wardrobe not to make an Inventory of it but to finde in it something fit for thy wearing Iohn Baptist was not the light he was not Christ but he bore witnesse of him The light of faith in the highest exaltation that can be had in the Elect here is not that very beatificall vision which we shall have in heaven but it beares witnesse of that light The light of nature in the highest exaltation is not faith but it beares witnesse of it The lights of faith and of nature are subordinate Iohn Baptists faith beares me witnesse that I have Christ and the light of nature that is the exalting of my naturall faculties towards religious uses beares me witnesse that I have faith Onely that man whose conscience testifies to himself and whose actions testifie to the world that he does what he can can beleeve himself or be beleeved by others that he hath the true light of faith And therefore as the Apostle saith Quench not the Spirit I say too Quench not the light of Nature suffer not that light to goe out study your naturall faculties husband and improve them and love the outward acts of Religion though an Hypocrite and though a naturall man may doe them Certainly he that loves not the Militant Church hath but a faint faith in his interest in the Triumphant He that cares not though the materiall Church fall I am afraid is falling from the spirituall For can a man be sure to have his money or his plate if his house be burnt or to preserve his faith if the outward exercises of Religion faile He that undervalues outward things in the religious service of God though he begin at ceremoniall and rituall things will come quickly to call Sacraments but outward things and Sermons and publique prayers but outward things in contempt As some Platonique Philosophers did so over-refine Religion and devotion as to say that nothing but the first thoughts and ebullitions of a devout heart were fit to serve God in If it came to any outward action of the body kneeling or lifting up of hands if it came to be but invested in our words and so made a Prayer nay if it passed but a revolving a turning in our inward thoughts and thereby were mingled with our affections though pious affections yet say they it is not pure enough for a service to God nothing but the first motions of the heart is for him Beloved outward things apparell God and since God was content to take a body let not us leave him naked nor ragged but as you will bestow not onely some cost but some thoughts some study how you will clothe your children and how you will clothe your servants so bestow both cost and thoughts thinke seriously execute cheerfully in outward declarations that which becomes the dignity of him who evacuated himselfe for you The zeale of his house needs not eat you up no nor eat you out of house and home God asks not that at your hands But if you eat one dish the lesse at your feasts for his house sake if you spare somewhat for his reliefe and his glory you will not be the leaner nor the weaker for that abstinence Iohn Baptist bore witnesse of the light outward things beare witnesse of your faith the exalting of our naturall faculties beare witnesse of the supernaturall We do not compare the master and the servant and yet we thank that servant that brings us to his master We make a great difference between the treasure in the chest and the key that opens it yet we are glad to have that key in our hands The bell that cals me to Church does not catechise me nor preach to me yet I observe the sound of that bell because it brings me to him that does those offices to me The light of nature is far from being enough but as a candle may kindle a torch so into the faculties of nature well imployed God infuses faith And this is our second couple of lights the subordination of the light of nature and the light of faith And a third payre of lights of attestation that beare witnesse to the light of our Text is Lux aeternorum Corporum that light which the Sunne and Moone and those glorious bodies give from heaven and lux incensionum that light which those things that are naturally combustible and apt to take fire doe give upon earth both these beare witnesse of this light that is admit an application to it For in the first of these the glorious lights of heaven we must take nothing for stars that are not stars nor make Astrological and fixed conclusions out of meteors that are but transitory they may be Comets and blazing starres and so portend much mischiefe but they are none of those aeterna corpora they are not fixed stars not stars of heaven So is it also in the Christian Church which is the proper spheare in which the light of our text That light the essentiall light Christ Jesus moves by that supernaturall light of faith and grace which is truly the Intelligence of that spheare the Christian Chruch As in the heavens the stars were created at once with one Fiat and then being so made stars doe not beget new stars so the Christian doctrine necessary to salvation was delivered at once that is intirely in one spheare in the body of the Scriptures And then as stars doe not beget stars Articles of faith doe not beget Articles of faith so as that the Councell of Trent should be brought to bed of a new Creed not conceived before by the holy Ghost in the Scriptures and which is a monstrous birth the child greater then the Father as soon as it is borne the new Creed of the Councell of Trent to containe more Articles then the old Creed of the Apostles did Saint Iude writing of the common salvation as he calls it for Saint Iude it seems knew no such particular salvation as that it was impossible for any man to have salvation is common salvation exhorts them to contend earnestly for that faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Semel once that is at once semel simul once altogether For this is also Tertullians note that the rule of faith is that it be una immobilis irreformabilis it must not be deformed it cannot be Reformed it must not be mard it cannot be mended whatsoever needs mending and reformation cannot be the rule of faith says Tertullian Other foundation can no man lay then Christ not onely no better but no other what other things soever are added by men enter not into the nature and condition of a foundation The additions and traditions and superedifications of the Roman Church they are not lux aeternorum corporum they are not fixed bodies they are not stars to direct us they may be meteors and so exercise our discourse and Argumentation they may raise controversies And they may be Comets and so
God and divided from the storms and distractions of this world enjoys in it selfe That peace which made the blessed Martyrs of Christ Jesus sleep upon the rack upon the burning coales upon the points of swords when the persecutors were more troubled to invent torments then the Christians to suffer That sleep from which ambition not danger no nor when their own house is on fire that is their own concupiscences cannot awaken them not so awaken them that it can put them out of their own constancy and peacefull confidence in God That sleep which is the sleep of the spouse Ego dormio sed cor meum vigilâ—t I sleep but my heart is awake It was no dead sleep when shee was able to speak advisedly in it and say she was asleep and what sleep it was It was no stupid sleep when her heart was awake This is the sleep of the Saints of God which Saint Gregory describes Sancti non tâ—rpore sed virtue sâ—piuntur It is not sluggishnesse but innocence and a good conscience that casts them asleep Laboriosiâ—s dormium they are busier in their sleep nay Vigitaâ—â—ius dorâ—â—iunt they are more awake in their sleep then the watchfull men of this world for when they close their eyes in meditation of God even their dreames are services to him Sâ—mniant se dicere Psalmos says Saint Ambrose they dream that they sing psalmes and they doe more then dream it they do sing But yet even from this holy and religious sleep which is a departing from the allurements of the world and a retiring to the onely contemplation of heaven and heavenly things Iacob may be conceived to have awaked and we must awake It is note enough to shut our selves in a cloister in a Monastery to sleep out the tentations of the world but since the ladder is placed the Church established since God and the Angels are awake in this businesse in advancing the Church we also must labour in our severall vocations and not content our selves with our own spirituall sleep the peace of conscience in our selves for we cannot have that long if we doe not some good to others When the storm had almost drown'd the ship Christ was at his ease in that storm asleep upon a pillow Now Christ was in no danger himself All the water of Noahs flood multiplyed over again by every drop could not have drown'd him All the swords of an Army could not have killed him till the houre was come when hee was pleased to lay down his soul. But though he were safe yet they awaked him and said Master car'st thou not though we perish So though a man may be in a good state in a good peace of conscience and sleep confidently in it yet other mens necessities must awaken him and though perchance he might passe more safely if he might live a retired life yet upon this ladder some Angels ascended some descended but none stood still but God himself Till we come to him to sleep an eternall Sabbath in heaven though this religious sleep of enjoying or retiring and contemplation of God be a heavenly thing yet we must awake even out of this sleep and contribute our paines to the building or furnishing or serving of God in his Church Out of a sleep conceive it what sleep soever Iacob awaked and then Quid ille what did he Dixit he spoke he entred presently into an open profession of his thoughts he smother'd nothing he disguised nothing God is light and loves cleernesse thunder and wind and tempests and chariots and roaring of Lyons and falling of waters are the ordinary emblems of his messages and his messengers in the Scriptures Christ who is Sapientia Dei the wisdome of God is Verbâ—â— Sermâ— Dei the word of God he is the wisdome and the uttering of the wisdome of God as Christ is express'd to be the word so a Christians duty is to speak dearly and professe his religion With how much scorn and reproach Saint Cyprian fastens the name of Libellatices upon them who in time of persecution durst not say they were Christians but under-hand compounded with the State that they might live unquestioned undiscovered for though they kept their religion in their heart yet Christ was defrauded of his honour And such a reproach and scorn belongs to them who for fear of losing wordly preferments and titles and dignities and rooms at great Tables dare not say of what religion they are Beloved it is not enough to awake out of an ill sleep of sinne or of ignorance or out of a good sleep out of a retirednesse and take some profession if you winke or hide your selves when you are awake you shall not see the Ladder not discern Christ nor the working of his Angels that is the Ministery of the Church and the comforts therein you shall not hear that Harmony of the quire of heaven if you will bear no part in it an inward acknowledgment of Christ is not enough if you forbear to professe him where your testimony might glorify him Si sufficeret fides cordis non creasset tibi Deus â—s If the heart were enough God would never have made a mouth And to that we may adde Si sufficeret os non creasset manus if the mouth were enough God would never have made hands for as the same Father says Omni tuba clarior est per opera 〈◊〉 no voice more audible none more credible then when thy hands speak as well as thy heart or thy tongue Thou art then perfectly awaked out of thy sleep when thy words and works declare and manifest it The next is Quid dixit be spake but what said he â— first he assented to that light which was given him The Lord is in his place He resisted not this light he went not about to blow it out by admitting reason or disputation against it He imputed it not to witchcraft to illusion of the Devill but Dominus est in loco isto The Lord is in this place O how many heavy sinnes how many condemnations might we avoid if wee would but take knowledge of this Dominus in loco isto That the Lord is present and sees us now and shall judge hereafter all that we doe or think It keeps a man sometimes from corrupting or solliciting a woman to say Peter Maritus in loco the Father or the Husband is present it keeps a man from an usurious contract to say Lex in loco the Law will take knowledge of it it keeps a man from slandering or calummating another to say Testis in loco here is a witnesse by but this is Catholica Medicina and Omni morbia an universall medicine for all to say Dominus in loco The Lord is in this place and sees and heaâ—es and therefore I will say and think and do as if I were now summon'd by the lastâ— Trumpet to give an account of my thoughts and words and
He was afraid and then he spoke againe that he might have an increase of grace The earth stands still and earthly Men may be content to doe so but he whose conversation is in heaven is as the heavens are in continuall progresse For Inter profectum defectum defectum medium in hac vita non datur A Christian is always in a proficiency or deficiency If he goe not forward he goes backward Nemo dicat satis est sic manere volâ— Let no man say I have done enough I have made my profession already I have been catechiz'd I have been thought fit to receive the Communion sufficit mihi esse sicut heri nudiustertius though he be in the way in the Church yet he sleeps in the way he is got no farther in the way then his godfathers carried him in their armes to engraffe him in the Church by Baptisme for this man says he In via residet in scala subsistit quod nemo angelorum fecit he stands still upon the ladder and so did none of the Angels Christ himself increased in wildome and in stature and in favour with God and Man so must a Christian also labour to grow and to encrease by speaking and speaking again by asking more and more questions and by farther and farther informing his understanding and enlightening his faith per transiit benefaciendo sanavit omnes says Saint Peter of Christ He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devill and it was prophesied of him Exultavit ut Gigas ad currendam vim He went forth as a Gyant to run a race If it be Christs pace it must be a Christians pace too Currentem non apprehendit nisi qui pariter currit There is no overtaking of him that runnes without running too Quid prodest Christum sequi si non consequamur and to what purpose do we follow Christ if not to overtake him and lay hold upon him Sic currite ut comprehendatis fige Christiane cursus profectus metam ubi Christus suum runne so as ye may obtain and if thou beest a Christian propose the same end of thy course as Christ did factus est obediens usque ad mortem and the end of his course was to be obedient unto death Speak then and talke continually of the name and the goodnesse of God speak again and again It is no tautology no babling to speak and â—terate his prayses Who accuses Saint Paul for repeating the sweet name of Jesus so very many times in his Epistles Who accuses David for repeating the same phrase the same sentence for his mercy endureth for ever so many times as he doth in his Psalms nay the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm is scarce any thing else then an often repetition of the same thing Thou spokest assoon as thou wast awake as soon as thou wast born thou spokest in Baptism So proceed to the farther knowledge of Religion and the mysteries of Gods service in his house and conceive a fearfull reverence of them in their institution and speak again enquire what they mean what they signify what they exhibit to thee Conceive a reverence of them first out of the authority that hath instituted them and then speak and inform thy self of them God spent a whole week in speaking for thy good Dixit Deus God spake that there might be light Dixit Deus God spâ—ke that there might be a firmament for immediately upon Gods speaking the work follow'd Dixit factum he spake the word and the world was created As God did a godly man shall do If he delight to talk of God to mention often upon all occasions the greatnesse and goodnesse of God to prefer that discourse before obscene and scurrile and licentious and profane and defamatory and ridiculous and frivolous talke If he delight in professing God with his tongue out of the abundance of his heart his works shall follow his words he will do as he says If God had given over when he had spake of Light and a Firmament and Earth and Sea and had not continued speaking till the last day when he made thee what hadst thou got by all that what hadst thou been at all for all that If thou canst speak when thou awakest when thou beginnest to have an apprehension of Gods presence in a remorse if then that presence and Majesty of God make thee afraid with the horrour and greatnesse of thy sinnes if thou canst not speak again then not goe forward with thy repentance thy former speech is forgotten by God and unprofitable to thee Iacob at first speaking confessed God to be in that place but so he might be every where but he conceived a reverentiall fear at his presence and then he came to speak the second time to professe that that was none other but the house of God and the gate of heaven that there was an entrance for him in particular a fit place for him to testifie and exercise his Devotion he came to see what it was fit for him to doe towards the advancing of Gods house Now whensoever a man is proceeded so far with Iacob first to sleep to be at peace with God and then to wake to doe something for the good of others and then to speak to make profession to publish his sense of Gods presence and then to attribute all this onely to the Light of God himself by which light he grows from faith to faith and from grace to grace whosoever is in this disposition he may say in all places and in all his actions This is none other but the house of God and this is the gate of heaven He shall see heaven open and dwell with him in all his undertakings and particularly and principally in his expressing of a care and respect both to Christs Mysticall and to his materiall body both to the sustentation of the poor and to the building up of Gods house In both which kinds of Piety and Devotion non nobis Domine non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name be given the glory As to the confusion of those shamelesse slanderers who place their salvation in works and accuse us to avert men from good works there have been in this Kingdome since the blessed reformation of Religion more publick charitable works perform'd more Hospitals and Celleges erected and endowed in threescore then in some hundreds of years of superstition before so may God be pleased to adde one example more amongst us that here in this place we may have some occasion to say of a house erected and dedicated to his service This is none other but the house of God and this is the gate of heaven and may he vouchsafe to accept at our hands in our intention and in our endevour to consummate that purpose of ours that thanksgiving that
his eye nothing else to distract his counsels nothing else done upon the face of the earth Take the earth now as it is replenished and take it either as it is torn and crumbled into raggs and shivers not a kingdome not a family not a man agreeing with himselfe Or take it in that concord which is in it as All the Kings of the earth set themselves and all the Rulers of the earth take counsell together against the Lord take it in this union or this division in this concord or this discord still the Lord that sitteth in the heavens discernes all looks at all laughs at all and hath them all in derision Earthly Judges have their distinctions and so their restrictions some things they cannot know what mortall man can know all Some things they cannot take knowledge of for they are bound to evidence But God hath Iudicium discretionis no mist no cloud no darknesse no disguise keeps him from discerning and judging all our actions and so he is a Judge too And he is so lastly as he hath Iudicium retributionis God knows what is evill he knows when that evill is done and he knows how to punish and recompense that evill for the office of a Judge who judges according to a law being not to contract or extend that law but to declare what was the true meaning of that Law-maker when hee made that law God hath this judgement in perfection because hee himself made that law by which he judges and therefore when he hath said Morte morieris If thou do this thou shalt die a double death where he hath said Stipendium peccati mors est every sin shall be rewarded with death If I sinne against the Lord who shall entreat for me Who shall give any other interpretation any modification any Non obstante upon his law in my behalf when he comes to judge me according to that law which himself hath made Who shall think to delude the Judge and say Surely this was not the meaning of the Law-giver when he who is the Judge was the Law-maker too And then as God is Judge in all these respects so is he a Judge in them all Sine Appellatione and Sine judiciis man cannot appeal from God God needs no evidence from man for for the Appeal first to whom should we appeal from the Soveraign 〈◊〉 Wrangle as long as ye will who is Chief Justice and which Court hath Juris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over another I know the Chief Justice and I know the Soveraign 〈…〉 the King of heaven and earth shall send his ministring Spirits his Angels to the 〈◊〉 and bowels of the Earth and to the bosome and bottome of the Sea and Earth must deliver Corpus cum causâ all the bodies of the dead and all their actions to receive a judgement in this Court when it will be but an erroneous and frivolous Appeal to call to the Hils to fall down upon us and the Mountains to cover and hide us from the wrathfull judgment of God He is a Judge then Sine appellatione without any Appeal from him he is so too Sine judiciis without needing any evidence from us Now if I be wary in my actions here incarnate Devils detractors and informers cannot accuse me If my sinne come not to action but lye onely in my heart the Devill himself who is the accuser of the brethren hath no evidence against me but God knows my heart doth not he that pondereth the heart understand it where it is not in that faint word which the vulgar Edition hath expressed it in inspector cordium That God sees the heart but the word is Tochen which signifies every where to weigh to number to search to examine as the word is used by Salomon again The Lord weigheth the spirits and it must be a ready hand and exact scales that shall weigh spirits So that though neither man nor Devill nay nor my self give evidence against me yea though I know nothing by my selfe I am not thereby justified why where is the farther danger In this which follows there in Saint Paul He that judges me is the Lord and the Lord hath meanes to know my heart better then my self And therefore as Saint Augustine makes use of those words Abyssus Abyssum invocat one depth cals upon another The infinite depth of my sins must call upon the more infinite depth of Gods mercy for if God who is Judge in all these respects judicio detestationis he knows and abhors evill and judicio discretionis he discerns every evill person and every evill action judicio retributionis he can and will recompense evill with evill And all these Sine Appellatione we cannot appeal from him Sine judiciis he needs no evidence from us If this judgement enter into judgement with me not onely not I but not the most righteous man no nor the Church whom he hath washed in his blood that she might be without spot or wrinckle shall appear righteous in his sight This being then thus that Iudgement is an unseparable character of God the Father being Fons Deitatis the root and spring of the whole Deity how is it said that the Father judgeth no man Not that we should conceive a wearinesse or retiring in the Father or a discharging of himself upon the shoulders and labours of another in the administration and judging of this world for as it is truly said that God rested the seventh day that is he rested from working in that kind from creating so it is true that Christ says here My Father worketh yet and I work and so as it is truly said here The Father judgeth no man it is truly sayd by Christ too of the Father I seek not mine own glory there is one that seeketh and judgeth still it is true that God hath Iudicium detestationis Thy eyes are pure eyes O Lord and cannot behold iniquity says the Prophet still it is true that hee hath Iudicium discretionis because they committed villany in Israel and I know it saith the Lord still it is true that he hath Iudicium retributionis The Lord killeth and maketh alive he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up still it is true that he hath all these sine appellatione for go to the Sea or Earth or Hell as David makes the distribution and God is there and he hath them sine judiciis for our witnesse is in heaven and our record is on high All this is undeniably true and besides this that great name of God by which he is first called in the Scriptures Elohim is not inconveniently deriv'd from Elah which is Iurare to swear God is able as a Judge to minister an oath unto us and to draw evidence from our own consciences against our selves so that then the Father he judges still but he judges as God and not as the Father In the three great judgements of God the
cannot inherit this Kingdome of God I cannot have it by purchase by mine own merits and good works It is neither my former good disposition nor Gods fore-sight of my future cooperation with him that is the cause of his giving mee his grace I cannot have this by Covenant or by the gift or bequeathing of another by works of Supererogation that a Martyr of the primitive Church should send mee a violl of his blood a splinter of his bone a Collop of his flesh wrapped up in a halfe sheet of paper in an imaginary six-penny Indulgence from Rome and bid mee receive grace and peace of Conscience in that I cannot have it by purchase I cannot have it by gift I cannot have it by Curtesie in the right of my wife That if I will let her live in the obedience of the Roman Church and let her bring up my children so for my selfe I may have leave to try a Court or a worldly fortune and bee secure in that that I have a Catholique wife or a Catholique child to pray and merit for mee I have no title to this Kingdome of God but Inheritance whence growes mine Inheritance Ex semine Dei because I am propagated of the seed of God I inherit this peace Whosoever is born of God doth not commit finne for his seed remaineth in him and hee cannot sinne because hee is born of God That is hee cannot desire to sinne Hee cannot antidate a sinne by delighting in the hope of a future sin and sin in a praefruition of his sinne before the act Hee cannot post-date a sinne delight in the memory of a pastsinne and sin it over againe in a post-fruition of that sinne Hee cannot boast himself of sinne much lesse bely himself in glorying in sinnes never done Hee cannot take sinnes dyet therefore that hee may bee able to sinne againe next Spring Hee cannot hunger and thirst and then digest and sleepe quietly after a sinne and to this purpose and in this sense Saint Bernard says Praedestinati non possunt peccare That the Elect cannot sinne And in this also That when the sinnes of the Elect are brought to tryall and to judgement there their sinnes are no sinnes not because they are none in themselves but because the blood of Jesus covering them they are none in the eyes of God I am Heir then as I am the Son of God born of the seed of God But what is that seed Verbum Dei the seed is the word of God Of his own will beg at he us says that Apostle with the word of truth And our Saviour himselfe speaks very clearly in expounding the Parable The seed is the word of God We have this Kingdome of God as we have an inheritance as we are Heirs we are Heirs as we are Sons we are Sons as we have the seed and the seed is the Word So that all ends in this We inherit not this Kingdome if we possesse not the preaching of the Word if we professe not the true â—ligion still for the word of this text which we translate to inherit for the most part in the translation of the Septuagint answers the Hebrew word Nachal and Nachal is Haereditas cum possessione not an inheritance in reversion but in possession Take us O Lord for thine inheritance says Moses Et possideas nos as Saint Hâ—erome translates that very place Inherit us and Possesse us Et erimus tibi whatsoever we are we will bee thine says the Septuagint You see then how much goes to the making up of this Inheritance of the Kingdome of God in this world First Vt habeamus verbum That we have this seed of God his word In the Roman Church they have it not not that that Church hath it not not that it is not there but they the people that have it not and then Vt possideamus That we possesse it or rather that it possesse us that we make the Word the onely rule of our faith and of our actions In the Roman Church they do not so they have not pure wheat but mestlin other things joyned with this good seed the word of God and lastly Vt simus Deo That we be his that we be so still that we doe not begin with God and give over but that this seed of God of which we are born may as Saint Peter says be incorruptible and abide for ever that wee may be his so entirely and so constantly as that we had rather have no beeing then for any time of suspension or for any part of his fundamentall truth be without it and this the Roman Church cannot be said to do that expunges and interlines articles of faith upon Reason of State and emergent occasions God hath made you one says the Prophet who bee the parties whom God hath maryed together and made One in that place you and your religion as our expositors interpret that place And why One says the Prophet there That God might have a godly seed says he that is a continuation a propagation a race a posterity of the same religion Therefore says he Let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth Let none divorce himself from that religion and that worship of God which God put into his armes and which he embraced in his Baptism Except there be errour in fundamentall points such as make that Church no Church let no man depart from that Church and that religion in which he delivered himself to the service of God at first Wo be unto us if we deliver not over our religion to our posterity in the same sincerity and the same totality in which our Fathers have delivered it us for that that continuation is that that makes it an inheritance for to conclude this every man hath an inheritance in the Law and yet if he be hanged he is hanged by the Law in which hee had his inheritance so wee have our inheritance in the Word of God and yet if wee bee damned we are damned by that Word If thy heart turn away so as that thou worship other Gods I denounce unto you this day that you shall surely perish So then wee have an inheritance in this Kingdome if we preserve it and we incurre a forfeiture of it if wee have not this seed The Word the truth of Religion so as that we possesse it that is conform our selves to him whose Word it is by it and possesse it so as that we persevere in the true profession of it to our end for Perseverance as well as Possession enters into our title and inheritance to this Kingdome You see then what this Kingdome of God is It is when he comes and his welcome when he comes in his Sacraments and speaks in his Word when he speaks and is answered knocks and is received he knocks in his Ordinances and is received in our Obedience to them he knocks in his example and most holy
another that plotted to betray thee And therefore if you can heare a good Organ at Church and have the musique of a domestique peace at home peace in thy walls peace in thy bosome never hearken after the musique of sphears never hunt after the knowledge of higher secrets then appertaine to thee But since Christ hath made you Regale Sacerdotium Kings and Priests in your proportion Take heed what you hear in derogation of either the State or the Church In declaring ill affections towards others the Holy Ghost hath imprinted these steps First he begins at home in Nature He that curseth Father or Mother shall surely be put to death and then as families grow out into Cities the Holy Ghost goes out of the house into the consideration of the State and says Thou shalt not curse the Ruler of the people no Magistrate And from thence he comes to the highest upon earth for in Samuel it comes to a cursing of the Lords Anointed and from thence to the highest in heaven Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sinne and as though both those grew out of one another The cursing of the King and the cursing of God the Prophet Esai hath joyned them together They shall be hungry says he indigent poor penurious and they shall fret be transported with ungodly passion and they shall curse their King and their God If they doe one they will doe the other The Devil remembers from what height he is fallen and therefore still clambers upward and still directs all our sinnes in his end upon God Our end in a sin may be pleasure or profit or satisfaction of affections or passions but the Devils end in all is that God may be violated and dishonoured in that sinne And therefore by casting in ill conceptions and distasts first against Parents and Masters at home and then against subordinate Magistrates abroad and so against the Supreme upon earth He brings us to ill conceptions and distasts against God himself first to thinke it liberty to bee under no Governour and then liberty to be under no God when as onely those two services of a gracious God and of a good King are perfect freedome Therefore the wise King Solomon meets with this distemper in the root at first ebullition in the heart Curse not the King no not in thy thought for that Thought hath a tongue and hath spoken and sayd Amen in the eares of God That which thy heart hath said though the Law have not though the Jury have not though the Peers have not God hath heard thee say The word which Solomon uses there is Iadung and that our Translators have in the margin called Conscience Curse not the King no not in thy conscience Doe not thou pronounce that whatsoever thou dislikest cannot consist with a good conscience never make thy private conscience the rule of publique actions for to constitute a Rectitude or an Obliquity in any publique action there enter more circumstances then can have fallen in thy knowledge But the word that Selomon takes there Iadâ—ng signifies properly all waies of acquiring knowledge and Hearing is one of them and therefore Take heed what you heare Come not so neare evill speaking as to delight to heare them that delight to speake evill of Superiours A man may have a good breath in himself and yet be deadly infected if he stand in an ill ayre a man may stand in a cloud in a mist in a fogge of blasphemers till in the sight of God himself shall be dissolved into a blasphemous wretch and in that cloud in that mist God shall not know him that endured the hearing from him that adventured the speaking of those blasphemies The ear in such cases is as the clift in the wall that receives the voice and then the Echo is below in the heart for the most part the heart affords a returne and an inclination to those things that are willingly received at the ear The Echo returnes the last syllables The heart concludes with his conclusions whom we have been willing to hearken unto We make Satyrs and we looke that the world should call that wit when God knowes that that is in a great part self-guiltinesse and we doe but reprehend those things which we our selves have done we cry out upon the illnesse of the times and we make the times ill so the calumniator whispers those things which are true no where but in himselfe But thy greater danger is that mischievous purpose which we spake of before to endanger thee by hearing and to entangle thee in that Dilemma of which an ingenuous man abhors one part as much as a conscientious man does the other That thou must be a Delinquent or an Accuser a Traitour or an Informour God hath imprinted in thee characters of a better office and of more dignity of a Royall Priesthood as you have sparks of Royaltie in your soules Take heed what you hear of State-government as you have sparks of holy fire and Priesthood in your soules Take heed what you heare of Church-government which is the other consideration The Church is the spouse of Christ Noble husbands do not easily admit defamations of their wives Very religious Kings may have had wives that may have retained some tincture some impressions of errour which they may have sucked in their infancy from another Church and yet would be loth those wives should be publikely traduced to be Heretiques or passionately proclaimed to be Idolaters for all that A Church may lacke something of exact perfection and yet that Church should not be said to be a supporter of Antichrist or a limme of the beast or a thirster after the cup of Babylon for all that From extream to extream from east to west the Angels themselves cannot come but by passing the middle way between from that extream impurity in which Antichrist had damped the Church of God to that intemerate purity in which Christ had constituted his Church the most Angelicall Reformers cannot come but by touching yea and stepping upon some things in the way He that is come to any end remembers when he was not at the middle way he was not there as soon as he set out It is the posture reserved for heaven to sit down at the right hand of God Here our consolation is that God reaches out his hand to the receiving of those who come towards him And nearer to him and to the institutions of his Christ can no Church no not of the Reformation be said to have come then ours does It is an ill nature in any man to be rather apt to conceive jealousies and to suspect his Mothers honour or his sisters chastity then a strange womans It is an irreverent unthankfulnesse to think worse of that Church which hath bred us and fed us and led us thus far towards God then of a forein Church though Reformed too and in a good degree How often
And at the judgement you shall stand but stand at the barre But when you stand before the Throne you stand as it is also added in this place before the Lamb who having not opened his mouth to save his owne fleece when he was in the shearers hand nor to save his own life when he was in the slaughterers hand will much lesse open his mouth to any repentant sinners condemnation or upbrayd you with your former crucifyings of him in this world after he hath nailed those sinnes to that crosse to which those sinnes nayled him You shall stand amicti stolis for so it follows covered with Robes that is covered all over not with Adams fragmentary raggs of fig-leafes nor with the halfe-garments of Davids servants Though you have often offered God halfe-confessions and halfe-repentances yet if you come at last to stand before the Lambe his fleece covers all hee shall not cover the sinnes of your youth and leave the sinnes of your age open to his justice nor cover your sinfull actions and leave your sinfull words and thoughts open to justice nor cover your own personall sinnes and leave the sinnes of your Fathers before you or the sinnes of others whose sins your tentations produced and begot open to justice but as he hath enwrapped the whole world in one garment the firmament so cloathed that part of the earth which is under our feet as gloriously as this which we live and build upon so those sinnes which we have hidden from the world and from our own consciences and utterly forgotten either his grace shall enable us to recollect and to repent in particular or we having used that holy diligence to examine our consciences so he shall wrap up even those sinnes which we have forgot and cover all with that garment of his own righteousnesse which leaves no foulnesse no nakednesse open You shall be covered with Robes All over and with white Robes That as the Angels wondred at Christ coming into heaven in his Ascension Wherefore art thou red in thine Apparell and thy garments like him that treadeth the wine fat They wondred how innocence it selfe should become red so shall those Angels wonder at thy coming thither and say Wherefore art thou white in thine apparell they shall wonder how sinne it selfe shall be clothed in innocence And in thy hand shall be a palm which is the last of the endowments specifyed here After the waters of bitternesse they came to seventy to innumerable palmes even the bitter waters were sweetned with another wood cast in The wood of the Crosse of Christ Jesus refreshes all teares and sweetnes all bitternesse even in this life but after these bitter waters which God shall wipe from all our eies we come to the seventy to the seventy thousand palms infinite seales infinite testimonies infinite extensions infinite durations of infinite glory Go in beloved and raise your own contemplations to a height worthy of this glory and chide me for so lame an expressing of so perfect a state and when the abundant spirit of God hath given you some measure of conceiving that glory here Almighty God give you and me and all a reall expressing of it by making us actuall possessors of that Kingdome which his Sonne our Saviour Christ Jesus hath purchased for us with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood Amen SERMON XXXIII Preached at Denmark house some few days before the body of King Iames was removed from thence to his buriall Apr. 26. 1625. CANT 3. 11. Goe forth ye Daughters of Sion and behold King Solomon with the Crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals and in the day of the gladnesse of his heart IN the Creation of man in that one word Faciamus let Vs make man God gave such an intimation of the Trinity as that we may well enlarge and spread and paraphrase that one word so farre as to heare therein a councell of all the three Persons agreeing in this gracious designe upon Man faciamus let us make him make and him mend him and make him sure I the Father will make him by my power if he should fall Thou the Sonne shalt repayr him re-edify him redeem him if he should distrust that this Redemption belonged not to him Thou the Holy Ghost shalt apply to his particular soule and conscience this mercy of mine and this merit of the Sonnes and so let us make him In our Text there is an intimation of another Trinity The words are spoken but by one but the persons in the text are Three For first The speaker the Director of all is the Church the spouse of Christ she says Goe forth ye daughters of Sion And then the persons that are called up are as you see The Daughters of Sion the obedient children of the Church that hearken to her voice And then lastly the persons upon whom they are directed is Solomon crowned That is Christ invested with the royall dignity of being Head of the Church And in this especially is this applyable to the occasion of our present meeting All our meetings now are to confesse to the glory of God and the rectifying of our own consciences and manners the uncertainty of the prosperity and the assurednesse of the adversity of this world That this Crown of Solomons in the text will appear to be Christs crown of Thornes his Humiliation his Passion and so these words will dismisse us in this blessed consolation That then we are nearest to our crown of Glory when we are in tribulation in this world and then enter into full possession of it when we come to our dissolution and transmigration out of this world And these three persons The Church that calls The children that hearken and Christ in his Humiliation to whom they are sent will be the three parts in which we shall determine this Exercise First then the person that directs us is The Church no man hath seen God and lives but no man lives till he have heard God for God spake to him in his Baptisme and called him by his name then Now as it were a contempt in the Kings house for any servant to refuse any thing except he might heare the King in person command it when the King hath already so established the government of his house as that his commandements are to be signifyed by his great Officers so neither are we to look that God should speak to us mouth to mouth spirit to spirit by Inspiration by Revelation for it is a large mercy that he hath constituted an Office and established a Church in which we should heare him When Christ was baptized by Iohn it is sayd by all those three Evangelists that report that story in particular circumstances that there was a voice heard from heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and it is not added in any of those three
are nearest and clearest glasses for thee to see thy self in and such is this glasse which God hath proposed to thee in this house And therefore change the word of the Text in a letter or two from Egredimini to Ingredimini never go forth to see but Go in and see a Solomon crowned with his mothers crown c. And when you shall find that hand that had signed to one of you a Patent for Title to another for Pension to another for Pardon to another for Dispensation Dead That hand that settled Possessions by his Seale in the Keeper and rectified Honours by the sword in his Marshall and distributed relief to the Poore in his Almoner and Health to the Diseased by his immediate Touch Dead That Hand that ballanced his own three Kingdomes so equally as that none of them complained of one another nor of him and carried the Keyes of all the Christian world and locked up and let out Armies in their due season Dead how poore how faint how pale how momentany how transitory how empty how frivolous how Dead things must you necessarily thinke Titles and Possessions and Favours and all when you see that Hand which was the hand of Destinie of Christian Destinie of the Almighty God lie dead It was not so hard a hand when we touched it last nor so cold a hand when we kissed it last That hand which was wont to wipe all teares from all our eyes doth now but presse and squeaze us as so many spunges filled one with one another with another cause of teares Teares that can have no other banke to bound them but the declared and manifested will of God For till our teares flow to that Heighth that they might be called a murmuring against the declared will of God it is against our Allegiance it is Disloyaltie to give our teares any stop any termination any measure It was a great part of Annaes prayse That she departed not from the Temple day nor night visit Gods Temple often in the day meet him in his owne House and depart not from his Temples The dead bodies of his Saints are his Temples still even at midnight at midnight remember them who resolve into dust and make them thy glasses to see thy self in Looke now especially upon him whom God hath presented to thee now and with as much cheerfulnesse as ever thou heardst him say Remember my Favours or remember my Commandements heare him say now with the wise man Remember my Iudgement for thine also shall be so yesterday for me and to day for thee He doth not say to morrow but to Day for thee Looke upon him as a beame of that Sunne as an abridgement of that Solomon in the Text for every Christian truely reconciled to God and signed with his hand in the Absolution and sealed with his bloud in the Sacrament and this was his case is a beame and an abridgement of Christ himselfe Behold him therefore Crowned with the Crown that his Mother gives him His Mother The Earth In anâ—ient times when they used to reward Souldiers with particular kinds of Crowns there was a great dignity in Corona graminea in a Crown of Grasse That denoted a Conquest or a Defence of that land He that hath but Coronam Gramineam a turfe of grasse in a Church yard hath a Crown from his Mother and even in that buriall taketh seisure of the Resurrection as by a turfe of grasse men give seisure of land He is crowned in the day of his Marriage for though it be a day of Divorce of us from him and of Divorce of his body from his soul yet neither of these Divorces breake the Marriage His soule is married to him that made it and his body and soul shall meet again and all we both then in that Glory where we shall acknowledge that there is no way to this Marriage but this Divorce nor to Life but by Death And lastly he is Crowned in the day of the gladnesse of his heart He leaveth that heart which was accustomed to the halfe joyes of the earth in the earth and he hath enlarged his heart to a greater capacity of Joy and Glory and God hath filled it according to that new capacity And therefore to end all with the Apostles words I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleepe that ye sorrow not as others that have no hope for if ye beleeve that Iesus died and rose again even so them also which sleepe in him will God bring with him But when you have performed this Ingredimini that you have gone in and mourned upon him and performed the Egredimini you have gone forth and laid his Sacred body in Consecrated Dust and come then to another Egredimini to a going forth in many severall wayes some to the service of their new Master and some to the enjoying of their Fortunes conferred by their old some to the raising of new Hopes â— some to the burying of old and all some to new and busie endeavours in Court some to contented retirings in the Countrey let none of us goe so farre from him or from one another in any of our wayes but that all we that have served him may meet once a day the first time we see the Sunne in the eares of almighty God with humble and hearty prayer that he will be pleased to hasten that day in which it shall be an addition even to the joy of that place as perfect as it is and as infinite as it is to see that face againe and to see those eyes open there which we have seen closed here Amen SERMON XXXIIII LUKE â—â—â—â— Father forgive them for they know not what they do THe word of God is either the co-eternall and co-essentiall Sonne our Saviour which tooke flesh Verbum Caro factum est or it is the spirit of his mouth by which we live and not by bread onely And so in a large acceptation every truth is the word of God for truth is uniforme and irrepugnant and indivisible as God Omne verum est omni vero consentiens More strictly the word of God is that which God hath uttered either in writing as twice in the Tables to Moses or by ministery of Angels or Prophets in words or by the unborne in action as in Iohn Baptists exultation within his mother or by new-borne from the mouths of babes and sucklings or by things unreasonable as in Balaams Asse or insensible as in the whole booke of such creatures The heavens declare the glory of God c. But nothing is more properly the word of God to us then that which God himself speakes in those Organs and Instruments which himself hath assumed for his chiefest worke our redemption For in creation God spoke but in redemption he did and more he suffered And of that kinde are these words God in his chosen man-hood saith Father forgive them for they know not what they do
more then that too if we come to that inebriabo me lacrymis if we overflow and make our selves drunke with teares in a true sense and sorrow for those sinnes still it is more And more then all this if we can expostulate with God in an Vsque quo Domine How long O Lord shall I take counsell in my self having wearinesse in my heart These steps these gradations towards God do well warre is a degree of peace as it is the way of peace and these colluctations and wrestlings with God bring a man to peace with him But then is a man upon this stone of Iacob when in a faire and even and constant religious course of life he enters into his sheets every night as though his neighbours next day were to shrowd and wind him in those sheets he shuts up his eyes every night as though his Executors had closed them and lies downe every night not as though his man were to call him up next morning or to the next dayes sport or businesse but as though the Angels were to call him to the resurrection And this is our third benefit as Christ is a stone we have security and peace of conscience in him The next is That he is Lapis David the stone with which David slew Goliah and with which we may overcome all our enemies Sicut baculus crucis ita lapis Christi habuit typum Davids sling was a type of the Crosse and the stone was a type of Christ we will chuse to insist upon spirituall enemies sinnes And this is that stone that enables the weakest man to overthrow the strongest sinne if he proceed as David did David sayes to Goliah Thou comest to me with a speare and a shield but I come to thee in the name of the God of the hosts of Israel whom thou hast railed upon if thou watch the approach of any sinne any giant sinne that transports thee most if thou apprehend it to rayle against the Lord of Hosts that is that there is a loud and active blasphemy against God in every sinne if thou discerne it to come with a sword or a speare that is perswasions of advancement if thou do it or threatings of dishonour if thou do it not if it come with a shield that is with promises to cover and palliate it though thou do it If then this David thy attempted soule can put his hand into his bag as David did for quid cor hominis nisi sacculus Dei a mans heart is that bag in which God layes up all good directions if he can but take into his consideration his Jesus his Christ and sling one of his works his words his commandments his merits This Goliah this Giant sinne will fall to the ground and then as it is said of David that he slew him when he had no sword in his hand and yet in the next verse that he tooke his sword and slew him with that so even by the consideration of what my Lord hath done for me I shall give that sinne the first deaths wound and then I shall kill him with his owne sword that is his owne abomination his owne foulenesse shall make me detest him If I dare but looke my sinne in the face if I dare tell him I come in the name of the Lord if I consider my sinne I shall triumph over it Et dabit certanâ—â— victoriam qui dedit certandi audaciam That God that gave me courage to fight will give me strength to overcome The last benefit which we consider in Christ as he is a stone is That he is Petra a Rock The Rock gave water to the Israelites in the wildernesse and he gave them honey out of the stone and oyle out of the hard Rock Now when Saint Paul sayes That our Fathers dranke of the same Rock as we he adds that the same Rock was Christ So that all Temporall and all Spirituall blessings to us and to the Fathers were all conferred upon us in Christ but we consider not now any miraculous production from the Rock but that which is naturall to the Rock that it is a firme defence to us in all tempests in all afflictions in all tribulations and therefore Laâ—date Dominum habitatores petrae sayes the Prophet You that are inhabitants of this Rock you that dwell in Christ and Christ in you you that dwell in this Rock Prayse ye the Lord blesse him and magnifie him for ever If a sonne should aske bread of his father will he give him a stone was Christs question Yes O blessed Father we aske no other answer to our petition no better satisfaction to our necessity then when we say Da nobis panem Give us this day our daily bread that thou give us this Stone this Rock thy self in thy Church for our direction thy self in the Sacrament for our refection what hardnesse soever we finde there what corrections soever we receive there all shall be easie of digestion and good nourishment to usâ— Thy holy spirit of patience shall command That these stones be made bread And we shall finde more juice more marrow in these stones in these afflictions then worldly men shall do in the softnesse of their oyle in the sweetnesse of their honey in the cheerefulnesse of their wine for as Christ is our foundation we beleeve in him and as he is our corner-stone we are at peace with the world in him as he is Iacobs stone giving us peace in our selves and Davids stone giving us victory over our enemies so he is a Rock of stone no affliction no tribulation shal shake us And so we have passed through all the benefits proposed to be considered in this first part As Christ is a stone It is some degree of thankfulnesse to stand long in the contemplation of the benefit which we have received and therefore we have insisted thus long upon the first part But it is a degree of spirituall wisdome too to make haste to the consideration of our dangers and therefore we come now to them Wee may fall upon this stone and be broken This stone may fall upon us and grinde us to powder and in the first of these we may consider Quid cadere what the falling upon this stone is and secondly Quid frangi what it is to broken upon it and then thirdly the latitude of this unusquisque that whosoever fals so is so broken first then because Christ loves us to the end therefore will we never put him to it never trouble him till then as the wiseman sayd of Manna that it had abundance of all pleasure in it and was meat for all tasts that is as Expositors interpret it that Manna tasted to every one like that which every one liked best so this stone Christ Jesus hath abundance of all qualities of stone in it and is all the way such a stone to every man as he desires
that though our integrity be lost that we be no more whole and intire vessells yet there are meanes of piecing us again Though we be not vessells of Innocency for who is so and for that enter not into judgement with thy servants O Lord yet we may be vessells of repentance acceptable to God and usefull to his service for when any thing falls upon a stone the harme that it suffereth is not alwayes or not onely according to the proportion of the hardnesse of that which it fell upon but according to the heighth that it falleth from and according to that violence that it is throwne with If their fall who fall by sinnes of infirmitie should referre onely to the stone they fall upon the Majestie of God being wounded and violated in every sinne every sinner would be broken to pieces and ground to powder But if they fall not from too far a distance if they have lived within any nearnesse any consideration of God if they have not fallen with violence taken heart and force in the way grown perfect in the practise of their sinne if they fall upon this stone that is sinne and yet stoppe at Christ after the sinne this stone shall breake them that is breake their force and confidence breake their presumption and security but yet it shall leave enough in them for the Holy Ghost to unite to his Service yea even the sinne it self cooperabitur in bonum as the Apostle saith the very fall it selfe shall be an occasion of his rising And therefore though Saint Augustine seeme to venture farre it is not too farre when he saith Audeo dicere it is boldly said and yet I must say it utile est ut caderem in aliquod manifestum peccatum A sinner falleth to his advantage that falleth into some such sinne as by being manifested to the World manifesteth his owne sinnefull state to his owne sinnefull Conscience too It is well for that man that falleth so as that he may thereby looke the better to his footing ever after Dicit Domino Susceptor meus es tu sayes St. Bernard That man hath a new Title to God a new name for God all creatures as St. Bernard inlarges this meditation can say Creator meus es tu Lord thou art my Creator all living creatures can say Pastor meus es tu Thou art my shepheard Thou givest me meat in due season all men can say Redemptor meus es tu thou art my Redeemer but onely he which is fallen and fallen upon this stone can say Susceptor meus es tu only he which hath been overcome by a temptation and is restored can say Lord thou hast supported me thou hast recollected my shivers and reunited me onely to him hath this stone expressed both abilities of stone first to breake him with a sense of his sin and then to give him peace and rest upon it Now there is in this part this circumstance Quicunque cadit whosoever falleth where the quicunque is unusquisque whosoever falls that is whosoever he be he falls Quoâ—odo de coelo cecidisti Luciter says the Prophet the Prophet wonders how Lucifer could fall having nothing to tempt him for so many of the Antiens interpret that place of the fall of the Angels and when the Angels fell there were no other creatures made but Quid est homo aut filius hominis since the Father of man Adam could not how shall the sonnes of him that inherit his weaknesse and contract more and contribute their temptations to one another hope to stand Adam fell and he fell à longè farre off for he could see no stone to fall upon for when he fell there was no such Messias no such meanes of reparation proposed nor promised when he fell as now to us The blessed Virgin and the forerunner of Christ Iohn Baptist fell too but they fell propè neerer hand they fell but a little way for they had this stone Christ Jesus in a personall presence and their faith was alwaies awake in them but yet he and she and they all fell into some sinne Quicunque cadit is unusquisque cadit whosoever falls is whosoever he be he falls and whosoever falls as we said before is broken If he fall upon something and fall not to an infinite depth If he fall not upon a soft place to a delight in sinne but upon a stone and this stone no harder sharper ruggedder then this not into a diffidence or distrust in Gods mercy he that falls so and is broken so that comes to a remorsefull to a broken and a contrite heart he is broken to his advantage left to a possibility yea brought to a neerenesse of being pieced againe by the Word by the Sacraments and other medicinall institutions of Christ in his Church We must end onely with touching upon the third part upon whom this stone falls it will grinde him to powder where we shall onely tell you first Quid conteri what this grinding is and then Quid cadere what the falling of this stone is And briefly this grinding to powder is to be brought to that desperate and irrecoverable estate in sinne as that no medicinall correction from God no breaking no bowing no melting no moulding can bring him to any good fashion when God can worke no cure do no good upon us by breaking us not by breaking us in our health for we will attribute that to weaknesse of stomach to surfeit to indigestion not by breaking us in our states for we will impute that to falshood in servants to oppression of great adversaries to inquity of Judges not by breaking us in our honour for we will accuse for that factions and practises and supplantation in Court when God cannot breake us with his corrections but that we will attribute them to some naturall to some accidentall causes and never thinke of Gods judgements which are the true cause of these afflictions when God cannot breake us by breaking our backs by laying on heavy loads of calamities upon us nor by breaking our hearts by putting us into a sad and heavy and fruitlesse sorrow and melancholy for these worldly losses then he comes to breake us by breaking our necks by casting us into the bottomlesse pit and falling upon us there in this wrath and indignation Comminuam eos in pulverem sayth he I will beate them as small as dust before the winde and tread them as flat as clay in the streets the breaking thereof shall be like the breaking of a Potters vessell which is broken without any pity No pity from God no mercy neither shall any man pity them no compassion no sorrow And in the breaking thereof saith the Prophet there is not found a sheard to take fire at the hearth nor to take water at the pit that is they shall be incapable of any beam of grace in themselves from heaven or any spark of zeale in themselves not a sheard
had been at the Stage or other recitations of their Poets or Orators S. Hierom charges Vigilantius that howsoever he differed from him in opinion after yet when he had heard him preach of the Resurrection before he had received that Doctrine with Acclamation and Plaudites And as Saint Hierome saith of himselfe that he was thus applauded in his Preaching he saith it also of him whom he called his Master Gregory Nazianzen a grave and yet a facetious man of him he telleth us this Story That he having intreated Nazianzen to tell him the meaning of that place What that second Sabbath after the first was he played with me he jested at me saith he Eleganter lusit and he bad me be at Church next time he preached and he would preach upon that Text Et toto acclamante populo cogeris invitus scire quod nescis and when you see all the Congregation applaued me and cry out that they are satisfied you will make your self beleeve you understand the place as they doe though you doe not Et si solus tacueris solus ab omnibus stultitiae condemnaberis And if you doe not joyne with the Congregation in those Plaudites the whole Congregation will thinke you the onely ignorant person in the Congregation for as we may see in Saint Augustin the manner was that when the people were satisfied in any point which the Preacher handled they would almost tell him so by an acclamation and give him leave to passe to another point for so saith that Father Vidi in voce intelligentes plures video in silentâ—o requirentes I heare many to whom by this acclamation I see enough hath been said but I see more that are silent and therefore for their sakes I will say more of it Saint Agustine accepted these acclamations more willingly at least more patiently then some of the Fathers before had done Audistis laudastis Deo gratias you have heard that hath been said and you have approved it with your praise God be thanked for both Et laudes vestrae foliae sunt arborum sed fructus quaero Though I looke for fruit from you yet even these acclamations are Leafes and Leafes are Evidences that the tree is alive Saint Chrysostome was more impatient of them yet could never overcome them To him they came a little closer for it was ordinary that when he began to speake the people would cry out Audiamus tertiumdecimum Apostolum Let us hearken to the thirteenth Apostle And he saith Si placet hanc nunc legem firmabimus I pray let us now establish this for a Law between you and mee Ne quis auditor plaudat quamdiu nos loquimur That whilest I am speaking I may speaking I may heare no Plaudate yet he saith in a Sermon preached after this Animo cogitavi Legem ponere I have often purposed to establish such a Law Vt decore cum silentio audiatis that you would be pleased to heare with silence but he could never prevail Sidonius Apollinaris a Bishop himselfe but whether then or no know not saith of another Bishop that hearing even praedicationes repentinas his extemporall Sermons raucus plausor audivi I poured my selfe out in loud acclamations till I was hoarse And to contract this consideration wee see evidently that this fashion continued in the Church even to Saint Bernards time Neither is it left yet in some places beyond the Seas where the people doe yet answer the Preacher it his questions be applyable to them and may induce an answer with these vocall acclamations Sir we will Sir we will not And truely wee come too neare re-inducing this vain glorious fashion in those often periodicall murmurings and noises which you make when the Preacher concludeth any point for those impertinent Interjections swallow up one quarter of his houre and many that were not within distance of hearing the Sermon will give a censure upon it according to the frequencie or paucitie of these acclamations These fashions then howsoever in those times they might be testimonies of Zeale yet because they occasioned vain glory and many times faction as those Fathers have noted we desire not willingly we admit not We come in Christs stead Christ at his comming met Hosann ' as and Crucifige's A Preacher may be aplauded in his Pulpit and crucified in his Barne but there is a worse crucifying then that a piercing of our hearts Because we are as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voyce and can play well on an Instrument and you heare our words and doe them not Having therefore said thus much to you first of our manner of proceeding with you Obsecramus of all those waies of humiliation which we insisted upon and ingaged our selves in we pray intreat you and the respect which should come from you because we come in Christs stead if as the Eâ—â—â—ch said to Philip Here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized so you say to us we acknowledge that you do your duties and we do receive you in Christs stead what is it that you would have us doe it is but this We pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God which is our third and last part and that to which all that we have said of a good Pastor and a good people which is the blessedest union of this world bendeth and driveth what and how blessed a thing it is to be reconciled to God Reconciliation is a redintegration a renewing of a former friendship that hath been interrupted and broken So that this implyeth a present enmity and hostility with God and then a former friendship with God and also a possibility of returning to that former friendship stop a little upon each of these and we have done Amongst naturall Creatures because howsoever they differ in bignesse yet they have some proportion to one another we consider that some very little creatures contemptible in themselves are yet called enemies to great creatures as the Mouse is to the Elephant For the greatest Creature is not Infinite nor the least is not Nothing But shall man betweene whom and nothing there went but a word Let us make Man That Nothing which is infinitely lesse then a Mathematicall point then an imaginary Atome shall this Man this yesterdayes Nothing this to morow worse then Nothing be capable of that honour that dishonour able honour that confounding honour to be the enemy of God of God who is not onely a multipled Elephant millions of Elephants multiplied into one but a multiplied World a multiplied All All that can be conceived by us infinite many times over Nay if we may dare to say so a multiplyed God a God that hath the Millions of the Heathens gods in himselfe alone shall this man be an enemy to this God Man cannot be allowed so high a sinne as enmity with God The Devill himselfe is but a slave to God and shall Man
man whom he hath not made him able to relieve So then no more being needfull to be said of the persons the poor nor of the Act showing of mercy to the poor there remaines no more in this last part but according to our way all the way to consider the origination and latitude of this last word Cahad this honouring of God The word does properly signifie Augere ampliare To enlarge God to amplifie to dilate God to make infinite God shall I dare to say more God certainely God to more then he was before O who can expresse this abundant this superabundant largenesse of Gods goodnesse to man that there is a power put into mans hands to enlarge God to dilate to propagate to amplifie God himselfe I will multiply this people says God and they shall not be few I will glorifie them and they shall not be small there 's the word of our text God enables me to glorifie him to amplifie him to encrease him by my mercy my almes For this is not onely that encrease that Saint Hierom intends that he that hath pity on the poor Foeneratur Domino he lends upon use to the Lord for this though it be an encrease is but an encrease to himselfe but he that showes mercy to the poore encreases God says our text dilates enlarges God How Corpus aptasti mihi when Christ comes into the world says Saint Paul he says to his Father Thou hast prepared and fitted a body for me That was his naturall body that body which he assumed in the bowels of the blessed Virgin They that pretend to enlarge this body by multiplication by making millions of these bodies in the Sacraments by the way of Transubstantiation they doe not honour this body whose honour is to sit in the same dimensions and circumscriptions at the right hand of God But then as at his comming into this world God had fitted him a body so in the world he had fitted himselfe another body a Mysticall body a Church purchased with his bloud Now this body this Mysticall body I feed I enlarge I dilate and amplifie by my mercy and my charity For as God says to Ierusalem Thou wast in thy bloud thou wast not salted nor swadled no eye pityed thee but thou wast cast out into the open field and I loved thee I washed thee I apparelled and adorned thee prosperataes in regnum I never gave thee over till I saw thee an established kingdome so may all those Saints of God say to God himselfe to the Sonne of God invested in this body this mysticall body the Church thou was cast out into the open field all the world persecuted thee and then we gave thee suck with our bloud we clothed thee with our bodies we built thee houses and adorned and endowed those houses to thine honour prosperatus es in regnum we never gave over spending and doing and suffering for thy glory till thou hadst an established kingdome over all the earth And so thou thy body thy mysticall body the Church is honoured that is amplified dilated enlarged by our mercy Magnificat Anima mea Dominum was the exultation of the blessed Virgin My soule doth magnifie the Lord. When the meditations of my heart digested into writing or preaching or any other declaration of Gods glory carry or advance the knowledge of God in other men then My soule doth magnifie the Lord enlarge dilate amplifie God But when I relieve any poor wretch of the houshold of the faithfull with mine almes then my mercy magnifies the Lord occasions him that receives to magnifie the Lord by this thanksgiving and them that see it to magnifie the Lord by their imitation in the like works of mercy And so far doe these two elegant words chosen here by the holy Ghost carry our meditation in the first Canan God makes the charitable man partaker of his own highest power mercy and in the other Cabad God enables us by this mercy to honour him so far as to dilate to enlarge to amplifie him that is that body which he in his Sonne hath invested by purchase his Church We have done If you will but claspe up all this in your owne bosomes if you will but lay it to your owne hearts you may goe A poorer thing is not in the world nor a sicker which you may remember to have been one signification of this word poore then thine own soule And therefore the Chalde paraphrase renders this text thus He that oppresses the poore reproaches his owne soule for his owne soule is as poore as any whom he can oppresse To a begger that needs and askes but bodily things thou wilt say Alasse poore soule and wilt thou never say Alasse poore soule to thy self that needest spirituall things If thy affections thy pleasures thy delights beg of thee and importune thee so farre to bestow upon them say unto them I have those that are nearer me then you Wife and Children and I must not empoverith them to give unto you I must not sterve my family to feed my pleasures But if this Wife and Children begge and importune so farre say unto them too I have one that is nearer me then all you a soule and I must not endanger that to satisfie you I must not provide Ioyntures and Portions with the damnifying with the damning of mine owne soule It is a miserable Alchimy and extracting of spirits that stills away the spirit the soule it selfe and a poore Philosophers Stone that is made with the coales of Hell-fire a lamentable purchase when the soule is payed for the land And therefore show mercy to this soule Doe not oppresse this soule not by Violence which was the first signification of this word Oppression Doe not violate doe not smother not strangle not suffocate the good motions of Gods Spirit in theeâ— for it is but a wofull victory to triumphe over thine owne conscience and but a servile greatnesse to be able to silence that Oppresse not thy soule by Fraud which was the second signification of this word Oppression Defraud not thy soul of the benefit of Gods Ordinances frequent these exercises come hither And be not here like Gideons fleece dry when all about it was wet parched in a remorselesnesse when all the Congregation about thee is melted into holy tears Be not as Gideons fleece dry when all else is wet nor as that fleece wet when all about it was dry Be not jealous of God stand not here as a person unconcerned disinteressed as though those gracious promises which God is pleased to shed down upon the whole Congregation from this place appertained not to thee but that all those Judgements denounced here over which they that stand by thee are able by a faithfull and cheerfull laying hold of Gods offers though they stand guilty of the same sinnes that thou doest to lift up their heads must still necessarily overflow and surround thee
finde their subjects to value them Ambassadors have ever been sacred persons and partakers of great priviledges A Prince that lives as ours in the eye of many Ambassadors is not as the children of Israel in the midst of Canaanites and Iebusiâ—es and Ammonites who all watched the destruction of Israel but he is in the midst of Tuâ—elâ—r Angels Nationall Angels who study by Gods grace as it becomes us to hope the peace and welfare of the Christian State But then all strangers in the land are not noble and candid and ingenuous Ambassadors even Ambassadors themselves may be triâ—led to an undervalue of the Prince by rumours and by disloyal and by negligent speaches from the Subject we have not yet felt Solomons whippes but our whinings and repinings and discontents may bring us to Rehoboams Scorpions This way hath a part in the Kings safetie and in our safety to hold in our selves and to convay to strangers a good estimation of that happy government which is truly good in it self And then a third and very important way towards his preservation is a cheerful disposition to supply and to support and to assist him with such things as are necessary for his outward dignity When God himselfe was the immediate King of the Israelites and governed them by himself he took it ill that they would depart from him who needed nothing of theirs for there could be no other King but must necessarily be supplyed by them And yet consider Beloved what God who needed nothing took The sacrifices of the Jews were such as would have kept divers Royall houses Take a bill of them but in one Passeover that Iosiah kept and compare that and other the like with the smalness of the land that they possessed and you will see that that they gave was a very great proportion Now it is the service of God to contribute to the King as well as to the Priest He that gives to a Prophet shall have a Prophets reward he that gives to the King shall have a Kings reward a Crown in those cases where to give to your King is to give to God that is where the peace of the State and the glory of God in his Gospel depends much upon the sustentation of the estimation and outward honour and splendour of the King preserve him so and he shall the lesse be subject to these dangers of such falling into their pits But lastly and especially let us preserve him by preserving God amongst us in the true and sincere profession of our Religion Let not a mis-grounded and disloyall imagination of coolness in him cool you in your own families Omnis spiritus qui solvit Iesum says the Apostle in the Vulgat every spirit that dissolves Jesus that embraces not Iesus intirely All Iesus and All his All his Truth and all that suffer for that Truth is not of God Doe not say I will hold as much of Jesus as shall be necessary so much as shall distinguish me from a Turk or a Iew but if I may be the better for parting with some of the rest why should I not Doe not say I will hold All my self but let my wife or my son or one of my sons goe the other way as though Protestant and Papist were two severall callings and as you would make one son a Lawyer another a Merchant you will make one son a Papist another a Protestant Excuse not your own levity with so high a dishonor to the Prince when have you heard that ever he thanked any man for becoming a Papist Leave his dores to himselfe The dores into his kingdome The Ports and the dores in his kingdome The prisons Let him open and shut his dores as God shall put into his minde look thou seriously to thine own dores to thine own family and keep all right there A Thief that is let out of New-gate is not therefore let into thy house A Priest that is let out of prison is not therefore let into thy house neither still it may be felony to harbour him though there were mercy in letting him out Cities are built of families and so are Churches too Every man keeps his owne family and then every Pastor shall keep his flock and so the Church shall be free from schisme and the State from sedition and our Iosiah preserved Prophetically for ever as he was Historically this day from them in whose pits the breath of our nostrils the anointed of the Lord was taken Amen SERMON XLIV Preached at St. Pauls Crosse Novemb. 22. 1629. MAT. 11. 6. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me THese are words spoken by our Blessed Saviour to two Disciples sent by Iohn Baptist then a prisoner to inform themselves of some particulars concerning Christ. Christ who read Hearts better then we doe faces and heard Thoughts clearer then we doe words saw in the thoughts and hearts of these men a certain perversenesse an obliquity an irregularity towards him a jealousie and suspicion of him and according to that indisposition of theirs he speaks to them and tels them This and This onely is true Blessednesse not to be scandalized in me not to be offended in me I see you are but as you love Blessednesse and there is no other object of true love but Blessednesse establish your selves in mee maintain in your selves a submission and an acquiescence to me in my Gospel suspect not me be not jealous of me nor presse farther upon me then I open and declare my self unto you for Blessed is he whosoever is not scandalized not offended in me The words have in them an Injunction and a Remuneration A Precept and a Promise The Way and the End of a Christian. The Injunction The Precept The way is As you love blessedness be not offended in me Be satisfied with mee and mine Ordinances It is an Acquiescence in the Gospel of Christ Jesus And the Remuneration the Promise the End is Blessedness That which in it self hath no end That in respect of which all other things are to no end Blessedness everlasting Blessedness Blessed is he whosoever is not scandalized not offended in me In the first Christ gives them first if not an Increpation yet an Intimation of our facility in falling into the Passive scandall the mis-interpreting of the words or actions of other men which is that which our Saviour intends by being offended in another And Blessed are they in generall who are not apt to fall into this Passive scandall not subject to this facility of mis-interpreting other men In a second branch in this first part Christ appropriates this to himself Blessed is he whosoever is not scandalized not offended in me In which branch we shall see that the generall scandall and offence that the world took at Christ and his Gospel was that he induced a Religion that opposed the Honours and the Pleasures and the Profit of this world And
to the search of the Scriptures All they and they are no small number for there they are said to be ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands All they say there We are all made Kings and Priests unto our God Begin a Lambe and thou will become a Lion Reade the Scriptures modestly humbly and thou shalt understand them strongly powerfully for hence is it that Saint Chrysâ—stome more then once and Saint Gregory after him meet in that expression That the Scriptures are a Sea in which a Lambe may wade and an Elephant may swimme And this is the Gospell of those poore poore in understanding To those that are spiritually poore wrung in their souls stung in their Consciences fretted galled exulcerated viscerally even in the bowells of their Spirit insensible inapprehensive of the mercies of God in Christ the Lord and his Spirit hath sent me to preach the Gospell also That Gospell Blessed are the poore in Spirit for theirs it the Kingdome of Heaven and to recollect and redintegrate that broken and scattered heart by enabling him to expostulate and chide his owne soule with those words of comfort which the Holy Ghost offereth him once and again and again Why art thou cast downe O my soule and why art thou disquieted in me Hope thou in God and yet praise him for the light of his countenance Words of inexpresible comfort yet praise him for the light of his countenance Though thou sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death yet praise him for the light of his Countenance Whatsoever thy darknesse be put not out that candle The light of his Countenance Maintain that light discerne that light and whatsoever thy darknesse seemed it shall prove to be but an over shadowing of the Holy Ghost And so beloved if you have sufficiently considered first our generall easinesse of falling into the Passive scandall of being offended in others by misinterpreting their proceedings and then the generall scandals which the world tooke at Christ and his Gospell The Philosophers that it was an ignorant religion where you saw That the learneder the adversary is the sooner he is satisfied And the worldly and carnall man that it was a dishonourable an unpleasurable an unprofitable Religion where you saw that it were no Diminution to our Religion if it were all that but it is none of it If you have also considered the particular passive scandall that Christ deprehended in those two Disciples of Iohn That they would doe more then Christ practised or prescribed where you saw also the distemper of those that are derived from them both those that thinke there are some sinners whom Christ cannot save and those who thinke there are no sinners whom they cannot save by their Supererogations And considered lastly the way that Christ tooke to devest these men of this offence and passive scandall which was to call them to the consideration of good workes and of the best workes which he that doth them can doe where you have also seen that Christ makes that our best work To preach the Gospell to the poore both because the poore are destitute of other comforts and because their very poverty hath soupled them and mellowed them and macerated and matured and disposed them by corrections to instructions If you have received all this you have received all that we proposed for the first part the injunction the precept the way Be not sandalized be not offended in me And now that which I suspected at first is faln upon me that is to thrust our other part into a narrow conclusioÌ„ though it be blessednesse it selfe everlasting blessednesse so we must so we shall blessed is he there 's the remuneration the promise the end whosoever is not offended in me Blessed The Heathen who saw by the light of nature that they could have no Beeing if there were no God for it is from one of themselves that Saint Paul says in him we live and move and have our Beeing and Genus cjus suâ—us we are the off-spring of God saw also by the same light of nature that they could have no well-being if there were no Blessednesse And therefore as the Heathen multiplied Gods to themselves so did they also multiply blessednesse They brought their Iupiters to three hundred says Varro And from the same author from Varro does Saint Augustin collect almost three hundred severall opinions of Blessednesse But In multitudine nullitas says Tertullian excellently as where there are many Gods there is no God so where there are many blessednesses imagined there is no blessednesse possessed Not but that as the Sunne which moves onely in his owne Spheare in heaven does yet cast downe beames and influences into this world so that blessednesse which is truly onely in heaven does also cast downe beames and influences hither and gild and enamell yea inanimate the blessings of God here with the true name the true nature of blessednesse For though the vulgat edition doe read that place thus Beatum dixerant populum the world thought that people blessed that were so that is Temporally blessed as though that were but an imaginary and not a true blessednesse and howsoever it have seemed good to our Translators to insert into that verse a discretive particle a particle of difference Yea Blessed are the people that are so that is Temporally blessed Yea blessed are the people whose God is the Lord yet in truth in the Originall there is no such discretive particle no word of difference no yea in the text but both the clauses of that verse are carried in one and the same tenor Blessed are the people that are so Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord that is that people whom the Lord hath blessed so with Temporall blessings is bound to beleeve those temporall blessings to be seales and evidences to them that the Lord is their God So then there is a Viatory a preparatory an initiatory an inchoative blessednesse in this life What is that All agree in this definition that blessednesse is that in quo quiescit animus in which the minde the heart the desire of man hath settled and rested in which it found a Centricall reposednesse an acquiescence a contentment Not that which might satisfie any particular man for so the object would be infinitely various but that beyond which no man could propose any thing And is there such ablessednesse in this life There is Fecisti nos Domine ad te inquietum est Cor nostrum donec quiescat in te Lord thou hast made us for thy selfe and our heart cannot rest till it get to thee But can we come to God here We cannot Where 's then our viatory our preparatory our initiatory our in choative blessednesse Beloved though we cannot come to God here here God comes to us Here in the prayers of the Congregation God comes to us here in his Ordinance of Preaching God
or distrust in God and his mercy and to that purpose we consider the Serpents punishment and espcially as it is heightned and aggravated in this Text Dust shalt thou eate all the days of thy life There are three degrees in the Serpents punishment First Super pectus He must creep upon his belly And secondly Inimicitias ponam I will put enmity God will raise him an enemy And thirdly Pulverem comedes Dust shalt thou eate all the days of thy life And in all these three though they aggravate the judgement upon the Serpent there is mercy to us For for the first that the Serpent now does but creep upon his belly S. Augustine and S. Gregory understands this belly to be the seat of our affections and our concupiscencies That the Serpent hath no power upon our heart nor upon our brain for if we bring a tentation to consideration to deliberation that we stop at it think of it study it and forsee the consequences this frustrates the tentation Our nobler faculties are always assisted with the grace of God to resist him though the belly the bowels of sin in sudden surprisals and ebullitions and foamings of our concupiscencies be subject to him for though it may seem that if that be the meaning which from S. Augustine and S. Gregory we have given you That the Serpent hath this power over our affections and that is intended by that The belly it should rather have been said super pectus vestrum Hee shall creep upon your belly then upon his owne yet indeed all that is his own which we have submitted and surrendred to him and hee is upon his own because we make our selves his for to whom ye yeeld your servants to obey his servants you are So that if he be super pectus nostrum if he be upon our belly he is upon his own But he does but creep He does not fly He is not presently upon you in a present possession of you you may discern the beginning of sin and the ways of sin in the approaches of the Serpent if you will The Serpent leaves a slime that discovers him where he creeps At least behinde him after a sin you may easily see occasion of remorse and detestation of that sinne and thereby prevent relapses if you have not watched him well enough in his creeping upon you When hee is a Lion he does not devoure all whom he findes He seeks whom he may devoure He may not devoure all nor any but those who cast themselves into his jaws by exposing themselves to tentations to sin He does but creep why did he any more before was his forme changed in this punishment Many of the Ancients think literally that it was and that before the Serpent did goe upon feet we are not sure of that nor is it much probable That may well be true which Luther says fuit suavissima bestiola till then it was a creature more lovely more sociable more conversable with man and as Calvin expresses the same Minus odiosus man did lesse abhor the Serpent before then after Beloved it is a degree of mercy if God bring that which was formerly a tentation to mee to a lesse power over me then formerly it had If deformity if sicknesse if age if opinion if satiety if inconstancy if any thing have worn out a tentation in that face that transported me heretofore it is a degree of mercy Though the Serpent be the same Serpent yet if he be not so acceptable so welcome to me as heretofore it is a happy a blessed change And so in that respect there was mercy It was a punishment to the Serpent that though he were the same still as before yet he was not able to insinuate himself as before because hee was not so welcome to us So the having of the same form which he had might be a punishment as nakednesse was to man after his fall He was naked before but he saw it not he felt it not he needed no cloathes before Now nakednesse brings shame and infirmities with it So God was so sparing towards the Serpent as that he made him not worse in nature then before and so mercifull to us as that hee made us more jealous of him and thereby more safe against him then before Which is also intimated pregnantly in the next step of his punishment Inimicitias ponam That God hath kindled a war between him and us Peace is a blessed state but it must be the peace of God for simeon and Levi are brethren they agree well enough together but they are instruments of evill and in that case the better agreement the worse So war is a fearfull state but not so if it be the war of God undertaken for his cause or by his Word Many times a State suffers by the security of a Peace and gains by the watchfulness of a War Wo be to that man is so at peace as that the spirit fights not against the flesh in him and wo to them too who would make them friends or reconcile them betweene whom God hath perpetuated an everlasting war The seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent Christ and Beliall Truth and Superstition Till God proclaimed a warre between them the Serpent did easily overthrow them but therefore God brought it to a war that man might stand upon his guard And so it was a Mercy But the greatest mercy is in the last and that which belongs most directly though all conduce pertinently and usefully to our present occasion Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life He must eat dust that is our bodies and carnall affections Hee was at a richer diet he was in better pasture before before he fed upon souls too But for that his head was bruised in the promise of a Messias who delivers our souls from his tyranny But the dust the body that body which for all the precious ransome and the rich and large mercy of the Messias must die that dust is left to the Serpent to Satan that is to that dissolution and that putrefaction which he hath induced upon man in death He eats but our dust in our death when he hath brought us to that that is a mercy nay he eats up our dust before our death which is a greater mercy our carnal affections our concupiscencies are eaten up and devoured by him and so even his eating is a sweeping a deansing a purging of us Many times we are the better for his tentations My discerning a storm makes me put on a cloak My discerning a tentation makes me see my weaknesse and fly to my strength Nay I am somtimes the safer and the readier for a victory by having been overcome by him The sense and the remorse of a sin after I have fallen into it puts me into a better state and establishes better conditions between God and me then were before when I felt no
question because I can have no certaine answer and it is an infectious question too for here is one coale of the Devils fire of his pride kindled in me as the Devil said Similis ere Altissimo I will be like the Highest and see whether I may not stand by my selfe without any Influence from God without any Dependance upon God so in our case I will be so farre equall to God as that I will measure his actions by my reason and nor doe his Commandements till I know why he commanded them And then when the infection is got into a House who can say it shall end here in this Person and kill no more or it shall end this weeke and last no longer So if that infectious inquisition that Quare Why should God command this or this perticular be entred into me all my Humilitie is presently infected and I shall looke for a reason why God made a world or why he made a world no sooner then 6000. yeares agoe and why he sayes some and why but some and I shall examine God upon all the Interrogatories that I can frame upon the Creed why I should believe a Sonne of a Virgin without a Man or believe the Sonne of God to descend into Hell Or frame upon the Pater Noster why I should worship such a God that must be prayed to not to leade me into tentation Or frame upon the Ten Commandements why after all is done and heapt for any sinfull action yet I should be guilty of all for covering in my heart another mans horse or house And therfore Luther pursues it farther with words of more vehemence Odiosa exitialis vocule Quare It is an Execrable and Damnable Monasillable Why it exasperates God it ruines us For when we come to aske a reason of his actions either we doubt of the goodnesse of God that he is not so carefull of us as we would be or of his power that he cannot provide for us so well as we could doe or of his wisdome that he hath not grounded his Commandements so well as we could have advised him whereas Saint Augustine saies justly Qui rationem quaerit voluntatis Dei aliquid majus Deo quaerit He that seekes a reason of the will of God seekes for something greater then God It was the Devill that opened our eies in Paradise it is our parts to shut them so farre as not to gaze upon Gods secret purposes God guided his Children as well by a Pillar of Cloud as by a Pillar of Fire and both Cloud and Fire were equally Pillars There is as much strength in and as safe relying upon some ignorances as some knowledges for God provided for his people as well in this that he did Moses body from them as that he revealed other Mysteries to them by him All is well summ'd and collected by Saint Augustine Dominus cur jusserit viderit faciendum est à serviente quod jusserit Why God commands any thing God himselfe knowes our part is not to enquire why by to doe what he commands This is the Rule 'T is true there should not be but yet is there not sometimes in the minds and mouths of good and godly men a Quare a reasoning a disputing against that which God hath commanded or done The murmuring of the Children in the Desert had still this Quare Quare eduxisti Wherefore have you brought us hither to die here in this miserable place where there is no Seed no Figges no Vines no Pomegrantes no Water Saul had this Quare this rebellious inquisition upon that Commandement of God against the Amalekites Slay both Man and Woman Infant and Suckling Oxe and Sheepe Camell and Asse And from this Quare from this disputation of his arose that conclusion That it were better to spare some for Sacrifice then to destroy all But though his pretence had a religious colour that would not justifie a slacknesse in obeying the manifested will of God for for this God repented that he made him King and told him that he had more pleasure in Obedience then in Sacrifice But to come to better men then the Israelites in the Wildernesse or Saul in his Government Iob though he and his Friends held out long They sate upon the ground even daies and seven nights and none spoke a word yet at last fell into these Quares Why did I not die in the birth or why sucked I the breast Peter himselfe had this reluctation and though that were out of piety yet he was chidden for it Quare lavas saies he Lord doest thou wash my feet thou shalt never wash my feet till Christ was faine to say If I wash thee not thou shalt have no part with me Upon this common infirmitie inherent in the best men that may and not unlikely be that when God commanded Abraham at that great age to circumcise himselfe there might arise such Quares such scruples and doubts as there in Abrahams minde for as Saint Paul saies of himselfe If any man thinke he hath whereof to trust in the flesh much more I Circumcised an Hebrew an Israelite a Pharisee a Zealous Servant in the persecution and in righteousnesse unblameable So if any man might have taken this libertie to have disputed with God upon his precepts Abraham might have done it for when God called him out to number the Starres which was even to Art impossible and promised him that his seed should equall them which was in Nature incredible for all this Incredibilitie and Impossibilitie Abraham believed and this was accounted to him for Righteousnesse And Abraham had declared his easie and forward and implicit faith in God when God called him and he went out not knowing whither he went And therefore when God offered him a new seale Circumcision Abraham might have said Quare sigillum What needs a seale betweene thee and me I have used to take thy word before and thou hast tried me before But Abraham knew that Obedience was better then wit or disputation for though Obedience and good works do not beget faith yet they nurse it Per ea augescit fidei pinguescit saies Luther Our faith grows into a better state and into a better liking by our good works Againe when Abraham considered that it was Mandatum in re turpi That this Circumcision in it selfe was too frivolous a thing and in that part of the Bodie too obscene a thing to be brought into the fancy of so many Women so many young Men so many Strangers to other Nations as might bring the Promise and Covenant it selfe into scorne and into suspicion that should require such a seale to it as that was he might have come to this Quare tam turpe quare tam sordidum why does God command me so base and uncleane a thing so scornfull and mis-interpretable a thing as Circumcision and Circumcision in that part Againe when he considered that to Circumcise all
his family in one day as by the Commandement he must which could not be in likelyhood of lesse then 400. for he went out before to the rescue of Lot with 318. borne and brought up in his House he must make his House a Spittle of so many impotent Persons unable to helpe one another for many daies for such was the effect of Circumcision as we see in their Story when Simeon and Levi came upon the Sichemites three daies after they had beene by their perswasion circumcised the Sichemites were unable to resist or defend themselves and so were slaine Yea the sorenesse and incommodity upon Circumcision was so great as that the very Commandement it selfe of Circumcision was forborne in the Wildernesse because they were then put to suddaine removes which presently after a Circumcision they could not have perform'd Might not Abraham have come to his Quare tam molestum Why will God command me so troublesome and incommodious a thing as this And to contract this when he considered That one principall reason of the Commandement of Circumcision was that that marke might be alwaies a remembrance to them against intemperance and incontinency Might not Abraham have come to his Quare mihi What use is there of this in my Body which is now dried up and withered by 99. yeares What Quares what reluctations Abraham had or whether he had any or no is not expressed but very religious and good men sometimes out of humane infirmities have them But then God brings them quickly about to Christ's Veruntamen Yet not my will but thine be done and he delivers them from the tentation and brings them to an intire obedience to his will which is that which we proposed for the next Branch in this part Tu qui vas figuli sayes the Apostle whensoever any disputation against a commandement of God arises in Gods children the Spirit of God smothers that spirit of Rebellion with that Tu qui vas figuli wilt thou who art but the vessell dispute with the potter that fashioned thee If Abraham had any such doubts of a frivolousnesse in so base a seale of an obscenity in so foule a seale of an incommodiousnesse in so troublesome a seale of a needlesnesse in so impertinent a seale if he had these doubts no doubt but his forwardnesse in obeying God did quickly oppose these reasons to those and overcome them That that part of the body is the most rebellious part and that therefore onely that part Adam covered out of shame for all the other parts he could rule Ad hominis inobedientiam redarguendam suâ inobedientiâ quodammodo caro testimonium perhibet to reproach Mans rebellion to God God hath left one part of Mans body to rebell against him for though the seeds of this rebellion be dispersed through all the body yet In illa parte magis regnat additamentum Leviathan sayes Saint Bernard the spawns of Leviathan the seed of sinne the leven of the Devil abound and reignes most in that part of the body it is sentiva peccati saies the same Father the Sewar of all sinne not onely because all sinne is deriv'd upon us by generation and so implyed and involv'd in originall sinne but because almost all other sinnes have relation to this for Gluttony is a preparation to this sinne in our selves Pride and excesse is a preparation to it in others whom we would enveigle and assure by our bravery Anger and malice inclines us to pursue this sinfull and inordinate love quarrelsomly so as that then we doe not quarrell for wayes and walls in the street but we quarrell for our way to the Devil and when we cannot go fast enough to the Devil by wantonnesse in the chamber we will quarrell with him who hinders us of our Damnation and find a way to go faster in the field by Duells and unchristian Murder in so foule a cause as unlawfull lust In this rebellious part is the root of all sinne and therefore did that part need this stigmaticall marke of Circumcision to be imprinted upon it Besides for the Jewes in particular they were a Nation prone to Idolatry and most upon this occasion if they mingled themselves with Women of other Nations And therefore Dedit eft signum ut admoverentnr de generatione pura saies Saint Chrysostome God would be at the cost even of a Sacrament which is the greatest thing that passes between God and Man next to his Word to defend them thereby against dangerous alliances which might turne their hearts from God God imprinted a marke in that part to keep them still in mind of that law which forbade them foraigne Marriages or any company of strange Women Custodia pietati servandae ne macularent paternam Nobilitatem left they should degenerate from the Nobility of their race God would have them carry this memoriall about them in their flesh And God foresaw that extreme Idolatry that grosse Idolatry which that Nation would come to and did come to when Maachah the Mother of Asa worshipped that Idol which Saint Hierome calls Belphegor and is not fit to be nam'd by us and therefore in foresight of that Idolatry God gave this marke and this mutilation upon this part If Abraham were surprized with any suggestions any half reasons against this commandement he might quickly recollect himself and see that Circumcision was first Signum memorativum monimentum isti faederis it was a signe of the Covenant between God and Abraham the Covenant was the Messias who being to come by a carnall continuance of Abrahams race the signe and seale was conveniently placed in that part And that was secondly Signum representativum it represented Baptisme In Christ you are circumcised saies the Apostle in that you are buried with him through Baptisme And then that was Signum Distinctivum for besides that it kept them from Idolatry as the Greeks called all Nations whom they despised Barbares Barbarians so did the Jewes Incircumcisos Uncircumcised And that was a great threatning in the Prophet Thou shalt die the death of the Uncircumcised that is without any part in the everlasting promise and Covenant But yet the principall dignity of this Circumcision was that it was Signum figurativum it prefigured it directed to that Circumcision of the heart Circumcise the foreskin of your heart for the Lord your God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords And for all the other reasons that could be assigned of Remembrance of Representation of Distinction Caret ubique ratione Iudaica carnis Circumcisio sayes Lactantius Nisi quod est Circumcisionis figura quae est Cor Mundum The Jewish Circumcision were an absurd and unreasonable thing if it did not intimate and figure the Circumcision of the heart And that is our Second part of this Exercise But before we come to that we are to say a word of the fourth branch of this part That as there is