are the People that be so Yea blessed are the People whose God is the Lord. THe first part of this Text hath relation to temporall blessings Blessed is the people that be so The second part to spirituall Yea blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. His left hand is under my head saith the Spouse Cant. 2.6 That sustaines me from falling into murmuring or diffidence of his Providence because out of his left hand he hath given me a competency of his temporall blessings But his right hand doth embrace mee saith the Spouse there His spirituall blessings fill me possesse me so that no rebellious fire breaks out within me no outward tentation breaks in upon me So also sayes Solomon againe Prov. 3.16 In her left hand is riches and glory temporall blessings and in her right hand length of dayes all that accomplishes and fulfils the eternall joyes of the Saints of heaven The person to whom Solomon attributes this right and left hand is Wisedome And a wise man may reach out his right and left hand to receive the blessings of both sorts And the person whom Solomon represents by Wisedome there is Christ himselfe So that not onely a worldly wiseman but a Christian wiseman may reach out both hands to both kinds of blessings right and left spirituall and temporall And therefore Interrogo vos filios regni coelorum saith S. Augustine Let mee ask you who are sonnes and heires of the Kingdome of Heaven Progeniem Resurrectionis in aeternum You that are the off-spring of the Resurrection of Christ Jesus and have your resurrection in his Membra Christi Templa Spiritus Sancti You that are the very body of Christ you that are the very temples of the Holy Ghost Interrogo vos Let me ask you for all your great reversion hereafter for all that present possession which you have of it in an apprehensive faith and in a holy conversation in this life for all that blessednesse Non est isba saelicitas Is there not a blessednesse in enjoying Gods temporall blessings here too Sit licèt sed sinistra saith that Father It is certainely a blessednesse but a left handed blessednesse a weaker a more imperfect blessednesse then spirituall blessings are As then there is dextra and sinistrabeatitudo a right handed and a left handed blessednesse in the Text so there is dextra and sinistra Interpretatio a right and a left Exposition of the Text. And as both these blessednesses temporall and spirituall are seales and testimonies of Gods love though not both of equall strength and equall evidence so both the Interpretations of these words are usefull for our edification though they bee not both of equall authority That which we call Sinistram Interpreiationem is that sense of these words which arises from the first Translators of the Bible the Septuagint and those Fathers which followed them which though it bee not an ill way is not the best because it is not according to the letter and then that which we call Dextram Interpretationem is that sense which arises pregnantly and evidently liquidly and manifestly out of the Originall Text it selfe The Authors and followers of the first sense reade not these words as we doe Beatus populus That people is blessed but Beatum dixerunt populum That people was esteemed blessed and so they referre this and all the temporall blessings mentioned in the three former Verses to a popular error to a generall mistaking to the opinions and words of wicked and worldly men that onely they desire these temporall things onely they taste a sweetnesse and apprehend a blessednesse in them whereas they who have truely their conversation in heaven are swallowed up with the contemplation of that blessednesse without any reflection upon earth or earthly things But the Author of the second sense which is God himselfe and his direct word presents it thus Beatus populus That people is truely blessed there is a true blessednesse in temporall things but yet this is but sinistra beatitudo a lesse perfect blessednesse For the followers of both Interpretations and all Translators and all Expositors meet in this That the perfect the accomplishing the consummatory blessednesse is onely in this That our God be the Lord. First then Interpretatio to make our best use of the first sense That temporall things conduce not at all to blessednesse S. Cyprians wonder is just Deum nobis solis contentum esse nobis non sufficere Deum That God should think man enough for him and man should not bee satisfied with God That God should be content with Fili da mihi cor My sonne give me thy heart and man should not be content with Pater da mihi Spiritum My God my Father grant me thy Spirit but must have temporall additions too Non est castum cor saith S. Augustine si Deum ad mercedem colit as he saith in another place Non est castauxor quae amat quia dives She is never the honester woman nor the lovinger wife that loves her husband in contemplation of her future joynture or in fruition of her present abundancies so hee sayes here Nonest castum cor That man hath not a chast a sincere heart towards God that loves him by the measure end proportion of his temporall blessings The Devill had so much colour for that argument that in prosperity there can bee no triall whether a man love God or no as that he presses it even to God himselfe in Iobs case Iob 1 Doth Iob serve God for nought hast not thou hedged him in and blessed the works of his hands and encreased his substance How canst thou tell whether he will love thee or feare thee if thou shouldst take away all this from him thou hast had no triall yet And this argument descended from that father to his children from the Devill there to those followers of his whom the Prophet Malachy reprehends for saying It is in vaine to serve God Mal. 3.14 for what profit is it that wee have kept his commandements When men are willing to prefer their friends we heare them often give these testimonies of a man He hath good parts and you need not be ashamed to speake for him hee hath money in his purse and you need not be sorry to speak for him he understands the world he knowes how things passe and he hath a discreet a supple and an appliable disposition and hee may make a fit instrument for all your purposes and you need not be afraid to speake for him But who ever casts into this scale and valuation of a man that waight that he hath a religious heart that hee feares God what profit is there in that if wee consider this world onely But what profits it a man if he get all the world and lose his owne soule And therefore that opinion That there was no profit at all no degree towards blessednesse in those temporall things
root and bring that comfort to the fruit and confesse that God who is both is the God of all comfort Follow God in the execution of this good purpose upon thee to thy Vocation and heare him who hath left East and West and North and South in their dimnesse and dumnesse and deafnesse and hath called thee to a participation of himselfe in his Church Go on with him to thy justification That when in the congregation one sits at thy right hand and beleeves but historically It may be as true which is said of Christ as of William the Conquerour and as of Iulius Caesar and another at thy left hand and beleeves Christ but civilly It was a Religion well invented and keeps people well in order and thou betweene them beleevest it to salvation in an applying faith proceed a step farther to feele this fire burning out thy faith declared in works thy justification growne into sanctification And then thou wilt be upon the last staire of all That great day of thy glorification will breake out even in this life and either in the possessing of the good things of this world thou shalt see the glory and in possessing the comforts of this World see the joy of Heaven or else which is another of his wayes in the want of all these thou shalt have more comfort then others have or perchance then thou shouldest have in the possessing of them for he is the God of all comfort and of all the wayes of comfort And therefore Blessed be God even the Father c. SERM. XXXIX Preached upon Trinity-Sunday 1 PET. 1.17 And if ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans works passe the time of your sojourning here in feare YOu may remember that I proposed to exercise your devotions and religious meditations in these exercises with words which might present to you first the severall persons in the Trinity and the benefits which we receive in receiving God in those distinct notions of Father Son and holy Ghost And then with other words which might present those sins and the danger of those sins which are most particularly opposed against those severall persons Of the first concerning the person of the Father we spoke last and of the other concerning sins against the Father these words will occasion us to speak now It is well noted upon those words of David Psal 51.1 Have mercy upon me O God that the word is Elohim which is Gods in the plurall Have mercy upon me O Gods for David though he conceived not divers Gods yet he knew three divers persons in that one God and he knew that by that sin which he lamented in that Psalme that peccatum complicatum that manifold sin that sin that enwrapped so many sins he had offended all those three persons For whereas we consider principally in the Father Potestatem Power and in the Son Sapientiam Wisdome and in the holy Ghost Bonitatem Goodnesse David had sinned against the Father in his notion In potestate in abusing his power and kingly authority to a mischievous and bloody end in the murder of Vriah And he had sinned against the Son in his notion In sapientia in depraving and detorting true wisdome into craft and treachery And he had sinned against the holy Ghost in his notion In bonitate when he would not be content with the goodnesse and piety of Vriah who refused to take the eases of his owne house and the pleasure of his wifes bosome as long as God himselfe in his army lodged in Tents and stood in the face of the Enemy Sins against the Father then we consider especially to be such as are In potestate Either in a neglect of Gods Power over us or in an abuse of that power which we have from God over others and of one branch of that power particularly of Judgement is this Text principally intended If ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth c. In the words we shall insist but upon two parts Divisio First A Counsaile which in the Apostles mouth is a commandement And then a Reason an inducement which in the Apostles mouth is a forcible an unresistible argument The Counsell that is The commandement is If ye call on the Father feare him stand in feare of him And the reason that is the Argument is The name of Father implyes a great power over you therefore feare him And amongst other powers a power of judging you of calling you to an account therefore feare him In which Judgement this Judge accepts no persons but judges his sons as his servants and therefore feare him And then he judges not upon words outward professions but upon works actions according to every mans works and therefore feare him And then as on his part he shall certainly call you to judgement when you goe hence so on your part certainly it cannot be long before you goe hence for your time is but a sojourning here it is not a dwelling And yet it is a sojourning here it is not a posting a gliding through the world but such a stay as upon it our everlasting dwelling depends And therefore that we may make up this circle and end as we begun with the feare of God passe that time that is all that time in fear In fear of neglecting and undervaluing or of over-tempting that great power which is in the Father And in feare of abusing those limnes and branches and beames of that power which he hath communicated to thee in giving thee power and authority any way over others for these To neglect the power of the Father or To abuse that power which the Father hath given thee over others are sinnes against the Father who is power If ye call on the Father c. First then for the first part the Counsell Si invocatis If ye call on the Father In timore 1. Part. Doe it in feare The Counsell hath not a voluntary Condition and arbitrary in our selves annexed to it If you call then feare does not import If you doe not call you need not feare It does not import That if you professe a particular forme of Religion you are bound to obey that Church but if you doe not but have fancied a religion to your selfe without precedent Or a way to salvation without any particular religion Or a way out of the world without any salvation or damnation but a going out like a candle if you can think thus you need not feare This is not the meaning of this If in this place If you call on the Father c. But this If implyes a wonder an impossibility that any man should deny God to be the Father If the author the inventer of any thing usefull for this life be called the father of that invention by the holy Ghost himselfe Gen. 4.20 Iabal was the father of such as dwell in Tents and Tubal his brother
Judge too I shall not be tried by an arbitrary Court where it may be wisdome enough to follow a wise leader and think as he thinks I shall not be tried by a Jury that had rather I suffered then they fasted rather I lost my life then they lost a meale Nor tryed by Peeres where Honour shall be the Bible But I shall be tryed by the King himselfe then which no man can propose a Nobler tryall and that King shall be the King of Kings too for He V. 5. who in the first of the Revelation is called The faithfull Witnesse is in the same place called The Prince of the Kings of the earth and as he is there produced as a Witnesse so Acts 10 42. Iohn 5.22 He is ordained to be the Iudge of the quick and the dedd and so All Iudgement is committed to him He that is my Witnesse is my Judge and the same person is my Jesus my Saviour my Redeemer He that hath taken my nature He that hath given me his blood So that he is my Witnesse in his owne cause and my Judge but of his owne Title and will in me preserve himselfe He will not let that nature that he hath invested perish nor that treasure which he hath poured out for me his blood be ineffectuall My Witnesse is in Heaven my Judge is in Heaven my Redeemer is in Heaven and in them who are but One I have not onely a constant hope that I shall be there too but an evident assurance that I am there already in his Person Go then in this peace That you alwaies study to preserve this testification of the Spirit of God by outward evidences of Sanctification You are naturally composed of foure Elements and three of those foure are evident and unquestioned The fourth Element the element of Fire is a more litigious element more problematicall more disputable Every good man every true Christian in his Metaphysicks for in a regenerate man all is Metaphysicall supernaturall hath foure Elements also and three of those foure are declared in this text First a good Name the good opinion of good men for honest dealing in the world and religious discharge of duties towards God That there be no injustice in our hands Also that our prayer be pure A second Element is a good conscience in my selfe That either a holy warinesse before or a holy repentance after settle me so in God as that I care not though all the world knew all my faults And a third element is my Hope in God that my Witnesse which is in Heaven will testifie for me as a witnesse in my behalfe here or acquit me as a mercifull Judge hereafter Now there may be a fourth Element an Infallibility of finall perseverance grounded upon the eternall knowledge of God but this is as the Element of fire which may be but is not at least is not so discernable so demonstrable as the rest And therefore as men argue of the Element of fire that whereas the other elements produce creatures in such abundance The Earth such heards of Cattell the Waters such shoales of Fish the Aire such flocks of Birds it is no unreasonable thing to stop upon this consideration whether there should be an element of fire more spacious and comprehensive then all the rest and yet produce no Creatures so if thy pretended Element of Infallibility produce no creatures no good works no holy actions thou maist justly doubt there is no such element in thee In all doubts that arise in thee still it will be a good rule to choose that now which thou wouldst choose upon thy death-bed If a tentation to Beauty to Riches to Honour be proposed to thee upon such and such conditions consider whether thou wouldst accept that upon those conditions upon thy death-bed when thou must part with them in a few minutes So when thou doubtest in what thou shouldst place thy assurance in God thinke seriously whether thou shalt not have more comfort then upon thy death-bed in being able to say I have finished my course I have fought a good fight I have fulfilled the sufferings of Christ in my flesh I have cloathed him when he was naked and fed him when he was poore then in any other thing that thou maiest conceive God to have done for thee And doe all the way as thou wouldst do then prove thy element of fire by the creatures it produces prove thine election by thy sanctification for that is the right method and shall deliver thee over infallibly to everlasting glory at last Amen SERMON XIV Preached at VVhite-hall March 3. 1619. AMOS 5.18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord what have yee to doe with it the day of the Lord is darknesse and not light FOr the presenting of the woes and judgements of God denounced by the Prophets against Judah and Israel and the extending and applying them to others involved in the same sins as Judah and Israel were Solomon seemes to have given us somewhat a cleare direction Prov. 9.8 Reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee Rebuke a wise man and he will love thee But how if the wiseman and this scorner bee all in one man all one person If the wiseman of this world bee come to take S. Paul so literally at his word as to thinke scornefully that preaching is indeed but the foolishnesse of preaching and that as the Church is within the State so preaching is a part of State government flexible to the present occasions of time appliable to the present dispositions of men This fell upon this Prophet in this prophecie Amos 7.10 Amasias the Priest of Bethel informed the King that Amos medled with matters of State and that the Land was not able to beare his words and to Amos himselfe he saies Eate thy bread in someother place but prophecy here no more for this is the Kings Chappell Amos 23. and the Kings Court Amos replies I was no Prophet nor the son of a Prophet but in an other course and the Lord tooke me and said unto me Goe and Prophecie to my People Though we finde no Amasiah no mis-interpreting Priest here wee are farre from that because we are far from having a Ieroboam to our King as he had easie to give eare easie to give credit to false informations yet every man that comes with Gods Message hither brings a little Amasiah of his owne in his owne bosome a little wisperer in his owne heart that tels him This is the Kings Chappell and it is the Kings Court and these woes and judgements and the denouncers and proclaimers of them are not so acceptable here But we must have our owne Amos aswell as our Amasias this answer to this suggestion I was no Prophet and the Lord tooke me and bad me prophecy What shall I doe And besides since the woe in this Text is not S. Iohns wo his iterated his multiplied wo Vae vae
incorruptible blood Amen SERM. XLVIII Preached at S. Pauls in the Evening Vpon the day of S. PAULS Conversion 1628. ACTS 28.6 They changed their minds and said That he was a God THe scene where this canonization this super-canonization for it was not of a Saint but of a God was transacted was the I le of Malta The person canonized and proclaimed for a God was S. Paul at that time by shipwrack cast upon that Iland And having for some yeares heretofore continued that custome in this place at this time of the year when the Church celebrates the Conversion of S. Paul as it doth this day to handle some part of his Story pursuing that custome now I chose that part which is knit and wound up in this Text Then they changed their minds and said He is a God S. Paul found himselfe in danger of being oppressed in judgement and thereby was put to a necessity of Appealing to Caesar By vertue of that Appeale being sent to Rome by Sea he was surprized with such stormes as threatned inevitable ruine But the Angel of God stood by him and assured him that none of those two hundred seaventy six persons which were in the ship with him should perish According to this assurance though the ship perished all the passengers were saved and recovered this land Malta Where being courteously received by the Inhabitants though otherwise Barbarians S. Paul doing so much for himselfe and for his company as to gather a bundle of sticks to mend the fire there flew a Viper from the heat and fastned on his hand They thereupon said among themselves No doubt this man is a murderer whom though he have escaped the Sea yet Vengeance suffereth not to live But when he shaked off the Viper into the fire and received no harme and they had looked that he should have swoln and faln down dead suddenly after they had looked a great while and saw no harme come to him Then and then enters our Text They changed their minds and said He is a God Almighty God had bred up S. Paul so so he had catechized him all the way with vicissitudes and revolutions from extreme to extreme He had taught him how to want and how to abound how to beare honour and dishonour He permitted an Angel of Satan to buffet him so he gave him some sense of Hell He gave him a Rapture an Extasie and in that an appropinquation an approximation to himselfe and so some possession of Heaven in this life So God proceeded with him here in Malta too He passed him in their mouths from extreme to extreme A Viper serses him and they condemne him for a murderer He shakes off the Viper and they change their minds and say He is a God The first words of our Text carry us necessarily so far back Divisio as to see from what they changed And their periods are easily seene Their Terminus à quo and their Terminus ad quem were these first that he was a Murderer Then that he was a God An error in Morality They censure deeply upon light evidence An error in Divinity They transfer the Name and estimation of a God upon an unknowne Man Place both the errors in Divinity so you may justly do And then there is an error in Charity a hasty and inconsiderate condemning And an error in faith a superstitious creating of an imaginary God Now upon these two generall Considerations will this Exercise consist first that it is naturall Logique an argumentation naturally imprinted in Man to argue and conclude thus Great calamities are inflicted therefore God is greatly provoked These men of Malta were but naturall men but Barbarians as S. Luke cals them and yet they argue and conclude so Here is a judgement executed therefore here is evidence that God is displeased And so far they kept within the limits of humanity and piety too But when they descended hastily and inconsiderately to particular and personall applications This judgement upon this man is an evidence of his guiltinesse in this offence then they transgressed the bounds of charity That because a Viper had seised Pauls hand Paul must needs be a murderer And then when we shall have passed thorough those things which belong to that first Consideration which consists of these two Propositions That to conclude so God strikes therefore he is angry is naturall but hastily to apply this to the condemnation of particular persons is uncharitable we shall descend to our second Consideration to see what they did when they changed their minds They said He is a God And as in the former part we shall have seen That there is in man a naturall Logique but that strays into uncharitablenesse So in this we shall see That there is in man a naturall Religion but that strayes into superstition and idolatry Naturally man is so far from being devested of the knowledge and sense of God from thinking that there is no God as that he is apt to make more Gods then he should and to worship them for Gods whom he should not These men of Malta were but Naturall men but Barbarians sayes S. Luke yet they were so far from denying God as that they multiplied Gods and because the Viper did Paul no harme they change their minds and say He is a God And from these two generall considerations and these two branches in each That there is in man a Naturall Logique but that strayes into Fallacies And a Naturall Religion but that strayes into Idolatry and Superstition we shall derive and deduce unto you such things as we conceive most to conduce to your edification from this knot and summary abridgement of this Story Then they changed their minds and said He is a God First then for the first Proposition of our first part That this is naturall Logique 1. Part. an argumentation imprinted in every man God strikes therefore God is angry He whom they that even hate his name our Adversaries of the Roman perswasion doe yet so far tacitely reverence as that though they will not name him they will transfer and insert his expositions of Scriptures into their works and passe them as their owne that as Calvin He Calvin collects this proposition from this story Passim receptum omnibus saeculis In all ages and in all places this hath ever been acknowledged by all men That when God strikes God is angry And when God is angry God strikes and therefore sayes he Quoties occurrit memorabilis aliqua calamitas simul in mentem veniat as often as you see any extraordinary calamity conclude that God hath been extraordinarily provoked and hasten to those meanes by which the anger and indignation of God may be appeased againe So that for this Doctrine a man needs not be preached unto a man needs not be catechized A man needs not reade the Fathers nor the Councels nor the Schoolmen nor the Ecclesiasticall story nor Summists nor Casuists nor Canonists no nor
owne cases and in our owne behalfes as when a vehement calamity lies upon me I can plead out of Gods precedents and out of his method be able to say 2 Sam. 5.4 This will not last David was not ten yeares in banishment but he enjoyed the Kingdome forty God will recompence my houres of sorrow with daies of joy If the calamity be both vehement and long yet I can say with his blessed servant Augustine Et cum blandiris pater es pater es cum caedis I feele the hand of a father upon me when thou strokest me and when thou strikest me I feele the hand of a father too Blandiris ne deficiam caedis ne peream I know thy meaning when thou strokest me it is lest I should faint under thy hand and I know thy meaning when thou strikest me it is lest I should not know thy hand If the waight and continuation of this calamity testifie against me as Naomi said that is give others occasion to think and to speak ill of me as of a man for some secret sins forsaken of God still Nazianzens refuge is my refuge Hoc mihi commentor This is my meditation Si falsa objicit convitiator non me attingit If that which mine enemy sayes of me be false it concernes not me hee cannot meane me It is not I that he speakes of I am no such man And then Si vera dicit If that which he sayes betrue it begun not to be true then when he said it but was true when I did it and therefore I must blame my selfe for doing not him for speaking it If I can argue thus in mine owne case and in mine owne behalfe and not suspect Gods absence from me because he laies calamities upon me let me be also as charitable towards another and not conclude ill upon ill accidents for there is nothing so ill out of which God and a godly man cannot draw good When Iohn Hus was at the stake to be burnt his eye fixed upon a poore plaine Country-fellow whom he observed to be busier then the rest and to run oftner to fetch more and more fagots to burne him and he said thereupon no more but this O sancta simplicitas O holy simplicity He meant that that man being then under an invincible ignorance mis-led by that zeale thought he did God service in burning him But such an interpretation will hardly bee appliable to any of these hasty and inconsiderate Judges of other men that give way to their owne passion for zeale and uncharitablenesse are incompatible things zeale and uncharitablenesse cannot consist together and there was evident uncharitablenesse in these men of Maltas proceeding when because the Viper seized his hand they condemned him for a murderer It is true they saw a concurrence of circumstances and that is alwaies more waighty then single evidence They saw a man who had been neare drowning yet he scaped that They saw he had gathered a bundle of sticks in which the Viper was enwrapped and yet did him no harme when it was in his hand He scaped that And then they saw that Viper dart it selfe out of the fire againe and of all the company fasten upon that man What should they think of that man In Gods Name what they would to the advancement of Gods glory They might justly have thought that God was working upon that man and had some great worke to doe upon that man Wee put no stop to zeale we onely tell you where zeale determines where uncharitablenesse enters zeale goes out and passion counterfeits that zeale God seeks no glory out of the uncharitable condemning of another man And then in this proceeding of these men wee justly note the slipperinesse the precipitation the bottomelesnesse of uncharitablenesse in judgement they could consist no where till they charged him with murder Surely he is a murderer Many crimes there were and those capitall and such as would have indueed death on this side of murder but they stopped at none till they came to the worst And truly it is easie to bee observed in the wayes of this world that when men have once conceived an uncharitable opinion against another man they are apt to beleeve from others apt to imagine in themselves any kinde of ill of that man Sometimes so much and so falsly as makes even that which is true the lesse credible For when passionate men will load a man with all sad and equitable men begin to doubt whether any bee true and a Malefactor scapes sometimes by being overcharged But I move not out of mine owne spheare my spheare is your edification upon this centre The proceeding of these men of Malta with S. Paul upon them and upon you I look directly and I look onely without any glance any reflection upon any other object And therefore having said enough of those two Branches which constitute our first Part That to argue out of Gods judgements his displeasure is naturall but then that naturall Logique should determine in the zeale of advancing Gods glory and not stray into an uncharitable condemning of particular persons because in this uncharitablenesse there is such a slipperinesse such a precipitation such a bottomelesnesse as that these hasty censurers could stop no where till they came to the highest charge having said enough of this wee passe in our order to our second Part to that which they did when they changed their mindes They changed their mindes and said he was a God In this second part we consider first 2 Part. the incongruity of depending upon any thing in this world for all will change Men have considered usefully the incongruity of building the towre of Babel in this That to have erected a Towre that should have carried that height that they intended in that the whole body of the earth the whole Globe and substance thereof would not have served for a basis for a foundation to that Towre If all the timber of all the forests in the world all the quarries of stones all the mines of Lead and Iron had beene laid together nay if all the earth and sea had beene petrified and made one stone all would not have served for a basis for a foundation of that Towre from whence then must they have had their materials for all the superedifications So to establish a trust a confidence such an acquiescence as a man may rely upon all this world affords not a basis a foundation for every thing in this world is fluid and transitory and sandy and all dependance all assurance built upon this world is but a building upon sand all will change It is true that a faire reputation a good opinion of men is though not a foundation to build upon yet a faire stone in the building and such a stone as every man is bound to provide himselfe of For for the most part most men are such as most men take them to be Neminem omnes nemo omnes
Christ Ephes 2.12 for so S. Paul sayes to the Ephesians Absque Christo absque Deo If ye be without Christ ye are without God For as it is the same absurdity in nature to say There is no Sun and to say This that you call the Sun is not the Sun this that shines out upon you this that produces your fruits and distinguishes your seasons is not the Sun so is it the same Atheisme in these dayes of light to say There is no God and to say This Christ whom you call the Son of God is not God That he in whom God hath manifested himselfe He whom God hath made Head of the Church and Judge of the world is not God This then is our double Sadduce Davids Atheist that beleeves not God S. Pauls Atheist that beleeves not Christ And as our Sadduce is so is our Pharisee twofold also There is a Pharisee Duplex Pharisaeus that by following private expositions separates himselfe from our Church principally for matter of Government and Discipline and imagines a Church that shall be defective in nothing and does not onely think himself to be of that Church but sometimes to be that Church for none but himselfe is of that perswasion And there is a Pharisee that dreames of such an union such an identification with God in this life as that he understands all things not by benefit of the senses and impressions in the fancy and imagination or by discourse and ratiocination as we poore soules doe but by immediate and continuall infusions and inspirations from God himselfe That he loves God not by participation of his successive Grace more and more as he receives more and more grace but by a communication of God himselfe to him intirely and irrevocably That he shall be without any need and above all use of Scriptures and that the Scriptures shall be no more to him then a Catechisme to our greatest Doctors That all that God commands him to doe in this world is but as an easie walk downe a hill That he can doe all that easily and as much more as shall make God beholden to him and bring God into his debt and that he may assigne any man to whom God shall pay the arrerages due to him that is appoint God upon-what man he shall confer the benefit of his works of Supererogation For in such Propositions as these and in such Paradoxes as these doe the Authors in the Roman Church delight to expresse and celebrate their Pharisaicall purity as we find it frequently abundantly in them In a word some of our home-Pharisees will say That there are some who by benefit of a certaine Election cannot sin That the Adulteries and Blasphemies of the Elect are not sins But the Rome-Pharisee will say that some of them are not onely without sin in themselves but that they can save others from sin or the punishment of sin by their works of Supererogation and that they are so united so identified with God already as that they are in possession of the beatificall Vision of God and see him essentially and as he is in this life for that Ignatius the father of the Jesuits did so Sandaeus Theolog pâ—r 1. fo 760. some of his Disciples say it is at least probable if not certaine And that they have done all that they had to doe for their owne salvation long agoe and stay in the world now onely to gather treasure for others and to worke out their salvation So that these men are in better state in this life then the Saints are in heaven There the Saints may pray for others but they cannot merit for others These men here can merit for other men and work out the salvation of others Nay they may be said in some respect to exceed Christ himselfe for Christ did save no man here but by dying for him These men save other men with living well for them and working out their salvation These are our double Sadduces our double Pharisees now beloved Dissentio if we would goe so far in S. Pauls way as to set this two-fold Sadduce Davids Atheist without God and S. Pauls Atheist without Christ against our twofold Pharisee our home-Catharist and our Rome-Catharist If we would spend all our wit and all our time all our Inke and our gall in shewing them the deformities and iniquities of one another by our preaching and writing against them The truth and the true Church might as S. Paul did in our Text scape the better But when we we that differ in no such points tear and wound and mangle one another with opprobrious contumelies and odious names of sub-division in Religion our Home-Pharisee and our Rome-Pharisee maligners of our Discipline and maligners of our Doctrine gaine upon ns and make their advantages of our contentions and both the Sadduces Davids Atheist that denies God and S. Pauls Atheist that denies Christ joyne in a scornfull asking us Where is now your God Are not we as well that deny him absolutely as you that professe him with wrangling But stop we the floodgates of this consideration it would melt us into teares Sadducaei Pharisaei interni End we all with this That we have all all these Sadduces and Pharisees in our owne bosomes Sadduces that deny spirits carnall apprehensions that are apt to say Is your God all Spirit and hath bodily eyes to see sin All Spirit and hath bodily hands to strike for a sinne Is your soule all spirit and hath a fleshly heart to feare All spirit and hath sensible sinews to feele a materiall fire Was your God who is all Spirit wounded when you quarrelled or did your soule which is all spirit drink when you were drunk Sins of presumption and carnall confidence are our Sadduces and then our Pharisees are our sins of separation of division of diffidence and distrust in the mercies of our God when we are apt to say after a sin Cares God who is all Spirit for my eloquent prayers or for my passionate teares Is the giving of my goods to the poore or of my body to the fire any thing to God who is all Spirit My spirit and nothing but my spirit my soule and nothing but my soule must satisfie the justice the anger of God and be separated from him for ever My Sadduce my Presumption suggests that there is no spirit no soule to suffer for sin and my Pharisee my Desperation suggests That my soule must perish irremediably irrecoverably for every sinne that my body commits Now if I go S. Pauls way to put a dissention between these my Sadduces and my Pharisees Via Pauli to put a jealousie between my presumption my desperation to make my presumption see that my desperation lies in wait for her and to consider seriously that my presumption will end in desperation I may as S. Paul did in the Text scape the better for that But if without farther
Divisio first the person upon whom David turned for his succour and then what succour he seeks at his hands First his word and then his end first to whom and then for what he supplicates And in the first of these the Person we shall make these three steps first that he makes his first accesse to God onely O Lord rebuke me not doe not thou and though I will not say I care not yet I care the lesse who doe And secondly that it is to God by Name not to any universall God in generall notions so naturall men come to God but to God whom he considers in a particular name in particular notions and attributes and manifestations of himselfe a God whom he knowes by his former workes done upon him And then that name in which hee comes to him here is the name of Iehovah his radicall his fundamentall his primarie his essentiall name the name of being Iehovah For he that deliberately and considerately beleeves himselfe to have his very being from God beleeves certainely that he hath his well being from him too He that acknowledges that it is by Gods providence that he breathes beleeves that it is by his providence that he eates too So his accesse is to God and to God by name that is by particular considerations and then to God in the name of Iehovah to that God that hath done all from his first beginning from his Being And in these three we shall determine our first part First 1. Part. To God in this first branch of this part David comes to God but without any confidence in himselfe Here is Reus ad rostra sine patrono here is the prisoner at the Barre and no Counsell allowed him He confesses Indictments faster then they can be read If he heare himselfe indicted that he looked upon Bathsheba that he lusted after Bathsheba he cryes Alas I have done that and more dishonored her and my selfe and our God and more then that I have continued the act into a habit and more then that I have drowned that sinne in bloud lest it should rise up to my sight and more then all that I have caused the Name of God to be blasphemed and lest his Majesty and his greatnesse should be a terrour to me I have occasioned the enemy to undervalue him and speake despightfully of God himselfe And when he hath confest all all that he remembers he must come to his Ab occultis meis Lord cleanse me from my secret sinnes for there are sins which we have laboured so long to hide from the world that at last they are hidden from our selves from our own memories our own consciences As much as David stands in feare of this Judge he must intreat this Judge to remember his sinnes Remember them O Lord for els they will not fall into my pardon but remember them in mercy and not in anger for so they will not fall into my pardon neither Whatsoever the affliction then was temporall or spirituall we take it rather to be spirituall Davids recourse is presently to God 1 Sam. 16.14 He doth not as his predecessour Saul did when he was afflicted send for one that was cunning upon the Harp to divert sorrow so If his Subjects rebell he doth not say Let them alone let them goe on I shall have the juster cause by their rebellion of confiscations upon their Estates of executions upon their persons of revocations of their lawes and customes and priviledges which they carry themselves so high upon If his sonne lift up his hand against him he doth not place his hope in that that that occasion will cut off his sonne and that then the peoples hearts which were bent upon his sonne will returne to him againe David knew he could not retyre himselfe from God in his bedchamber Guards and Ushers could not keepe him out He knew he could not defend himselfe from God in his Army for the Lord of Hosts is Lord of his Hosts If he fled to Sea to Heaven to Hell he was sure to meet God there and there thou shalt meet him too if thou fly from God to the reliefe of outward comforts of musicke of mirth of drinke of cordialls of Comedies of conversation Not that such recreations are unlawfull the minde hath her physick as well as the body but when thy sadnesse proceeds from a sense of thy sinnes which is Gods key to the doore of his mercy put into thy hand it is a new and a greater sin to goe about to overcome that holy sadnesse with these prophane diversions to fly Ad consolatiunculas creaturulae as that elegant man Luther expresses it according to his naturall delight in that elegancy of Diminutives with which he abounds above all Authors to the little and contemptible comforts of little and contemptible creatures And as Luther uses the physick Iob useth the Physitian Luther calls the comforts Miserable comforts and Iob calls them that minister them Onerosos consolatores Miserable comforters are you all David could not drowne his adultery in blood never thinke thou to drowne thine in wine The Ministers of God are Sonnes of Thunder they are falls of waters trampling of horses and runnings of Chariots and if these voyces of these Ministers cannot overcome thy musick thy security yet the Angels trumpet will That Surgite qui dermitis Arise yee that sleepe in the dust in the dust of the grave is a Treble that over-reaches all That Ite maledicti Goe yee accursed into Hell fire is a Base that drowns all There is no recourse but to God no reliefe but in God and therefore David applied himselfe to the right method to make his first accesse to God It is to God onely and to God by name and not in generall notions To God by Name for it implies a nearer a more familiar and more presentiall knowledge of God a more cheerfull acquaintance and a more assiduous conversation with God when we know how to call God by a Name a Creator a Redeemer a Comforter then when we consider him onely as a diffused power that spreads it selfe over all creatures when we come to him in Affirmatives and Confessions This thou hast done for me then when we come to him onely in Negatives and say That that is God which is nothing els God is come nearer to us then to others when we know his Name For though it be truly said in the Schoole that no name can be given to God Ejus essentiam adaequatè repraesentans No one name can reach to the expressing of all that God is And though Trismegistus doe humbly and modestly and reverently say Non spere it never fell into my thought nor into my hope that the maker and founder of all Majesty could be circumscribed or imprisoned by any one name though a name compounded and complicated of many names as the Rabbins have made one name of God of all his names in the Scriptures Gen.
the Reasoning or Disputing more then the Suing or Impleading Now though all this Disputing Impleading Correcting in S. Augustines interpretation amount but to an Instruction and an Amendment yet saies he of David In ira emendari non vult erudiri non vult He is loath to fall into Gods hands loath to come into Gods fingers at all when God is angry he would not be disputed withall not Impleaded not Corrected no not Instructed not Amended by God in his Anger The Anger of God is such a Pedagogie such a Catechisme such a way of teaching as the Law was Lex paedagogus the Law is a Schoolmaster saies the Apostle but Litera occidiâ— the Law is such a Schoolemaster as brings not a rod but a sword Gods Anger should instruct us but if we use it not aright it hardens us And therefore Psal 2. Kisse the Son lest he be angry sayes David And what is the danger if he be that which followes Lest yee perish in the way Though his Anger be one of his wayes yet it is such a way as you may easily stumble in and as you would certainely perish without that way so you may easily perish in that way For when a sinner considers himself to be under the Anger of God naturally he conceives such a horror as puts him farther off As soone as Adam heard the voice of God and in an accent of Anger or as he tuned it in his guilty conscience to an accent of Anger for as a malicious man will turne a Sermon to a Satyre and a Panegyricke to a Libel so a despairing soule will set Gods comfortablest words to asad tune and force a Vae even in Gods Euge and find Anger and everlasting Anger in every Accesse in every Action of God when Adam heard God but walking in the Garden but the noise of his going and approaching towards him for God had then said nothing to him not so much as called him Adam fled from his presence and hid himselfe amongst the trees When the guilty man was but spoken to and spoken to mildly by the Master of the Marriage feast Amice quomodo intrasti Friend how came you in we see he was presently speechlesse and being so not able to speake to come to any confessin any excuse he fell farther and farther into displeasure till he was bound hand and foote Iob 9.12 and cast irrecoverably away For Si repente interroget quis respondebit ei If God surprize a Conscience with a sudden question if God deprehend a man in the Act of his sin and while he accomplishes and consummates that sin say to his soul Why dost thou this upon which mine anger hangs there God speaks to that sinner but he confounds him with the question It is not a leading Intergatorie it gives him no light to answer Esay 38.14 till Gods anger be out of his contemplation he cannot so much as say Domine vim patior responde pro me O Lord I am oppressed doe thou answer for me do thou say to thy selfe for me My Spirit shall not alwaies strive with man because he is but flesh Gen. 6.3 If the Lord come in anger if he speake in Anger if he doe but looke in Anger a sinner perishes Aspexit dissolvit Gentes He did but looke and he dissolved he melted the Nations Hab. 3.6 he powred them out as water upon the dust and he blew them away as dust into the Sea The everlasting mountaines were broken and the ancient hils did bow It is not then the disputing not the impleading not the correcting which this word Iacach imports that David declines or deprecates here but that Anger which might change the nature of all and make all the Physick poison all that was intended for our mollifying to advance our obduration For when there was no anger in the case David is a forward Scholar to hearken to Gods Reasoning and Disputing and a tractable Client and easie Defendant to answer to Gods Suite and Impleading Psal 26.1 and an obsequious Patient to take any Physick at his hands if there were no Anger in the cup. Vre renes cor meum saies David he provokes God with all those emphaticall words Iudge me Prove me Trie me Examine me and more Vre renes bring not onely a candle to search but even fire to melt me But upon what confidence all this For thy loving kindnesse is ever before mine eyes If Gods Anger and not his loving kindnesse had beene before his eyes it had beene a fearfull apparition and a dangerous issue to have gone upon So also he surrenders himselfe entirely to God in another Psalme Psal 139.23 Trie me O God and know my heart prove me and know my thoughts and consider if there be any way of wickednesse in me But how concludes he And lead me in the right way for ever As long as I have God by the hand and feele his loving care of me I can admit any waight of his hand any fornace of his heating Let God mould me and then melt me againe let God make mee and then breake me againe as long as he establishes and maintaines a rectified assurance in my soule that at last he meanes to make me a Vessell of honour to his Glory howsoever he Rebuke or Chastise me yet he will not Rebuke me in Anger much lesse Chasten me in hot Displeasure which is the last and the heaviest thing that David deprecates in this Prayer Both these words which we translate to Chasten and Hot displeasure are words of a heavie and of a vehement signification They extend both to expresse the eternity of Gods indignation even to the binding of the soule and bodie in eternall chaines of darknesse For the first Iasar signifies oftentimes in the Scriptures Vincire to binde often with ropes often with chaines to fetter or manacle or pinion men that are to be executed so that it imports a slaverie a bondage all the way and a destruction at last And so the word is used by Rehoboam 1 Reg. 12.11 My Father chastised you with whips but I will chastise you with Scorpions And then the other word Camath doth not onely signifie Hot displeasure but that effect of Gods hot displeasure which is intended by the Prophet Esay Therefore hath he powred forth his fieree wrath Esay 42. ult and the strength of battel and that set him on fire round about and he knew it not and it burnt him up and he considered it not These be the fearfully conditions of Gods hot displeasure to be in a fornace and not to feele it to be in a habit of sin and not know what leads us into temptation to be burnt to ashes and so not onely without all moisture all holy teares but as ashes without any possibility that any good thing can grow in us And yet this word Camath hath a heavier signification then this for it signifies Poison it selfe Destruction it selfe
Princes shall rule in judgement be to be understood of an Hezekias or a Iosias or any other good King which was to succeed and to induce vertuous times in the temporall State and government Or whether this were a prophecy of Christs time and of the exaltation of all vertues in the Christian Religion hath divided our Expositors in all those three Classes In all three though in all three some particular men are peremptory and vehement upon some one side absolutely excluding the other exposition as amongst our Authors in the Reformation one sayes Dubium non est It can admit no doubt Calvin but that this is to be understood of Hezekias and his reigne And yet another of the same side sayes too Heshusius Qui Rabbinos secuti They that adhere too much to the Jewish Rabbins and will needs interpret this prophecy of a temporall King obscure the purpose of the Holy Ghost and accommodate many things to a secular Prince which can hold in none but Christ himselfe yet I say though there be some peremptory there are in all the three Classes Ancients Romans Reformed moderate men that apply the prophecy both wayes and finde that it may very well subsist so That in a faire proportion all these blessings shall be in the reignes of those Hezekiasses and those Iosiasses those good Kings which God affords to his people But the multiplication the exaltation of all these blessings and vertues is with relation to the comming of Christ and the establishing of his Kingdome And this puts us if not to a necessity yet with conveniency to consider these words both wayes What this civill liberality is that is here made a blessing of a good Kings reigne And what this spirituall liberality is that is here made a testimony of Christs reigne and of his Gospel And therefore since we must passe twice thorough these words it is time to begin The liberall man deviseth liberall things and by liberall things he shall stand From these two armes of this tree that is from the civill and from the spirituall accommodation of these words be pleased to gather and lay up these particular fruits In each of these you shall taste first what this Liberality thus recommended is And secondly what this devising and studying of liberall things is And againe how this man is said to stand by liberall things The liberall man deviseth liberall things and by liberall things he shall stand And because in the course of this Prophecy in this Chapter we have the King named and then his Princes and after persons of lower quality and condition we shall consider these particulars This Liberality this Devising this Standing First in the first accommodation of the words In the King in his Princes or great persons the Magistrate and lastly in his people And in the second accommodation the spirituall sense we shall consider these three termes Liberality Devising Standing First in the King of Kings Christ Jesus And then in his Officers the Ministers of his Gospel And lastly in his people gathered by this Gospel In all which persons in both sorts Civill and Spirituall we shall see how the liberall man deviseth liberall things and how by liberall things he stands First then in our first part In the civill consideration of this vertue Liberality 1 Part. Liberality It is a communication of that which we have to other men and it is the best character of the best things that they are communicable diffusive Light was Gods first childe Light opened the wombe of the Chaos borne heire to the world and so does possesse the world and there is not so diffusive a thing nothing so communicative and self-giving as light is And then Gold is not onely valued above all things but is it selfe the value of all things The value of every thing is Thus much gold it is worth And no metall is so extensive as gold no metall enlarges it selfe to such an expansion such an attenuation as gold does nor spreads so much with so little substance Sight is the noblest and the powerfullest of our Senses All the rest Hearing onely excepted are determined in a very narrow distance And for Hearing Thunder is the farthest thing that we can heare and Thunder is but in the ayre but we see the host of Heaven the starres in the firmament All the good things that we can consider Light Sight Gold all are accompanied with a liberality of themselves and are so far good as they are dispensed and communicated to others for their goodnesse is in their use It is Virtus prolifica a generative a productive vertue a vertue that begets another vertue another vertue upon another man Thy liberality begets my gratitude and if there be an unthankfull barrennesse in me that thou have no children by me no thankfulnesse from me God shall raise thee the more children for my barrennesse Thy liberality shall be the more celebrated by all the world because I am unthankfull God hath given me a being and my liberall Benefactor hath given me such a better being as that without that even my first being had been but a paine and a burden unto me He that leaves treasure at his death left it in his life Then when he locked it up and forbad himselfe the use of it be left it He that locks up may be a good Jaylor but he that gives out is his Steward The saver may be Gods chest The giver is Gods right hand But the matter of our Liberality what we give is but the body of this vertue The soule of this Liberality that that inanimates it is the manner intended more in the next word He deviseth He studieth The liberall deviseth liberall things Here the Holy Ghosts word is Iagnatz Deviseth and Iagnatz carries evermore with it a denotation of Counsell and Deliberation and Conclusions upon premisses He Devises that is Considers what liberality is discourses with himselfe what liberall things are to be done And then upon this determines concludes that he will doe it and really actually does it Therefore in our first Translation the first since the Reformation we reade this Text thus The liberall man imagineth honest things Though the Translator have varied the word Liberall and Honest the Originall hath not It is the same word in both places Liberall man Liberall things but the Translator was pleased to let us see that if it be truly a liberall it is an honest action Therefore the liberall man must give that which is his own for els the receiver is but a receiver of stollen goods And the Curse of the oppressed may follow the gift not onely in his hands through which it passed but into his hands where it remains We have a convenient Embleme of Liberality in a Torch that wasts it selfe to enlighten others But for a Torch to set another mans house on fire to enlighten me were no good Embleme of Liberality But Liberality being made up of
dead as those Fathers did and as the Lutherans doe safely enough without assisting the doctrine of Purgatory if that were all that were to be said against such prayers Be then that thus settled The Fathers did not intend any such building upon that foundation not a Purgatory which should be a place of torment upon those prayers for the dead but then what did they meane by that Purgatory and that fire which is so frequent amongst them In the confession of our Adversaries the greatest part of the Fathers that mention a Purgatory fire intend it of the generall fire of conflagration at the last day They thought the soules of the Dead to have beene kept in Abditis and in Receptaculis till the day of Judgement and that then that fire which was to take hold of all creatures to the purifying of them should also take hold of all soules and burne out all that might be unacceptable to God in those soules and that this was their Purgatory Others of the Fathers have called that severe judgement and examination which every soule is to passe under from the hand of God at that time because it hath much of the nature of fire and many of the properties and qualities of fire in it a fire a purging fire and made that their Purgatory If others of the Fathers have spoken of a purging fire after this life so as it will not fall within these two acceptations of the fire of conflagration or of the fire of examination we must say in their behalfe as Sextus Senensis does That they are not the lesse holy Sext. Senens nor the lesse reverend for having straied into some of these mistakings because it is a fire without light In those sub-obscure times August S. Augustine might be excusable though he proceeded doubtfully and said Non incredibile It is not incredible that some such thing there may be and Quaeri potest It is not amisse to inquire where such things are to be inquired after that is in the Scriptures whether any such thing be or no and Vtrum latere an inveniri whether any such thing will be found there or no I cannot tell he may be excusable in his proceeding farther in his doubt Sive ibi tantum whether all our Purgatory be reserved for the next world Sive hic ibi or whether God divide our Purgatory some here and some there Sive hic ut non ibi or whether God exalt and multiply our Purgatory here that we may have none hereafter Of these things I say howsoever S. Augustine might be excusable for doubting in those darke times we should be inexcusable if we should not deny them in these times in which God hath afforded us so much light and clearenesse And rest in that acknowledgement that we have in this life Purgationem purgatorium A purging and a Purgatory A purging in this That Christ Jesus Whom God hath made the heire of all things by whom also he made the world Heb. 1.3 who was the brightnesse of his glory and the expresse image of his person That he by himselfe hath purged our sinnes There is our purging But then because after this generall purging which is wrapped up in the generall nature as Christ dyed for mankinde for all men and after that neerer application thereof as it is wrapped up in the Covenant as he dyed more effectually for all Christians still our own clothes defile us our own evill habits Iob our owne flesh pollutes us therefore God sends us a Purgatory too in this life Crosses Afflictions and Tribulations and to burne out these infectious staines and impressions in our flesh Ipse sedet tanquam ignis conflans God sits as a fire and with fullers soape to wash us Malac. 3.2 and to burne us cleane with afflictions from his own hand Let no man think himselfe sufficiently purified that hath not passed this Purgatory Irascaris mihi Domine saith S. Bernard Lord let me see that thou art angry with me Bernar. I know I have given thee just cause of anger and if thou smother that anger and declare it not by corrections here thou reservest thine anger to undeterminable times and to unsupportable proportions Propitius fuisti sayes David Thou wast a mercifull God to thy people for saith hee Thou didst punish all their Inventions In this consisted his mercy that he did punish for if he had been more mercifull he had been unmercifull If he had begun with no Judgements they had ended in Judgements without end Affliction is a Christians daily bread and therefore in that petition Da nobis hodie Give us this day our daily bread not onely patience in affliction but affliction it selfe so farre as it conduces to our mortification is asked at Gods hand It is an over-presumptuous confidence for which they glorifie one in the Romane Church that he was put often to his Decede à me Domine O Lord withdraw thy self and thy grace farther from me for by mine own sanctity or diligence I am able to wrastle with and to overcome all the tentations and tribulations of this life Decede à me withdraw thy selfe and thy grace and put not thy selfe to this trouble nor this cost with me but leave me to my selfe This was too much confidence but that was more which wee find in another That he begged of God by prayer that he might bee possessed with the Devill for some moneths because all the tentations of the flesh and all the crosses of the world were not enough for his victory and his triumph But it is an humble and a requisite prayer to ask such a measure of affliction as may ballast us and carry us steddily through all the storms and tempests of this life As hee that hath had no rubbe in his fortune in his temporall state is in most danger to fall to fall into murmuring at the first stumble he makes As hee that hath had no sicknesse till his age hardly recovers then So hee that hath not borne his yoake in his youth that hath not beene accustomed to crosses and afflictions hath a wanton soule all the way and a froward and impatient soule towards the end This is our true Purgatory And in this Purgatory we doe need the prayers of others and upon this Purgatory we may build Indulgences which are those testimonies of the remission of sinnes which God hath enabled his Church to imprint and conferre upon us in the absolution thereof which are nothing of kinne to those Indulgences of the Roman Church which are the children of this mother of Purgatory and to the maintenance of which they have also detorted our Text Else If there be no such Indulgences If the works of Supererogation done by other men may not be applied to the soules that are in Purgatory If there be no such use of Indulgences why are then these men baptized for the dead Against the popular opinion of the Spheare or
afflictionis Verse 16. Studied and premeditated plots and practises swallowe mee possesse me intirely In all these dayes I shall not onely have a Zoar to flie to if I can get out of Sodom joy if I can overcome my sorrow There shall not be a Goshen bordering upon my Egypt joy if I can passe beyond or besides my sorrow but I shall have a Goshen in my Egypt nay my very Egypt shall be my Goshen I shall not onely have joy though I have sorrow but therefore my very sorrow shall be the occasion of joy I shall not onely have a Sabbath after my six dayes labor but Omnibus diebus a Sabbath shall enlighten every day and inanimate every minute of every day And as my soule is as well in my foot as in my hand though all the waight and oppression lie upon the foot and all action upon the hand so these beames of joy shall appeare as well in my pillar of cloud as in theirs of fire in my adversity as well as in their prosperity And when their Sun shall set at Noone mine shall rise at midnight they shall have damps in their glory and I joyfull exaltions in my dejections And to end with the end of all In die mortis In the day of my death and that which is beyond the end of all and without end in it selfe The day of Judgement If I have the testimony of a rectified conscience that I have accustomed my selfe to that accesse to God by prayer and such prayer as though it have had a body of supplication and desire of future things yet the soule and spirit of that prayer that is my principall intention in that prayer hath been praise and thanksgiving If I be involved in S. Chrysostoms Patent Orantes non natura sed dispensatione Angeli fiunt That those who pray so that is pray by way of praise which is the most proper office of Angels as they shall be better then Angels in the next world for they shall be glorifying spirits as the Angels are but they shall also be glorified bodies which the Angels shall never bee so in this world they they shall be as Angels because they are employed in the office of Angels to pray by way of praise If as S. Basil reads those words of that Psalme not spiritus meus but respiratio mea laudet Dominum Not onely my spirit but my very breath not my heart onely but my tongue and my hands bee accustomed to glorifie God In die mortis in the day of my death when a mist of sorrow and of sighes shall fill my chamber and a cloude exhaled and condensed from teares shall bee the curtaines of my bed when those that love me shall be sorry to see mee die and the devill himselfe that hates me sorry to see me die so in the favour of God And In die Iudicii In the day of Judgement when as all Time shall cease so all measures shall cease The joy and the sorrow that shall be then shall be eternall no end and infinite no measure no limitation when every circumstance of sinne shall aggravate the condemnation of the unrepentant sinner and the very substance of my sinne shall bee washed away in the blood of my Saviour when I shall see them who sinned for my sake perish eternally because they proceeded in that sinne and I my selfe who occasioned their sin received into glory because God upon my prayer and repentance had satisfied me early with his mercy early that is before my transmigration In omnibus diebus In all these dayes the dayes of youth and the wantonnesses of that the dayes of age and the tastlesnesse of that the dayes of mirth and the sportfulnesse of that and of inordinate melancholy and the disconsolatenesse of that the days of such miseries as astonish us with their suddennesse and of such as aggravate their owne waight with a heavy expectation In the day of Death which pieces up that circle and in that day which enters another circle that hath no pieces but is one equall everlastingnesse the day of Judgement Either I shall rejoyce be able to declare my faith and zeale to the assistance of others or at least be glad in mine owne heart in a firme hope of mine owne salvation And therefore beloved as they whom lighter affections carry to Shewes and Masks and Comedies As you your selves whom better dispositions bring to these Exercises conceive some contentment and some kinde of Joy in that you are well and commodiously placed they to see the Shew you to heare the Sermon when the time comes though your greater Joy bee reserved to the comming of that time So though the fulnesse of Joy be reserved to the last times in heaven yet rejoyce and be glad that you are well and commodiously placed in the meane time and that you sit but in expectation of the fulnesse of those future Joyes Returne to God with a joyfull thankfulnesse that he hath placed you in a Church which withholds nothing from you that is necessary to salvation whereas in another Church they lack a great part of the Word and halfe the Sacrament And which obtrudes nothing to you that is not necessary to salvation whereas in another Church the Additionall things exceed the Fundamentall the Occasionall the Originall the Collaterall the Direct And the Traditions of men the Commandements of God Maintaine and hold up this holy alacrity this religious cheerfulnesse For inordinate sadnesse is a great degree and evidence of unthankfulnesse and the departing from Joy in this world is a departing with one piece of our Evidence for the Joyes of the world to come SERM. LXXX Preached at the funerals of Sir William Cokayne Knight Alderman of London December 12. 1626. JOH 11.21 Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died GOd made the first Marriage and man made the first Divorce God married the Body and Soule in the Creation and man divorced the Body and Soule by death through sinne in his fall God doth not admit not justifie not authorize such Super-inductions upon such Divorces as some have imagined That the soule departing from one body should become the soule of another body in a perpetuall revolution and transmigration of soules through bodies which hath been the giddinesse of some Philosophers to think Or that the body of the dead should become the body of an evill spirit that that spirit might at his will and to his purposes informe and inanimate that dead body God allowes no such Super-inductions no such second Marriages upon such divorces by death no such disposition of soule or body after their dissolution by death But because God hath made the band of Marriage indissoluble but by death farther then man can die this divorce cannot fall upon man As farre as man is immortall man is a married man still still in possession of a soule and a body too And man is for ever immortall in both Immortall in