therfore our Saviour excused his Disciples for not fasting by an argument drawn from the time Can the children of the Bride-chamber fast while the Bridegroom is with them Mat. 9.15 as long as they have the Bridegroom with them they cannot fast Giving of almes is another duty which is much commended in the Scripture unto us yet giving of almes hath a limitation of persons for all are not injoyn'd to give almes but onely such as are of ability and they that are of ability are not injoyned to give almes unto all but onely to such as are in want and necessity but as every one is injoyn'd to pray so to pray for all men I exhort saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.1 that supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men So that if we put all these together That every one is injoyn'd to pray to pray for all persons to pray at all times to pray in all places and to pray with all manner of supplications and prayers This must needs be a very necessary duty because it is so generally and absolutely injoyn'd us And indeed there is great reason why prayer should have no limitation because every man may easily performe the same If God had commanded us to offer goats and bullocks unto him the poore and the needy might have excused themselves for want of ubility if God had commanded us to go a pilgrimage into faâ—re Countries and there do him service the blinde and the lame might have excused themselves by reason of their impotencie But no man can pretend any just excuse why he should not pray because every man may easily performe this duty And thus much briefly for the necessity of prayer The Object of prayer Object of prayer ye see is God Every one that is godly shall pray unto thee He doth not say shall pray to Saints or Angels or the Virgine but unto thee For this is the Title which David gives unto God That he is the hearer of prayer Psal 65.25 O thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come For prayer is a part of Gods service and worship and so to be given to no other but God Therefore God commands us to pray unto him Call upon me faith God in the fifty Psalm Christ teacheth us to pray unto God Our Father which art in heaven c. The Spirit teacheth us to pray unto God For God saith the Apostle Gal. 4.6 hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father So that if we would be instructed to whom we must pray can we have better instructers then these the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghest who teach us to pray unto God onely Therefore if we search all over the Scripture from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Revelation among all the prayers which are registred therein among all the Psalmes one hundred and fifty whereof two parts at the least are prayers yet we finde not one prayer among them all which was ever made to Cherubin or Seraphim to Raphael Gabriel or any of the Angebs to Abraham or Isaac or any of the Patriarchs to Moses or Samuel or any of the Prophets to Peter or Paul or any of the Apostles to the blessed Virgine or any of the Saints but onely to God Thus if we would have presidents of prayer can we have better presidents then these which the Scripture records and which have been made by the faithfull in all Ages And the reason is plain because they had no warrant out of Gods word to pray to any other but God and they knew besides that God and no other hears our prayers and sees our wants Indeed the Papists who pray to Saints and Angels hold that they cannot but see our wants and hear our prayers For How say they should not they see all things who sea the face of him that seeth all things as if by seeing God they must see all things that God sees which if it were true their knowledg ye know must needs be infinite as God is And besides this is plainly confuted by Christ for Christ who tells us Math. 18. Mat. 18.10 Mar. 13.32 That the Angells do alwayes behold the face of his Father in Heaven He likewise tells us Marke 13. That the Angells are ignorant of the day of Judgement And for the Saints departed the Scripture tells us That they know no more what is done upon the earth and have no understanding of the affaires of the living So Solomon tells us Eccles 9. That the dead know not any thing neither have they any more a portion for ever Eceles 9.6 in any thing that is done under the Sunne If any of the dead should have any knowledge of the state of the living then questionlesse Princes of the state of their Subjects and Fathers of their children But that Princes after they are departed have not any knowledge of their Subjects we see by Josias where God gratiously promises to take him away 2 King 22.20 that he might not see the evill which he would bring upon the Jewes And that Fathers have no knowledge after their departure of the state of their children Job plainly tells us in his 14. Chapter the 20. verse speaking of a Father that is dead and leaves children behind him His Sonnes saith he come to honour and he knows it not and they are brought low and he perceives it not Nay Abraham the Father of the faithfull to whom God promised that he would multiply his seed as the Starres of Heaven yet he had no knowledge after his departure what became of them And therefore the Israelites Esay 63.16 ver acknowledge that Abraham and Jacob that were dead had no knowledge of their miseries Doubtlesse say they thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Jacob know us not yet thou O Lord art our Father and Redeemer thy name is for ever Si tanti Patriarche c. If saith St. Augustine so great Patriarchs were ignorant what became of the people that came from their loines How shall the dead have ought to do in the knowledge or aide of the affaires and actions of their dearest survivers But suppose they did know our affaires and actions yet our hearts they cannot know for this is proper to God onely who is the searcher of the heart Now our hearts ye know are the seate of our prayers the lips do but vent them to the eares of men And therefore Solomon in the 1 of the Kings the 8. Chapter useth this as an argument why we are to pray to no other but God because God and no other can hear our prayers because he onely knows our hearts Hear thou saith he 1 King 8.39 in Heaven thy dwelling place and do and give to every man according to his wayes whose heart thou knowest for thou even thou onely knowest the hearts of all the children of men So that he
ignorant of Gods will his vvill is sufficiently revealed in his vvord but we cannot discerne it to be his word till God by his spirit do inlighten our understanding And therefore St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 2. vve have received the spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.13 that we might know the things that are given us of God and presently after in the same Chapter but the natural man saith he perceives not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Now least we should imagine that because we are assured of the truth of Gods vvord onely by the testimony of Gods spirit that therefore till his spirit do work faith in our hearts the testimony of the Church and the hearing of the word is but vaâ—n and needless we are to understand that Gods spirit doth ordinarily beget faith in the godly by these outward meanes For first the Testimony of the Church concerning the vvord invites us to come with the rest to hear it and while we are diligent and attentive in hearing it Gods spirit doth ordinarily beget faith in our hearts whereby we believe it and when faith hath once taken root in our hearts then we are so fully resolved of the truth of the Scriptures that all those arguments whereof before we made but light account are now like infallible demonstrations unto us For then we see plainly how necessary it was that God should reveal his vvill unto us and that if he have not revealed it in the Scripture he hath revealed it no where But that it is his will which he hath revealed in his vvord these Reasons will confirm us First In that the majesty of Gods spirit doth appear in every part of the Scripture wherein there is nothing that savours of humane wisdom but every thing therein is heavenly and divine for if we consider the matter thereof it far exceeds all humane invention For who could tell us of the Creation of the vvorld and the fall of Angels of the corruption of the whole nature of man through the transgression and disobedience of our first Parents of the redemption of the vvorld by the coming of the Messias of the rewards of the faithfull in the life to come and the punishment of sinners These things and many other which the Scripture reveals do so far go beyond the capacity of man that had not God revealed them in his word they could never have been known Secondly If we consider who penned the Scripture we shall find them for the most part to be simple men and therefore of themselves not capable of those heavenly mysteries which they have revealed in their vvritings Hos 11.1 Zach. 11.12.13 Psal 22.16.18 They were not learned and yet they foresaw things to come as if they were present and foretold many things which many hundred years after did come to passe They were not eloquent and yet more powerfull in moving the affections then Tullie Demosthenes and all the Rhetoricians in the vvorld besides They lived not together but in divers ages and several places and yet they agree so perfectly without the least contradiction as if they had had but one mind among them In a word Deut. 32.51 Jonah 1.3.6 Jonah 4.9 they were not as other men given over to sin but lived more uprightly then the most in their times and yet they have registred their own sins and infirmities to remain as it were upon the file unto all Posterities which had they been led by humane wisdom they would never have done All which shewes that howsoever the Scriptures were written here by men yet they were indicted by God in Heaven Thirdly If we consider the perfection of the Law which is called the Decalogue we shall see that none but God could be the Authour of it For there is not any good either outward or inward which we are bound to perform to God or man but it is there commanded nor any evil from which we are to abstain but it is there prohibited all which to be comprized in so few words farre exceeds the invention of men or Angels Mens Lawes howsoever they fill many large Volums yet they are still imperfect and daily want something to be added unto them which when they were made was not thought upon Sometimes again they must have something detracted that being thought convenient for the time when the Law was made which afterwards is found to be inconvenient in regard that mens conditions do so often change So that as it is in the fable when the Moon upon a time begged a new Coat of her mother her Mother replied that it was impossible to make her a Coat which would be fit for her by reason that her shape did so often alter as being now in the full now in the wane one while in one form and strait in another So it is impossible for men or Angels to make Lawes which without adding or detracting should serve for all persons and all ages because their manners and conditions do so often change But this Law which we find recorded in the Scripture is so absolute and perfect that it serves for all persons in all places and all ages and yet needes nothing to be added or detracted All other Lawes extend no further then to mens sayings or doings their words and their actions and take hold of them onely if they be not answerable to the Law but for the thoughts of mens hearts they do not inflict any penalty upon them but do leave them free The Civilians say Cogitationis paenam in foro nostro nemo luat let no man be punisht in our Court for a thought But this Law doth search into the secrets of the heart not only restraining our actual sins but our sinfull thoughts even our very first motions and inclinations to sin though we do not yield our consent thereunto to put the same in execution Rom. 7.7 St. Paul saith Rom. 7. that he had not known concupiscence to be a sinne if the Law had not said Thou shalt not covet For like as the Sunshine doth make us to see the least atomes or moaths which if it were not for the bright light of the Sunne we could not discerne So this bright light of the Law discovers the least and most secret sins which without this Law we could not have known All other Lawes because they cannot judge of the heart do require no more then outward obedience and judge well of him that lives according to the Law for his outward Carriage But this Law which as the Apostle saith Heb. 4. is a discerner of the thoughts and intents Heb. 4 1â— requires both outward and inward obedience and judgeth not him to be a good man who frames himself outwardly to the observing of the Law but not inwardly For as a man is not to be counted well and in good health though his hands and feete and
the Sonne of God that thou so little regardest him He loved us so dearly that he thought not his life too dear for us but suffered a most shamefull and accursed death to free us from the curse which was due unto us yet we for requitall of this his love though love be requited with nothing but love as fire is kindled with nothing but fire do so little regard him that we preferre our friends our pleasures our wealth and riches and for the most part whatsoever we love before him How farre are such from being able to say truly as the Church here doth I sought him whom my soule loves Her love unto Christ was not verbal and outward from the rine of the lipps but real and inward from the root of the heart from her soule and spirit her soule loved him she loved him as the Church Esay 26. desired and sought him with my soule have I desired thee in the night Esay 26.9 yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early She loved him as the blessed virgin magnified him My soule doth magnifie the Lord Luke 1.46.47 and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour She loved him as the Prophet David praysed him Prayse the Lord O my soule and all that is within me prayse his holy name Psal 103.1 Outward love from the lips may be false and counterfeâ— but inward love from the soule is alwayes unfained And such a love it is which Christ doth require and no other that we love him with the heart and with the soule with all the heart and with all the soule So precious doth he account our love that he will not have so much as the least grain of it lost but will have it all He hath millions of Angels that are inflamed with his love who love him far better then we do or can and our love unto Christ is no benefit to him he reapes no prophet nor advantage by it only because he loves us he desires again to be beloved of us and that unfainedly from our very soules He will not have the soule and love divided he likes not that soule that is without love nor that love which comes not from the soule If love come unto him and not from the soule before he admit it he will first aske whence it came as Micha asked the Levite before he received him And if the soule come unto him without love he will forbid it to come as Joseph forbad his Brethren Judges 17.9 Gen. 43. to come unto him without their Brother Benjamin And therefore if we will come unto Christ Gen. 43.3 we must come with love with love from our soules as the Church here doth I sought him whom my soule loves To draw then to a conclusion that we may be the more carefull to seek Christ let us meditate on those things which may kindle and inflame our love towards him by considering how he desires our love and deserves the same If a man have shewed us any extraordinary kindness and hath deserved our love we could not but condemn our selves of unthankfulness if we did not love him Nay though he have not deserved our love by any kindness he hath shewed us yet if we do but heare that he is desirous of our love because this is an argument that he loves us we will love him again But Christ doth both desire our love and deserve the same He desires our love not for his own but for our good that he might have occasion to requite our love And therefore he useth most forcible Reasons to procure our love Sometimes intreating us and making it his earnest suit that we would love him 2 Cor. 5.20 We saith the Apostle are Embassadors for Christ as God beseeching you by us we pray you in Christs stead but for what to be reconciled unto God Here is the strongest sute that ever was made God and man were fallen out man is the party that hath offended and God is the party that sues to be reconciled man that should intreat God that he would forgive him is intreated by God that he would be content to be forgiven Thus he sues for our love that should sue for his Nay he useth not onely intreaty to procure our love but likewise the promise of infinit rewards The eye saith the Apostle hath not seen the eare hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man what God hath prepared but for whom for them that love him Was it ever heard of since the World began that any man ever came to a poor begger and offring him meat that was ready to starve and to perish for hunger should intreat him to eat it and not onely so but witâ—al should promise to reward him for it But God though it be for our good that we love him for otherwise we cannot but everlastingly perish yet he intreats us that we would love him and not onely so but promiseth withall to reward our love with the Kingdom of Heaven So earnestly doth he desire our love And as he desires so he deserves our love If we should give a man but his diet or houseroome we would think we deserved he should loâ—e us for it How then doth he deserve our love that gives us every thing The very bread which we eat nay the breath which we breath we have it from him in whom we live and move and have our being and cannot live a minute without his blessing The least blessing he gives us deserves our love and we have nothing but our love to give him for all that he gives us So abundantly doth he deserve our love Great reason have we then to require his love in some measure by loving him unseignedly as the Church here doth I sought him whom my soule loves FINIS The Twelveth SERMON PROVERBS 30.8 Give me neither poverty nor riches THese words are part of Agurs Prayer and his Prayer in the whole verse consists of two parts a deprecation of evil and a Petition of good The evil which he deprecates or prayes against is of two sorts either such as is simply evil in it own nature as vanity and lying against which he prayes in the beginning of this verse Remove farre from me vanity and lies Or such as are not simplie evill in their own nature but yet may be occasions of evil as riches and poverty against which he prayes in the next words Give me neither poverty nor riches The good which he prayes for is a competent Estate in the end of this verse a mediocrity between the two extreams of want and superfluity Feed me with food convenient for me And these are the parts of the whole verse Here then he prayes that God would give him neither poverty nor riches neither over little nor over much that he may neither live in want nor yet in abundance not because these in themselves are evil but because they may be and
make him secure that he shall enjoy them an hour and as he brought nothing with him when he came into the world so he must leave all behind him when he leaves the world Fulgos lib. 7. cap 2‑ And therefore Saladine a great and victorious Prince in his dayes he gave command when he lay upon his death-bed that at his Funerall his winding-sheet should be carried on a spear before him with this proclamation That of all the victories which Saladine had gotten this winding-sheet was even all that he carried him For when a man dies he must leave all and though he have never so much yet he may die before the day ends So that this is one great inconvenience of the world that whatsoever the world can afford us yet it is but momentary and of short continuance Secondly The pleasures profits and preferments of the world are not only short but even for the time that a man enjoyes them they can never afford him any true contentment Therefore we see that they who have much do still desire more and though they have never so much more then they need yet they are not satisfied with it Plutarch in vita Pyrrhi Plutarch writes of Pyrrhus the King of Epyrus that when he prepared to make warre upon the Romans Cyneas asked him this question what he meant to do if he overcame them The King made answer that then he would leavy a greater Army and subdue Sicily He asked him again what he would do if that he vanquisht them the King answered that then he would go into Africa and bring all Africa under his dominion But saith Cyneas if you subdue all Africa what then will you do why then saith the King we will live merrily together and spend the rest of our dayes in delight and pleasure Alas saith Cyneas if that be all what need all this labour you have a Kingdom already you may live as contentedly with that which you have as if you had more Cui quod satis est non sufficit nihil sufficit He that is not content with that which is sufficient will never be content though he have more then sufficient So that this is another inconvenience of the world that the pleasures profits and preferments thereof can never afford any true contentment A third and last inconvenience is this which indeed is the greatest of all the rest that the more a man loves and affects the world the lesse he is affected with the love of God Therefore our Saviour to shew that the love of God and the love of the world cannot stand together but that he that doth cleave to the one must of necessity leave the other he makes a flat opposition between them Ye cannot saith he serve both God and Mammon We read of Thomas Aquinas the School-man that when he came upon a time to Pope Innocentius the third of that name the Pope had then great store of silver and gold lying before him you see saith the Pope to Thomas Aquinas I cannot say as sometime my Predecessour Saint Peter said Argentum aurum non habeo Acts 3.6 Silver and gold have I none True holy Father answer'd Aquinas but therefore you cannot adde as he did Surge ambula Arise and walk To note unto him that the more he was carefull for the goods of the world the lesse able he was to perforn such good works as the Apostles did For the love of the world and the love of God as I said before cannot stand together We see then what it is to gain the world and withall the discommodities and inconveniences of it Now again though it be great yet it may too dearly be bought as when Gehazi gained two talents of silver but a leprosie withall 2 King 5. If a man should angle with a golden hook all the fish which he took would not make him amends for the losse of it and it is not wisdome to venture any thing where a man may lose more then he can gain by the bargain For gain is not so welcome and acceptable to any man as losse is grievous especially where the gain will not countervail the losse But here indeed is a very great gain the gaining of the world but withall a losse that is far greater the losse of all losses the losse of the soul Let us see therefore now what this losse is The soule as the more excellent part of man is put here by a figure for the whole man the soule for both body and soule together And therefore that which is here called by Saint Matthew the losing of the soul is called by Saint Luke in his 9th Chapter the losing of a mans selfe Luke 9.25 What saith he is a man advantaged if he gain the Whole world and lose himselfe So that the losing of the soul is the losing of a mans selfe both body and soule The greatnesse of which losse will the better appear if we take a view of a double misery which the soul which is lost is to undergo the one in regard of the felicity it loses the joyes of heaven the other in regard of the torments if susters the pains of hell both implied in those words of our Saviour Depart from me ye câ—rsed into everlasting sire For the first The soul which is lost is for ever banisht from the sight of God and therefore being banisht from his sight and presence is withall excluded from all joy and happinesse For the sight of God as the Scripture tels us is that which hereafter shall make us blessed Mat. 5.8 Blessed saith our Saviour Mat. 5. are the pure in heart and he gives this reason for they shall see God So that the sight of God shall make us blessed When Saint Peter saw our Saviour transfigured on the Mount with Moses and Elias he was so affected with the sight that he cried out to our Saviour Master it is good for us to be here if thou wilt saith he let us make three tabernacles one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias If he were so affected with the glorious presence of Moses and Elias how shall they be affected that shall for ever enjoy the glorious company of all the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles of all the blessed Saints and Angels nay of God himself where they shal see him even as he is and face to face as the Apostle speaks Psal 16.11 In thy presence saith David is fulnesse of joyes such fulnesse of joyes that if all the hearts in the world were one yet it could not contain them they cannot possibly enter into man but he that is to be made partaker thereof must enter into them Enter saith our Saviour into thy Masters joy Mat. 25.23 Chrysest de Repar 1 laps such fulnesse of joy that as Chrysostom saith If a man were to endure all the miseries of this life and to suffer the torments of hell for a time
he shews by the Author thereof two waies First Negatively that the Scriptures are not of mans invention For the prophecy saith he came not in old time by the will of man Secondly Affirmatively that the Holy Ghost was the Authour of them But holy men of God saith he spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost But some man may say Indeed the Apostle saith thus but how doth he prove it He saith as St. Paul doth that the Scriptures are inspired of God 2 Tim. 3.16 but how doth he prove it When Aristotle that great profound Philosopher saw the books of Moses and read what he wrote about the Creation of the world he misliked his Books because he proved not that which he wrote Hic omnia dicit nihil probat This man saith he saith every thing but he proyes nothing But we are to remember that though we may doubt of that which men say because all men are lyars as the Scripture saith and so need proofs to consume their sayings yet the Scripture being the Word of God is of it self sufficient to credit and need not any proof for the confirmation of it The Jewes have a saying that the Law doth not need any fortification in regard that God was the Authour of it and so God being the Authour of the whole Scripture it needs no fortification or proof to strengthen it but whatsoever we find written therein we need make no question of the truth thereof but are bound to believe it True may some say if we were assured that the Scriptures are the Word of God that God not man was the Author of them then we need make no question of the truth of those things which we find therein But how shall we know them to be Gods word and that no other was the Authour of them Which because it is the summe of that which the Apostle delivers in these words I purpose briefly to handle this question How a man may know and be fully assured that the Scriptures must needs be the word of God Concerning which question there is a great controversie between us and the Church of Rome They say that the onely Testimony of the Church is sufficient to perswade us that the Scripture is the Word of God and that if it were not for the Testimony of the Church we could not give any credit to it We say that the Scripture is known to be Gods Word by the inward Testimony of Gods Spirit and that without this Testimony to perswade us hereunto the testimony of the Church and of all other whatsoever is insufficient Titubabit sides nostra si Scripturae vacillet autoritas August de Doct. Christ lib. 1. cap. 37. Our faith will stagger saith St. Augustine if the authority of the Scripture stand not firme But how can the authority of the Scripture stand firme if it be built onely upon so weak a foundation as the testimony of man For the Church is subject to errour both in doctrine and manners and therefore this testimony may deceive us But we require an infallible proof for the certainty of the Scriptures They say that the Testimony of the Church is infallible and when we wil have them to prove it they prove it thus because it is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3.15 as the Scripture tells us Thus if a man doubt of the authority of the Scripture to prove it they send him to the testimony of the Church and while he doubts of the truth of the testimony of the Church to prove it they send him back again to the Scripture But if the Church be sufficient to perswade a man that the Scriptures are the word of God how comes it to passe that Turks Insidels who have often heard this testimony of the Church are not yet perswaded of the truth of the Scriptures How many thousands of Jewes are now living in Italie and many of them in Rome who deny the Gospel and are not yet perswaded that Christ is come If the onely Testimony of the Church be sufficient why make they not proof thereof upon them that the World may see the virtue and efficacy of it But we know experience tells them daily to their faces that they cannot do it and if you ask them the reason they can give none but this because of the blindness and unbelief of the Jewes why therefore say we that that which is able to assure a man that the Scripture is Gods word must be able to illuminate his understanding and to give him faith that he may believe it but this is onely the work of Gods spirit There is nothing more ordinary among the Prophets then when they delivered Gods vvord to the People to tell the People that it was Gods vvord which they delivered Heare the word of the Lord saith Esay 1.10 The word of the Lord came unto me saith Jeremie 1.4 and thus every one of the Prophets from the first to the last do testifie that they delivered the vvord of God Esay 53.1 But who hath believed our report saith Esay so that where there was one that believed it there were many that did not and therefore if neither the vvord it self nor the testimony of the Prophets concerning the vvord could perswade them that it was the vvord of God much lesse is the testimony of the Church sufficient when St. Paul preached at Phylippi Acts 16. there were many that heard him but it is said there of Liddia onely that God opened her heart so that she attended unto that which he spake Acts 16.14 now if she could not so much as attend unto those things which St. Paul delivered unlesse that God had first opened her heart much lesse could she have believed that that which he spake was the vvord of God but by the inward operation of Gods spirit The Word is sometimes called a light because it is lightsome in it self as the Sunne but as the Sunne though it be never so lightsome yet it cannot be discerned by those that are blind So the Word though in it self it be never so glorious yet it is not apparent to us till our hearts be opened The Word is sometime compared to seed because it is fruitfull like the seed that is sowen but as the seed which is sowen cannot bring forth increase but by the influence and virtue which it receiveth from Heaven no more is the word fruitfull and effectual in us till God by his spirit give a blessing unto it The word is not unlike the poole in Jerusalem whereof there is mention John 5. The poole though it cured all outward Diseases yet it had not this virtue but then onely when the Angell did stir the waters the word though it be the means to cure our inward infirmities yet it cannot do it but onely by the motion of Gods spirit Now the first Disease which is to be cured is out spiritual blindnss whereby we are
Rev. 16.5.6 for they have shed the bloud of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them bloud to drink for they are worthy And thus much for the persons by vvhom Steven vvas here martyred namely the Jews I come novv from their impiety in martyring Steven to Stevens great piety in his martyrdome vvhich he shevvs as I said in a double prayer vvhich he makes the one for himselfe the other for his persecutors Doct. And from hence we may observe before I come to his prayers in particular in that he called upon God while the Jews were stoning him The happy condition of a godly man that he is able to pray and call upon God in the greatest extremity that can befall him The wicked may rage and persecute the godly they may cast them in prison and lay bolts upon them they may bring them to the stake and burn or stone them but they cannot hinder them from praying unto God this comfort they can never take from them Paul and Silas may be scourged and imprisoned and put in the stocks Elias may be persecuted by Ahab and Iezabell till he be ready to famish Iob may have his body afflicted by the devill with sores and ulcers Sampson may have his eyes put out by the Philistins and Steven may here be stoned by the Iews yet God leaves them not destitute of this comfort that they are able to pray and call upon God in their greatest dangers Nay the greater extremity and danger they are in God inables them to pray with the more fervency unto him Hezekiah did never pray more fervently then when the sentence of death was pronounced against him and he lay a dying I beseech thee saith he O Lord remember now how I have walked before thee As if he had said now O Lord when I am ready to die and no other can succour me 2 King 20.3 now when Physick and art do faile me now when my strength is diminished and nature decayed now when thou hast pronounced the sentence of death against me now O Lord now now remember me But it is not so with the ungodly they call not upon God they are least able of all to pray in their greatest necessity Psal 14.4 1 Sam. 25.37 If they be in danger or hear any ill tidings their hearts like Nabals begin to die within them and become as stones For this is the priviledge of none but the godly and an infallible argument of Gods mercy towards them in that he inables them when they are in any perill to pray unto him Therefore David Psal 66. the last verse Blessed be God saith he that hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me Upon which words Saint Augustine Quamdin Deus non tollit a te oration em tuam non amovebit a te misericordiam suam As long as God doth not take thy praying from thee he will not remove his mercy from thee because it is his mercy that inables thee to pray If therefore when thou art in any great danger thou canst call upon God for his help and assistance and canst say with the Disciples Mat. 8.25 Psal 6.2 Lord save us we perish if when thou liest sick and keepest thy bed thou canst pray with David Lord be mercifull unto me for I am weak Lord heale me for my bones are vexed If when thou art drawing toward thy end and art to leave the World thou canst willingly resigne thy soule unto God and pray as Steven did Lord Iesus receive my spirit Thou mayest well conceive great comfort therein because only the godly are inabled in their greatest extremity to call upon God as Steven here did But let us come to his prayer Lord Jesus receive my spirit He called upon God saying Lord Jesus which invicibly proves that Christ is God This the Arrians and some other Hereticks have blasphemously denied and this the Jews to this day will not be brought to acknowledge But the Scripture is not more plain in any thing then it is in this For besides that the Scripture gives him the Title and Name of God that he is Deus in carne manifestatus i Tim. 3.16 Rom. 9.5 John 14.1 John 14.14 Mat. 28.19 John 5.23 Luke 8.28.31 Mat. 8.26 Mat. 4.23 Mat. 10.1 God manifested in the flesh and Deus in saecula benedictus God blessed for ever And besides that we are taught in the Scripture to ascribe unto him divine honour that we must believe in him that we must pray unto him that we must be baptized in his Name and that we must honour him as we honour the Father The very works and miracles which he did do testifie of him and prove him to be God For if he were not God how did the devills stand in aw of him how did the windes and the seas obey him how did he cure all manner of diseases and inable his Disciples to do the like in his Name Did ever any man by his own power raise himself being dead Did ever any man since the beginning of the World as the blind man saith John 2.19 John 9.32 John 9. open the eyes of any that was born blind but these things we know were done by Christ and do prove him to be God If he were not God how did he pardon and forgive sins Mat. 9.2 Mat. 9.4 Colos 1.16 which is proper to God how did he know the thoughts of mens hearts which is proper to God and how is he said to have created the World which is the peculiar work of God And therefore Steven praying to the Lord Iesus is said here to call upon God He called upon God saying Lord Iesus receive my spirit The Papists do commonly at their death commend their souls to the Virgine Mary So did Father Garnet so did Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury two that are reputed for speciall Martyrs in the Church of Rome though they suffered for treason they commended their soules at the time of their death to the blessed Virgine And it is a common prayer among them Maria mater gratiae tu nos ab hoste protege hora mortis suscipe Mary the Mother of grace do thou defend us from the enemy and receive us at the hour of death But Steven here the first Martyr commended not his soule to the Virgine Mary when he died but to Christ that redeemed it Lord Iesus saith he receive my spirit And he joyns these two Lord Jesus together acknowledging Christ to be both both his Lord and his Saviour Some disjoyne these they will acknowledge Christ to be their Jesus they vvill say they look to be saved by him but they do not acknowledge him for their Lord they will not serve him Such are they who go on in their sins and follow the lusts of their own hearts and yet do look to be saved by grace But such do greatly deceive themselves For either Christ will be our Lord or he will be our Jesus