this fall is by Re-union the soule and body are re-united at the last day A second fall in naturall death is Casus in dissolutionem The dead body falls by putrifaction into a dissolution into atoms and graines of dust and the resurrection from this fall is by Re-efformation God shall re-compact and re-compile those atoms and graines of dust into that Body which was before And then a third fall in naturall death is Casus in Dispersionem This man being falne into a divorce of body and soule this body being falne into a dissolution of dust this dust falls into a dispersion and is scattered unsensibly undiscernibly upon the face of the earth and the resurrection from this death is by way of Re-collection God shall recall and re-collect all these Atoms and grains of dust and re-compact that body and re-unite that soule and so that resurrection is accomplished And these three falls Into a Divorce into a Separation into a Dispersion And these three Resurrections By Re-union by Re-efformation by Re-collecting we shall also finde in our present state The spirituall death of the soule by sinne First then Casus in separationem the first fall in the spirituall death is the divorce of body and soule That whereas God hath made the body to be the Organ of the soule and the soule to be the breath of that Organ and bound them to a mutuall relation to one another Man sometimes withdrawes the soule from the body by neglecting the duties of this life for imaginary speculations and oftner withdrawes the body from the soule which should be subject to the soule but does maintain a war and should be a wife to the soule and does stand out in a divorce Now the Resurrection Resurrectie a casu in separationem from this first fall into a Divorce is seriously and wisely that is both piously and civilly to consider that Man is not a soule alone but a body too That man is not placed in this world onely for speculation He is not sent into this world to live out of it but to live in it Adam was not put into Paradise onely in that Paradise to contemplate the future Paradise but to dresse and to keep the present God did not breathe a soule towards him but into him Not in an obsession but a possession Not to travaile for knowledge abroad but to direct him by counsell at home Not for extasies but for an inherence for when it was come to that in S. Paul we see it is called a rapture he was not in his proper station nor his proper motion He was transported into the third heaven but as long as we are in our dwelling upon earth though we must love God with all our soule yet it is not with our soule alone Our body also must testifie and expresse our love not onely in a reverentiall humiliation thereof in the dispositions and postures and motions and actions of the body when we present our selves at Gods Service in his house but in the discharge of our bodily duties and the sociable offices of our callings towards one another Not to run away from that Service of God by hiding our selves in a superstitious Monastery or in a secular Monastery in our owne house by an unprofitable retirednesse and absenting our selves from the necessary businesses of this world Not to avoid a Calling by taking none Not to make void a Calling by neglecting the due offices thereof In a word To understand and to performe in the best measure we can the duties of the body and of the soule this is the resurrection from the first fall The fall into a divorce of body and soule And for the advancing of this knowledge and the facilitating of this performance of these duties be pleased a little to stop upon the consideration of both both of Spirituall and Divine and then of secular and sociable duties so far as concerns this subject in hand First for the duties of the soule Officium animae God was never out of Christs sight He was alwaies with him alwaies within him alwaies he himself yet Christ at some times applyed himself in a nearer distance and stricter way of prayer to God then at other times Christs whole life was a continuall abstinence a perpetuall sobriety yet Christ proposed and proportioned a certaine time and a certaine number of dayes for a particular fast upon particular occasion This is the harmony this is the resurrection of a Christian in this respect That his soule be alwayes so fixed upon God as that he doe nothing but with relation to his glory principally and habitually That he think of God at all times but that besides that he sepose some times to think of nothing but God That he pray continually so far as to say nothing to wish nothing that he would not be content God should heare but that besides that he sepose certaine fixed times for private prayer in his chamber and for publique prayer in the Congregation For though it be no where expresly written that Christ did pray in the Congregation or in company yet all that Christ did is not written and it is written that he went often into the Temples and into the Synagogues and it is written that even the Pharisee and the Publican that went to those places went thither to pray But howsoever Christ was never so alone but that if he were not in the Church the Church was in him All Christians were in him as all Men were in Adam This then is our first Resurrection for the duty that belongs to the soule Officium corporis That the soule doe at all times think upon God and at some times think upon nothing but him And for that which in this respect belongs to the body That we neither enlarge and pamper it so nor so adorne and paint it as though the soule required a spacious and specious palace to dwell in Of that excesse Porphyrie who loved not Christ nor Christians said well out of meer Morality That this enormous fatning and enlarging our bodies by excessive diet was but a shoveling of more and more fat earth upon our soules to bury them deeper Dum corpus augemus mortaliores efficimur sayes he The more we grow the more mortall we make our selves and the greater sacrifice we provide for death when we gather so much flesh with that elegancy speaks he speaking out of Nature and with this simplicity and homelinesse speaks S. Hierom speaking out of Grace Qui Christum desiderat illo pane vescitur de quà m preciesis cibis stercus conficiat non quaerit He that can rellish Christ and feed upon that Bread of life will not be so diligent to make precious dung and curious excrements to spend his purse or his wit in that which being taken into him must passe by so ignoble a way from him The flesh that God hath given us is affliction enough but the flesh that
the devill gives us is affliction upon affliction and to that there belongs a woe Per tenuitatem assimilamur Deo saies the same Author The attenuation the slendernesse the deliverance of the body from the encumbrance of much flesh gives us some assimilation some conformity to God and his Angels The lesse flesh we carry the liker we are to them who have none That is still the lesse flesh of our owne making for for that flesh which God and his instrument Nature hath given us in what measure or proportion soever that does not oppresse us to this purpose neither shall that be laid to our charge but the flesh that we have built up by curious diet by meats of provocation and witty sawces or by a slothfull and drowsie negligence of the works of our calling All flesh is sinfull flesh sinfull so as that it is the mother of sin it occasions sin naturall flesh is so But this artificiall flesh of our owne making is sinfull so as that it is also the daughter of sin It is indeed the punishment of former sins and the occasion of future The soule then requires not so large so vast a house of sinfull flesh to dwell in Macerationes corporis But yet on the other side we may not by inordinate abstinencies by indiscreet fastings by inhumane flagellations by unnaturall macerations and such Disciplines as God doth not command nor authorize so wither and shrinke and contract the body as though the soule were sent into it as into a prison or into fetters and manacles to wring and pinch and torture it Nihil interest saies S. Hierome It is all one whether thou kill thy selfe at one blow or be long in doing it if thou do it All one whether thou fall upon thine own sword or sterve thy selfe with such a fasting as thou discernest to induce that effect for saies he Descendit a dignitate viri not as insaniae incurrit He departs from that dignity which God hath imprinted in man in giving him the use and the dominion over his creatures and he gives the world just occasion to thinke him mad And as Tertullian adds Respuit datorem qui datum deserit He that does not use a benefit reproaches the Benefactor and he is ungratefull to God that does not accept at his hands the use of his blessings Therefore is it accepted as a good interpretation which is made of Christs determining his fast in forty daies Ne sui homicida videretur Lest if he continued it longer he might have seemed to have killed himselfe by being the author of his owne death And so do they interpret aright his Esuriit That then he began to be hungry that he began to languish to faint to finde a detriment in his body for else a fasting when a man is not hungry is no fasting but then he gave over fasting when he found the state of his body empaired by fasting And therefore those mad doctrines so S. Hierom cals them Notas insaniae habent yea those devilish doctrines so S. Paul cals them that forbid certaine meats and that make un-commanded macerations of the body meritorious that upon a supposititious story of an Ermit that lived 22. yeares Abbasll sperg without eating any thing at all And upon an impertinent example of their S. Francis that kept three Lents in the yeare which they extoll and magnifie in S. Francis and S. Hierom condemned and detested in the Montanists who did so too have built up those Carthusian Rules That though it appeare that that and nothing but that would save the patients life yet he may not eat flesh that is a Carthusian And have brought into estimation those Apocryphall and bastardly Canons which they father upon the Apostles That a man must rather sterve then receive food from the hand of a person excommunicate or otherwise detected of any mortall sin And that all that can be done with the almes of such a person is that it be spent in wood and coales and other fuell that so as the subtile philosophy of their Canon is it may be burnt and consumed by fire for to save a mans life it must not be spent upon meat or drink or such sustentation These Doctrines are not the Doctrines of this Resurrection by which man considered in Composito as he consists of soule and body by a sober and temperate life makes his body obsequious and serviceable to his soule but yet leaves his soule a body to worke in and an Organ to praise God upon both in a devout humiliation of his body in Gods service and in a bodily performance of the duties of some calling for this is our first Resurrection A casu separationis from having falne into a separation of body and soule for they must serve God joyntly together because God having joyned them man may not separate them but as God shall re-unite them at the last Resurrection so must we in our Resurrections in this life And farther we extend not this Resurrection from this separation this divorce The second fall of man in naturall death Casus in dissolutionem is Casus in dissolutionem The man being fallen into a divorce of soule and body the body fals by putrefaction into a dissolution of dust and the Resurrection from this fall is a re-efformation when God shall recompact that dust into that body This fall and this resurrection we have in our spirituall death too for we fall into daily customes and continuall habits of those sins and we become not onely as that Lazarus in the parable to have sores upon us but as that Lazarus in the Gospell that was dead Domine jam faetemus quatriduani sumus Lord we stinke in thy nostrils and we have beene buried foure dayes All the foure changes of our life Infancy Youth Middle Age and Old have beene spent and worne out in a continuall and uninterrupted course of sin In which we shall best consider our fall and best prepare our Resurrection by looking from whence we are fallen and by what steps and they are three First Nardus nostra Cant. 1.12 Perdidimus nardum nostrā We have lost the sweet savour of our own Spikenard for so the Spouse saies Nardus mea dedit odorem suum My Spikenard hath given forth her sweet savour There was a time when we had a Spikenard and a sweet savour of our own when our own Naturall faculties in that state as God infused them in Adam had a power to apprehend and lay hold upon the graces of God Man hath a reasonable soule capable of Gods grace so hath no creature but man man hath naturall faculties which may be employed by God in his service so hath no creature but man Onely man was made so as that he might be better whereas all other creatures were but to consist in that degree of goodnesse in which they entred Miserable fall Only man was made to mend and only man does grow
the manner of the eternall generation of the Sonne or of the eternall proceeding of the Holy Ghost or the manner of the presence of Christ in the Sacrament The Ministers of God are so far open-faced towards you as that you may know them and try them by due meanes to be such and so far open-faced towards God as that they have seene in him and received from him all things necessary for the salvation of your soules But yet their faces are covered too somethings concerning God they have not seene themselves nor should goe about to reveale or teach to you And it is not onely their faces that are covered but their feet too Their covered faces are especially directed to God denoting their modesty in forbearing unrevealed mysteries Their covered feet are especially directed to you They should not be curious in searching into all Gods actions nor you in searching into all theirs Their waies their actions their lives their conversations should not be too curiously searched too narrowly pryed into too severely interpreted by private men as they are but such because in so doing the danger and the detriment is thus far likely to fall upon your selves that when the infirmities of the Minister and your infirmities that is their faults and your uncharitable censures of their faults meet together that may produce this ill effect that personall matters may be cast upon the ministeriall function and so the faults of a Minister be imputed to the Ministery and by such a prejudice and conceit of one mans ill life you may lose the taste and comfort of his and perchance of others good Doctrine too All that is covered shall be made manifest sayes Christ You shall know all their faults and you shal know them then when it shall most confound them and least indanger you when it shall aggravate their torment and do you no harme that is at the day of Judgement In the meane time because it might hurt you to know their faults God hath covered their feet so far as that he would not have your looking upon their feet divert you from depending upon their mouths as long as by his permission they sit in Moses chaire and execute Gods Commission If they imploy their middle wings which were ordained for them to flie withall if they do their duties in breaking the bread of life and dispensing the Word and Sacraments and assisting the sicke in body and sicke in soule though God have in part covered their faces that is not imparted to them such gifts or such an open sight into deep points as perchance you desire yet he hath covered their feet too he hath for your sakes removed their faults from your survey as you are but private men Take the benefit of their two middle wings their willingnesse to assist you with their labours and in their other foure wings be not too curious too censorious too severe either their face-wings that is the depth of their learning or their feet-wings that is the holinesse of their lives They have six wings to these severall purposes Singuli senas and singuli senas sayes our Text every one of them hath six wings For for the first couple the face-wings howsoever some of the Ministers of God have gifts above their fellowes howsoever they have gained the names of Doctores Seraphici and Doctores illuminati with which titles they abound in the Roman Church yet their faces are in part covered they must not think they see all understand all The learnedst of all hath defects even in matter of learning And for the second couple the feet-wings howsoever some may make shift for the reputation of being more pure more sanctified then their fellowes yet the best of them all need a covering for their feet too All their steps all their actions will not endure examination But for the last couple however there may be some intimation given of a great degree of perfection in matter of knowledge and in matter of manners for in those creatures which are mentioned in the first of Ezek. which also signifie the Ministers of God there are but foure wings spoken of so that there are no face-wings they have an abundant measure of learning and knowledge And the Cherubim which may also signifie the same persons have but two wings no covering upon face or feet to denote that some may be without any remarkable exception in their doctrine and in their manners too yet for the last couple the two middle wings by which they fly and addresse themselves to every particular soule that needs their spirituall assistance the Ministers of God are never in any figure but represented Better they wanted face-wings and feet-wings discretion to cover either their insufficiency in knowledge or their infirmity in manners then that they should want their middle-wings that is a disposition to apply themselves to their flock and to be alwayes ready to distribute the promises of God and the seals of his promises the Word and Sacraments amongst them And this may be conveniently intended in their wings Now as they were Alati Oculi they were Oculati in our Text They have eyes as well as wings They fly but they know whither they fly In the doctrine of Implicite Obedience in the Roman Church To beleeve as the Church beleeves or as that Confessor which understands not what the Church beleeves makes you beleeve the Church beleeves In their doctrine of that which they call Blind Obedience that is to pursue and execute any commandement of any superiour without any consideration In both these there are wings enow but there are no eyes They fly from hence to Rome and Roman Jurisdictions and they fly over hither againe after Statutes after Proclamations after Banishments iterated upon them So that here are wings enow but they lack those eyes by which they should discerne betweene Religion and Rebellion betweene a Traytor and a Martyr And to take our consideration from them and reflect upon our selves They that fly high at matter of mysterie and leave out matter of edification They that fly over Sea for plat-formes of discipline and leave out that Church that bred them They that fly close to the service of great mens affections and purposes and doe the work of God coldly and faintly They may be Alati but they are not Oculati They may fly high and fly fast and fly far and fly close in the wayes of preferment but they see not their end Not onely not the end that they shall come to but not the end that they are put upon not onely not their owne ends but not their ends whose instruments they are Those birds whose eyes are cieled and sowed up fly highest but they are made a prey God exposes not his servants to such dangers He gives them wings that is meanes to doe their office but eyes too that is discretion and religious wisdome how to doe it And this is that which they seeme
Consistory but that the Pope for a certain time inhibites them to give voice And let Aquinas present his arguments to the contrary That those spirits have no naturall power to know thoughts we seek no farther but that Christ Jesus himselfe thought it argument enough to convince the Scribes and Pharisees and prove himselfe God by knowing their thoughts Eadem Majestate potentia sayes S. Hierome Since you see I proceed as God in knowing your thoughts why beleeve you not that I may forgive his sins as God too And then in the last act he joynes both together he satisfies the patient Dat sanitatem and he satisfies the beholders too he gives him his first desire bodily health He bids him take up his bed and walk and he doth it and he shewes them that he is God by doing that which as it appears in the Story was harder in their opinion then remission of sins which was to cure and recover a diseased man only by his word without any naturall or second means And therefore since all the world shakes in a palsie of wars and rumors of wars since we are sure that Christs Vicar in this case will come to his Dimitmittuntur peccata to send his Buls and Indulgences and Crociatars for the maintenance of his part in that cause let us also who are to do the duties of private men to obey and not to direct by presenting our diseased and paralytique souls to Christ Jesus now when he in the Ministery of his unworthiest servant is preaching unto you by untiling the house by removing all disguises and palliations of our former sins by true confession and hearty detestation let us endeavour to bring him to his Dimittuntur peccata to forgive us all those sins which are the true causes of all our palsies and slacknesses in his service and so without limiting him or his great Vicegerents and Lieutenants the way or the time to beg of him that he will imprint in them such counsels and such resolutions as his wisdome knows best to conduce to his glory and the maintenance of his Gospell Amen SERMON XII Preached upon Candlemas day MAT. 5.2 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God THe Church which is the Daughter of God and Spouse of Christ celebrates this day the Purification of the blessed Virgin the Mother of God And she celebrates this day by the name vulgarly of Candlemas day It is dies luminarium the day of lights The Church took the occasion of doing so from the Gentiles At this time of the yeare about the beginning of February they celebrated the feast of Februus which is their Pluto And because that was the God of darknesse they solemnized it with a multiplicity of Lights The Church of God in the outward and ceremoniall part of his worship did not disdain the ceremonies of the Gentiles Men who are so severe as to condemne and to remove from the Church whatsoever was in use amongst the Gentiles before may before they are aware become Surveyors and Controllers upon Christ himself in the institution of his greatest seales for Baptisme which is the Sacrament of purification by washing in water and the very Sacrament of the Supper it self religious eating and drinking in the Temple were in use amongst the Gentiles too It is a perverse way rather to abolish Things and Names for vehement zeale will work upon Names as well as Things because they have been abused then to reduce them to their right use We dealt in the reformation of Religion as Christ did in the institution thereof He found ceremonies amongst the Gentiles and he took them in not because he found them there but because the Gentiles had received them from the Jews as they had their washings and their religious meetings to eat and drink in the Temple from the Jews Passeover Christ borrowed nothing of the Gentiles but he took his own where he found it Those ceremonies which himself had instituted in the first Church of the Jews and the Gentiles had purloined and prophaned and corrupted after he returned to a good use againe And so did we in the Reformation in some ceremonies which had been of use in the Primitive Church and depraved and corrupted in the Romane For the solemnizing of this Day Candlemas-day when the Church did admit Candles into the Church as the Gentiles did it was not upon the reason of the Gentiles who worshipped therein the God of darknesse Februus Pluto but because he who was the light of the world was this day presented and brought into the Temple the Church admitted lights The Church would signifie that as we are to walk in the light so we are to receive our light from the Church and to receive Christ and our knowledge of him so as Christ hath notified himself to us So it is a day of purification to us and a day of lights and so our Text fits the Day Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God In these words we shall consider first Divisie Qui sint who they are that are brought into consideration that are put into the balance and they are mundi corde such as are pure of heart And secondly Quid sint what they come to be and it is Beati blessed are the pure in heart And lastly Vnde from whence this blessednesse accrews and arises unto them and in what it consists and that is Videbunt Deum blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Gen. 6.5 Ask me wherein these men differ from other men and it is in this main difference Mundi corde that whereas every imagination of the thought of mans heart is only evill continually They are pure of heart Ask me what they get by that They get this main purchase Beati That which all the books of all the Philosophers could never teach them so much as what it was that is true Blessednesse That their pocket book their Manuall their bosome book their conscience doth not only shew them but give them not only declare it to them but possesse them of it Ask me how long this Blessednesse shall last because all those Blessednesses which Philosophers have imagined as honour and health and profit and pleasure and the like have evaporated and vanished away this shall last for ever Videbunt Deum they shall see God and they shall no more see an end of their seeing God then an end of his being God Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God These then are our three parts first the Price mundities cordis cleannesse and cleannesse of heart Secondly the Purchase Beati Blessednesse and present possession of blessednesse Blessed are they And then thirdly the Habendum the term Everlastingnesse because it consists in the enjoying of him who is everlasting They shall see God These arise out of the Text but from whence arises the Text it selfe The Text it self is a piece of a Sermon of
accused in this case of torture Ignorantia Iudicis est calamitas plerumque innocentis sayes that Father for the most part even the ignorance of the Judge is the greatest calamity of him that is accused If the Judge knew that he were innocent he should suffer nothing If he knew he were guilty he should not suffer torture but because the Judge is ignorant and knowes nothing therefore the Prisoner must bee racked and tortured and mangled sayes that Father There is a whole Epistle in S. Hierome full of heavenly meditation and of curious expressions It is his forty ninth Epistle Ad Innocentium where a young man tortured for suspition of adultery with a certaine woman ut compendio cruciatus vitaret sayes he for his ease and to abridge his torment and that he might thereby procure and compasse a present death confessed the adultery though false His confession was made evidence against the woman and shee makes that protestation Tu testis Domine Iesu Thou Lord Jesus be my Witnesse Non ideo me negare velle ne peream sed ideo mentiri nolle ne peccem I doe not deny the fact for feare of death but I dare not belie my selfe nor betray mine innocence for feare of sinning and offending the God of Truth And as it followes in that story though no torture could draw any Confession any accusation from her she was condemned and one Executioner had three blowes at her with a Sword and another foure and yet she could not be killed And therefore because Storie abounds with Examples of this kinde how uncertaine a way of tryall and conviction torture is though S. Augustine would not say that torture was unlawfull yet he sayes It behoves every Judge to make that prayer Erue me Domine à necessitatibus meis If there bee some cases in which the Judge must necessarily proceed to torture O Lord deliver me from having any such case brought before me But what use soever there may be for torture for Confession in the Inquisition they torture for a deniall for the deniall of God and for the renouncing of the truth of his Gospell As men of great place think it concernes their honour to doe above that which they suffer to make their revenges not only equall but greater then their injuries so the Romane Church thinks it necessary to her greatnesse to inflict more tortures now then were inflicted upon her in the Primitive Church as though it were a just revenge for the tortures she received then for being Christian to torture better Christians then her selfe for being so In which tortures the Inquisition hath found one way to escape the generall clamour of the world against them which is to torture to that heighth that few survive or come abroad after to publish how they have been tortured And these first oppose Gods purpose in the making and preserving and dignifying the body of man Transgressors herein in the second kinde are they that defile the garment of Christ Jesus the body in which he hath vouchsafed to invest and enwrap himselfe and so apparell a Harlot in Christs cloathes and make that body which is his hers That Christ should take my body though defiled with fornication and make it his is strange but that I in fornication should take Christs body and make it hers is more Know ye not 1 Cor. 6.15 V. 16. sayes the Apostle that your bodies are the members of Christ And againe Know you not that he that is joyned to a harlot is one body Some of the Romane Emperours made it treason to carry a Ring that had their picture engraved in it to any place in the house of low Office What Name can we give to that sin to make the body of Christ the body of a harlot And yet the Apostle there as taking knowledge that we loved our selves better then Christ changes the edge of his argument and argues thus ver 18. He that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body If ye will be bold with Christs body yet favour your own No man ever hated his own body and yet no outward enemy is able so to macerate our body as our owne licentiousnesse Christ who tooke all our bodily infirmities upon him Hunger and Thirst and Sweat and Cold tooke no bodily deformities upon him he tooke not a lame a blinde a crooked body and we by our intemperance and licentiousnesse deforme that body which is his all these wayes The licentious man most of any studies bodily handsomenesse to be comely and gracious and acceptable and yet soonest of any deformes and destroyes it and makes that loathsome to all which all his care was to make amiable And so they oppose Gods purpose of dignifying the body Transgressors in a third kinde are they that sacrilegiously prophane the Temple of the Holy Ghost by neglecting the respect and duties belonging to the dead bodies of Gods Saints in a decent and comely accompanying them to convenient Funerals Heires and Executors are oftentimes defective in these offices and pretend better employments of that which would be say they vainly spent so But remember you of whom in much such a case that is said in S. Iohn John 12.6 This he said not because he cared for the poore but because he was a Thiefe and had the bagge and bore that which was put therein This Executors say not because they intend pious uses but because they beare and beare away the bagges Generally thy opinion must be no rule for other mens actions neither in these cases of Funerals must thou call all too much which is more then enough That womans Ointment poured upon Christs feet that hundred pound waight of perfumes to embalme his one body was more then enough necessarily enough yet it was not too much for the dignity of that person nor for the testimony of their zeale who did it in so abundant manner Now as in all these three waies men may oppose the purpose of God in dignifying the body so in concurring with Gods purpose for the dignifying thereof a man may exceed and goe beyond Gods purpose in all three God would not have the body torne and mangled with tortures in those cases but then hee would not have it pampered with wanton delicacies nor varnished with forraigne complexion It is ill when it is not our own heart that appeares in our words it is ill too when it is not our own blood that appeares in our cheekes It may doe some ill offices of blood it may tempt but it gives over when it should doe a good office of blood it cannot blush If when they are filling the wrinkles and graves of their face they would remember that there is another grave that calls for a filling with the whole body so even their pride would flow into a mortification God would not have us put on a sad countenance nor disfigure our face not in our fastings and other disciplines God would not have
him but his hinder parts Exod. 33.23 Let that be his Decrees then when in his due time they came to execution for then and not till then they are works And God would not suffer Moses his body to be seene when it was dead Deut. 34.6 because then it could not speake to them it could not instruct them it could not direct them in any duty if they transgressed from any God himselfe would not be spoken to by us but as hee speaks of himselfe and he speaks in his works And as among men some may Build and some may Write and wee call both by one name wee call his Buildings and wee call his Books his Works so if wee will speake of God this World which he hath built and these Scriptures which he hath written are his Works and we speak of God in his Works which is the commandement of this Text when we speak of him so as he hath manifested himselfe in his miracles and as hee hath declared himselfe in his Scriptures for both these are his Works There are Decrees in God but we can take out no Copies of them till God himselfe exemplifie them in the execution of them The accomplishing of the Decree is the best publishing the best notifying of the Decree But of his Works we can take Copies for his Scriptures are his Works and we have them by Translations and Illustrations made appliable to every understanding All the promises of his Scriptures belong to all And for his Miracles his Miracles are also his Works we have an assurance That whatsoever God hath done for any he will doe againe for us It is then his Works upon which we fix this Commemoration Deutipse in operibus illis considerandus and this glorifying of God but so as that wee determine not upon the Work it selfe but God in the Work Say unto God to Him how terrible art thou that God in thy Works It may bee of use to you to receive this note Then when it is said in this Psalme Come and see the Works of God and after Come and heare all yee that feare God in both places it is not Psal 66.5 Verse 16. Venite but Ite It is Lechu not Come but Goe Goe out Goe forth abroad to consider God in his Works Goe as farre as you can stop not in your selves nor stop not in any other till you come to God himselfe If you consider the Scriptures to be his Works make not Scriptures of your owne which you doe if you make them subject to your private interpretation My soule speaks in my tongue else I could make no sound My tongue speaks in English else I should not be understood by the Congregation So God speaks by his Sonne in the Gospel but then the Gospel speaks in the Church that every man may heare Ite goe forth stay not in your selves if you will heare him And so for matter of Action and Protection come not home to your selves stay not in your selves not in a considence in your owne power and wisedome but Ite goe forth goe forth into Aegypt goe forth into Babylon and look who delivered your Predecessors predecessors in Affliction predecessors in Mercy and that God who is Yesterday Heb. 13.8 and to day and the same for ever shall doe the same things which he did yesterday to day and for ever Turne alwayes to the Commemoration of Works but not your owne Ite goe forth goe farther then that Then your selves farther then the Angels and Saints in heaven That when you commemorate your deliverance from an Invasion and your deliverance from the Vault you doe not ascribe these deliverances to those Saints upon whose dayes they were wrought In all your Commemorations and commemorations are prayers and God receives that which wee offer for a Thanksgiving for former Benefits as a prayer for future Ite goe forth by the river to the spring by the branch to the root by the worke to God himselfe and Dicite say unto him say of him Quam terribilis Tu in Tuis which sets us upon another step in this part To consider what this Terriblenesse is that God expresses in his works Though there be a difference between timer and terror Terribilis feare and terror yet the difference is not so great but that both may fall upon a good man Not onely a feare of God must but a terror of God may fall upon the Best When God talked with Abraham a horror of great darknesse fell upon him Gen. 15.12 sayes that Text. The Father of lights and the God of all comfort present and present in an action of Mercy and yet a horror of great darknesse fell upon Abraham When God talked personally and presentially with Moses Exod. 13.6 Moses hid his face for sayes that Text he was afraid to looke upon God When I look upon God as I am bid to doe in this Text in those terrible Judgements which he hath executed upon some men and see that there is nothing between mee and the same Judgement for I have sinned the same sinnes and God is the same God I am not able of my selfe to dye that glasse that spectacle thorow which I looke upon this God in what colour I will whether this glasse shall be black through my despaire and so I shall see God in the cloud of my sinnes or red in the blood of Christ Jesus and I shall see God in a Bath of the blood of his Sonne whether I shall see God as a Dove with an Olive branch peace to my soule or as an Eagle a vulture to prey and to prey everlastingly upon mee whether in the deepe floods of Tribulation spirituall or temporall I shall see God as an Arke to take mee in or as a Whale to swallow mee and if his Whale doe swallow mee the Tribulation devour me whether his purpose bee to restore mee or to consume me I I of my selfe cannot tell I cannot look upon God in what line I will nor take hold of God by what handle I will Hee is a terrible God I take him so And then I cannot discontinue I cannot breake off this terriblenesse and say Hee hath beene terrible to that man and there is an end of his terror it reaches not to me Why not to me In me there is no merit nor shadow of merit In God there is no change nor shadow of change I am the same sinner he is the same God still the same desperate sinner still the same terrible God But terrible in his works Reverendus sayes our Text Terrible so as hee hath declared himselfe to be in his works His Works are as we said before his Actions and his Scriptures In his Actions we see him Terrible upon disobedient Resisters of his Graces and Despisers of the meanes thereof not upon others wee have no examples of that In his word we accept this word in which he hath beene pleased to
without permanency we might call an intermitting ague a good day in a fever health If we could imagine a blessing of plenty without permanency we might call a full stomach and a surfet though in a time of dearth plenty If we could imagine a blessing of peace without permanency we might call a nights sleepe though in the midst of an Army peace but it is onely provision for the permanency and continuance that makes these blessings blessings To thinke of to provide against famine and sicknesse and warre that is the blessing of plenty and health and peace One of Christs principall titles was Esay 9. that he was Princeps pacis and yet this Prince of peace sayes Non veni mittere pacem I came not to bring you peace not such a peace as should bring them security against all warre If a Ship take fire though in the midst of the Sea it consumes sooner and more irrecoverably then a thatched house upon Land If God cast a fire-brand of warre upon a State accustomed to peace it burnes the more desperately by their former security But here in our Text we have a religious King David that first prayes for these blessings for the three former Verses are a prayer and then praises God in the acknowledgement of them for this Text is an acclamatory a gratulatory glorifying of God for them And when these two meet in the consideration of temporall blessings a religious care for them a religious confessing of them prayer to God for the getting praise to God for the having Blessed is that people that is Head and members Prince and subjects present and future people that are so So blessed so thankefull for their blessings We come now Ad dextram dextrae to the right blessedness 2 Part. in the right sense and interpretation of these words to spirituall blessedness to the blessedness of the soule Estne Deo cura de bobus is the Apostles question and his answer is pregnantly implied 1 Cor. 9.9 God hath care of beasts But yet God cared more for one soule then for those two thousand hogges which he suffered to perish in the Sea when that man was dispossessed Mar. 5. A dram of spirituall is worth infinite talents of temporall Here then in this spirituall blessedness as we did in the former wee shall looke first Quid beatitudo what it is and then In quibus in what it is placed here Vt Deus eorum sit Dominus That their God bee the Lord And lastly the extent of it That all the people bee made partakers of this spirituall blessedness This blessedness then you see is placed last in the Text Beatitudo not that it cannot be had till our end till the next life In this case the Nemo ante obitum failes for it is in this life that we must find our God to be the Lord or else if we know not that here we shall meet his Nescio vos he will not know us But it is placed last because it is the waightiest and the uttermost degree of blessendness which can be had To have the Lord for our God Consider the making up of a naturall man and you shall see that hee is a convenient Type of a spirituall man too First in a naturall man wee conceive there is a soule of vegetation and of growth and secondly a soule of motion and of sense and then thirdly a soule of reason and understanding an immortall soule And the two first soules of vegetation and of sense wee conceive to arise out of the temperament and good disposition of the substance of which that man is made they arise out of man himselfe But the last soule the perfect and immortall soule that is immediatly infused by God Consider the blessedness of this Text in such degrees in such proportions First God blesses a man with riches there is his soule of vegetation and growth by that hee growes in estimation and in one kinde of true ability to produce good fruits for he hath wherewithall And then God gives this rich man the blessing of understanding his riches how to employ them according to those morall and civill duties which appertaine unto him and there is his soule of sense for many rich men have not this sense many rich men understand their owne riches no more then the Oaks of the Forrest doe their owne Akorns But last of all God gives him the blessing of discerning the mercy and the purpose of God in giving him these temporall blessings and there is his immortall soule Now for the riches themselves which is his first soule he may have them ex traduce by devolution from his parents and the civill wisedome how to governe his riches where to purchase where to sell where to give where to take which is his second soule this he may have by his owne acquisition and experience and conversation But the immortall soule that is the discerning of Gods image in every piece and of the seale of Gods love in every temporall blessing this is infused from God alone and arises neither from Parents nor the wisedome of this world how worldly wise so ever wee bee in the governing of our estate And this the Prophet may very well seeme to have intimated when he saith Psal 112.1 The generation of the righteous shall be blessed Here is a permanent blessedness to the generation Wherein is it expressed thus Riches and treasure shall bee in his house and his righteousnesse endureth for ever Hee doth not say that Simony or Usury or Extortion shall bee in his house for riches got so are not treasure Nor he doth not say that Riches well got and which are truely a blessing shall endure for ever but his righteousnesse shall endure for ever The last soule the immortall soule endures for ever The blessedness of having studied and learnt and practised the knowledge of Gods purpose in temporall blessings this blessedness shall endure for ever When thou shalt turne from the left to the right side upon thy death bed from all the honours and riches of this world to breathe thy soule into his hands that gave it this righteousness this good conscience shall endure then and then accompany thee And when thine eyes are closed and in the twinckling of his eye that closed thine thy soule shall be gone an infinite way from this honour and these riches this righteousness this good conscience shall endure then and meet thee in the gates of heaven And this is so much of that righteousness as is expressed in this Text because this is the root of all That our God be the Lord. In which In quibus first wee must propose a God that there is one and then appropriate this God to our selves that he be our God and lastly be sure that we have the right God that our God be the Lord. For for the first he that enterprises any thing seeks any thing possesses any thing
constancy in these two Fathers S. Hierome and S. Augustine shake the constancy of that Canon which binds to a following of an unanime consent for that cannot be found Bellarmine expedites himselfe herein that way which is indeed their most ordinary way amongst their Expositors which is where the Fathers differ to adhere to S. Augustine So he doth in this point though most of the Ancients of the Christian Church most of the Rabbins of the Jews most of the Writers in the Reformation take it to be Moses Psalme and that way runs the greatest streame and nearest to a concurrence And thus far I have stopped upon this consideration Whether this be Moses Psalme or no That when it appeares to be his Psalme and that we see that in the tenth verse of this Psalm mans life is limited to seventy years or at most to eighty and then remember that Moses himselfe then when he said so was above eighty and in a good habitude long after that we might hereby take occasion to consider that God does not so limit and measure himselfe in his blessings to his servants but that for their good and his glory he enlarges those measures God hath determined a day from Sun to Sun yet when God hath use of a longer day for his glory he commands the Sun to stand still till Ioshua have pursued his victory So God hath given the life of man into the hand of sicknesse and yet for all that deadly sicknesse God enlarges Hezekiah's years Moses was more then fourescore when he told us that our longest terme was fourescore If we require exactly an unanime consent that all agree in the Author of this Psalme we can get no farther then that the holy Ghost is the Author All agree the words to be Canonicall Scripture and so from the holy Ghost and we seek no farther The words are his and they offer us these considerations First That the whole Psalme being in the Title thereof called a Prayer A Prayer of Moses the man of God it puts us justly and pertinently upon the consideration of the many dignities and prerogatives of that part of our worship of God Prayer for there we shall see That though the whole Psal me be not a Prayer yet because there is a Prayer in the Psalme that denominates the whole Psalme the whole Psalme is a Prayer When the Psalm grows formally to be a Prayer our Text enters O satisfie us early with thy mercy that we may rejoyce and be glad all our dayes And in that there will be two Parts more The Prayer it selfe O satisfie us early with thy mercy And the effect thereof That we may rejoyce and be glad all our dayes So that our Parts are three First Prayer Then this Prayer And lastly the benefit of all Prayer For the first which is Prayer in generall 1 Part. Prayer I will thrust no farther then the Text leads me in that is That Prayer is so essentiall a part of Gods worship as that all is called Prayer S. Hierome upon this Psalme sayes Difficillimum Psalmum aggredior I undertake the exposition of a very hard Psalme and yet sayes he I would proceed so in the exposition thereof ut interpretatio nostra aliena non egeat interpretatione That there should not need another Comment upon my Comment that when I pretend to interpret the Psalme they that heare me should not need another to interpret me which is a frequent infirmity amongst Expositors of Scriptures by writing or preaching either when men will raise doubts in places of Scripture which are plaine enough in themselves for this creates a jealousie that if the Scriptures be every where so difficult they cannot be our evidences and guides to salvation Or when men will insist too vehemently and curiously and tediously in proving of such things as no man denies for this also induces a suspition that that is not so absolutely so undeniably true that needs so much art and curiosity and vehemence to prove it I shall therefore avoid these errors and because I presume you are full of an acknowledgment of the duties and dignities of Prayer onely remember you of thus much of the method or elements of Prayer That whereas the whole Book of Psalms is called Sepher Tehillim that is Liber Laudationum The Book of Praise yet this Psalme and all that follow to the hundredth Psalme and divers others besides these which make up a faire limme of this body and a considerable part of the Book are called Prayers The Book is Praise the parts are Prayer The name changes not the nature Prayer and Praise is the same thing The name scarce changes the name Prayer and Praise is almost the same word As the duties agree in the heart and mouth of a man so the names agree in our eares and not onely in the language of our Translation but in the language of the holy Ghost himselfe for that which with us differs but so Prayer and Praise in the Originall differs no more then so Tehillim and Tephilloth And this concurrence of these two parts of our devotion Prayer and Praise that they accompany one another nay this co-incidence that they meet like two waters and make the streame of devotion the fuller nay more then that this identity that they doe not onely consist together but constitute one another is happily expressed in this part of the Prayer which is our Text for that which in the Originall language is expressed in the voice of Prayer O satisfie us c. in the first Translation that of the Septuagint is expressed in the voice of praise Saturasti Thou hast satisfied us The Original makes it a Prayer the Translation a Praise And not to compare Original with Translation but Translation with Translation and both from one man we have in S. Hieroms works two Translations of the Psalmes one in which he gives us the Psalmes alone another in which he gives them illustrated with his notes and Commentaries And in one of these Translations he reads this as a Prayer Reple nos O fill us early with thy mercie and in the other he reads it as a Praise Repleti sumus Thou hast filled us c. Nay not to compare Originall with Translation nor Translation with Translation but Originall with Originall the holy Ghost with himselfe In the Title of this Psalme and the Titles of the Psalms are Canonicall Scripture the holy Ghost calls this Psalme a Prayer and yet enters the Psalme in the very first verse thereof with praise and thanksgiving Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations And such is the constitution and frame of that Prayer of Prayers That which is the extraction of all prayers and draws into a summe all that is in all others That which is the infusion into all others sheds and showres whatsoever is acceptable to God in any other prayer That Prayer which our Saviour gave us for as he meant to
to need most Pleni for their wings are limited but their eyes are not Six wings but full of eies sayes our Text. They must have eyes in their tongues They must see that they apply not blindly and inconsiderately Gods gracious promises to the presumptuous nor his heavy judgements to the broken hearted They must have eyes in their eares They must see that they harken neither to a superstitious sense from Rome nor to a seditious sense of Scriptures from the Separation They must have eyes in their hands They must see that they touch not upon any such benefits or rewards as might bind them to any other master then to God himselfe They must have eyes in their eyes spirituall eyes in their bodily eyes They must see that they make a charitable construction of such things as they see other men do and this is that fulnesse of eyes which our Text speaks of But then especially Intus sayes our Text They were full of eyes Within The fulnesse the abundance of eyes that is of providence and discretion in the Ministers of God was intimated before In the 6. verse it was said That they were full of eyes before and behind that is circumspect and provident for all that were about them and committed to them But all is determined and summed up in this that They were full of eyes within For as there is no profit at all none to me none to God if I get all the world and lose mine own soul so there is no profit to me if I win other mens soules to God and lose mine owne All my wings shall doe me no good all mine eyes before and behind shall doe me no good if I have no prospect inward no eyes within no care of my particular and personall safety And so we have done with our first generall part the Persons denoted in these foure creatures and the duties of their ministery in which we have therefore insisted thus long that having so declared and notified to you our duties you also might be the more willing to heare of your owne duties as well as ours and to joyne with us in this Open and Incessant and Totall profession of your Religion which is the celebration of the Trinity in this acclamation Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which is which was and which is to come To come therefore now to the second Part 2 Part. and taking the foure Euangelists to be principally intended here but secundarily the Preachers of the Gospel too and not onely they but in a faire extension and accommodation the whole Church of God first we noted their Ingenuitie and opennesse in the profession of their Religion they did it Dicentes Saying declaring publishing manifesting their devotion without any disguise any modification In that song of the three Children in the Fornace Dicentes O all ye works of the Lord c. there is nothing presented speechlesse To every thing that is there there is given a tongue Not onely all those creatures which have all a Beeing but even Privations Privations that have no Beeing that are nothing in themselves as the Night and Darknesse are there called upon to blesse the Lord to praise him and magnifie him for ever But towards the end of that song you may see that service drawne into a narrower compasse You may see to whom this speech and declaration doth principally appertaine For after he had called upon Sun and Moone and Earth and Sea and Fowles and Fishes and Plants and Night and Darknesse to praise the Lord to blesse him and magnifie him for ever Then he comes to O ye children of men Primogeniti Dei Gods beloved creatures his eldest sons and first-borne in his intention And then Domus Israel O ye house of Israel you whom God hath not onely made men but Christian men not onely planted in the World but in the Church not onely indued with Reason but inspired with Religion And then again O ye Priests of the Lord O ye Servants of the Lord those of Gods portion not onely in the Church but of the Church and appointed by him to deale between him and other men And then also O ye spirits and soules of the righteous those whom those instruments of God had powerfully and effectually wrought upon upon those especially those men those Christian men those Priests those sanctified men upon those he calls to blesse the Lord to praise him and magnifie him for ever This obligation the holy Ghost laies upon us all that the more God does for us the more we should declare it to other men God would have us tell him our sins God would have us tell other men his mercies It was no excuse for Moses that he was of uncircumcised lips Exod. 5.12 Ier. 1.6 No excuse for Ieremy to say O Lord God behold I cannot speak for I am a child Credidi propterea locutus sum is Davids forme of argument I beleeved and therefore I spake If thou dost not love to speak of God and of his benefits thou dost not beleeve in God nor that those benefits came from him Remember that when thou wast a child and presented to God in Baptisme God gave thee a tongue in other mens mouthes and inabled thee by them to establish a covenant a contract between thy soule and him then And therefore since God spake to thee when thou couldst not heare him in the faith of the Church since God heard thee when thou couldst not speak to him in the mouth of thy sureties Since that God that created thee was Verbum The Word for Dixit facta sunt God spake and all things were made Since that God that redeemed thee was Verbum The Word for The Word was made flesh Since that God that sanctified thee is Verbum The Word for therefore S. Basil calls the holy Ghost Verbum Dei quia interpres Filii He calls the holy Ghost the Word of God because as the Son is the Word because he manifests the Father unto us so the holy Ghost is the Word because he manifests the Son unto us and enables us to apprehend and apply to our selves the promises of God in him since God in all the three Persons is Verbum The Word to thee all of them working upon thee by speaking to thee Be thou Verbum too A Word as God was A Speaking and a Doing Word to his glory and the edification of others If the Lord open thy lips and except the Lord open them it were better they were luted with the clay of the grave let it be to shew forth his praise and not in blasphemous not in scurrile not in prophane language If the Lord open thy hand and if the Lord open it not better it were manacled with thy winding sheet let it be as well to distribute his blessings as to receive them Let thy mouth let thy hand let all the Organs of thy body all the faculties of thy soule concurre
in the performance of this duty intimated here and required of all Gods Saints Vt dicant That they speak utter declare publish the glory of God For this is that Ingenuity that Alacrity which constitutes our first Branch And then the second is the Assiduity the constancy the incessantnesse They rest not day nor night But have the Saints of God no Vacation Assiduitas doe they never cease nay as the word imports Requiem non habent They have no Rest Beloved God himselfe rested not till the seventh day be thou content to stay for thy Sabbath till thou maist have an eternall one If we understand this of rest meerly of bodily rest the Saints of God are least likely to have it in this life For this life is to them especially above others a businesse and a perplext businesse a warfare and a bloody warfare a voyage and a tempestuous voyage If we understand this rest to be Cessation Intermission the Saints in heaven have none of that in this service It is a labour that never wearies to serve God there As the Sun is no wearier now then when he first set out six thousand yeares since As that Angel which God hath given to protect thee is not weary of his office for all thy perversenesses so howsoever God deale with thee be not thou weary of bearing thy part in his Quire here in the Militant Church God will have low voyces as well as high God will be glorified De profundis as well as In excelsis God will have his tribute of praise out of our adversity as well as out of our prosperity And that is it which is intimated and especially intended in the phrase which followes Day and night For it is not onely that those Saints of God who have their Heaven upon earth doe praise him in the night according to that of S. Ierome Sanctis ipse somnus oratio and that of S. Basil Etiam somnia Sanctorum preces sunt That holy men doe praise God and pray to God in their sleep and in their dreames nor only that which David speaks of of rising in the night and fixing stationary houres for prayer But even in the depth of any spirituall night in the shadow of death in the midnight of afflictions and tribulations God brings light out of darknesse and gives his Saints occasion of glorifying him not only in the dark though it be dark but from the dark because it is dark This is a way unconceiveable by any unexpressible to any but those that have felt that manner of Gods proceeding in themselves That be the night what night it will be the oppression of what Extention or of what Duration it can all this retards not their zeal to Gods service Nay they see God better in the dark then they did in the light Their tribulation hath brought them to a nearer distance to God and God to a clearer manifestation to them And so to their Ingenuity that they professe God and their Religion openly is added an Assiduity that they do it incessantly And then also an Integrity a Totality that they doe not depart with nor modifie in any Article of their Religion which is intirely and totally enwrapt in this acclamation of the Trinity which is our third and last Branch in this last Part Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come For the Trinity it self Trinitas it is Lux but Lux inaccessibilis It is light for a child at Baptisme professes to see it but then it is so inaccessible a light as that if we will make naturall reason our Medium Psal 18.11 to discerne it by it will fall within that of David Posuit tenebras latibulum suum God hath made darknesse his secret places God as God will be seen in the creature There in the creature he is light light accessible to our reason but God in the Trinity is open to no other light then the light of faith To make representations of men or of other creatures we finde two wayes Statuaries have one way and Painters have another Statuaries doe it by Substraction They take away they pare off some parts of that stone or that timber which they work upon and then that which they leave becomes like that man whom they would represent Painters doe it by Addition Whereas the cloth or table presented nothing before they adde colours and lights and shadowes and so there arises a representation Sometimes we represent God by Substraction by Negation by saying God is that which is not mortall not passible not moveable Sometimes we present him by Addition by adding our bodily lineaments to him and saying that God hath hands and feet and eares and eyes and adding our affections and passions to him and saying that God is glad or sorry angry or reconciled as we are Some such things may be done towards the representing of God as God But towards the expressing of the distinction of the Persons in the Trinity nothing Then when Abraham went up to the great sacrifice of his son he left his servants Gen. 22.5 and his Asse below Though our naturall reason and humane Arts serve to carry us to the hill to the entrance of the mysteries of Religion yet to possesse us of the hill it selfe and to come to such a knowledge of the mysteries of Religion as must save us we must leave our naturall reason and humane Arts at the bottome of the hill and climb up only by the light and strength of faith Dimitte me quia lucescit Gen. 32.26 sayes that Angel that wrastled with Iacob Let me go for it growes light If thou think to see me by day-light sayes that Angel thou wilt be deceived If we think to see this mystery of the Trinity by the light of reason Dimittemus we shall lose that hold which we had before our naturall faculties our reason will be perplext and infeebled and our supernaturall our faith not strengthened that way Those testimonies and proofes of the Trinity which are in the old Testament are many and powerfull in their direct line But they are truly for the most part of that nature as that they are rather Illustrations and Confirmations to him that believed the Trinity before then Arguments of themselves able to convince him that hath no such Preconception We that have been catechized and brought up in the knowledge of the Trinity finde much strength and much comfort in that we finde in the first line of the Bible that Bara Elohim Creavit Dii Gods created heaven and earth In this that there is the name of God in the plurall joyned to a Verb of the singular number we apprehend an intimation of divers persons in one God We that believe the Trinity before finde this in that phrase and form of speech The Jews which believe not the Trinity find no such thing So when we finde that plurall phrase Faciamus hominem That God