and circumcised Ears as come not to hear that Wisdom of Words which may make the Cross of Christ of none effect much less such itching Ears as come to hear popular and seditious Calumnies and Scandals and Reproaches cast upon the present State and Government For a man may make a Sermon a Satyr he
Declaration of an inward purpose by execution of that purpose that his Dixit his saying R. Moses It is sufficiently expressed by Rab Moses In Creatione Dicta sunt voluntates In the act of Creation the Will of GOD was the Word of God his Will that it should be was his saying Let it be Of which it is a convenient example which is in the Prophet Jonah 2.10 The Lord spake unto the Fish and it vomited Jonah upon the dry Land that is God would have the Fish to do it and it did it God spake then in the Creation but he spake Ineffabiliter says St. Aug. August without uttering any sound He spake but he spake Intemporaliter says that Father too without spending any time in distinction of syllables But yet when he spoke Aliquis ad fuit as Athanasius presses it Athan. surely there was some body with him there was says he VVho Verbum ejus ad fuit ad fuit Spiritus ejus says he truly the second Person in the Trinity his Eternal VVord and the third Person the Holy Ghost were both there at the Creation and to them he spoke For By the Word of the Lord were the heavens framed and all the host of them Spiritu oris ejus Job 33.4 by that Spirit that proceeded from him says David The Spirit of God hath made me 26. 13. and By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens So that in one word thou who wast nothing hast employed and set on work the heart and hand of all the three Perâ—ons in the blessed and glorious Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost to the making of thee and then what oughtest thou to be and to do in retribution and not to make thee that which thou art now a Christian but even to make thee that wherein 〈◊〉 wast equal to a worm to a grain of dust Hast thou put the whole Trinity to busie themselves upon thee and therefore what shouldst thou be towards them But here in this branch we consider not so much not his noblest Creature Man but his first Creature Light He commanded and he commanded Light And of Light we say no more in this place but this that in all the Scriptures in which the word Light is very often metaphorically applyed it is never applyed in an ill sence Christ is called a Lyon but there is an ill Lyon too that seeks whom he may devour Christ is the serpent that was exalted but there is an ill serpent that did devour us all at once But Christ is the light of the world and no ill thing is call'd light Light was Gods signature by which he set his hand to the Creation and therefore as Princes signe above the Letter and not below God made light first in that first Creature he declared his presence his Majesty the more in that he commanded light out of darkness There was Lumen de Lumine before light of light very God of very God an eternal Son of an eternal Father before But light out of darkness is Musick out of silence It was one distinct plague of Egypt darkness above and one distinct blessing that the children of Israel had light in their dwellings But for some spiritual Applications of light and darkness we shall have room again when after we shall have spoken of our second part our Vocation as God hath shin'd in our hearts positively we shall come to speak of that shining comparatively That God hath so shin'd in our hearts as he commanded light out of darkness And to those two Branches of our second part the positive and comparative Consideration of that shining we are in order come now In the first part we were made in this second we are mended Part II. in the first we were brought into this world in this second we are led through it in the first we are Creatures in this we are Christians God hath shin'd in our hearts In this part Divisio we shall have two Branches a positive and a comparative consideration of the words First the matter it self what this shining is and it is the conversion of Man to God by the ministry of the Gospel and secondly how this manner of expressing it answers the comparison As God commanded light out of darkness so he hath shin'd in our hearts And in the first the positive we shall pass by these few and short steps first Gods action Illuxit he shine it is evidence Manifestation And then the time when this day breaks when this Sun rises Illuxit he hath shin'd he hath done enough already Thirdly the place the sphere in which he shines the Orb which he hath illumin'd in Cordibus if he shine he shines in the heart And lastly the persons upon whom he casts his beams in Cordibus nostris in our hearts And having past these four in the positive part we shall descend to the comparative as God commanded light out of darkness so he hath shin'd in our hearts 1. Lucet First then for Gods action his working in the Christian Church which is our Vocation we consider man to be all to be all Creatures Mar. 16.15 according to that expression of our Saviour's Go preach the Gospel to every Creature and agreeable to that largeness in which he receiv'd it Colos 1.23 the Apostle delivers it The Gospel is preached to every Creature under heaven The properties the qualities of every Creature are in man the Essence the Existence of every Creature is for man so man is every Creature And therefore the Philosopher draws man into too narrow a table when he says he is Microcosmos an Abridgement of the world in little Nazianzen gives him but his due when he calls him Mundum Magnum a world to which all the rest of the world is but subordinate For all the world besides is but Gods Foot-stool Man sits down upon his right hand and howsoever God be in all the world yet how did God dwell in man in the assumption of that nature and what care did GOD take of that dwelling that when that house was demolished would yet dwell in the ruines thereof for the Godhead did not depart from the dead body of Christ Jesus in the Grave And then how much more gloriously then before did he re-edifie that house in raising it again to Glory Man therefore is Cura Divini ingenii Tertul. a creature upon whom not onely the greatness and the goodness but even the study and diligence of God is employed And being thus a greater world then the other he must be greater in all his parts and so in his lights and so he is for instead of this light which the world had at first Man hath a nobler light an immortal a discerning soul the light of reason Instead of the many stars which this world hath man hath had the light of the Law and the succession of the Prophets And instead of that Sun which
of darkness so he hath shin'd in our hearts First He made light There was none before so first He shines in our hearts by his preventing Grace there was no light before not of Nature by which any man could see any means of salvation not of foreseen Merits that God should light his light at our Candle give us Grace therefore because he saw that we would use that Grace well He made light he infus'd Grace And then He made light first of all Creatures Ut innotescerent says St. Ambr. that by that light all his other Creatures might be seen which is also the use of this other light that shines in our hearts that by that light the love of the Truth and the glory of Christ Jesus all our actions may be manifested to the world and abide that tryal that we look for no other approbation of them then as they are justifiable by that light as they conduce to the maintenance of his Religion and the advancement of his glory not to consider actions as they are wisely done valiantly done learnedly done but onely as they are religiously done and ut abdicemus occulta dedecoris v. 2. as the Apostle speaks That we may renounce the hidden things of dishonesty and not walk in craftiness that is not sin therefore because we see our sins may be hid from the world For says St. Ambrose speaking of Gyges Ring a Ring by which he that wore it became invisible Da sapienti says that Father Give a wise man a man religiously wise that Ring and though he might sin invisibly before men he would not because God sees Nay Seneca even the moral man goes further then that in that point Though I knew says he hominem ignoraturum Deum ignosciturum that man should never know it and that God would forgive it I would not sin for the very soulness that is naturally in sin As God commanded light for the Manifestation of his creatures so he hath shin'd in our hearts that our actions might appear by that light How then made he that light Dixit he said it by his Word In which we note first the means Verbo he did it by his Word and by his Word the preaching of his Word doth he shine in our hearts And we consider also the dispatch how soon he made light Chrysost with a word Dixit id est summa cum celeritate fecit his work cost him but a word Tertul. and then Cogitasse jussisse est his word cost him but a thought So if we consider the dispatch of Christ Jesus in all his Miracles there went but a Tolle Take up thy bed and walk to the lame man but an Ephptata Be opened to the deaf man but a Quid vides What seest thou to the blind man If we consider his dispatch upon the thief on the cross how soon he brought him from reviling to glorifying and if any in this Auditory feel that dispatch of the Holy Ghost in his heart that whereas he came hither but to see he hath heard or if he came to hear the man he hath heard God in the man and is better at this Glass then he was at the first better now then when he came and will go away better then he is yet he that feels this must confess that as God commanded light out of darkness so he hath shin'd in his heart So that is by the same means by his Word and so that is with the same speed and dispatch Again Deus vidit lucem God saw the light he looked upon it he considered it This second light even Religion it self must be looked upon considered not taken implicitely nor occasionally not advantageously but seriously and deliberately and then assuredly and constantly And then vidit quod bona God saw that this light was good God did not see nor say that darkness was good that ignorance how near of kin soever they make it to Devotion was good nor that the waters were good that a flui'd a moving a variable an uncertain irresolution in matter of Religion is good nor that that Abyssus that depth which was before light was good that it is good to surround and enwrap our selves in deep and perplexing School-points but he saw that light evident and fundamental Articles of Religion were good good to clear thee in all scruples good to sustain thee in all tentations God knew that this light would be good before he made it but he did not say so till he saw it God knew every good work that thou shouldest doe every good thought that thou shouldest think to thy end before thy beginning for he of his own goodness imprinted this degree of goodness in thee but yet assure thy self that he loves thee in another manner and another measure then when thou comest really to doe those good works then before or when thou didst only conceive a purpose of doing them he calls them good when he sees them And when he saw this light this good light he separated all darkness from it When thou hast found this light to have shin'd in thy heart God manifested in his way his true Religion separate all darkness the dark inventions and traditions of men and the works of darkness sin and since thou hast light be night not thy self again with relapsing to either The comparison of these two lights created and infus'd light would run in infinitum I shut it up with this that as at the first production of light till light was made there was a general an universal darkness darkness over all but after light was once made there was never any universal darkness because there is no body bigg enough to shadow the whole Sun from the Earth so till this light shine in our hearts we are wholly darkness but when it hath truly and effectually shin'd in us and manifested to us the evidence of our Election in Gods eternal Decree howsoever there may be some Clouds some Eclipses yet there is no total darkness no total no final falling away of Gods Saints And in all these respects the comparison holds As God commanded light out of darkness so he hath shin'd in our hearts and so we have done with all the branches of our second part which implies our Vocation here and we pass to the last Our Glorification hereafter As in our first part we consider'd by occasion of the first Creature light the whole Creation and so the Creation of man Part III. and in our second part by occasion of this shining in our hearts the whole work of our Vocation and proceeding in this world so in this third part by occasion of this glorious manifestation of God in the face of Christ Jesus which is intended principally by this Apostle of the manifestation of God in the Christian Church we shall also as far as that dazling glory will give us leave consider the perfect state of glory in the Kingdom of Heaven So
observed in their Publication whereby those that are called to the service of private Churches and have not the convenience of Publick Libraries might have made more use of them for I have seen many great Edifices many noble Palaces erected without one stone taken out of the Quarry but so neer an Age where Holy Confusion is prescribed to the Preacher a little disorder I hope Gentle Reader may be pardoned in the Publisher JO. DONNE Postscript BY the Dates of these Sermons the Reader may easily collect that although they are the last that are published they were the first that were Preached and I did purposely select these from amongst all the rest for being to finish this Monument which I was to erect to his Memory I ought to reserve those materials that were set forth with the best Polish The Impression consists onely of Five hundred which will somewhat advance the Price but the buyer being at liberty he can receive no prejudice Upon the sending the First Volume of these SERMONS to the Right Reverend Father in God the Bishop of Peterborough then my Diocesan I received this Letter SIR YOu have sent me a Treasure and I would not share time to tell you so till I had somewhat satisfied the thirst I had to drink down many of those Excellent Sermons which I have so long desired And by this I have the advantage that I can know what I thank you for though I could presumptuously value them by the rest of his which I have heard and read formerly for I think I have all those that in the Press did foreran these yet by this time I can sensibly acknowledge to you how great cause so many of us have to thank you How well may your Parishioners pardon your silence to them for a while since by it you have Preached to them and their Childrens children and to all our English Parishes for ever For certainly many ages hence when they shall be made good or confirmed in goedness by studying your Father they shall account these times Primitive in which he Preached and you will then if not now be in danger to lose your propriety in him he will be called a Father of the Church Sir Though this Book with his former Printed Sermons be a great Stock to the Church from one man yet if you shall please to perform the trust of a good Executor there is I presume a great remainder of his Legacy which when you have taken breath we must call you to account for in a Court of Equity though you may think this will abundantly satisfie yet believe it Sir it will but increase our appetite We shall give you time Sir but no general release yet his God and yours assist you to whose blessing I commend you and am Sir Your very Friend in Christ Jesus Jo. Peterborough Peterborough July 20. 1640. THE CONTENTS SERMON I. A Lent Sermon Preached at White-hall February 20. 1617. Luc. 23.40 Fearest thou not God being under the same condemnation Page 1 SERMON II. A Lent Sermon Preached at White-hall February 12. 1618. Ezek. 33.32 And lo thou art unto them as a very lovely Song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an Instrument for they hear thy words but they do them not p. 15 SERMON III. A Lent Sermon Preached at White-hall February 20. 1628. James 2.12 So speakye and so Do as they that shall be judged by the law of Liberty p. 28 SERMON IV. A Lent Sermon Preached before the King at White-hall February 16. 1620. 1 Tim. 3.16 And without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into Glory p. 45 SERMON V. A Lent Sermon Preached to the King at White-hall February 12. 1629. Mat. 6.21 For where your Treasure is there will your heart be also p. 61 SERMON VI. A Sermon Preached at White-hall April 21. 1616. Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evil p. 75 SERMON VII A Sermon Preached at White-hall Novemb 2. 1617. Psal 55.19 Because they have no changes therefore they fear not God p. 89 SERMON VIII A Sermon Preached to the Houshold at White-hall April 30. 1626. Mat. 9.13 I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance p. 101 SERMON X. A Sermon Preached at White-hall April 2. 1620. Eccles 5. There is an evil sickness that I have seen under the Sun Riches reserved to the owners thereof for their evil And these riches perish by evil travail and he begetteth a Son and in his hand is nothing Ver. 12. 13. in Edit 1. In alia 13. 14. p. 129 SERMON XI A Sermon Preached at Greenwich April 30. 1615. Esa 52.3 Ye have sold your selves for nought and ye shall be redeemed without money p. 153 SERMON XII A Sermon Preached at White-hall April 12. 1618. Gen. 32.10 I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant for with my staffe I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands p. 169 SERMON XIII A Sermon Preached at White-hall April 19. 1618. 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation That Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners of which I am the chiefest p. 177 SERMON XIV A Second Sermon Preached at White-hall April 2. 1621. 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation That Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners of which I am the chiefest p. 190 SERMON XV. A Sermon Preached at White-hall February 29. 1627. Acts 7.60 And when he had said this he fell asleep p. 205 SERMON XVI A Sermon Preached at White-hall February 22. 1629. Mat. 6.21 For where your Treasure is there will your heart be also p. 220 SERMON XVII James 2.12 So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty p. 241 SERMON XVIII A Sermon Preached to Queen Anne at Denmark-house Decemb. 14. 1617. Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me and they that seek me early shall finde me p. 257 SERMON XIX A Sermon of Valediction at my going into Germany at Lincolns-Inne April 18. 1619. Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth p. 269 SERMON XX. Two Sermons to the Prince and Princess Palatine the Lady Elizabeth at Heydelberg when I was commanded by the King to wait upon my L. of Doncaster in his Embassage to Germany First Sermon as we went out June 16. 1619. Rom. 13.11 For now is our Salvation nearer then when we believed p. 281 SERMON XXI A Sermon Preached at St. Dunstans January 15. 1625. The first Sermon after our dispersion by the Sickness Exod. 12.30 For there was not a house
acceptable musick to them that hear them They shall be so first In re in their matter in the doctrine which they preach In Re. The same trumpets that sound the alarm that is that awakens us from our security and that sounds the Battail that is that puts us into a colluctation with our selves with this world with powers and principalities yea into a wrastling with God himself and his Justice the same trumpet sounds the Parle too calls us to hearken to God in his word and to speak to God in our prayers and so to come to treaties and capitulations for peace and the same trumpet sounds a retreat too that is a safe reposing of our souls in the merit and in the wounds of our Saviour Christ Jesus And in this voice they are musicum carmen a love-song as the text speaks in proposing the love of God to man wherein he loved him so as that he gave his onely begotten Son for him God made this whole world in such an uniformity such a correspondency such a concinnity of parts as that it was an Instrument perfectly in tune we may say the trebles the highest strings were disordered first the best understandings Angels and Men put this instrument out of tune God rectified all again by putting in a new string semen mulieris the seed of the woman the Messias And onely by sounding that string in your ears become we musicum carmen true musick true harmony true peace to you If we shall say that Gods first string in this instrument was Reprobation that Gods first intention was for his glory to damn man and that then he put in another string of creating Man that so he might have some body to damn and then another of enforcing him to sin that so he might have a just cause to damne him and then another of disabling him to lay hold upon any means of recovery there 's no musick in all this no harmony no peace in such preaching But if we take this instrument when Gods hand tun'd it the second time in the promise of a Messias and offer of the love mercy of God to all that will receive it in him then we are truely musicum carmen as a love-song when we present the love of God to you and raise you to the love of God in Christ Jesus for for the musick of the Sphears whatsoever it be we cannot hear it for the decrees of God in heaven we cannot say we have seen them our musick is onely that salvation which is declared in the Gospel to all them and to them onely who take God by the right hand as he delivers himself in Christ So they shall be musick in re in their matter in their doctrine and they shall be also in modo In modo in their manner of presenting that doctrine Religion is a serious thing but not a sullen Religious preaching is a grave exercise but not a sordid not a barbarous not a negligent There are not so eloquent books in the world as the Scriptures Accept those names of Tropes and Figures which the Grammarians and Rhetoricians put upon us and we may be bold to say that in all their Authors Greek and Latin we cannot finde so high and so lively examples of those Tropes and those Figures as we may in the Scriptures whatsoever hath justly delighted any man in any mans writings is exceeded in the Scriptures The style of the Scriptures is a diligent and an artificial style and a great part thereof in a musical in a metrical in a measured composition in verse The greatest mystery of our Religion indeed the whole body of our Religion the coming and the Kingdome of a Messias of a Saviour of Christ is conveyed in a Song in the third chapt of Habakkuk and therefore the Jews say that that Song cannot yet be understood because they say the Messiah is not yet come His greatest work when he was come which was his union and marriage with the Church and with our souls he hath also delivered in a piece of a curious frame Solomons Song of Songs And so likewise long before when God had given all the Law he provided as himself sayes a safer way which was to give them a heavenly Song of his owne making for that Song he sayes there he was sure they would remember Deut. 31. So the Holy Ghost hath spoken in those Instruments whom he chose for the penning of the Scriptures and so he would in those whom he sends for the preaching thereof he would put in them a care of delivering God messages with consideration with meditation with preparation and not barbarously not suddenly not occasionally not extemporarily which might derogate from the dignity of so great a service That Ambassadour should open himself to a shrewd danger and surprisall that should defer the thinking upon his Oration till the Prince to whom he was sent were reading his letters of Credit And it is a late time of meditation for a Sermon when the Psalm is singing Loquere Domine sayes the Prophet speak O Lord But it was when he was able to say Ecce paratus Behold I am prepared for thee to speak in me If God shall be believed to speak in us in our ordinary Ministry it must be when we have so as we can fitted our selves for his presence To end this then are we Musicum carmen in modo musick to the soul in the manner of our preaching when in delivering points of Divinity we content our selves with that language and that phrase of speech which the Holy Ghost hath expressed himself in in the Scriptures for to delight in the new and bold termes of Hereticks furthers the Doctrine of Hereticks too And then also are we Musicum carmen when according to the example of men inspired by the Holy Ghost in writing the Scriptures we deliver the messages of God with such diligence and such preparation as appertains to the dignity of that employment Now these two to be Musick both these wayes Vox suavis in matter and in manner concur and meet in the next which is to have a pleasant voyce Thou art a lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voyce First A Voyce they must have they must be heard if they silence themselves by their ignorance or by their laziness if they occasion themselves to be silenced by their contempt and contumacy both wayes they are inexcusable for a voyce is essentiall to them that denominates them John Baptist hath other great names even the name of Baptist is a great name when we consider whom he baptized him who baptized the Baptist himself and all us in his own blood So is his name of Preacher the fore-runner of Christ for in that name he came before him who was before the world so is his Propheta that he was a Prophet and then more then a Prophet and then the greatest among the sons of women these were great
as they grant us and not to interpret this place of a temporal deliverance from Babylon but of the deliverance by the Messias And for the second which is the deliverance of the christians from the persecutions in the primitive times though the Christians did then with a holy cheerfulness suffer those persecutions when they could not avoid them without prevaricating and betraying the hour of Christ Jesus yet they did not wilfully thrust themselves into those dangers they did not provoke the Magistrate And the word which is here translated ye sold your selves vendictistis vos implies actionem spontaneam a free and voluntary action done by themselves and therefore cannot well be understood of the persecutions in the Primitive Church The third therefore as yet is the most usefull and most received so it is the most proper acceptation of the word that it is a deliverance from the bondage of sin to be wrought by Christ for as Saint Hierome says this Prophet Esay is rather an Evangelist than a Prophet because almost all that Christ did and said and suffered is foretold and prophetically antidated in his prophecy and almost all his prophecy hath some relation at least in a secondary sense of accommodation where it is not so primarily and literally to the words and actions and passions of Christ Following then this interpretation in general of the word that it is a deliverance from the wages of sin Death by Christ we may take in passing a short view of the miserable condition of man wherin he enwraped himself of the aboundant mercy of Christ Jesus in withdrawing him from that universal calamity by considering onely the sense and largeness and extention of those words in which the holy Ghost hath been pleased to express both these in this Text. For first the word in which our action is expressed which is Machar verdidistis ye have sold signifies in many places of Scripture dare proreatia a permutation an exchange of one thing for another and in other places it signifies Dedére upon any little attempt to forsake and abandon our defences and to suffer the enemy easily to prevail upon us so also it signifies Tradere not onely to forsake our selves but to concur actually to the delivering up of our selves and lastly it signifies Repellere to joyn with our enemies in beating back any that should come to our relief and rescue And then as we have so sold our selves for the substance of the Act as is expressed in that word Machar we have exchanged our selves at an undervalue and worse than that we have yeelded up our selves upon easie tentations and worse than that we have offered our selves exposed our selves invited the devil and tempted temptations and worse than that we have Rejected the succours and the supplies which have been offered us in the means and conduits and seals of his Graces As it stands thus with us for the matter so for the manner how we have done this that is expressed in that other word kinnan which signifies fecit as it is here Gratis for nought And in another place Frustra to no purpose for it is a void bargain because we had no title no interest in our selves when we sold our selves and it signifies temere rashly without consideration of our own value upon whom God had stamped his Image And then again it signifies Immerito undeservedly before God in whose jurisdiction we were by many titles had forsaken us or done any thing to make us forsake him So that our action in selling our selves for nothing hath this latitude That man whom God hath dignified so much as that in the Creation he imprinted his Image in him and in the Redemption he assumed not the Image but the very nature of man That man whom God still preserved as the Aple of his Eye and as he expresses himself often in the Prophets is content to reason and to dispute with man and to submit himself to any tryal whither he have not been a gracious God unto him That this man should thus abandon this God and exchange his soul for any thing in this world when as it can profit nothing to gain the whole world and loose our own soul and not exchange it but give it away thrust it off and be a devil to the devil to tempt the tempter himself to take it But then as the word aggravates our condemnation so it implies a consolation too for it is fructra That is unprovidently unthriftily inconsideratly vainly and that multiplies our fault but then it is invalidly and uneffectually too that is it is a void bargain and when our powerful Redeemer is pleased to come and claim his right and set on foot his title all this improvident bargain of ours is voided and reversed and not though but because we have sold our selves for nought we shall be redeemed without money For the other word in which the action of our Redeemer is expressed though it have somewhat different uses in the Scriptures yet it is evermore spoken of him Qui habet jus re dimendi no man by the Law could redeem a thing but he who had a title to that thing So the word is used where there are given Cities of refuge from the avengeâ— .. There the word is a redemptor from him that hath right to redeem his kinsmans blood to bring an Appeal and to prosecute for the death of his kinsman who was slaine So is the word used also where that Law is given c. If thy brother be impoverished he sell his possession then his redeemer c. That is he that is next to that land And so also when a man dyed without issue he who had the right and the obligation to raise seed to the dead man he was the redeemer I am thy kinsman saith Booz to Ruth but saith he Alius Redemptor magis propinquus Thou hast another Redeemer nearer in blood then I am How ill a bargain soever we made for our selves Christ Jesus hath not lost his right in us but is our Redeemer in all these acceptations of the world He is our sanctuary and refuge when we have commited spiritual murder upon our own Souls he preserves us and delivers us to the redemption ordained for us when we have sold our possessions our natural faculties He supplies us with grace and feeds us with his Word and cloaths us with his Sacraments and warms us with his Absolutions against all diffidence which had formerly frozen us up and in our barrenness he raises up seed unto our dead souls thoughts and works worthy of repentance All this thy Redeemer hath right to do when it pleases him to do it he does it sine argento without money when the now Casâ—ph signifies not onely money but Omne appeâ—ibile any thing that we can place our desires or cast our thougths upon This Redemption of ours is wrought by such means as the desire of man could never have fortuned upon
vow is included all the service that he could exhibite or retribute to God Now his staffe is become a sword a strong Army his one staff now is multiplyed his wives are given for staffes to assist him and his children given also for staffes to his age His own staffe is become the greatest and best part of Labans wealth In such plenty as that he could spare a present to Esau of at least five hundred head of cattell The fathers make Morall expositions of this That his two bands are his Temporall blessings and his spirituall And St. Augustin findes a tipicall allusion in it of Christ Aug. Baculo Crucis Christus apprehendit mundum cum duabus turmis duobus populis ad patrem rediit Christ by his staffe his Cross muster'd two bands that is Jews and Gentiles We finde enough for our purpose in taking it literally as we see it in the Text That he divided all his company and all his cattell into two troups that if Esau come and smite one the other might scape For then onely is a fortune full when there is somthing for Leakage for wast when a Man though he may justly fear that this shall be taken from him yet he may justly presume that this shall be left to him though he lose much yet he shall have enough And this was Jacobs increase and height and from this lowness from one staff to two bands And therefore since in God we can consider but one state Semper idem immutable since in the Devil we can consider but two states Quomodo cecidit filius Orientis that he was the son of the Morning but is and shall ever be for ever the child of everlasting death since in Jacob and in our selves we can consider first that God made man righteous secondly that man betooke himself to his one staff and his own staff The imaginations of his own heart Thirdly That by the word of God manifested by his Angels he returns with two bands Body and Soul to his heavenly father againe let us attribute all to his goodness and confesse to him and the world That we are not worthy of the least of all his Mercies and of all the Truth which he hath shewed unto his Servant for with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands A SERMON Preached at White-hall Serm. 13. April 19. 1618. SERMON XIII 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners of which I am the chiefest THE greatest part of the body of the old-Testament is Prophecy and that is especially of future things The greatest part of the new-Testament if wee number the peeces is Epistles Relations of things past for instruction of the present They erre not much that call the whol new-Testament Epistle For even the Gospells are Evangelia good Messages and that 's proper to an Epistle and the booke of the Acts of the Apostles is superscrib'd by Saint Luke to one Person to Theophilus and that 's proper to an Epistle and so is the last booke the booke of Revelation to the severall Churches and of the rest there is no question An Epistle is collucutio scripta saies Saint Ambrose Though it be written far off and sent yet it is a Conference and seperatos copulat sayes hee by this meanes wee overcome distances we deceive absences and wee are together even then when wee are asunder And therefore in this kinde of conveying spirituall comfort to their friends have the ancient Fathers been more exercised then in any other former almost all of them have written Epistles One of them Isidorus him whom wee call Peluciotes Saint Chrysostom's schollar is noted to have written Myriades Nicephor and in those Epistles to have interpreted the whole Scriptures St. Paul gave them the example he writ nothing but in this kind and in this exceeded all his fellow Apostles pateretur Paulus quod Saulus seceret saies St. Austin That as he had asked Letters of Commission of the State to persecute Christians so by these Letters of Consolation hee might recompence that Church againe which hee had so much damnified before As the Hebrew Rabbins say That Rahab did let down Jofuah's spies out of her house with the same cord with which she had used formerly to draw up her adultrous lovers into her house Now the holy-Ghost was in all the Authors of all the books of the Bible but in Saint Paul's Epistles there is sayes Irenaeus Impetus Spiritus Sancti The vehemence the force of the holy-Ghost And as that vehemence is in all his Epistles so amplius habent quae e vinculis as Saint Chrysostome makes the observation Those Epistles which were written in Prison have most of this holy vehemence and this as that Father notes also is one of them And of all them we may justly conceive this to be the most vehement and forcible in which he undertakes to instruct a Bishop in his Episcopall function which is to propagate the Gospell for he is but an ill Bishop that leaves Christ where he found him in whose time the Gospell is yet no farther then it was how much worse is he in whose time the Gospell loses ground who leaves not the Gospell in so good state as he found it Now of this Gospell here recommended by Paul to Timothie this is the Summe That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners c. Division Here then we shall have these three Parts First Radicem The Roote of the Gospell from whence it springs it is fidelis sermo a faithfull Word which cannot erre And secondly we have Arborem Corpus the Tree the Body the substance of the Gospell That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners And then lastly fructum Evangelii the fruit of the Gospell Humility that it brings them who embrace it to acknowledg themselves to be the greatest sinners And in the first of these the Roote it selfe wee shall passe by these steps First that it is Sermo the Word That the Gospell hath as good a ground as the Law the new-Testament as well founded as the Old It is the word of God And then it is fidelis Sermo a faithfull Word now both Old and New are so and equally so but in this the Gospell is fidelior the more faithfull and the more sure because that word the Law hath had a determination an expiration but the Gospell shall never have that And againe It is Sermo omni acceptatione dignus Worthy of all acceptation not only worthy to bee received by our Faith but even by our Reason too our Reason cannot hold out against the proofes of Christians for their Gospell And as the word imports it deserves omnem acceptationem and omnem approbationem all approbation and therefore as wee should not dispute against it and so are bound to accept it to receive it not to
speake against it so neither should wee doe any thing against it as wee are bound to receive it by acknowledgment so wee are bound to approve it by conforming our selves unto it our consent to it shewes our acceptation our life our approbation and so much is in the first Part the Roote This is a faithfull Word and worthy of all acceptation And in the Second the Tree the Body the substance of the Gospell That Jesus Christ is come into the World to save Sinners First here is an Advent a coming of a new Person into the World who was not here before venit in mundum hee came into the World And secondly hee that came is first Christ a mixt Person God and Man and thereby capable of that Office able to reconcile God and Man And Christus so to a person anoynted appointed and sent for that purpose to reconcile God and Man And then hee is Jesus one did actually and really doe the office of a Saviour hee did reconcile God and Man for there wee see also the Reason why hee came Hee came to Save and whom hee came to Save to save Sinners And these will bee the branches and lymbs of this Body And then lastly when wee come to consider the fruit which is indeede the seede and kernell and soul of all virtues Humility then wee shall meete the Apostle confessing himselfe to bee the greatest Sinner not only with a fui that hee was so whilest he was a Persecutor but with a present sum that even now after hee had received the faithfull Word the light of the Gospell yet hee was still the greatest Sinner of which Sinners I though an Apostle am am still the chiefest First then the Gospell is founded and rooted in sermone Part 1. in verbo in the Word it cannot deserve omnem acceptationem if it bee not Gospell and it is not Gospell if it be not in sermone rooted in the Word Christ himselfe as he hath an eternall Generation is verbum Dei Himselfe is the Word of God And as he hath a humane Generation he is subjectum verbi Dei the subject of the Word of God of all the Scriptures of all that was shadowed in the Types and figur'd in the Ceremonies and prepared in the preventions of the Law of all that was foretold by the Prophets of all that the Soule of man rejoyced in and congratulated with the Spirit of God in the Psalms and in the Canticles and in the cheerefull parts of spirituall joy and exultation which we have in the Scriptures Christ is the foundation of all those Scriptures Christ is the burden of all those Songs Christ was in sermone then then he was in the Word The joy of those holy Persons which are noted in the Scriptures to have expressed their joy at the byrth of Christ in such spirituall Hymns and Songs is expressed so as that we may see their joy was in this That that was now in actu that was performed that was done which was before in sermone in the Promise in the Word in the Covenant of God They rejoyced that Christ was borne but principally that all was done so sicut locutus as God had spoken before that all should be done done of the seede of a Woman as God had said in Paradice done by a Virgin as God had said by Esai done at Bethlehem as he had said by Micheas and done at that time as he had said by Daniel Sicut locutus est sayes Zacharie in his exultation All is performed as he hath spoke by the mouth of the Prophets which have beene since the World began There in the Word the Gospell begins and there and there only it shall continue for ever as long as there is any spirituall seed of Abraham any men willing to embrace it and apply it as the blessed Virgin expresses it when her Soul magnifies the Lord and her Spirit rejoyces in God her Saviour sicut locutus as God hath spoken to our Fathers to Abraham and his seed for ever so then there never was there never must be any other Gospel then is in sermone in the written word of God in the Scriptures The particular comfort that a Christian conceives as it is determined and contracted in himself is principally in this that Christ is come his comfort is in this that he is now saved by him and he might have this comfort though Christ had never been in sermone though he had never been prophesied never spoken of before But yet the proof and ground of this comfort to himself that is the assurance that he hath That this was that Christ that was to save us and then the munition and artillery by which he is to overthrow the forces of the enemy the arguments and objections of Jews Gentils and Hereticks who deny this Christ in whose salvation he trusts to have then any such Saviour And then the Band of the Church the Communion of Saints by which we should prove That the Patriarchs and the Apostles our Fathers in the old and new Testament doe belong all to one Church this assurance in our self this ability to prove it to others this joyning of these two walls to make up the houshold of the faithfull This is not only that that the summe of the Gospel is risen in that Christ is come but in this that he is come sicut locutus est as God had spoken of him and promised him by the mouth of his Prophets from the beginning as he was in sermone in the word In the first Creation when God made heaven and earth that making was not in sermone for that could not be prophesied before because there was no being before neither is it said that at that Creation God said any thing but only creavit God made heaven and earth and no men so that that which was made sine sermone without speaking was only matter without form heaven without light and earth without any productive virtue or disposition to bring forth and to nourish creatures But when God came to those specifique formes and to those creatures wherein he would be sensibly glorified after they were made in sermone by his word Dixit facta sunt God spake and so all things were made Light and Firmament Land and Sea Plants and Beasts and Fishes and Fowls were made all in sermone by his word But when God came to the best of his creatures to Man Man was not only made in verbo as the rest were by speaking a word but by a Consultation by a Conference by a Counsell faciamus hominem let us make Man there is a more expresse manifestation of divers persons speaking together of a concurrence of the Trinity and not of a saying only but a mutuall saying not of a Proposition only but of a Dialogue in the making of Man The making of matter alone was sine verbo without any word at all the making of lesser creatures was in verbo
in contemplation of whom that service is done and that is done especially when by a holy and exemplar life we draw others to the love and obedience of the same Gospell which we professe for then have we declared this true and faithfull saying this Gospell to have been worthy of all acceptation when we have look'd upon it by our reason embraced it by our Faith and declared it by our good works and all these considerations arose out of that which at the beginning we called Radicem the Roote of this Gospell the Word the Scripture the Tree it self the Body of the Gospell that is The coming of Christ and the Reason of his coming To save Sinners And then the fruit of this Gospell that Humility by which the Apostle confesseth himselfe to be the greatest Sinner we reserve for another exercise Serm. 14. A Second SERMON Preached at Whitehall April 2. 1621. SERMON XIV 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners of which I am the chiefest WE have considered heretofore that which appertained to the Roote and all the circumstances thereof That which belongs to the Tree it selfe what this acceptable Gospell is That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners and then that which appertains to the fruit of this Gospell the Humility of the Apostle in applying it to himselfe Quorum ego Of which Sinners I am the chiefest were reserved for this time In the first of these that which we call the Tree the Body of this Gospell there are three branches first an Advent A coming and secondly the Person that came and Lastly the worke for which he came And in the first of these we shall make these steps First that it is a new coming of a Person who was not here before at least not in that manner as he comes now venit He came And Secondly that this coming is in Act not only in Decree so he was come and slaine ab initio from all eternity in God's purpose of our Salvation nor come only in promise so he came wrapped up in the first promise of a Messiah in Paradise in that ipse conteret He shall bruise the Serpents head nor come only in the often renuing of that promise to Abraham in semine tuo In thy seed shall all Nations be blessed nor only in the ratification and refreshing of that promise to Judah Donec Silo Till Silo come and to David in Solio tuo The Scepter shall not depart nor as he came in the Prophets in I says virgo concipiet That he should come of a virgin nor in Michaeas Et tu Bethlem That he should come out of that Towne but this is a Historicall not a Propheticall an Actuall not a Promissary coming it is a coming already executed venit he came he is come And then Thirdly venit in mundum He came into the World into the whole World so that by his purpose first extends to all the Nations of the World and then it shall extend to thee in particular who art a part of this world He is come into the world and into thee From hence we shall descend to our second branch to the considerations of the person that comes and he is first Christus in which one name we find first his capacity to reconcile God and man because he is a mixt person uniting both in himself and we find also his Commission to work this Reconciliation because he is Christus an annointed person appointed by that unction to that purpose And thirdly we find him to be Jesus that is actually a Saviour that as we had first his capacity and his Commission in the name of Christ so we might have the execution of this Commission in the name of Jesus And then lastly in the last branch of this part we shall see the work it self Venit salvare He came to save It is not offerre to offer it to them whom he did intend it to but he came really and truly to save It was not to show a land of promise to Moyses then say there it is but thou shalt never come at it It was not to shew us salvation then say there it is in Baptism it is in Preaching and in the other Sacrament it is but soft there is a Decree of predestination against thee and thou shalt have none of it But venit salvare He came to save And whom Sinners Those who the more they ackowledg themselves to be so the nearer they are to this salvation First then for the Advent this comming of Christ Part 1. we have a Rule reasonable general in the school Missio in divinis est novo modo operatio Then is any person of the Trinity said to be sent or to come when they work in any place or in any person in another manner or measure then they did before yet that Rule doth not reach home to the expressing of all commings of the persons of the Trinity The second person came more pretentially then so more then in an extraordinary working and Energie and execution of his power if it be rightly apprehended by those Fathers who in many of those Angels which appear'd to the Patriarcks and whose service God us'd in delivering Israel out of Egypt and in giving them the Law in Sinai to be the son of God himself to have been present and many things to have been attributed to the Angels in those histories which were done by the son of God not only working but present in that place at that time So also the Holy Ghost came more presentially then so more then by an extraordinary extention of his power when he came presentially and personally in the Dove to seal Johns Baptism upon Christ But yet though those pretential commings of Christ as an Angel in the old Testament and this comming of the Holy Ghost in a Dove in the New were more then ordinary commings and more then extraordinary workings too yet they were all far short of this comming of the son of God in this Text for it could never be said properly in any of those cases That that or that Angel was the son of God the second person or that that Dove was the Holy Ghost or the third person of the Trinity but in this Advent which we have in hand here it is truly and properly said this man is God this son of Mary is the son of God this Carpenters son is that very God that made the world He came so to us as that he became us not only by a new and more powerful working in us but by assuming our nature upon himself It is a perplex't question in the School and truly the Balance in those of the middle age very even whether if Adam had not sinned the son of God had come into the world and taken our nature and our flesh upon him Out of the infinite testimonies of
wrapped up in a decree of his coming And therefore we are not carried upon the consideration of any decree or if any means of salvation higher or precedent to the comming of Christ for that were to antidate eternity it self So then this coming in the Text is the execution of that coming in the decree which is involv'd in St. Johns In principio and it is the performance of it coming which was enwrapped in the promise in Moses In principio 10.24 it is his actual coming in our flesh that coming of which Christ said in St. Luke many Prophets and Kings 13.17 and in St. Matth. many Prophets and righteous men desired to see these things which you see and have not seen them the prophets who in their very name were videntes seen saw not this comining thus Joh. 8.56 your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day saith Christ and he saw it and was glad All times and all Generations before time was were Christs day but yet he cals this coming in the flesh especially his day because this day was a holy Equinoctial and made the day of the Jews and the day of the Gentiles equal and Testamenta copulat saies St. Chrisostome it binds up the two Testaments into one Bible for if the Partriarks had not desired to see this day and had not seen it in the strength of faith they and we had not been of one communion We have a most sure word of the Prophet 2 Pet. 1.19 saies the Apostle and to that we do well that we take heed but how far As unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts But now since this coming 1 Joh. 1.2 This light hath appeared and we have seen it and bear witness and shew it unto you Simon had an assurance in the Prophets and more immediatly then so in the vision but herein was his assurance and his peace established Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Luk. 2.19 for mine eyes have seen thy salvation The kingdom of Heaven was but a reversion to them and it is no more to us but to them it was a reversion as after a Grandfather and father two lives two comings of Christ before they would come to their state Christ must come first in the flesh and he must come again to Judgment To us and in our case one of these lives is spent Christ is come in the flesh and therefore as the earth is warmer an hour after the sun sets then it was an hour before the sun rose so let our faith and zeal be warmer now after Christ departing out of this world then theirs was before his coming into it and let us so rejoyce at this Ecce venit Rex tuus that our King our Missias is already come as that we may cherefully say veni Domine Jesu come Lord Jesu come quickly and be glad if at the going out of these dores we might meet him coming in the clouds In Mundum Thus far then he hath proceeded already venit He came and venit in mundum He came into the world it is not in mundam into so clean a woman as had no sin at all none contracted from her Parents no original sin for so Christ had placed his favours and his honors ill if he had favoured her most who had no need of him to dye for all the world and not for his mother or to dye for her when she needed not that hell is a strange imagination she was not without sin for then why should she have died for even a natural death in all that come by natural generation is of sin But certainly as she was a vessel reserved to receive Christ Jesus so she was preserved according to the best capacity of that nature from great and infections sins Mary Magdalen was a holy vessel after Christ had thrown the Divel out of her the Virgin Mary was much more so into whom no reigning power of the Devil ever entred in such an acceptation then Christ came per mundam in mundum by a clean woman into an unclean world And he came in a purpose as we do piously believe to manifest himself in the Christian Religion to all the nations of the world and therefore laetentur Insulae saies David The Lord reigneth let the Island rejoyce the Island who by reason of their situation provision and trading have most means of conveying Christ Jesus over the world He hath caâ—ried us up to heaven set us at the right hand of God shal not we endeavour to carry him to those nations who have not yet heard of his name shall we still brag that we have brought our clothes and our hatchets and our knives and bread to this and this value and estimation amongst those poor ignorant Souls and shall we never glory that we have brought the name and Religion of Christ Jesus in estimation amongst them shall we stay till other nations have planted a fals Christ among them and then either continue in our sloth or take more pains in rooting out a false Christ then would have planted the true Christ is come into the world we will do little if we will not ferry him over and propagate his name as well as our own to other Nations At least be sure that he is so far come into the world as that he become into thee Thou art but a little world a world but of a few spanns in length 〈◊〉 and yet Christ was sooner carried from east to west from Jerusalem to these parts then thou canst carry him over the faculties of thy Soul and Body He hath been in a pilgrimage towards thee long coming towards thee perchance 50 perchance 60 years and how far is he got into thee yet Is he yet come to thine eye Have they made Jobs Covenant that they will not look upon a Maid yet he is not come into thine ear still thou hast an itching ear delighting in the libellous defamation of other men Is he come to thine ear Art thou rectified in that sense yet voluptousness in thy tast or inordinateness in thy other senses keep him out in those He is come into thy mouth to thy tongue but he is come thither as a diseased person is taken into a spittle to have his blood drawn to have his flesh cauterized to have his bones sawd Christ Jesus is in thy mouth but in such exrecations in such blasphemies as would he Earthquaks to us if we were earth but we are all stones and rock obdurate in a senselesnes of those wounds which are inflicted upon our God He may be come to the skirts to the borders to an outward show in thine actions and yet not be come into the land into thy heart He entred into thee at baptism He hath crept farther and farther into thee in catechisms and other infusions of his doctrine into thee He
hath pierced into thee deeper by the powerful threatnings of his Judgments in the mouths of his messengers He hath made some survey over thee in bringing thee to call thy self to an account of some sinful actions and yet Christ is not come into thee either thou makest some new discoveries and fallest into some new ways of sin and art loth that Christ should come thither yet that he should trouble thy conscience in that sin till thou hadst made some convenient profit of it thou hast studied and must gain thou hast bought and must sell and therefore art loth to be troubled yet or else thou hast some land in thee which thou thy self hast never discover'd some waies of sin which thou hast never apprehended nor considered to be sin and thither Christ is not come yet He is not come into thee with that comfort which belongs to his coming in this Text except he had overshadowed thee all and be in thee intirely Person We have done with his coming we come next to the person in which we consider first that he was capable of this great employment to reconcile God to man as he was a mixt person of God and man and then that he had a Commission for this service as he was Christus anointed seald to that office and then that he did actually execute this commission as he was Jesus Now when we consider his capacity fitness to save the would this capacity fitness must have relation to that way which God had chosen which was by Justice For God could have saved the world by his word as well as he had made it so Adetur venia now had bin as easie to him as a fiat lux at the beginning a general pardon a light of grace as easie as the spreading of the light of nature but God having purposed to himself the way of Justice then could none be capable of that Imployment but a mixt person for God could not dye nor man could not satisfie by death both these were required in the way of Justice a satisfaction that by death Now as this unexpressible mixture union of God man made him capable of this imployment Christi so he had a particular Commission for it imployed in the same name too for every capable person is not alwaies imployed this was his unctâ—on as he is Christus anointed severd sealed for that purpose for that office Now whether this unction that is this power to â—atisfie Gods Justice for all the sins of all mankind were ex ratione sua formali intrinsica that is whether the merit of Christ were therefore infinite in it self because an infinite Godhead resided in his person or whether this power and ability by one act to satisfie for all sins arose ex pacto acceptatione by the contract they had past between the Father and Him that it was so because it was covenanted between them that it should be so this hath divided the School into that great opposition which is well known by the name of Thomist and Scotish The safest way is to place it in pacto in the contract in the covenant for if we place it absolutely in the person and cause the infiniteness of the merit from that then any act of that person the very incarnation it self had been enough to save us but his unction his Commission was to proceed thus thus and no otherwise then be did in the work of our Redemption His unction was his qualification He was anointed with the oyle of gladness above his fellows else the season of his enduring the cross Ps 45.7 could nor have been joy He was anointed liberally by that woman when he himself was sold for 30 peeces of silver Mar. 14.3 beyond the value of 300 peeces in oyntment upon him He was honorably embalmed by Joseph and Nicodemus who brought an 100 pound weight of Myrrhe and Aloes to bury him every way anointed more then others by others All his garment smell of Myrrhe Job 19. and Aloes and Cassia as it is in the Canticles even in the garments of Religion the Ceremonies of the Church there is a sweet savour of life Oleum effusum nomen ejus even in the outward profession of the name of Christ there is a savour of life an assistance to salvation for even in taking upon us this name Christ we acknowledg both that he was able to reconcile and sent purposely to reconcile God and man But then the strength of our consolation lies in the other name Jesus as he was Jesus actually he executed that Commission to which as he was Christ he was fitted and anointed Now this is a name which though the Greeks have translated it into soter yet the great Master of Latine language Cicero professes that there is no word which expresses it and that great Minter of Latine words Tertullian doth so often call by the name of salutificator for Jesus is so not only a bringer an applier a worker of our salvation but he is the author of the very decree of our salvation as well as of the execution of that Decree there was no salvation before him there was no salvation intended in the book of Life but in him yea no Grammarian can clear it whether this name Jesus signifie salvatorem or salutem the Instrument that saves us or the salvation that is afforded us for it is not only his person but it is his very righteousness that saves us It was therefore upon that ground that this name was given him Matth. 1.21 thou shalt call his name Jesus saies the Angel at his conception why for he shall save his people from their sins not only that he shall be able to do it nor only that he shall be sent to do it so far he is but Christus a mixt person and an anointed person but he shall actually do it and so he is Jesus Names of children are not alwaies answered in their manners and in the effects Non omnes Joannes qui vocantur Joannes saies St. Chrisost every nominal John is not a real John Absolons name was Patris pax his Fathers peace but he was his Fathers affliction but the name of Jesus had the effect He was called a Saviour and he was one 1.21 It may seem strange that when St. Matthew saies That Mary was to bring forth a child and call his name Jesus He saies also that this was done that the Prophecy of Esai might be fulfilled who said That a virgin shall bring forth a child who shal be called Emanuel to fulfil a prophecy of being called Emanuel he must be called Jesus Indeed to be Jesus is a fulfilling of his being Emanuel Emanuel is God with us a mixt person God and man but Jesus is a Saviour the performer of that salvation which only he who was God and man could accomplish He was Emanuel as soon as he was conceived but
hee hath proceeded in the sinceritie of a good Conscience in all the wayes of his calling and he foresees that his good name shall have the Testimony and his Posterity the support of the good men of this world His sicknesse shall be but a fomentation to supple and open his Body for the issuing of his Soule and his Soule shall goe forth not as one that gave over his house but as one that travelled to see and learne better Architecture and meant to returne and re-edifie that house according to those better Rules And as those thoughts which possesse us most awake meete us againe when we are asleepe So his holy-thoughts having been alwaies conversant upon the directing of his family the education of his Children the discharge of his place the safety of the State the happinesse of the King all his life when he is faln a sleepe in Death all his Dreames in that blessed Sleepe all his devotions in heaven shall be upon the same Subjects and he shal solicite him that sits upon the Throne the Lamb God for Christ Jesus sake to blesse all these with his particular blessings for so God giveth his beloved sleep so as that they enjoy the next world and assist this So then the Death of the Righteous is a sleepe first Ps 127.2 Somnus as it delivers them to a present rest Now men sleepe not well fasting Nor does a fasting Conscience a Conscience that is not nourish'd with a Testimony of having done well come to this Sleepe Eccles 5.11 but dulcis somnus operanti The sleepe of a labouring man is sweete To him that laboureth in his calling even this sleepe of Death is welcome When thou lyest downe thou shalt not be afraid saith Salomon Pro. 3.24 when thy Physician sayes Sir you must keepe your bed thou shalt not be afraid of that sick-bed And then it followes And thy sleepe shall be sweet unto thee Thy sicknesse welcome and thy death too for in those two David seems to involve all Ps 4.8 I will both lay me downe in Peace and sleep imbrace patiently my death-bed and Death it selfe So then this death is a sleepe as it delivers us to a present Rest Expergesactiâ— And then lastly it is so also as it promises a future waiting in a glorious Resurrection To the wicked it is far from both Of them God sayes I will make them drunke Jer. 51.39 and they shall sleepe a perpetuall sleepe and not awake They shall have no part in the Second Resurrection But for them rhat have slept in Christ as Christ sayd of Lazarus Lazarus Sleepeth but I goe that I may wake him out of sleep Jo. 11.11 he shall say to his father Let me goe that I may wake them who have slept so long in expectation of my coming 1 Thes 4.14 And Those that sleep in Jesus Christ saith the Apostle will God bring with him not only fetch them out of the dust when he comes but bring them with him that is declare that they have beene in his hands ever since they departed out of this world They shall awake as Jacob did and say as Jacob said Surely the Lord is in this place and this is no other but the house of God and the gate of heaven And into that gate they shall enter and in that house they shall dwell where there shall be no Cloud nor Sun no darkenesse nor dazling but one equall light no noyse nor silence but one equall musick no fears nor hopes but one equal possession no foes nor friends but and equall communion and Identity no ends nor beginnings but one equall eternity Keepe us Lord so awake in the duties of our Callings that we may thus sleepe in thy Peace and wake in thy glory and change that infallibility which thou affordest us here to an Actuall and undeterminable possession of that Kingdome which thy Sonne our Saviour Christ Jesus hath purchased for us with the in-estimable price of his incorruptible Blood Amen Serm. 16. A SERMON Preached at White-hall February 22. 1629. SERMON XVI Matth. 6.21 For where your Treasure is there will your heart be also I Have seen minute glasses glasses so short liv'd if I were to preach upon this text to such a glass it were enough for half the Sermon enough to show the worldly man his Treasure and the object of his heart For where your Treasure is there will your heart be also to call his eye to that minute glass and to tell him there flows there flies your treasure and your heart with it but if I had a secular glass a glass that would run an age if the two Hemesphears of the world were composed in the form of such a glass and all the world calcin'd and burnt to ashes and all the ashes and sands and atoms of the world put into that glass it would not be enough to tell the godly man who this treasure and the object of his heart is a Parot or a Stare docil a birds and of pregnant imitation will sooner be brought to relate to us the wisedome of a Council table then any Ambrose or any Chrisostome men that have gold and hony in their Names shall tell us what the sweetness what the treasure of heaven is and what that mans peace that hath set his heart upon that treasure As nature hath given us certain Elements and all bodies are composed of them and art hath given us a certain Alphabet of letters and all words are composed of them so our blessed Saviour in these three Chapters of this Gospel hath given us a Sermon of texts of which all our Sermons may be composed all the Articles of our Religion all the Canons of our Church all the injunctions of our Princes all the Homilies of our Fathers all the body of Divinity is in these three Chapters in this one Sermon in the mount where as the Preacher concludes his Sermon with exhortations to practise 7.24 whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and does them so he fortifies his Sermon with his own practise which is a blessed and powerful method for as soon as he came out of the pulpit 8.1 as soon as he came down from the mount he cured the first Leper he saw and that without all vain glory for he forbad him to tell any man of it Of this noble body of Divinity one fair limb is in this text where your treasure is there will your heart be also Imediately before our blessed Saviour had forbidden us the laying up of treasure in this world upon this reason that here moths and rust corrupt Divisio and theeves break in and steal there the reason is because the money may be lost but here in our text it is because the man may be lost for where your treasure is there will your heart be also so that this is equivalent to that Mat. 15.26 what profit to gain the whole world
kindled Num. 11.15 there and only their doth Moses attribute even to God himself the feminine sex and speaks to God in the original language as if he should have call'd him Deam Iratam an angry she God all that is good then either in the love of man or woman is in this love for he is expressed in both sexes man and woman and all that can be ill in the love of either sex is purged away for the man is no other man then Christ Jesus and the woman no other woman then wisdom her self even the uncreated wisdom of God himself Now all this is but one person the person that professes love who is the other who is the beloved of Christ is not so easily discern'd in the love between persons in this world and of this world we are often deceived with outward signs we often mis-call and mis-judg civil respects and mutual courtesies and a delight in one anothers conversation and such other indifferent things as only malignity and curiosity and self-guiltiness makes to be misinterpretable we often call these love but neither amongst our selves much less between Christ and our selves are these outward appearances alwaies signs of love This person then this beloved soul is not every one to whom Christ sends a loving message or writs too for his letters his Scriptures are directed to all not every one he wishes well to and swears that he does so for so he doth to all As I live saith the Lord I would not the death of a Sinner not every one that he sends jewels and presents to for they are often snares to corrupt as well as arguments of love not though he admit them to his table and supper for even there the Devil entred into Judas with a sop not though he receive them to a kiss for even with that familarity Judas betrayed him not though he betroth himself as he did to the Jews Osc 2.14 sponsabo te mihi in aeternum not though he make jointures in pacto salis in a covenant of salt an everlasting covenant not though he have communicated his name to them which is an act of marriage for to how many hath he said ego dixit Dii estis I have said you are Gods and yet they have been reprobates not all these outward things amount so far as to make us discern who is this beloved person for himself saies of the Israelites to whom he had made all these demonstrations of love yet after for their abominations devorc'd himself from them I have forsaken mine house Jer. 12.7 I have left mine own heritage I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies To conclude this person beloved of Christ is only that soul that loves Christ but that belongs to the third branch of this first part which is the mutual love The Affection but first having found the person we are to consider the affection it self the love of this text it is an observation of Origens that though these three words Amor Dilectio and Charitas love and affection and good will be all of one signification in the sctiptures yet saies he wheresoever there is danger of representing to the fancy a lascivious and carnal love the scripture forbears the word love and uses either affection or good will and where there is no such danger the scripture comes directly to this word love of which Origens examples are that when Isaac bent his affections upon Rebecca and Jacob upon Rachel in both places it is dilexit and not amavit Cant 5.8 and when it is said in the Cant. I charge you Daughters of Jerusalem to tell my well-beloved it is not to tel him that she was in love but to tell him quod vulneratae charitatis sum that I am wounded with an affection good will towards him but in this book of Pro. in all the passages between Christ and the beloved soul there is evermore a free use of this word Amor love because it is even in the first apprehension a pure a chast and an undefiled love Eloquia Dominis casta sayes David All the words of the Lord and all their words that love the Lord all discourses all that is spoken to or from the soul is all full of chast love and of the love of chastity Now though this love of Christ to our souls be too large to shut up or comprehend in any definition yet if we content our selves with the definition of the Schools Amare est velle alicui quod bonum est love is nothing but a desire that they whom we love should be happy we may easily discern the advantage and profit which we have by this love in the Text when he that wishes us this good by loving us is author of all good himself and may give us as much as pleases him without impairing his own infinite treasure He loves us as his ancient inheritance as the first amongst his creatures in the creation of the world which he created for us He loves us more as his purchase whom he hath bought with his blood for even man takes most pleasure in things of his own getting But he loves us most for our improvement when by his ploughing up of our hearts and the dew of his grace and the seed of his word we come to give greaâ—â—r cent in the fruit of sanctification than before And since he loves â—s thus and that in him this love is velle bonum a desire that his beloved should be happy what soul amongst us shall doubt that when God hath such an abundant and infinite treasure as the merit and passion of Christ Jesus sufficient to save millions of worlds and yet many millions in this world all the heathen excluded from any interest therein when God hath a kingdome so large as that nothing limits it and yet he hath banished many natural subjects thereof even those legions of Angels which were created in it and are fallen from it what soul amongst us shall doubt but that he that hath thus much and loves thus much will not deny her a portion in the blood of Christ or a room in the kingdome of heaven No soul can doubt it except it have been a witness to it self and be so still that it love not Christ Jesus for that 's a condition necessary And that is the third branch to which we are come now in our order that this love be mutuall I love them c. If any man loves not our Lord Jesus let him be accursed Mutual saies the Apostle Now the first part of this curse is upon the indisposition to love he that loves not at all is first accursed That stupid inconsideration which passes on drowsilie and negligently upon Gods creatures that sullen indifferency in ones disposition to love one thing no more than another not to value not to chuse not to prefer that stoniness that in humanity not to be
any thing that shall be said before lessen but rather enlarge your devotion to that which shall be said of his Passion at the time of the due solemnization thereof Christ bled not a drop the lesse at last for having bled at his Circumcision before nor will you shed a teare the lesse then if you shed some now And therefore be now content to consider with me how to this God the Lord belong'd the issues of Death That God the Lord The Lord of Life could die is a strange contemplation That the red-Sea could be dry Potuisse Mori Exod. 14.21 That the Sun could stand still Jos 10.12 That an Oven could be seven times heat and not burn That Lyons could be hungry and not bite is strange miraculously strange But super-miraculous That God could die But that God would die is an exaltation of that But even of that also it is a super-exaltation that God should die must die and non exitus saith Saint Augustin God the Lord had no issue but by death and oportuit pati saith Christ himself all this Christ ought to suffer was bound to suffer Psal 94.1 Voluisse Mori Deus ultionum Deus saith David God is the God of Revenges He would not passe over the sin of man unrevenged unpunished But then Deus ultionum libere egit sayes that place The God of Revenges works freely he punishes he spares whom he will and would he not spare himself He would not Dilectio fortis ut Mors Can. 8.6 Love is as strong as Death stronger it drew in Death that naturally was not welcome Si possibile saith Christ If it be possible let this Cup passe when his Love expressed in a former Decree with his Father had made it impossible Many waters quench not Love Christ tryed many He was baptized out of his Love v. 7. and his love determin'd not there He wept over Jerusalem out of his love and his love determined not there He mingled blood with water in his Agony and that determined not his love He wept pure blood all his blood at all his eyes at all his pores in his flagellations and thornes to the Lord our God belonged the issues of blood and these expressed but these did not quench his love Oportuisse Mori He would not spare nay he would not spare himself There was nothing more free more voluntary more spontaneous then the death of Christ 'T is true libere egit he died voluntarily But yet when we consider the contract that had passed between his Father and him there was an Oportuit a kinde of necessity upon him All this Christ ought to suffer And when shall we date this obligation this Oportuit this necessity when shall we say it begun Certainly this Decree by which Christ was to suffer all this was an eternall Decree and was there any thing before that that was eternall Infiâ—ite love eternall love be pleased to follow this home and to consider it seriously that what liberty soever we can conceive in Christ to dy or not to dy this necessity of dying this Decree is as eternall as that Liberty and yet how small a matter made he of this Necessity and this dying Gen. 3.15 His Father calls it but a Bruise and but a bruising of his heele The Serpent shall bruise his heele and yet that was that the Serpent should practise and compasse his death Himself calls it but a Baptism as though he were to be the better for it I have a Baptism to be baptized with Luk. 12.50 and he was in paine till it was accomplished and yet this Baptism was his death The holy-Ghost calls it Joy For the joy which was set before him he endured the Crosse which was not a joy of his reward after his passion Heb. 12.2 but a joy that filled him even in the middest of those torments and arose from them When Christ cals his passion Calicem a cup and no worse Can ye drink of my cup He speaks not odiously not with detestation of it indeed it was a cup salus mundo Mat. 20.22 A health to all the world and quid retribuem saies David Psal 116.12 What shall I render unto the Lord Answer you with David Accipiam Calicom I will take the cup of salvation Take that that cup of salvation his passion if not into your present imitation yet into your present contemplation and behold how that Lord who was God yet could die would die must die for your salvation That Moses and Elias talked with Christ in the transfiguration both St. Matthew and St. Mark tel us but what they talked of Mat 17.3 Mat. 9.4 Luc. 9.31 only St. Luke Dicebant excessum ejus saies he they talked of his decease of his death which was to be accomplished at Jerusalem The word is of his Exodus the very word of our Text Exitus his issue by death Moses who in his Exodus had prefigured this issue of our Lord and in passing Israel out of Egypt through the red sea had foretold in that actual prophecy Christs passing of mankind through the sea of his blood and Elias whose Exodus and issue out of this world was a figure of Christs ascension had no doubt a great satisfaction in talking with our blessed Lord De excessu ejus of the full consummation of all this in his death which was to be accomplished at Jerusalem Our meditation of his death should be more viseral and affect us more because it is of a thing already done The ancient Romans had a certain tenderness and detestation of the name of death they would not name death no not in their wils there they would not say Si mori contingat but Si quid humanitas contingat not if or when I die but when the course of nature is accomplished upon me To us that speak daily of the death of Christ He was crucified dead and buried can the memory or the mention of our death be irksome or bitter There are in these latter times amongst us that name death freely enough and the death of God but in blasphemous oaths and execrations Miserable men who shall therefore be said never to have named Jesus because they have named him too often and therefore hear Jesus say Nescive vos I never knew you because they made themselves too familiar with him Moses and Elias talked with Christ of his death only in a holy and joyful sence of the benefit which they and all the world were to receive by it Discourses of religion should not be out of curiosity but edification And then they talked with Christ of his death at that time when he was at the greatest heighth of glory that ever he admitted in this world that is his transfiguration And we are afraid to speak to the great men of this world of their death but nourish in them a vain imagination of immortallity and immutability But bonum est