A Lacedaemonian slave standing to be sold in the market and asked of a chapman what Art he knew I am a free man said he and shall Gods Ambassadors bee the greatest slaves whose very speech being but attired and attended as they ought to be with that majesty and authority which Divine truths carry in their very countenance should command as much reverence as the Pontificall garments in which Iuddus the high Priest met with Alexander the Great who was so affected with that auguste state and bravery of them that he fell downe at his feet and worshipped him as Iosephus records I have done with the instructions a word or two of incouragement I will not be so bold my selfe but I would commend any thing to some that were worthy to put our great Rabbins in mind wherein their honour lies it is not Silks nor Velvets nor Scarlet nor a goodly traine what doe I speake of these it is not Throns nor Dominations nor Powers nor any dignities that can make a man so truly honourable as the preaching of the Gospell to poore soules to be Gods Ambassadors surely they are mistaken they need not feare the frequency in this duty should prove a disparagement or imminution to greatnesse Excellently saith our Saviour All power is given unto me both in Heaven and Earth I will now prefer all my servants and make you Lords and Rulers but wot yee how it followes Go preach to all Nations but this by the way I conclude this with a word to some with whom I may be bold Let no man here that is in a way to the Ministery believe the false spies that raise an ill report upon that good land that flowes with milk and honey I will say no more now but is it thinke you a base thing and sordid to be Ambassadors to the King of Heaven I will repeat it once more because I can scarce heare without some indignation that that should be a maxime in the worlds Heraldrie for earthly Kings once Ambassador ever honourable And it is a base thing to be Ambassadors for the King of Heaven And now I come to the third deduction concerning the people which I must run over I shall not need to tell you that you must not offer any discourtesie to these Ambassadors Ambassadors are inviolable by the law of Nations and the Lord hath set a better mark then Cain had and given them a better pasport touch not mine annointed and do my Prophets no harm And if any should rise up against them I would tell them boldly what one whispered in the Captains eare when he was somthing too busie with Paul Take heed what thou doest this man is a Romane Take heed what thou doest this man is an Ambassador The Romans sacked the famous Corinth and razedit to the ground for a little discourtesie they offer'd to their Ambassadors And what shall the Lord of the Vineyard doe to those husbandmen that beat and ston'd and killd his servants that he sends unto them It is a symptome of a disordered and desperate estate When these Ambassadors are violated we pull all Gods judgements upon our heads with the chaines of our sinnes but this is the linke of the chaine that immediately drawes them It is a remarkable place in the last of the Chronicles Moreover all the chiefe of the Priests and the people transgressed very much after all the abominations of the Heathen and polluted the house of the Lord that he hallowed at Ierusalem here be many links but observe that followes And the Lord God of their Fathers sent to them by his Messengers rising up betimes and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets this is the last linke and ye see judgement fastned chained and linked to it untill the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedie Therefore he brought upon them the Chaldees c. I passe from this When Ehud told the King of Moab I have a Message to thee from God O King he rose from his thron and bowed himself I think it was Francis that said if he should meet a Preacher and an Angell together he would first salute the Preacher and the Angell after I am sure Paul saith of the Galathians that they received him as an Angell of God yea as Iesus Christ and that they would have plucked out their eyes for him how beautifull are the feet of those upon the mountaines that bring the glad tydings of Peace saith the Church in the Prophet the Spouse of Christ is so humble or modest or both that shee dares looke no higher then the feet and yet she spies beautifull written in the very dust of their feet as you have seene a contrary word other where and that in such legible characters that she reads it afar off before they come neare her upon the mountaines as though it had beene written with a Sun beame upon some Easterne hill in a goodly morning and those letters printed such affection in her that being not able to expresse it by art shee throwes down her pensill as you have heard of the Painter and expresses it with a passion or rather she shadowes that she could not set forth in a patheticall exclamation How beautifull are the feet of those upon the mountaines that bring glad tydings of peace and what she did in speeches Mary in the Gospell spake in deed she fell downe at the feet of Christ she broke her box of precious ointment and powred it upon them she let fall a shower of more precious tears penitent teares are something like to pearls but that they are more precious with which she washed them she wiped them with a most precious towell the haires of her head me thinks these golden haires were like to threads of gold with which Mary tyed her self as it were in a true lovers knot to her best beloved Saviour Would you know plainly what entertainment you must give these Ambassadors I will tell you in a word Give attention credit obedience to their words if they thunder and lighten out of Mount Sinai if the Lion roare let the proudest beast in the forrest quake and tremble if Mount Sion let fall her silver drops if the silver trumpet of the Gospell sound peace and comfort let the poorest worm forget that he creeps upon the earth and think he hath a title to Heaven I know you long till I make an end and so do I too To conclude therefore I wish you could forget all that hath beene spoken and blot it out of your memory to fasten this one thing which I am now to say Let this be our remembrance when we go to the Lords house I go now to heare what Gods Ambassadors shall say unto me they that dresse themselves to go with any colder or baser conceits may well bee checked as Caligula
Tygers feared but is become by his owne fault a slave of the creatures an heire of Hell a vessell of dishonour a child of the Divell in soule and body and both the very sinke of sinne and shame and misery Heu quantum Niobe Niobe distabat ab illâ Is not this the man from God Surely if the Heathen did not understand their owne meaning I cannot tell but their words are very good and I dare avouch with them out of better Oracles than Apollo's de Coelo descendit Know thy selfe I proceed he that teaches clearely of a strange marriage the Divine nature with the Humane and yet a stranger a marriage of justice and mercy a sweet marriage of a Virgin that was Mother of a God and an Infant that was God and Man of a God that was man beginning growing hungring thirsting ' wearie weeping bleeding and that which was the wonder of wonders dying of a man that was God rising from the grave powerfully ascending into Heaven triumphantly sitting at the right hand of God royally trampling under his feet sinne Hell and death and Sathan victoriously and returning to judge the quick and the dead gloriously is not this man from God To conclude he that teaches sweetly of humiliation by the law of vocation by the Gospell justification by Christ reconciliation with God sanctification from sinne resurrection from the dead the terrible day of judgement the glory of the Saints the torments of the wicked and the like I will not aske you any more but I tell you plainly that man is from God For behold in these truths not a beame of Divinitie such as Plato spied in all arts but a body or rather not a shadow for his beame was no more the word may be ambiguous but a perfect body of Divinity Neither is it possible that any man should invent or conceive these sublime mysteries by naturall reason since we see evidently that no man can so much as accept or receive them being taught without a supernaturall faith And therefore as Telemachus said when he saw a great light which guided his father and him in a darke roome surely there is some god in it So let every one confesse when he heares these things from the mouth of Gods Ambassadors Non vox hominem sonat Never any man spake as he spake as they said of Christ I might adde something of that divine precept of moralitie farre beyond the straine of Philosophy for though the Academicks Stoicks Peripateticks and Epicures travailed much in these Observations and went farre yet how short do they come For here we have Rules more naturall than the Epicures which made pleasure their Empresse and themselves her Parasites more humane then the Peripateticks which made Reason their Mistresse and themselves her Schollars more Heroicall then the Stoicks which made Vertue their Goddesse and themselves her Votaries more divine then the Academicks which made God there Idoll I understand their Idea which they did not understand and themselves his idolaters and so excelling every one of these great professors in their severall projects The end remaines which I will dispatch in a word It is the salvation of man the most noble and necessary worke in all the world and most beseeming the greatnesse and goodnesse and wisdome of God to take into his speciall consideration and providence man being his husbandry as the earth is mans And therefore it is absurd as Plutarch hath well observed to take the best things out of the compasse of Gods foreknowledg To shut up this it is absurd to thinke that Solon Lycurgus Numa published their lawes as the Heathen did from the gods and that Ministers doe not preach the Gospell from God since they brought many things against the rule of reason and nothing above the reach of nature but these teach nothing against the rule of nature but many things above the reach of reason It is absurd that every petty beuefactor of mankind should be deified and these founders I may terme them vilified that they should be esteemed gods even to the vilest vermine among the Egyptians and these should not be esteemed so much as Gods Ambassadors The blind Heathen could not choose but see some splendor of Divinitie in these things The Critick Longinus observed out of the description of the creation of the World in the 1. of Genesis that Moses was no ordinary man and besides that Imperatoria brevitas which Tacitus speakes of he saw so much majestie in the relation In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth and God said let there be Light and there was Light let there be Earth and there was Earth that he confesses that narration had a seemely character and cognizance of the Divine power set upon it The Platonick Ammonius also so admired the storie of the Divine generation of Christ in the first of S. Iohns Gospell In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God that he judged those words worthy to be written in golden Letters and prefixed on the gates of all Temples The men of Lystri likewise in the Acts hearing the Apostles Paul and Barnabas were so convinced in their consciences that their Doctrine was divine that they were something transported in their judgements to thinke their persons were divine and therefore would needs have worshipped them as gods with Priests and Buls and Garlands and Sacrifice And if I would give you a short draught of some truths as they have degenerated into fables among the Heathen I might make them seeme with oce labour more perspicuous and more precious for as their unlikenesse to themselves crossing and thwarting one another confute themselves so their likenesse to the truth intimating and as it were acting it must needs confirme the truth The tales of the golden Apples and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Hesperidum horti and Adonis Garden of the fiery Dragons that kept them answering either to the flaming sword of the Cherubim or the Serpent to the true Paradise the Garden of Eden to the Apples of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evel are sufficient for a taste But it were a shame for me once to name these fabulous legends since I did but name the Heavenly truth which they have adulterated To conclude I thinke none but Davids foole that hath said in his heart there is no God can find in his heart to say the messengers of these things are not Gods Ambassadors For as for the rule of happinesse it selfe which I touched in the last step of my former gradation I wonder not if men of the earth did errare toto coelo they were ignorant of the three forenamed grounds and it could not be therefore otherwise they could not take the height of Gods excellencie in his nature and workes and therefore could not sound the depth of mans misery in his fall they were ignorant of the
wanton and lascivious Rhetorick makes the immortall seed of Gods Word more unfruitfull like a sword wrapped in wooll that cannot cut like an Oke embraced with the flattering Ivie that will not thrive and prosper I doe not condemne Rhetorick the genuine tropes and figures in a solid speech are like arrowes in the hand of a mighty man as the Psalmist saith in another case blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of them And as the Philosopher said of Oyle observing the use to be good but the abuse to be great Male sit illis cinaedis said he qui rem optimam pessime infamârunt so may I say the use is good but the abuse is great of eloquence and therefore away with these effeminate and unmanly Orators that have cast a shrewd aspersion upon a noble profession As for the modest and sober use that is true of Divinitie which Seneca said of Philosophy that is true of eloquence which he said of wit Philosophia non renunciat ingenio Theologianon renunciat eloquentiae for there is an eloquence in the Scripture which is more then eloquence the Rhetoricians may call theirs an Allurement of the soule but this is a transmigration as I told you theirs may perfundere animum but this doth perfringere they may delight but this doth ravish with a divine Enthysiasme theirs is properly oratory but this is to speake more properly Imperatory which is then most full of Affection when it is most free from affectation theirs is more Scholasticall but this is more majesticall as best becomes the mouth of Princes as the noble Lord of Plesis hath well noted of the stile of the Scripture But the best of their nervi and tâ—ri the best sinewes and strength is but as Longinus observs of some childish Orators their schoole wit through curiosity ends in folly or frigidity and chilnesse in comparison of this To end this I can beare well that they brag of their Arculae Myrothesia and Lecythi like some deformed woemen of their boxes out of which they draw a painted and greasie beautie But I cannot brook that they should speake of thunder and lightning in their Orators ignorant and silly men as though these fiery Meteors were bred or did appeare in this lower Region so far from Heaven No no as they said once of Christian Souldiers that they were Fulminatrix Legio so I may say of the celestial Hierarchie of the Angels of the Churches the Lords Ministers that is Fulminatrix Regio and if I be not deceived he should not be much amisse that should call the Pulpit the shop of thunder all other Pericles have but brutum fulmem in comparison of that as you may conceive out of that which hath beene spoken and that which is the wonder in this all this is without any pomp or shew not with great pompe but with great weaknesse and infirmity rather which argues the evidence of the Spirit and the power of God the more strongly I conclude therefore As one said of Demetrius Pompeii libertus who spake much but had nothing to doe when Pompey himselfe who did all but said but little I regard not said he what thou sayest but what he doth silently so may we say it skils not so much what the Minister said outwardly as what the Spirit workes inwardly since the efficacie of their words depend not so much upon themselves because they are good orators as upon the Spirit of God because they are Gods Orators Gods Ambassadors I have finished now the explication of the intensive efficacie I must adde a word of their extensive for so I was constrained to call them for distinction sake I meane it thus If you take a view of the whole world you shall scarce find a region of which the Ministers of the Gospell may not say as he in the Poet Quae Regio in terris nostri non plena laboris The Sects of Philosophers were distinguished by the names of Italick and Ionick as Laertius tels us but Religion is characterized and known by the name of Catholike Now wee know there is nothing commonly received but either by the law of nature in morall or by the law of nations in politicall affaires Now the faith of Christ preached by the Ministers being dispersed over all and not imprinted in all by either of those it cannot be but probable that it proceeds from the grace of God who is the God of nature Againe as the great Mathematician said once to the King let me have a place to stand on and I will move the earth implying that the moving of this earth could not be supposed without a firme standing on some other earth granted so the moving of the whole earth by the Ministers to the embracing of the faith must needs evince a fixing of them in Heaven from whence they are sent and the rather because of that great opposition which they find every where which will compell us to grant the former supposition You have seene the Embleme of an earth beseiged round with many windes the Devill on the one side blowing and the Pope the Divels instrument on the opposite side blowing and the Cardinals the Popes agents on each side betweene them blowing and the Turke at another corner blowing and all to shake this earth and yet notwithstanding all these the word is written in it immobilis the word is written in indeleble characters and it is unmoovable and it may well be said of all these blowers as the Orator said of the Athenians comparing them to men running up an Hill they blow hard but runne slow The Earth is the Ministers of the Gospell and that Word which they preach all those and many other lay their heads together to blow it away but all in vaine for the finger of God hath written immobilis upon them and his decree is like the Medes and Persians that cannot be changed but what he hath written he hath written Nulla litura in Decretis sapientum t is true of God and good reason the Spirit as the wind bloweth where it listeth as Christ saith and it is folly at least if not madnesse as Pythagoras speaks to blow against the winds The Word is like the Lampe that is unquenchable in the storie which laughs at the winds ridebis ventos saith he that swell and puffe and blow against it but it cannot blow it out and they that carry it are like the Persian Souldiers which they call immortall of whom the world may say as they did once of the Grecians in that Epigramme whom they thought invulnerable we shoot at them but they fall not downe we wound them and not kill them In a word as Gamaliel said of the Apostles preaching if it be of God it will prevaile we may invert it and say most truly if it prevaile thus against all opposition surely it is of God they are men of his right hand
If you aske me whence this comes I answer as Christ in another case Ab initio non fuit sic for as I told you before and now tell you againe Man was created the most glorious piece of this goodly frame a Citizen of Heaven Inhabitant of Paradise Brother of the Angels Lord of the Creatures Sonne of the Almightie even the glorious image of the Lord of glory the lively picture of the living God his body being graced with many ornaments and his soule adorned with many graces so that Heaven and Earth might seeme to have beene maried in his making Now then man was no sooner made but he rebelled against his maker he that was right was fat and kicked against his Lord and we in him we were sonnes of prevarication and the sonnes of perdition Ex illo fluere from that fountaine springs all our miserie we have all sinned against the Lord and therefore this great evil is upon us hence it is that our minds are blind the Crowes of the valley have picked out our eyes our wil 's lame to any thing that is good our nature catcht a fall like Mephibosheth in the cradle of her infancie and we could never outgrow it hence it is that our bodies are subject to deformities infirmities death our soules and bodies to the wrath of God which lies heavie upon us here prosecuting us with armies of plagues and will never leave us till it hath brought us unlesse his mercy prevent us to eternall torments and sunck us into the bottome of Hell No marvaile then if Plato complaine that the soule hath broke her wings if Poets tell us of an iron age if whole volumes be filled with declamations of the brevitie of mans life and the miseries of mankind No I marvaile not if they who had but one eye saw these things even through the cloudes of obscuritie I marvaile rather that among Christians who have both their eyes the eye of reason and the eye of faith and besides live in the Sunneshine of the Gospell so few see this as they did or at least the reason of this which they could not I marvaile I heare no more cry out with S. Paul O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death for if Paul so pathetically cryed out who could so triumphantly give thanks how much more justly may we if we cannot adde that which follows reiterate the same againe and say O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Ye see now the misery of a naturall man consisting in the conscience of sinne and the consequence of sinne the fault and the guilt malum culpae malum poenae this is the miserie of man which estranges him farre from the state of happines and out of this ye may gather what salvation is For every Salve supposes a Sore and the sore is sinne and paine and therefore the salve is that which will free us from this horrible condition and restore and re-estate us into the favour of the Lord and so into our former felicitie This is that which I meane by Salvation And thus am I falne into the second point That Christ is a sufficient Saviour The Sunne shines not so cleare in his strength as this truth I hope shall shine though through my weaknesse for to let passe all that might bee alleadged for it and to make use of those grounds onely which have beene laid already Yet it will be more then evident for as you heard Salvation is the redeeming us from that miserable condition in which by nature we lie plunged most deservedly and restoring us to that happy state which we should have enjoyed had we continued in our integrity But Christ Iesus hath performed both these for us therefore he is a sufficient Saviour The proofe of the Proposition was provided for before the Assumption I will make good in the parts For first Christ hath redeemed us from all our misery whether sinne the roote or punishment the fruit be considered 1. He hath taken away all sinne both our originall impuritie by the originall purity of his manhood which was therefore sanctified in his conception by the worke of the Holy Ghost that it might be exempted from the common condition of corruption and our actuall impietie by the actuall observance of the whole Law of God The Pharisees could not take him tripping in a word though they laid many traines to intrap him The High Priests could lay nothing to his charge though they hired false witnesses against him Pilate himselfe was constrained through the innocencie of his cause ceremonially to justifie him by washing his hands though he were constrained through the importunitie of his enemies judicially to proceed against him and so spill blood guiltlesse Thus was Christ Iesus the Lambe without spot the Israelite without guile fairer then the children of men that so he might take away the pollution of our nature with which we were wholly defiled And this was his active obedience wherein hee did that which we should have done but could not exactly fulfilling even the rigorous exaction of all Gods Commandements 2. The Punishment of sinne he tooke away likewise by suffering and overcomming that which we must have suffered but could not overcome even the full viols of Gods wrath and the weight of his hand the heavie weight of his heavie wrath which was due to us for our offences for he tooke not on him our nature only but the infirmities of our nature hee that was rich became poore for our sakes that we which were poore might be made rich hee that was cloathed with majestie as with a garment became naked that we might be decked with the robes of his righteousnesse he that was annointed with the oile of gladnesse above his fellowes wept that all teares might be wiped from our eyes he whose throne was in the Heavens wandred and had not whereon to rest his head that he might lead us who had lost our selves in the Labyrinth of sinne to eternall rest and fix us like starres in the Firmament Doe you believe in him for these things as he once said to Nathaniel follow me a little with your attention and you shall see greater things then these For he tooke upon him the chastisements of our sinnes and bare the burden of our iniquities he was accused that wee might be acquitted he was condemned that wee might be condoned he was accursed that wee might be acquitted he was hanged upon the Crosse and accounted a sinner that our sinnes might be crossed out of the booke of accounts and we might be accounted holy and righteous and wholly righteous Who now shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect Take a view of all the enemies they were three like the three sonnes all terrible Gyants terrible to all the sonnes of Adam Sinne Death and Hell If the Lord had not beene on our side may we now say if
men of God Gods Ambassadors There is no gainsaying Demosthenes words t is true of the power of the Spirit in the word of the Ministers as it was said of Steven his enemies could not so much as stand against the wisdome of the Spirit of God that was in him but fell downe as Dagon did before the Arke The tale of the Dragon and his traine the false Prophet is the taile saith Isaiah and the Pope is the false Prophet as may appeare out of the Revelation the taile of the Dragon the Pope may draw the third part of the stars out of heaven but the gates of Hell cannot prevail gainst any part of a starre in the right hand of Christ O thence it is that they are so invincible 2. CORINTH 5. 20. Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God YOu have seene a Larke upon a fine Sunn-shine day mounting and singing not to the Sunne as Cardan tels of strange flowers that make strange hymns to the Moone but as Clemens Alexandrinus speaks of the quire of Grashoppers one of which leapt upon the Musicians Harpe and supplyed the want of a string that chanced to crack in the midst of his song to the most wise God the inventer of musick a song of thanksgiving to him that taught her the art of singing and so she climbes aloft with her prety note peiring and peiring as though she would peire into the secrets of Heaven but on the suddaine when you have long expected what newes shee would bring from thence you have seene her fall silently to the earth againe me thinkes those Ministers may be said to be like those Larkes fly like Larkes and fall like Larks which rise much in the contemplative of their discourse nothing in the practicall which in the explication of truths wind up their auditors understanding to so high a pitch that they seeme to carry them into Heaven and make them read distinctly in the volumnes of eternitie but in the application so slacken their hand that they let their affections fall againe and have them where they found them at the first on earth And therfore I will crave leave to spend this exercise wholly in such instructions as may be profitably deducted out of that which hath beene formerly delivered You have heard the proportion betweene the Ministers of God and the messengers of Princes how they are Ambassadors the compulsion and necessity of the sending of these why there needed Ambassadors the election of these why such meane men were made Ambassadors the confirmation of the point that these meane men are notwithstanding Gods Ambassadors and this the last time where the last proofe was from the efficacie of their Ministerie as it was upon the heart in which respect that may be said of all which was said of Luther that he spake as if he had beene within a man in that it was a great worke upon the heart a resurrection a regeneration a new creation in that it was against the propension of the subject the heart of man opposing it in that it was without any great preparation of art and eloquence in which respects though there had never beene any miracle to seale their preaching yet it may be said of the doctrine it selfe as the Thomists say of their Master Aquinas Etsi nullis in vita sua nec morte miraculis claruisset c. to warrant his canonization for a Saint yet his doctrine would be sufficient quot enim articulos tot miracula so many articles as he wrote so many miracles God wrought by him quilibet enim est unum miraculum say they and may not I say so many articles of Religion so farre above naturall reason as they have perswaded men to believe so many miracles have they wrought Lastly in that it hath prevailed over the whole world in spite of all enemies and opposition in which respect I may not unfitly paralell the triumph of the Word of God concerning Christ with the triumph of Christ himselfe described in the 19. of the Revelation who is called the Word of God not without some reference to this I thinke And I saw Heaven opened and behold a white Horse and he that sate upon him was called faithfull and true and in righteousnesse he doth judge and make warre his eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crownes and he had a name written that no man knew but himselfe and he was cloathed in a vesture dipt in blood and his name is called the Word of God and out of his mouth goeth a sharpe sword that with it he should smite the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron c. I might improove this text but that I make haste to the observations that follow which I must passe over in a word because I have many things to speake and am loth to trouble memorie The first of which concernes those that enter into the ministery It is reported of three Romane Ambassadors appointed for Bythinia one of which had his head full of scarres the second did vecordia laborare and the third had the gout in his feet of whom Cato said scoffingly that Romana legatio neque caput neque cor neque pedes haberet and it were great pity that Gods Ministers which are his Ambassadors should be such as might be obnoxious to any just obloquy of the World for any grosse defects it would well become the Church of God the Spouse of Christ which weares the keyes of authority at her girdle as I noted heretofore to turne the key against all those that would presume to enter into this great office and charge and had not good cardes to shew for it that should be found defective either in sound understanding or syncere affection or unblameable conversation either in head or heart or feet Princes count it a point of honour to send those that are fit and in this case it is a shrewd presumption that those that are not fit were never sent by God who is so jealous of his honour they may bee uncased for counterfeits that have not these gifts to shew as it were letters of credit from their Master There is indeed a latitude and it were folly to disable every one that cannot fill Procrustes bed but it is wisdome again to measure every one and stretch them out by Pauls Canons as Nazianzen speaks that they should be of good behaviour apt to teach at the least it is not necessary every one shonld be a golden mouth'd Chrysostom but who ever heard of dumb Orators dumbe Ambassadors much is required of them they must instruct exhort reprove correct c they must be wise and learned and meeke and zealous or to use Nazianzens word they must be in a word heavenly they should reflect some splendor back upon their honours
that by God himselfe he that promised him prophecyed of him for Christ was that Seede of the woman which brake the head of the Serpent and therefore was borne of a woman onely a Virgin that had not knowne a man the Virgin Mary and therefore at the very time when hee fulfilled this promise when hee hung upon the Crosse he said to his Mother woman behold thy sonne meaning Iohn to whose care he committed her woman not mother intimating that he was that seed of the woman of whom God foretold so long ago that seed of the woman that brake the head of the Serpent the counsell of the Divell Goe now to Abraham what was the Religion of Abraham and his familie the Lord himselfe hath left it recorded Abraham saw my day and rejoyced this then was Abrahams joy and Abrahams Religion even the expectation of the promised seed which was the soule of the covenant that God made with him the seale whereof was Circumcision an image of his bloodshed and therefore Isaac the sonne of promise if he had not beene called Isaac the sonne of laughter because Sarah laughed in the Tent doore when she heard the newes of a sonne saying Shall I that am barren beare a sonne in mine old age he might have beene called Isaac the sonne of laughter because Abraham saw his day who was indeed the sonne of promise and rejoyced For Isaac was not that promised seed of which God said in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed for by the same reason should many more be that seed even all that proceeded out of the loines of Ahraham in the line of Isaac which were like the starrs of the Heaven in number but God said not in thy seeds as of many saith S. Paul but of thy seed as of one which was Christ in thy seed in this thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed For Isaac was but a type of that seed and represented him in many resemblances Isaac was borne of Sarah a barren woman and past beareing Iesus was borne of Mary an unspotted virgin springing like a branch out of a drie land as Esay speakes like a stone hewen out of a rocke without hands as Daniel sayes Isaac bare the wood which should have consumed him Iesus bare the wood of the Crosse on which he was crucified Isaac was bound Iesus was bound Isaac should have beene offered for a sacrifice Iesus was offered a sacrifice for the sinns of the world Isaac on Mount Moriah Iesus as some thinke on Mount Moriah from Isaac arose the proverbe in the Mount will the Lord be seene in Iesus it is much more true for no man hath seene the father at any time but the sonne and no man can see the Father but he to whom the sonne hath revealed him and in him we see all the love of God for behold what love the Father hath given us that he hath sent his only begotten sonne into the world that who so believeth in him might not perish but have life everlasting Many such like types had those times like prospective Glasses to conveigh their glimmering sight to the only object of happinesse Christ Iesus as Iacob who got the blessing in his elder brothers garment and Ioseph who was stripped of his coate sold by Iudahs motion stood before Pharaoh at thirty yeares old whose coate dipped in blood turn'd the wrath of his Father from his brethren even as Christ was stripped by the Souldiers sold by Iudas treason stood before God in his office about thirty yeares old and in whose blood we being dipped are delivered from the wrath of God the Father From hence then we passe to the time under the Law where we shall finde nothing but Christ neither Indeed all things then were more obscurely delivered untill the day came and the shadowes fled away as Salomon speakes even untill Christ came who was the substance of those ceremonies and untill the ceremonies fled away which were the shadowes of that substance yet were they not destitute of all light Take an Emblem of their condition The children of Israel in their journey into the Land of Canaan where guided by the conduct of a Pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night their day was something overcast with a cloud and yet their darknesse was something overcome with a light they had a day but not without some eclipse of a cloud they lived in a night of darknes yet not without some glimpse of light for the Lord led them to the heavenly Canaan with a pillar of cloud by day and by night with a pillar of fire And perhaps the Psalmist may insinuate so much where he sayes Thy word is a Lanthorne to my feet for a Lanthorne argues much darknesse and is used in the night only as for the day madnesse it were splendente sole lucernam accendere but againe it argues some light for otherwise why was it kindled Neither is Peter farre from this allusion when he compares the Word of the Prophets which the Israelites enjoyed to a light shining in a darke place Agreeable to the first adumbration ther was a day but with a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire but by night and here wee have a light but of a Lanthorne a light shining but in a darke place this was then the state of Religion Now all the light they had was borrowed from Christ as the starres do theirs from the Sun and all lead us to Christ againe as little Rivers to the Ocean See this 1. In their Sacraments their ordinary Sacraments were Circumcision and the Passeover answerable to those we have Baptisme and the Lords Supper which both had reference to the same inward grace though there were a difference in the outward elements for what meant the blood shed in Circumcision and sprinkled on their doore-posts in the Passeover but the blood of Christ shed for the remission of sinnes and sprinkled in our hearts to purge and cleanse all our iniquities for Christ was the true Paschall Lambe in whom therefore the law of it was fulfilled Not a bone of him shall be broken and of whom Iohn sayes Behold the Lambe of God that taketh away the sinnes of the world Christ is the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the World for that purpose and the very name of Passeover notes as much for in Christ it pleased God when he judges all the World in mercy to passe over us and when he passed over all the World in justice to take his elect in mercy and make them his children Yea Christ himself therefore when hee had celebrated the Passover with his Disciples instituted the Sacrament of his body and blood to shew that he was that truth of which the Lambe was but a representation And in that Passeover we may discerne a modell of our Supper they must eat it with sowre hearbs to wit repentance and
them new Sepulchers and adore them as the Pharisees did in Christs time If Christ be sufficient then why doe you not make an Index expurgatorius for the Bible as the Jesuites have done already for the Fathers and spung out all but Christ crucified for that is sufficient whereas the Scripture sayes all Scripture is inspired of God profitable c. and Christ himself sayes that he came to fulfill not to disanull the Scripture You heare what the curious Rabbins may object I dare not undertake to relate what answer the Apostle might make them lest I should sinke under the gravitie of so great a person you may presume it was divine sed nostro non referenda sono But yet because it concernes the Text I have in hand very nearely I will endeavour in that respect to give satisfaction Every word of God is pure like Gold tryed in the fire seven times and what was said of the Orator that the addition or detraction of a word would marre the grace or clyp the meaning of their sentence is most true in Gods word and therefore we read this just and severe sanction of his Books authority he that adds to this booke God shall adde to him all the plagues that are written in this booke hee that detracts any thing his name shall be razed out of the book of life and what was said in another case is most true in this not an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the least letter nor the least tittle thereof shall passe because not so much as one of them is idle or superfluous And for profit the very leaves thereof are for the healing of the nations and the fruit is the fruit of the tree of life the leaves are physicke and the fruit is meate the fruit is preservative and the leaves are restorative the leaves are health the fruit is immortality for this book is not for sight but for meat as appeares by Iohn who ate the booke that the Angell gave him beside that it is sweeter then the hony and the hony combe as David that hath tasted hath testified How then this resolution of S. Paul doth not abolish the Scripture but establish it for Christ crucified and faith in him is the summe and scope of all the Scripture And thus you see I have overtaken or rather met with the same point and in the same place where I left it the last time for as you may remember after I had treated of the sufficiency of faith in Christ I propounded consequently that it was the summe of Divinitie and the scope of the Scripture that it was the summe of Divinitie as I could I then evinced by casting up the reckoning of both the parts thereof faith and obedience which amounted to no more but this for wee found that Christ was the foundation of faith and the fountaine of obedience the Iacobs Ladder of ascent and descent descent of God to man ascent of man to God and as the Spouse speaks in the Ganticles he is Sigillum cordis Sigillum brachii for he is the stampe of faith in the heart that is Sigillum cordis and he is the stampe of good works in the hand that is Sigillum brachii in the hands the following character but in the heart the leading character for he is both Sigillum cordis and Sigillum brachii as the Spouse speaks in the Canticles Thus is Christ the summe of Divinitie It remaines now then that we should cleare the other that he is the Scope of all the Scripture which I will do first in generall and so leade you on into the particulars In generall this may be demonstrated by that which hath been before delivered for if faith in Christ be the Epitome of the Rule of Divinitie then needs must it be so likewise of the Scripture that containes that Rule and that in a double respect 1. As the immutable substance of the Rule is considered the substance was alway that which leads man to eternall Salvation which is by Christ Iesus only and this is the maine scope of the Scripture in generall For all the sonnes of Adam being guilty of high treason against the most High the hand writing of the Law inditeing us Heaven and earth witnessing against us the Grand jurie of the blessed Angels finding us guiltie our owne consciences answering guilty what remaines but to heare the terrible sentence of condemnation pronounced against us by the mouth of the most just Judge the Lord Almightie Yet the mercy of the Lord was such that when the Law had cast us the Lord called us to pardon And as the Clergie of our Land is priviledged in many cases to have their booke so was it his pleasure to give his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his inheritance his peculiar their booke that by their booke they may be saved and this booke is the booke of the Scripture The Scripture againe is the Letter of the Almightie to the sonnes of men as one cals it indited by God himselfe and the Angell of his great counsell Christ Iesus for so Esay stiles him together with his Spirit penned by his principall Secretaries the holy Prophets and Apostles and sealed with the blood of the Lamb let me goe a little further they are the Literae laureatae the Superscription is To the faithfull the Salutation is Salutem in Christo The Argument is nothing but a Proclamation of a generall pardon in his name to all penitent and believing sinners This is the Summe of the Scriptures in generall and this is the first demonstration that Christ is the summe thereof because Divinitie and it like two twinnes keepe pace with a mutuall correspondency like two parallels runne on in equall extent beginning and ending both together and the summe of the one is the summe of the other and the summe of both is eternall happines which is to bee looked for and can bee found in Christ alone 2. This is the first proportion we find between them the second offers it selfe to your consideration as the Scripture may be accommodated to the mutable circumstances of the Rule according to the difference of time before and after Christ. The Lord made in the beginning duo magna Luminaria the great to rule the day and the lesse to rule the night the Sunne and the Moone Much like to this there be two portions of the light which God hath revealed concerning our salvation given to guide two times the old Testament the lesser light like the Moone to rule the night of ignorance when the Doctrine of the Messiah was more obscurely delivered the New the greater light like the Sun to rule the day of knowledge which the faithfull have injoyed ever since Christ the Sunne of righteousnesse appeared When it was night there must needs be many Ceremonies like many shadowes and many humours by reason of the feeble light and heat the influence of the Moone