Church is naturally denoted and figured unto us By the holy place whereunto came onely the Levites and those which ministred at the Sacrifices are signified unto us the Ministers of the word of God who are chosen and put a part in his Church to be Heraulds and Embassadours of his holy will offering the ordinary Sacrifices of prayer and thanksgiving which are his delectable and well accepted service By the Sanctum Sanctorum or the most holy place is truly figured unto us Heaven for as the high Priest entred not into that place before he had first purified washed himselfe according to the Divine ordinance so the faithfull cannot enter into heaven untill hee hath first divested sinne and be covered with the cloake of Iustice holinesse and innocencie therfore Iesus Christ himselfe declareth the same thing unto us with his owne sacred mouth saying Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see GOD. The Prophet David expresseth exceeding well the same words in the 15. Psalme saying Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousnesse and speaketh the truth in his heart And in the 24. Psalme Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place hee that hath cleane hands and a pure heart who hath not lifted up his soule unto vanity nor sworne deceitfully Hee shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousnesse from the God of his salvation And in the 33. Chap. of Isaiah ver 14. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly he that despiseth the gaine of oppressions that shaketh his hands from receiving of bribes that stoppeth his eares from hearing of blood and shutteth his eyes from seeing evill He shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munitions of rockes bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure His eyes shall see the King in his beauty they shall behold the land that is very farre off O what admirable places how many faire and rare promises doe all these Prophets make to the faithfull who shall keepe his heart from sinne and his hands from iniquity and Iesus Christ himselfe commeth after to confirme their testimonie and to ratifie their words saying in this place Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see GOD. Words very energetically and significant as if hee had said Dearely beloved the onely and perfect way to possesse all happinesse all pleasures and all the advantages that you can wish and in a word to enjoy eternall felicity to contemplate face to face Gods divine Majestie wherein consisteth the fulnesse of happinesse and all contentment following the serpents example to cast off the olde skinne that is to pull off the olde coate of sinne infected with the leprosie of iniquity to fly and eschew evill to embrace good to hate vice and perfectly to love vertue which is the true way to heaven to the possession of heavenly graces and in a word to the fulnesse and perfection of all true happinesse Blessed are then the pure in heart for they shall see God Now to enter into a more particular explication of these words we will divide them into two principall parts and will consider 1. who are the pure in heart And secondly the cause why they are blessed The royall Prophet David in the 15. Psalme describeth perfectly unto us those that are pure in heart They are those saith hee that lye not and who live uprightly they who backbite not with their tongues nor doe evill to their neighbours and in whose eyes a vile person is contemned but they honour them that feare the Lord they that sweare to their owne hurt and change not they that put not out their money to usurie nor take bribes or reward against the innocent This is a very faire true and ample description of the Righteous man who hath a pure heart that is who hath his conscience pure and just and who lives in integrity justice and innocencie For this word heart is not here to be understood or taken for the materiall carnall heart placed in our breasts which is the fountaine and beginning of life the first living the last dying in man but for the soule that keepeth there her ordinary Sessions as we commonly say that is corne by showing onely the sacks that hold it there is the Kings Treasure by shewing onely the Exchequer Chamber where it is kept the place containing being called and taken by the name of the thing contained so must we understand a pure heart to bee taken for the conscience which therein makes her residence Where at the first sight we finde a thing very remarkable and worthy our consideration that to wit that sinne being as it were a black and venomous Inke or an infect d and corrupted poyson as soone as it comes neare our hearts the seate of our soules it defileth infecteth and makes them so stinking that God cannot endure them before his face so much abhorreth he the very sent and smell of sin and so much the very object of iniquity is noysome and troublesome to him Now Iesus Christ knowing that man brought into the world from his mothers wombe with life the cause of death that is originall sinne cursed sinne a disastrous blade or stalke which like the wilde and evill plants casteth continually forth so many young sprigges which doth so people and store the field of our soules that in the end in stead of a Garden of Eden where God tooke pleasure to walke in stead of a delightfull River where the Angels bathed it be comes a hideous and dreadfull wildernesse where the devils and wicked spirits keepe their Sabaths and criminall Assises and Sessions a filthy sinke where wicked and impious men like Hogges continually wallowe And therefore Iesus Christ I say to bring his Apostles to perfection and to put them and all the faithfull in the way to heaven he exhorts them to keepe their hearts pure cleane and naked from all sinne filthinesse and iniquity to extirpate the thistles bryers from the fields of their soules to plow and till it carefully with the share and harrow of contrition and repentance for their sinnes In a word to make it aground fit and fruitfull to receive the holy seed of the word of life and to make it beare fruites to immortality and eternall life As men would bee curious to sweepe and cleanse a house wherein a King resolues for a while to be resident and may justly accuse him of imprudence and impudence who having advice and notice of his comming would not make hast to perfume it to adorne and enrich it with the fairest furniture to embellish it with all the rarities and most pretious jewels they could recover So alas the hearts of the faithfull are nothing else but the house of God
were the Royall Pallaces and honourable company which hee had in heaven among the Angels He was swadled in clowts and laid in a Manger for want of a Cradle to keepe him from the injuries of the weather were those the delights of his Paradise He was fugitive here and there to shunne the envie and furious rage of Herod who sought to kill him In a word considering diligently all the course of his life from the moment of his birth to the last period of his death wee shall finde all his actions framed in humility and guided by meekenesse and simplicity This example and no more he did not goe chuse within the Pallaces of Kings the goodliest and gallantest Courtiers hee did not elect the sonnes of Princes to be his Apostles but went to the receipt of custome to the Cottages and Boats of Fishermen to call that honourable company of his twelue Apostles who like well instructed Disciples followed the steps of their loving Lord and Master so well did they imitate and follow his examples and especially that of his simplicity that they may be patterns of it themselues as the History of their life sufficiently sheweth and as the duty of their place required for men being deepely plunged in malice presumption and arrogancie there was no way to vanquish them but wholy by contrary weapons to them unknowne that they might the more easily be subdued and vanquished To their arrogancie they opposed meekenesse to their pompe and vaine glory humility and simplicity ever remembring the command of their good Master Be ye simple as Doves Now it is remarkable that the faithfull and such as walke uprightly before God are called by the wicked and by the children of the God of this world Poore and simple people because they addict not themselves to fraud and deceit so spake Iobs wife to her husband being yet in affliction upon his dunghill Doest thou still retaine thine integrity But Iesus Christ to shew us that hee approoveth those whom the world rejecteth speakes as if he had said See you those simple and base people they shall see God So Christ gives them hopes of the blessed vision of God as if hee had promised light to the blinde knowledge to the ignorant and wisedome to fooles for so this wicked world calleth those that will not drinke the cop of his malice nor tread in his pathes full of sinne and iniquity Blessed then are the pure in heart c. He doeth not onely say they shall be blessed but he speaketh in the present tense saying they are already blessed for God having given them that holinesse which they possesse and upon all occasions practise hath also given them two strong and well feathered wings to soare and flie aloft to heaven whereof the one is faith by the which the just trusting and reposing himselfe wholy in the promises of Christ takes his flight towards Paradise to have a tast of them for it is the nature of faith as appeareth by her definition to know how to assure it selfe how to aske the grace of God promised in his word how to embrace salvation offered by Iesus Christ and during this life how to possesse in part that eternall and blessed life And because faith beginneth here to tast the delights of the vision of God she is yet upheld and fortified by Hope which is the second wing that makes her expect heaven and promiseth her absolutely to fill her abundantly with those sweet pleasures whereof she hath shee yet had but a tast and to make her perfectly know that which now she seeth but obscurely and like a shadow Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see GOD. Vpon these words there is an objection to be resolved why Christ saith here the pure in heart seeing the Scripture in many places is directly opposite to this justice to this purity to this cleanenesse as we read Prou. 20.9 Who can say I have made my heart cleane I am pure from my sinne And in the first booke of Kings the 8. Chap. There is no man that sinneth not And in the 1. Epist of Saint Iohn 1. Chap. If we say that we have no sinne we deceive our selues and the truth is not in us And in the 25. Chap. of Iob How can man be justified with God or how can he be cleane that is borne of a woman Although these places and many more that we purposely leave to avoyd prolixity seeme to be opposite to our Text notwithstanding we will reconcile them together For when the Spirit of God calleth heere those that live justly and holily pure in heart we must not understand it so as if they were totally and absolutely cleane from the filthinesse of sinne for in that sence the royall Prophet David saith There is none just no not one But we must understand here those that strive to walke in the sacred pathes of Gods commandements that live holily before God and without reproach before men that have beene purified like gold tried seaven times in the fire and that fire is the word of God that enters and penetrates to the most secret thoughts there to consume the wood and chaffe of our wicked inclinations This cleansing and purification is clearely set forth unto us in the 15. Chap. of Saint Iohn in these words of Christ Now ye are cleane through the word which I have spoken And in the 13. Chap. ver 10. of the same Gospell Hee that is washed needeth not save to wash his feete but is cleane every whit and ye are cleave but not all In a word the faithfull that live holily may be called just and pure in heart Secundum quid non simpliciter Iust in that degree of Iustice that may fall on man whilest he is here below fighting against flesh and blood his domesticall enemies that often overcome him and would quite keepe him downe if hee were not upheld and fortified by the spirit of grace and by the Almighty hand of God that raiseth and delivereth him The faithfull servant of the Lord is againe called pure in heart because hee is such in part already and that besides the great disposition that is in him to tend to his perfection hee already here begins to tast the excellent sweetnes of that delicate fruit whereof he shall hereafter be fully and perfectly satisfied and satiated in Gods Paradise Blessed then are the pure in heart for they shall see God Wee have another circumstance here very pregnant and remarkable to wit that Christ exhorteth us here to be pure in heart and not of our head or hands because that the heart being the seate of the soule sinne is most busie to vitiate and infect it with his foule and filthy corruption which it doth not in the other parts of the body and therefore you see that God doth so strictly command us to keepe our hearts for his part and behoofe saying My sonne give mee thy heart Now to omit or let passe nothing
worthy consideration like the inhabitants of Nilus wee will draw water in running We say then that this word heart is diversly taken in the Scripture First is taken for faith as Rom. 10. For with the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation 2. It is taken for the thoughts and for the gift of regeneration as 1. Epist of Saint Peter Chap. 3. ver 4. The hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the ornament of a meeke and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price and estimation 3. For the understanding as Rom. 2. They shew the worke of the law written in their hearts 4. It is taken for the conscience as in the 1. of Sam. the 24. chap. 5. ver Davids heart smote him because he had cut off Sauls skirt And in the 1. to the Thessal chap. 3. To establish your hearts unblameable in holinesse before God Here is yet another very cleare passage in the 1. Epist of Saint Iohn chap. 3 ver 20. If our heart condemn us God is greater then our heart and knoweth all things and if our heart condemne us not wee have confidence towards God And in this last signification it is taken in our Text to wit for the Conscience as if Christ had said Blessed are those that possesse a holy pure and just soule a good cleane and spotlesse conscience David desirous to raise himselfe from his fall and to restore the temple of his body polluted by wicked adultery desired of God a new Altar praying him to create in him a cleane heart and to renew a right spirit within him Psal 51.12 Iudas Maccabeus having seene the Temple of Ierusalem prophaned by Antiochus his sacrilegious hands he purifieth it destroyes all the Altars where that Pagan had sacrificed to his Idols and called that the renewing of the Temple Our bodies are the living temples of the holy Ghost our hearts the Altars on the which having wickedly sacrificed to the Idols of our passions we must breake them and destroy them by our true repentance and conversion to God who despiseth not a broken and a contrite heart And afterward we must build new ones pure and clean on the which wee must offer to God Hecatombes of Iustice and solemne burnt offerings and sacrifices wherein hee delighteth The Etymologists hold that this word Cor is derived of Cura that is care because that part communicateth sendeth and doth distribute blood and life to the rest of the body Even so all our study all our exercise and occupation should be to seeke the meanes fit for the conservation of our soules for what will it profit a man if hee gaine the whole world and loose his soule Math. 16.26 As soone as the Embrion is conceived the first part which is formed is the heart being as it were the center whence the severall lines are drawne to the circumference of our bodies it is also the first member living and when the paines of death have compassed a man the blood from all parts retires to the heart as to a citadell so that it is also the last part that dieth in us according to that common saying Cor est primum vivens ultimum moriens So when the faithfull of the Lord resolveth to live piously he must cast for a sure and unmoveable foundation the righteousnesse of a pure and cleane conscience which must be the Ocean where all the rivers of his affections must runne and tend the corner and fundamentall stone on the which must be edified this his Pilgrimage All the building of this mortall and transitorie life must begin with the just mans beginning and never end till his death when it shall bee augmented and perfected in heaven It was Gods commandement under the law that all Israelites all the seed of Abraham should offer and consecrate to him the first borne both of man and beast now if wee unvayle the letter and consider what it therein figured unto us we may note among other things that God desired by this Decree whose letter and figure is abrogated though the truth and sence of it be eternall that wee should offer and consecrate unto him our hearts which are the first borne of our selues The greatest part of Physitians hold that the soule being generally all over the body hath her principall seat in the heart as the King hath in his Court although his power reach thorow all his Kingdome so that the soule being that very man which God requireth it is then not without reason that God demandeth our heart which is her throne My sonne give me thy heart The heart is knowne to bee the originall of naturall heat now God being a burning fire of love and affection towards his children wee ought to consecrate that part to him for his Tabernacle The heart is red and bloody to shew us the fervencie and zeale that should be in us to Gods service and glory and that our thoughts should alwayes burne with love to him and with charity to our neighbours It is little whence wee may learne not to puffe or swell it with pride but to keepe it alwayes humble and modest Vertues that seeke not after large and spacious Pallaces but are contented in the narrowest and remotest places His beating and panting is upwards so all our desires and thoughts should tend towards the end of our supernaturall vocation according to the Apostles advice Seeke the things that are above The heart is agitated by a continuall motion by reason of his vitall spirits that animate and nourish it So our thoughts should beare and conduct us to the actions of Iustice innocencie and godlinesse and to follow the steps of the Scripture Charity alwayes worketh and is never idle by reason of the spirit of grace dwelling in our soules who inspires continually in us holy and religious thoughts There is but one heart in man and yet his shape and forme is triangular a figure bearing proportion to his object that is God one in Essence and three in persons So our soules should bee adorned with these three beautifull vertues Faith hope and Charity He is open at the top and that way he receiveth his nourishment Which teacheth us that our soules should alwayes be open to proclaime the praises of our Creator and Redeemer that nourisheth them with the holy and wholsome meat of his sacred word sent downe from heaven The least angle or corner is turned downewards to shew us that our least care should bee for earthly things It is againe not hayrie to teach us that our soule which is his hostesse must be voyd of the foolish and light imaginations of the weake and unconstant considerations of this world that so she may hope and ayme at nothing but heaven her blessed Countrey wherein it is impossible to enter before our heart after Moses his example have pulled off the Shooes of our corruption and worldly
is as it were Iacobs Ladder whereby the Angels of divine consolations descend upon us on earth and our holy prayers and religious thoughts and meditations ascend unto Heaven This Ladder hath three principall steps As the feare of the Lord makes us ascend unto Iesus Christ which is our wisedome for through and by God he hath made us wisedome 1. Cor. 1.30 Iesus Christ leades us to God his Father and God receives and lodgeth us in Heaven and therefore we first feare him if ever we hope or thinke to enter into his favour This feare of God is the head spring and fountaine from whence wee draw and exhaust the sacred mysteries of our salvation and David tells us in formall and expresse termes That the feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisedome Psal 111.10 Thereby to teach us that all this knowledge and learning whereof men vaunt and glory is nothing else but pure folly if it derive not his Origen or beginning from the feare of the Lord. This feare is here taken for the principle of wisedome and Iesus Christ himselfe in many places of Scripture hath assumed and taken the title of Wisedome because he is the wisdome of the Father as wee reade in the former alledged Chapter of 1. Cor. 1.30 But in the book of Genes Chap. 31.42 He himselfe is by Moses called the feare of Isaac Except the God of my Father the God of Abraham and the feare of Isaac had beene with me thou hadst sent me away empty But here the best Interpreters by this feare of Isaac doe understand the second person of the Trinity Iesus Christ our Saviour who had not yet assumed and cloathed our humane nature and of whom Isaac was the true type and figure It is an excellent question of Saint Augustine in his Citie of God that is If this filiall feare after the death of the faithfull Children of the Lord remaine with them in Heaven yea or no Those who maintaine the contrary fortifie themselues from the Apostle Saint Iohn Chap. 4. ver 18. There is no feare in love but perfect love casteth out feare because feare hath torment and hee that feareth is not made perfect in love from whence they argue Where there is perfect Love there is no feare But among the Saints in Heaven there is perfect Love Therefore among the Saints in Heaven there is no feare And from the same place and passage of Saint Iohn they derive and draw another Argument thus All feare is accompanied with torment But in Heaven there is no torment Therefore in Heaven there is no feare They say moreover That this feare should then deprive them of their rest and repose and consequently that they could not enjoy a perfect felicity whiles they were troubled and tormented with any apprehension or feare Others answere That the Apostle Saint Iohn understands not to speake there of a chast and filiall but of a servile feare and to fortifie and support their opinion they alledge the Psal 19.9 The feare of the Lord is cleane enduring for ever And Saint Augustine expounding this sort of feare saith Non enim est timor exterrens à malo quod accidere potest sed tenens in bono quod amitti non potest This kinde of feare makes us not apprehend any evill which can befall us but makes us so to keepe fast good that wee may not lose it And afterwards he againe addeth Timoris Casti nomine ea voluntas significata est quo nos necesse erit nolle Peceare non solicitudine necessitatis sed tranquillitate charitatis He sayes that by this name of chast feare is signified the will whereby it is necessary that we will not sinne not for the care of necessity but for the tranquillity of Charity Hee then concludes that indeed Servile feare cannot enter into Heaven but onely the filiall and yet notwithstanding it must be after it hath lost the effects which it produceth in this present life to wit this naturall apprehension whereby shee feares that the soule falls from the State of Grace No no this feare in Heaven shall be but a perfect reverence honour and piety and a full and absolute devotion which wee shall beare to the service of GOD whereby every one seeing the divine Majestie shall profoundly and perfectly study to serue and honour him in all reverence And for this cause it is why the 70. Interpreters have turned Timorem Dei the feare of God into this Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit Dei pietatem the piety which we beare to God and so it remaines true which the Prophet David had said long before The feare of the Lord is cleane enduring for ever In this Elementary world the feare of God is the most assured way to goe to celestiall Hierusalem Those who have not beene to a place if they foolishly rashly runne athwart fields they then runne a great hazard to goe astray and to lose themselues among woods or bryars or peradventure to fall into the hands of cruell and mercilesse theeves So those who will ascend to the top of the holy Mountaine of sacred Sion If they are not curbed and retained by the golden bridle of the feare of God If without wisedome or judgement they runne over craggie rockes full of thornes and bryars for such are the wayes to Sion Heaven without doubt they will fall into the errour of precipices or else they will serve for prey or fewell to eternall flames The feare of God is the pledge and seale of his love and favour the which hee placeth and planteth in the midst of our hearts when he will call us to him and conserue us to his service For he hath united and tyed us to him with the linkes and chaynes of his love in his owne house Hee for ever makes us his domesticall servants yea his heires and adoptive children and in this quality hee makes vs to enter into the inheritance of eternall life above in Heaven with Iesus Christ his only welbeloved Sonne who is our eldest Brother Neither are they phantastick imaginations or light presumptions which must make us beleeve these things for it is God himselfe which hath pronounced them by his Prophet Ieremy Chap. 22.39.40 I will give them one heart and one way that they may feare me for ever and I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turne away from them to doe them good but I will put my feare into their hearts that they shall not depart from me The feare of the Lord takes place among the rarest presents and richest Iewels which the Holy Ghost discovereth to his Elect and it is the entry to the greatest which is wisedome it selfe for as Salomon saith truth The beginning of wisedome is the feare of God For when the Holy Ghost will operate in the heart of any man hee then stampes and markes him with his seale which is the feare of God and then conducts
THE SOVLES PILGRIMAGE TO CELESTIAL GLORIE OR THE PERFECT VVAY TO HEAVEN AND TO God Written by J. M. Master of Arts. LONDON Printed by Aug. Mathewes and are to be sold by William Sheares at the Signe of the Harrow in Britaines Burse 1634. discoursed and published the excellencie of your goodnesse and merits Shee seemes to be sparing of your prayses which are so justly due to you For Experience hath now made me know a thousand times more therof then heretofore I heard or understood because I find so much benignity and goodnesse among you and especially your Honours house that I should esteem my selfe to be guilty of a base ingratitude if I consecrated not the remaynder of my dayes to the honour of your service and commands For I confesse that this small Present which I now present and proffer you cannot countervaile or equalize those sublime favors whereby you have eternally made me your debter Those Philosophers which entreat and discourse of naturall causes doe affirme That the Sunne which makes the Raynebowe in the firmament by the darting and defusion of his rayes in a watry clowd disposed to receive it doth there forme and ingender this diversity of colours so pleasing to our sight Your Honour my good Lord is the Sunne of my happinesse and I am this clowd covered with the rayes of your favors which makes all the world admire in me the greatnesse of your Generosity and the excellencie of your goodnes But herein notwithstanding consists not my satisfaction but rather your honor and glory and as I desire to publish that so I likewise desire to finde this For I cannot live contented if I made not a publique acknowledgement of those many favours whereby you have perfectly purchased and made me yours and this Confession consisteth in the oath of fidelity and obedience which I have sworne to the honour of your service and to testifie the immortality of my vowes wherein with all possible humility I present you my selfe and this small Booke to your Honours feete A worke proportionable to my weakenesse but meerely disproportionable to your Greatnesse If I am any way guilty herein your goodnesse is the true cause thereof in regard it makes me beleeve that you will rather excuse my Zeale then accuse or condemne my presumption and I doe promise my selfe this hope and flatter my selfe with this confidence that your Honour will partly excuse this worke of mine if it be not accuratly or delicately polished and that the will remayning where the power wants is free and current payment with great and generous spirits Some perchance may affirme and say that I have discoursed and treated those Matters with too much simplicity which indeed is my only intent and designe Because my text and matter doe necessarily oblige and tye me thereunto as also in regard I ever find the easiest way to be the best for that the thornes of Studie and Schollership doe but ingage and ingulph our Wits in the labyrinth of insupportable length and lauguishment and the which most commonly when we have all done and ranne thorow wee in the end finde but a Minotaur of doubts and a pensive melancholy anxietie which devours them My Lord I have no other designe or ambition in this my Dedication but to pay this tribute to your Honour hoping that your charitie will cover my defects and your goodnesse over-vayle and pardon my weakenesse and imperfections And my Lord it is with all manner of right and reason that I consecrate and inscribe this small Worke of mine to your Honour and place your Honourable name in the Frontispice thereof as a bright Phare and relucent torch which shall communicate and lend its lustre and light to make it see and salute the world And so my good Lord I will seeke my delights in the honour of your service my inclinations shall have no other centre but the execution of your commands My vowes and prayers shall be incessantly powred forth for your prosperities and my Ambition shall never flye or soare higher then to conserue the honour of your favours and to be both to your Honor and to the young Noblemen your Sonnes Your most humble and truely devoted Servant I. M. THE SOVLES PILGRIMAGE TO Celestiall Glory OR THE PERFECT WAY TO HEAVEN and to God MATH 5.7 Blessed are the mercifull for they shall obtaine Mercy THat which in men changeth Reason courtesie and humanitie into a wilde fierce and brutish nature and which makes them lesse pittifull then Lyons and more to be feared then Tygers is crueltie that terrible vice the mother of cowardize the spring of disasters and the death of innocencie For after a Coward hath once tasted of blood he delights in no other spectacle It is the cause of mischiefes and of so manie fatall and mournefull accidents for there being a naturall Antipathy betweene that vice and reason shee expells reason and therfore will not hearken unto her in her furious violent and suddaine counsels In a word it is the death of innocencie for to satisfie her bloody appetite shee spareth neither age nor sexe but upon the altar of her furious and brutish passion sacrificeth as well the just as the guilty and would not spare her selfe if shee feared not the selfe same paines and torments which she inflicts on others Now this vice is detested by noble spirits and generous soules is abhorred by Angels and in great abomination to God himselfe so by the law of contraries mercie must be the subject and royall field where we must abundantly reape the honour of men the love of Angels the graces and blessings of our heavenly Father then must mercy be practised by men admired by Angels and bee delightfull to God and therefore we see in our Text that the beloved Sonne of eternity it selfe Iesus Chist our Saviour to perfect his Apostles in the way of salvation saith to them in generall Blessed are the mercifull c. As if hee had said I doe much hate and abhorre cruelty that I desire also that you that are my Disciples should expell and banish it quite from your hearts and thoughts and in her roome to admit and entertaine mercy that heavenly vertue which I both esteeme deerely and love and respect perfectly You must therefore practise this eternally praise-worthy vertue if you will be blessed for it is impossible to get into my Fathers favour if you be not furnished and armed with mercie You cannot ascend to the top of felicity before you have left sinne this heavie and intolerable burthen I say before you have received pardon and absolution for your faults which you can never obtaine before you have forgiven your brethren their offences before you have shewed your selves favourable and willing to assist them In a word before you have extended and practised on them all sorts of mildnesse clemencie and meekenesse which they shall stand in neede of for I say vnto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed are the
so at all times he may beare abundantly the gracious and delectable fruits of charity compassion and meekenesse This tree is divided into three branches which we see is set forth unto us Luke 6. whereof of the first sheweth us that wee must not rashly judge of our neighbour but that wee judge of him charitably The second teacheth us that wee must liberally distribute and dispose of our faculties in favour of the needy that thereby wee must partake of their miserie and sigh with them in their afflictions The third and last branch is to forgive our enemies and cast away from us all desire of revenge Saint Luke in the Chapter before cited after hee had exhorted us to bee mercifull as our heavenly Father is mercifull divideth this mercie into three kindes as we have already shewed saying first 1 Iudge not and ye shall not be judged 2 Give and it shall be given unto you 3 Love your enemies and ye shall be the children of the most high for he is kinde unto the unkinde and to the wieked Let us a while attentively consider the three offices and duties of the mercifull but rather let us practise them heartily that we may be recompensed with the felicity promised unto us Blessed are the mercifull for they shall obtaine mercie The corruption of this age is come to that height that it seemeth that the best discourse that men can finde is to speake ill of one to detract from another to judge so hardly of the best actions that one might think them voyd of reason and of the feare of God and to be partakers with the devill in vexing and slandering the life of those who are good examples to all and the subject of thanksgiving to all them that feare the Lord and therefore the holy Ghost admonisheth us in this first kinde of mercie not to be rash in our judgements least we suffer the paines and incurre the rigours of Talions law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iudge not that ye be not judged Math. 7.1 Wee must then observe these maximes in judging the actions of others that if they be manifestly good wee praise and imitate them that those that did them may be encouraged to continue and that the wicked leaving their wicked wayes may follow them for examples move more then rules or precepts If in all likelihood they may bee thought evill neverthelesse wee must practise and conferre on them the works of charity and construe them favourably seeing that it is God alone who searcheth the hearts and who trieth the reynes and thoughts and who is onely able to judge of our good or bad intentions for now Satan transformeth himselfe into an Angell of light and hypocrites his imitatours doe so perfectly counterfeit the just that it is altogether impossible to discerne truth from falshood Satan hath made them so deceiptfully crafty On the other side the just doe sometimes commit actions which seeme to be evill and notwithstanding are in themselues very good though they doe not appeare to bee such as when Christ was found alone speaking with the Samaritane but it was to teach her the way of Salvation When hee delighted in the kisses of Mary Magdalene who was so impudent in her life and manners in so much that the Pharisie that had invited him was offended at it yet the end and the answer which Christ gave them made them thinke otherwise when speaking to the Pharisie he said Ioh. 11.2.12.3 Simon seest thou this woman I entered into thine house and thou gavest mee no water to wash my feete but shee hath washed my feete with teares and wiped than with the haires of her head Thou gavest me no kisse but shee since the time I came in hath not ceased to kisse my feete Thou diddest not annoint my head with oyle but shee hath annointed my feete with pretious oyntment Wherefore I say unto thee many sinnes are forgiven her for shee loved much to whom a little is forgiven he doth love a little And he said unto her thy sinnes are forgiven thee Luke 7.44 c. Iesus Christ take this example more did often eat with Publicans and sinners but it was purposely to convert them and yet the Scribes and Pharisies that envied him did not interpret it so for they called him a glutton a wine bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners Math. 11.19 Behold how the best and wholesomest meates are converted into ill humors by ill disposed stomacks whence comes the proverb Ictericis omnia videntur esse flavia all things seeme yellow to them that have the Iaundize the wicked measure other by themselues and thinke that all imitate them in doing ill The second branch of this divine tree is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Give and it shall be given unto you that is that Iesus Christ by these words exhorteth us to distribute freely and liberally of our meanes to the poore assuring us to hold it as done to himselfe and that he will repay it a thousand fold unto us by giving us eternall life Make you friends saith hee Luke 16.9 with the riches of iniquity that when ye shall want they may receive you into everlasting habitations Iesus Christ Math. 19.21 speakes thus to a young man that asked him what he should doe to inherite eternall life after he had bidden him keepe the commandements he saith moreover unto him If thou wilt be perfect goe sell all that thou hast and give it to the poore and then thou shalt have treasure in heaven One of the chiefest lawes which God commanded and recommended to his people Israel was to be mercifull to the poore and needy as we reade Deut. 15.7 If one of thy brethren with thee be poore within any of the gates of thy land thou shalt not harden thine heart against him nor shut thy hand from thy poore brother but thou shalt open thine hand unto him and shalt lend him sufficient to sustaine his needs and wants and let it not grieve thine heart to give it unto him for because of this the Lord thy God shall blesse thee in all thy works and in all that thou puttest thine hand to And Prou. 28.27 Hee that giveth unto the poore shall not lacke but hee that hideth and shutteth his eyes from him shall have many curses It is a wonder to see and behold the admirable effects and workes of the Almighty that which commonly makes those to abound in wealth that bestowe largely upon the poore like a good spring or fountaine which the more it is emptied the more it overflowes in the excellencie of her waters so the more the faithfull gives to the poore the more God sendeth his graces and blessings upon his wealth so that the almes which hee gives are like seede fallen into good ground which yeeldeth a hundred for one It is like a little piece of leaven among a great deale of dowe which raiseth and maketh it to encrease and therefore the Wiseman exhorteth us to give
that asketh us helpe and consolation let us runne to him and give him occasion of joy and gladnesse for it is Christ himselfe which was comforted by an Angell in the Garden when praying to God his Father hee sweated drops of blood which made him pronounce these lamentable words so full of griefe My soule is full of sorrow even unto death When we have bin offended by our neighbour and that he will cast himselfe at our feete to aske us forgivenesse let us not be such tygers and so unnaturall as to refuse him his request remembring that it is a condition needfull to obtaine the pardon for our owne sinnes which wee shall never obtaine untill wee have first forgiven our brethren their offences but let us follow the example of our heavenly Father who saith That at what time so ever a sinner repenteth him of his sinnes he will put away his wickednesse out of his remembrance And when wee must appeare before the terrible and dreadfull Throne of the Soveraigne Iudge when wee shall be called to a strict account for the talents and administration which hath beene committed to our charge by our heavenly Master let us then I say follow the example of that wise Steward let us make our selues friends with the riches of iniquity let us fill the hand of the poore which is the Altar of God upon the which hee affectionatly receiveth the Incense of our prayers as a delightfull and pleasing Sacrifice to the glory of his holy name Then I say shall wee heare that sweet and heavenly voyce of the Saviour of our soules speaking graciously to us after this manner Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you before the foundation of the world Amen Amen The Prayer O Lord God full of mercy and compassion O favourable Father that art the fountaine of pardon and remission and the refuge of them that truely repent who desirest not the death of a sinner but rather that hee may turne from his wickednesse and live wee thy poore and miserable creatures who by the weaknes of our flesh by the malice of our mindes by our owne vitious inclination to follow ill examples have provoked thee to make thy wrath and indignation fall upon our sinfull heads we have many wayes and times by our transgressions incited thee to cast upon our sinfull soules the thunderbolts of thy judgements we have made sinne our delight and iniquity the height of our happinesse Thy justice did cry and runne after us like a roaring and ravening Lyon seeking to devoure us thy judgements were ready to cast our bodies and soules into hell but that the excellent greatnesse of thy mercie O bountifull and gracious Father hath interposed her selfe and hath not permitted that we should be cast downe into the depth of eternall death and condemnation thy hand O sweet Saviour hath upheld us and thy clemencie O our Redeemer hath perfectly delivered us therefore O gracious Father seeing thou hast preserued us from evill conserue us still in good things receive if such be thy good pleasure the incense of our prayers our sacrifice of thankesgiving which wee most humbly offer upon the sacred Altar of thy divine compassions Put up our teares into thy bottels accept our contrite hearts broken with griefe to have offended thee for a pleasing Sacrifice receive our griefes and displeasures for thy satisfaction and behold thy Sonne thy onely thy welbeloved Sonne his head pricked with thornes for our sinnes his hands his sides and his feete pierced with Lances and nayles for our iniquities for his torments sake for his paines and for his deaths sake restore us unto life forgive us our sinnes O great God blot out our iniquities that so following thy example wee may doe the like to them that have offended us change in us our hard hearts and make them gentle and easie to pardon and forgive and suffer not our soules to be defiled and infected with the venome of revenge but that leaving it unto thee we may thinke of nothing else but to be obedient unto thee blessing those that curse us speaking well of those that slaunder us and praying for those that persecute us O good God kindle in our soules an holy love towards our afflicted brethren that wee may partake with them in their afflictions and so ease them that they may the better beare that burthen which thou hast imposed upon them We most humbly beseech thee also O good Saviour to give us charitable hearts and full of compassion to helpe the poore in their neede remembring that they are our brethren that thou art the Father of us all and that we are the children of the same mother that a glasse of cold water onely given unto them is of an inestimable price before thee because thou acceptest of it as willingly and recompensest it as largely as if it had beene given to thy selfe make us understand and know that thou art the King and great Master of the world that all that is therein justly belongeth unto thee that wee are but thy Stewards to dispose of thy goods to them of thy houshold to wit the poore who as well as we have that honour to belong to thy house to be thy servants yea to beare the name of thy children that when it shall please thee to call us to account wee may bee found to have used with profit the talent committed unto us and that it may please thine infinite goodnesse not for our sakes but through thy mercy for thy welbeloved Sonnes sake to call us good and faithfull servants and to make us enter into our Masters joy which is the heavenly Ierusalem Amen The second Way to Sion THE PRAISE OF PVRITIE MATH 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God IN the holy and sacred Temple of wise King Salomon there were three things chiefely considerable that is 1. The body of the temple whereto the people came 2. The holy place appointed for the Levites and those that ministred at the Sacrifices And 3. the Sanctum Sanctorum or the most holy place consecrated for the Arke of the Lord who had appointed it for his ordinarie dwelling and residence wherein he commonly appeared in the forme of a darke clowd out of which were heard the divine Oracles and the irrevocable sentences of his sacred judgements It was a place whereinto none upon paine of death could come except the high Priest and that but onely once every yeare and yet with many precautions and circumstances for hee was first to purifie himselfe to wash his body and to change his cloathes before he appeared in the terrible and fearefull presence of the living God By this faire and meruailous Temple of King Salomon is lively represented unto us the world adorned and diversified with so many faire and admirable creatures By the Body of the Temple where the children of Israel heard the reading of the law of God his Spouse the
in heavenly and godly actions shall be perched and placed in the highest place of mount Syon from thence-forth ever to view the heavenly Sunne rising that beareth health in his rayes and wings to behold steddily and without winking the glistering and bright shining beames of the Sunne of righteousnesse without any feare of hurt being assured of his wonderfull favour manifested by his inviolable promises for he saith in our Text Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see GOD. By this purity of heart we may understand the simplicity of our lives and actions and so this sentence Blessed are the pure in heart may be this interpreted Blessed are those that walke simple in their actions whose heart is voyd of fraud and of any thoughts of iniquity whose tongue speakes nothing but the hearts meaning that shunnes vanity and the glory of this world that so they may be perfectly glorious in that which is to come St. Augustine lib. 1. de Serm. Dom. is of this opinion because that as St. Iohn saith 1. Epist chap. 5. ver 19. The whole worldlyeth in wickednesse and that the Apostles were to take men and to bring them to the way of salvation neither by craft nor by force but by meekenesse and simplicitie And therefore Christ sending through all the world to publish the Gospell of the Kingdome of heaven the redemption of captive sinners from the chaines and torments of hell and to preach openly the acceptable yeare of the Lord saith unto them Behold I send you forth as sheepe in the midst of Woolves be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmelesse and innocent as Doves as we read in the 10. Chap. of S. Math. ver 16. And in the same Gospell Chap. 6. ver 22. The light of the body is the eye if therefore thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light This so excellent vertue of meekenesse and simplicity hath alwayes beene hated of the world as being contrary to the vanity and folly of it and the high way to mount Sinai there to see God face to face as Moses who preferred the simplicity of a Shepheards crooke to the honours riches and preferments which hee might justly have expected in Pharaohs Court as being reputed his daughters sonne This vertue cannot but be very pleasing to God since he himselfe hath put it in practise in appearing to Moses in a bush which is a base and abject plant despising the lofty Pine trees and Cedars of Libanus which in height and beauty exceed all other trees of the earth The Angels also have practised it when having left the heavens to appeare unto men they have not taken the forme and majestie of Kings to be respected of all but rather the habit of Pilgrimes and men of base quality to teach us to shunne pride and vaine glory and to shew us by their cloathes that we are Strangers and Pilgrimes in this world that our houses are but Innes where we should stay onely as posts doe under a tree till the storme be past and so to continue our way as long as the day of our life shineth that the night envelloping and wrapping us up in her darke cloake wee may arrive at the heavenly Canaan which is our native Country from whence we first departed We read in the 18. Chap. of Genes That Abraham sitting at his tent doore saw three men passing that way whom hee called and desired to come and sit under a tree with him to eate a morsell of bread to comfort their hearts Now if it were God himselfe in the forme of three men to represent the three persons of the blessed Trinity or if they were Angels sent by him is a question out of the subject of our Text but because many Fathers of the Church are of the second opinion we also will hold it grounded on the 13. Chap. to the Heb. Be not forgetfull to entertaine Strangers for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares which is commonly referred to this action of the Father of the faithfull and of Lot his brothers sonne who also entertained in Sodome two Angels in the shape of Strangers and of men that were travelling further In the 5. Chap. of Tobit wee reade that the Angell Raphael appeared to the young Tobit and offered to bring him into Media which hee did afterwards performe But leaving many other examples which we could alledge of the humility and simplicity of Angels let us briefly runne over the lives of the Patriarks Prophets where the simplicity and innocent purity of their actions doe most lively appeare Abraham at Gods command without any further information goeth to the place appointed him to sacrifice on an Altar his onely sonne Isaack following the steps of his Fathers obedience to God runnes to his death never fearing the great torment that he was ready to endure layeth the wood on his shoulders and carrieth in his hand that fire that was appointed to burne him to ashes yea hee encourageth his poore old Father to execute Gods divine command restores unto him by his exhortation his strength already lost by reason of the extreame griefe which he endured to be the executioner of his owne sonne and to kill him to whom hee had lately given life But least we should be too tedious this example of simplicity shall serve us for all the Prophets as being the most remarkable that can be ever rehearsed by man and indeed was it not a great and lofty mysterie that God should give so resolute a courage so great a constancie to the Father of the faithfull and so admirable boldnesse to this obedient sonne for Abraham representeth unto us God the Father who to execute the irrevocable decree of his divine justice hath seised the sword of his terrible judgements to dip it in the blood of the spotlesse Lambe that bare the sinnes of the world on the Altar of the Crosse This sweet Iesus whose simplicity and meekenesse are both peerelesse inexplicable this good Saviour following the example of Isaack by whom during the shadowes of the law hee was figured goeth freely to his death bearing the wood which was to bereave him of life upon him and within him the burning fire of love that inflamed him with an infinite affection to save the Elect Hee was brought saith the Prophet Isaiah as a Lamb to the slaughter so opened he not his mouth to complain he is conducted as a dumbe Sheepe before her Shearer but in that we see nothing but part of his simplicity appearing in the catastrophe of his actions when he was neare his death but if we should curiously view the acts of his life beginning from his birth we should be ravished in admiration of these infinite wonders but let us consider only in generall that he is borne of a pure virgin espoused to a Carpenter was that befitting his excellent Majestie who was the King of the world Hee was borne in a Stable amongst beasts judge if that
affection that so wee may come neare this burning bush this fearefull fire Gods divine justice The Oracle of Apollo being once enquired what was the most pleasingst thing of God after his ordinary manner hee answered ambiguously and obscurely Dimidium sphaerae sphaeram cum principe Româ— An answer most true though it came from the father of lies for a C is the halfe of a Sphere an O is a Sphere and the beginning of the word Rome is an R which letters put together make COR that is the heart and questionlesse it is the most pleasingst gift that can bee offered unto God and which no man can justly refuse him The poore may say I cannot give almes the sicke I cannot goe to Church I can neither watch nor pray but none can say I cannot love God for thy other defects may be excused by thy poverty or sicknesse but to refuse God with thy heart it cannot be excused but by malice as S. Augustine very learnedly saith Let us remember that how charitable so ever our actions be if our heart doe not goe before to enlighten them all of them will tumble downe together into the obscure darknesse of the deepe Our actions are of no value without the heart but the heart may bee good without the actions God had respect to Abel and afterwards to his offering the good Thiefe to obtaine mercy gave nothing but his heart Marie Magdalene but her teares and Saint Peter but sighes and lamentations proceeding from the depth of his soule Now that this heart may be pleasing and acceptable to God it must be cleare bright and shining to the end that as in a glasse God may see his owne image and likenesse after which he at the first created it and when it is once cleane and pure then right so and in that manner we must keepe it in the same glorious estate for Non minor est virtus quam quaerere parta tueri And to that end we must imitate the Bees which to hinder the drones and spiders from comming into their Hives to corrupt or devoure their honey stop the entries of them with bitter and stinging hearbs as good Husbandmen who enclose their grounds lest passengers or the wild beasts should spoile them Even so should wee alwayes keepe the passages of our senses of our hearts and of our thoughts fenced with the feare of God which is a bitter Rue and Wormwood that the devill cannot endure to tast or relish Marke and observe with me the care and diligence which is used to conserve Christall and China Dishes what paines are taken to keepe them cleane bright and shining because they are deare and rare And what can wee finde in this world more precious and rare then our heart then let us with a diligent care and carefull sollicitude seeke the cleanenesse and purity thereof following the Apostles counsell Let every one possesse his vessell with sanctification and honour 1. Thess 4.4 When a vessell is cleft or crack it is unfit to containe any liquid thing Now the wicked heart is a crackt vessell saith Eccles. chap. 21. A broken heart threatneth death to a living creature as a Ship split and torne with the violence of the waves threatneth undoubted death ruine and shipwrack so that heart that is not well united to God that is broken and shattered by the force of worldly affections threatneth and fore-telleth an infallible ruine and destruction To fill a vessell in a Well or in a Fountaine we must needs bend it downwards so must we humble our heart to fill it with heavenly graces I have enclined my care and I have received wisedome saith the wise man Sap. 61. Againe we know that none can fill a vessell with any good and wholesome liquor wherein there is some corrupted before he first empty it and make it very cleane If we desire to fill our hearts with the love and other graces of God wee must first expell and exempt the love and delights of this world that have beene so long resident there and then when wee have done those things we shall be sure fully to enjoy the inestimable effects of this divine promise Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see GOD. In this second part wee have demonstrated unto us the reason why Christ calleth the pure in heart Blessed it is saith he because they shall see GOD. This conjunction for joyning those two sentences sheweth and marketh out unto us the reason of this felicity and happinesse that cannot receive a name enough emphaticall and significant to represent to our senses and to our understandings the least beame the least spark the least drop of that inexhaustible Ocean of that devouring fire of that Sunne of righteousnesse whose brightnesse if we should undertake to contemplate it would strike us blinde whose immense depth if wee should search it would swallow us up whose burning heat if wee approach it would convert us to ashes and would make us pay deere for our curiosity The Poets faine that the Giants attempting to clime up to heaven were thunder-stricken as they were heaping Olympus and Pelion upon Ossa one mountaine upon another A fable derived from that truth taught us in the Scripture touching the building of the Tower of Babell whose Builders were shamefully confounded the Allegorie of this truth the morality of this fable sets forth unto us the curiosity of them who thinking to pierce too farre into Gods secrets are cast downe into a deepe Abisse of confusion by their audacious presumption Empedocles desiring to know the cause why mount Aetna did cast forth such flames was swallowed and devoured by them God indeed depresseth and dejecteth the proud designes of those that are so rash as to discourse of that which is altogether ineffable and incomprehensible but yet is so gracious and favourable that he enlightneth and fortifieth those that with feare humility approach the greatnesse of his mysteries as David teacheth us Psalm 2.11 Serue the Lord in feare and reioyce with trembling And Solomon his sonne Those that trust in the Lord shall understand the truth and the faithfull shall know hit love Then with the spirit of feare and humility we are to seeke after this hidden glory and under the vayle of faith which teacheth us to beleeve the things which wee see not nor cannot be the object of our senses Hope will make us desire them Charity to love them and the gracious goodnesse of God will helpe us to attaine them O blessed them shall be the pure in heart for they shall see God St. Iohn Chap. 17. saith This is life eternall to know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent And in the 1. Epist of Saint Iohn chap. 3. Beloved now we are the sonnes of God and it doth not yet appeare what we shall be but we know that when he shall appeare wee shall be like him for wee shall see him as he is And every man
that hath this hope in him purifieth himselfe even as hee is pure And in the 22. chap. of the Revel His servants shall serue him and they shall see his face The infinite greatnesse of this divine promise whose performance is infallible makes us skip and leape for joy charmeth our senses and ravisheth our mindes for it seemeth altogether impossible that living tombes mortall carcasses the prey of death and the foode of wormes should ever aspire so high as to pretend to see and view that felicity which is better described by silence and admiration then by any other description for they are things which eye hath not seene eare hath not heard and that are not entred into the heart of man which God hath prepared for them that love him 1. Cor. 2.9 But the children of Israel did not pitch the Tabernacle in Ierusalem before they had cleansed the mountaine of Sion of those enemies that were opposite to their rest So wee must not settle our selues in the contemplation of the divine Tabernacle before we have cleared some places of Scripture that seeme to forbid us entrance In the 33. Chap. of Exod. ver 20. God saith to Moses Thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see me and live And in the 1. chap. of Saint Iohn No man hath seene God at any time And in the 1. Epist of the Cor. chap. 13. ver 12. Now we see through a glasse darkely And in the 28. chap. of Iob God is hidden from all living eyes In a word there are many other places to confirme this which will be too long to rehearse Wee with one consent said That God is invisible which seemeth to be opposite and contrary to the promise made unto us in our Text Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Neverthelesse to reconcile them together for the holy Ghost is never contrary to himselfe wee say that the places before alledged are so to bee understood that whilest man is in this mortall prison in this valley of teares so obscure and darke whilest like an Owle he delighteth in the night of sinne his eyes can no way endure the least beames of the Sunne of righteousnesse for God being an infinite Spirit cannot be seene by a finite body but when we shall leave off this mortall prison of our bodies our soules then perfectly enlightened by the heavenly grace shall be endued with that knowledge and faculty that they shall openly contemplate their Creator and their God as Saint Paul saith 1. Cor. 13. Chap. Now wee see through a glasse darkely but then wee shall see him face to face This word See God is much controverted among Divines which be of two severall opinions whereof the one holdeth That soules delivered of this corporall vayle cannot see Gods face for two reasons the first is that God being a spirituall Essence infinite incomprehensible cannot bee seene by a finite creature without implying contradiction for then the containing to wit the blessed soule should bee greater then the contained that is God which is absurd by this axiome that the object is contained by the visuall faculty As if a man placed in the midst of the earth or of the sea looking round about a great distance off as farre as his sight could reach could not for all that say That hee saw all the earth or all the sea Those of the second opinion answere to this first reason saying That the Creator may not be compared with the creatures that God is all in all and all and whole in every part that hee is one and consequently indivisible that all things in him are Essentiall and is not subject to division that whosoever seeth him seeth him totally The second reason of the first is that wee measure our soules by our bodies imagining that they shall have eyes with the which they shall be able to discerne and distinguish the present objects To which the others answere that indeede the soules in heaven shall have no corporall eyes like ours but that notwithstanding God will give them a seeing faculty by the which they shall perceive the present objects 2. When these soules shall be rejoyned and revnited to their bodies God having purified them from all vncleanenesse will make them like unto the glorious body of his Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord who saith Math. 22. That our bodies shall be as the Angels of God in heaven who alwayes behold the face of God Math. 18. that is that are alwayes in his presence and that see him perfectly in respect of themselues as much as it pleased God to permit but not perfectly in respect of God as he that seeth the Sunne may say that hee seeth it perfectly in respect of himselfe if his faculty be good and notwithstanding he cannot see him as he is because of the weakenesse of his eyes The second opinion which is more generally received holdeth that this word See is taken simply and absolutely for to Know and those that hold it say That Iesus Christ in our Text promiseth to the pure in heart a perfect knowledge of the divine goodnesse wherein consisteth the fulnesse of our felicity of our delights and content which they doe well proove by the 14. Chap. of Saint Iohn ver 7. If ye had knowne me ye should have knowne my Father also and from henceforth ye know him and have seene him where Christ sheweth to his Disciples that they have seene his Father because they have knowne him by so many miracles done before their eyes And in the 17. Chap. of the same Gospell This is life eternall that they might know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent where it plainely appeareth that this word to know God is as much as to possesse life eternall And so from those two places joyned to our Text this conclusion followeth that To see God know God and have eternall life are the same thing As the Angels then see the face of God even so shall we also see it for that blessed sight is reserved for a recompence of our faith as Saint Iohn in his 1. Epist 3. Chap. When he shall appeare we shall be like him for we shall see him face to face Not that we must imagine that God hath any members although it be said that man is made in the image of God for that is thus to be understood that man hath beene created in perfect justice and innocencie after the example of God But by this face of God we must vnderstand with the Scripture the Church and the Fathers and namely Saint Augustine in his booke Decivit Dei the manifestation of his glory and a perfect knowledge of his wonderfull mercie which he will communicate unto vs. It is a hard question and difficult to handle Whether the Saints after the Resurrection shall see God with their corporall eyes after they be glorified so Iob saith In my flesh I see God there Iob prophesieth the
Resurrection of his body but hee doth not say I will see him by my flesh and if he had it might have beene understood of Christ that shall come at the last judgement in the sight of all but his meaning was that when hee should see God hee should be in his flesh though the wormes and corruption had devoured it Saint Augustine is excellent upon this subject saying We shall see God with our corporall glorified eyes as we see the life of a man by his living actions not seeing life it selfe so is it likely that being enlightened by a heavenly and divine light we shall be able to see the Creator of all things both in them and himselfe so doubtfully the learnedst speake of it In the 5 Chap. of the 2. booke of Kings we reade that Elisha after that he had healed Naaman the Syrian saw Gehazi his servant take Presents from him although hee were beyond the common reach of the sight and when Gehazi was returned hee said unto him Went not my heart with thee when the man turned againe from his Charet to meet thee Now if this Prophet hath bin able to see the actions of his servant although absent from him how much more shall our glorified bodies see all when God shal be all in all Now Elisha saw this action of his servant either by a speciall revelation from God or by the sight of a spirituall imagination of the Prophet that shewed him the thing after which manner he knew the most secret counsells of the King of Syria We speake of these things as blind men doe or colours wee finde no certainty of them any where the Fathers themselues speake so obscurely of them they goe as softly on in the handling of this question as if they trod on thornes they grope along as if they went in the obscure darknes of the blackest night hardly can you finde two agreeing together and which is more strange not one that is agreed with himselfe and indeed how should a worme of the earth the dwelling of errours the subject of ignorance know or comprehend that great God which is the fountaine of all knowledge and the bottomlesse and shorelesse Ocean of wisedome and prudence It is true that when our soules shall be blessed with that eternall happines that they shal enjoy the divine vision in which consisteth our chiefest felicity we shall then see God as he is but to conceive and comprehend the infinity of his being it will be altogether impossible to us Those that sayle in the maine Sea which way soever they looke finde no other object but the heaven or the waves their sight being too weake to penetrate to the bottome or to view the shores Even so shall we see God and know him as farre as it shall please him to enable us but so farre shall wee be from compreheading him that he doth comprehend us and wee should then be no more seene there then a drop of wine in the Ocean Saint Basile handling this question in the Epistle to Eumonius hath an excellent comparison from the least to the greatest If we cannot comprehend the composition of a Pismire for the smalnesse of it how shall wee comprehend the infinite greatnesse of God We shall comprehend it indeede but it shall be as a spunge cast into the Ocean which is filled quite with water but is overcome and compassed round about by it I should want time rather then matter to speake on a subject so high and excellent wee should never have done if we should propound and resolue the infinite number of arguments and opinions moved upon this question of our sight of God But for us let us hold as the Mathematicians doe linea recta est brevissima that the straitest line is the shortest and in this the shortest way is the surest let us turne neither to the right hand nor to the left from the certaine way of truth taught unto us by the truth it selfe to wit by Iesus Christ in our Text saying Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see GOD. Let us then purifie our hearts and cleanse our soules from the filthinesse of sinne and from the spots of iniquity let our consciences bee white as snow and cleane as washed wooll let us take the firme and inviolable oath of Alleageance to our God and let us not suffer Satan our mortall enemie to take possession of the fort of our soules of the hill of Syon that is of our consciences let us not suffer him to make a breach in that vow that we vowed to his obedience at our first reception into the Church by Baptisme and so wee shall be washed seaven times in the Iordan of repentance and of contrition for our faults when we have put on the white roabes of holinesse justice and innocencie we shall be invited to the Lambs wedding we shall sit downe at table with the Kings sonne wee shall be abundantly filled with the dainties of his house and shall drinke in the river of his delights In a word when like the high Priest we have left off the habits of our naturall corruption and put on the white and cleane garment of sanctification for our selues of love for our God of charity for our neighbour then even then the gate of the most holy place which is heaven shall be opened unto us wee shall see Gods Majestie not darkly and as in a clowd as it hath long appeared to our fore fathers but rather as a bright shining Sunne whose vertue shall enlighten us whose love shall warme us and whose compassions shall animate us at whose sight wee shall be vivified consolated and glorified For hee will enrowle us among his Angels will make us Citizens of heaven and impatriate us to be absolute possessors of the rich treasures of eternall life where it is farre easier to know what is not there then to discourse what is There there is no death no wearinesse no infirmity no hunger no thirst no heat no cold no corruption no want no mourning nor sorrow Wee have told you what there is not there but what there is there eye hath not seene eare hath not heard neither is it entred into the heart of man what God hath prepared for them that love him now because these joyes and felicities have not entred into the heart of man therefore man must strive to enter into them God speakes thus by his Prophet Isaiah chap. 32. My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitatoin and in sure dwellings and in quiet resting places In this blessed life there is a certaine assurance a sure tranquillity a happy eternity an eternall happinesse a perfect charity a perpetuall day a quick motion in a word all shall be there led and governed by the same Spirit Here let us burne with zeale to ascend to those faire places let us be enflamed with extreame desire of possessing so goodly an inheritance and if our bodies cannot as yet goe
thither yet let our hearts ascend up if our soule be as yet bound and fastned within this mortall prison at the least let our faith flie up to those delicious places and there rest and stay untill our soules be perfectly pure cleane and white that one day both in body and soule wee may contemplate Gods divine Majestie and sing eternally with the holy Angels Holy holy is the Lord God of hosts for evermore AMEN O Most bountifull God and most mercifull King wee thy servants and children here prostrate and humbled before the high and holy tribunall of thy sacred and soveraigne Majestie doe ingenuously confesse that we are not worthy to lift up our eyes or our hands towards heaven to call upon thee in our necessities for our sinnes are raised over our heads like terrible mountaines which seeme to threaten and defie thy judgements from the top of their presumptuous impudencie Iniquity hath made our soules as black as firebrands and the transgression of thy divine commaundements hath made our consciences more red then scarlet in a word forgetting thee we haue forgotten our selues and remember but as a dreame our beginning derived from heaven Wherefore O good Iesus O sweet Saviour of our bodies and soules kindle in our hearts the fire of thy divine love and let it be a candle to our feete and a light unto our pathes that wee may safely escape out of these terrible downefalls which threaten unto us death and condemnation wash our soules in the precious blood issuing from thy wounds make them by thy favour whiter then snow and then washed wooll we cannot enter into thy Tabernacle before wee be cleansed of our faults graunt then unto us by thy mercy one onely drop of this large and vast ocean of thy great compassions wash our roabes in the blood of the Lambe that wee may be made worthy to follow him whither soever he goeth Change our eyes into two lively fountaines of penitent teares which may become a Iordane of griefe and displeasure for having beene so wicked before thy face within the which wee may dip our selues seaven times yea seaventy times seaven times that we may be delivered of the spirituall leprosie of sinne which makes us so foule and ugly in thy sight and presence And after thou hast pulled off from us the old man and cloathed us with the new which is with justice and holinesse when thou hast given us the wedding garment then we shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob at the delicate feast which thou hast prepared for us and the which must be kept upon the mountaine of the heavenly Sion where wee shall see thee face to face where we shall be ravished in this contemplation and shall bee quite exchanged and transformed into the extasie of this ravishment Amen The third way to Sion THE CROVVNE OF PEACE AND CONCORD MATH 5.9 Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God WHen two Kings to decide some quarrell are ready to take Armes they first of all enkindle the fire of warre in their subjects hearts through all their Dominions then all is in trouble combustion and disorder and all newes are sorrowfull and lamentable on the one side you may see desolate Parents poore olde men leaning on the brim of their graves considering with eyes overflowing with teares their deare children whom for the greatnes and multiplicity of their cruell wounds they can scarcely know On the other side you are frighted by the lamentable complaints by the loude cries and pitifull lamentations of the bewayling widowes over the dead bodies of their dearely beloved husbands In a word there is nothing but fire blood and slaughter to be seene so that one may properly say That Warre the mother of all mischiefe is as it were a feast celebrated to the honour of death to whom are continually offered up many pitifull and bloody sacrifices which she exactly keepes in the grave But when some great Prince of earthly Monarch undertaketh to agree them his Embassadors are every where received with open armes bone fires and triumphall arches erected in token of that joy and contentment which they receive by their mediation for peace according to that saying of the Lord Blessed are the feete of those that bring tidings of peace Rom. 10.16 Iesus Christ here continueth his Sermon to his Disciples where in a continued order hee sheweth them the perfection of blessednesse he maketh them scale the heavens by eight degrees which they must ascend here on earth And having spoken formerly of six hee commeth now to the seaventh saying Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God Which words by Gods assistance wee will divide into two principall parts 1. the proposition 2. the reason of it the proposition concerneth the Peacemakers and their felicity the reason of this beatitude is to be called the children of God Now for our better understanding of these words let us handle them all severally and let us for a while leave this concrete word Peace-maker and so come to his abstract to wit peace the which is diversly defined according to the severall sorts and degrees of it For there is the peace of the body which is a just temperature of the parts There is a peace of the irreasonable soule which is an inordinate rest of the appetite The is a peace of the reasonable soule which is a moderated consent of the action and understanding There is a peace of the soule and body which is a well governed life and the health of the living creature There is a peace of mortall man which is a well ordered obedience in faith under the government of the eternall and divine law There is a peace of the house which consisteth in a just concord of the domesticall both in commanding and obeying There is a peace of the Cite which is a concord among the Citizens There is a peace of the heavenly Citie which is a well governed Societie wholly and eternally to enjoy God There is a peace of men which is a mutuall concord And againe there is a peace of all things which is a perfect tranquillity of order now order is nothing else but a true disposition giving to every thing his true ranke and place The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shalom representeth unto us exceeding well her Essence for it signifieth a happy successe of all things in God Where we may note that every word hath his weight and inestimable value For first it is a successe and not a hazard which is happy and not unlucky of all and not of something onely in God and not in the world The Grecians call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quiet sweet gracious as deserving that name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by excellencie because there is nothing in the world to bee compared to the excellencie of a publick and particular rest and tranquillity The Latines call it Pax quasi pacata because
was a blessed family which came in unto the daughters of Cain Among the children of God in affection and honour are first placed the Princes and Potentates of the earth as we read Psalm 82.6 I have said ye are Gods and all of you are children of the most high And Ierem. 31.9 I will cause them to walke by the rivers of waters in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble for I am a Father to Israel and Ephraim is my first borne The third sort of the children of God is of them that are such by adoption and by grace as we reade Ephes 1.5 God hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Iesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will And Galath 4.5 God sent forth his Sonne made of a woman that wee might receive the adoption of sonnes And Iames 1.18 Of his owne will begate hee us with the word of trueth that we should be a kinde of first fruits of his creatures And 1. Epist of Saint Iohn Chap. 3.1 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sonnes of God beloved now are we the sonnes of God and it doth not yet appeare what we shall be Athanasius orat 2. that which is naturally begotten of another must bee esteemed his true progeniture but those that receive the title of Sonne onely by grace and by vertue receive not the right of Sonnes by nature but onely by grace Quod secundum naturam ex aliquo gignitur id vera ejus progenies censendum est qui vero ex virtute gratia nomen filiorum solum modo obtinent non natura sed gratia jus filiorum obtinent Ambros lib. 1. de fide cap. 9. Wee are called Sonnes by adoption but he speaking of Christ is such by the truth of his nature per adoptionem nos filij dicimur ille per veritatem naturae est Augustin Epist 120. cap. 4. Wee were something before we were Sonnes and wee have received that benefit to be made what wee were not as hee that is adopted was not the sonne of him that adopteth him neverthelesse hee was since he hath beene adopted and from that gracious generation is distinguished he that being the Sonne of God came downe to be made the Sonne of man that he might make us that were the sonnes of men the children of God Eramus aliquid antequam essemus filij accepimus beneficium ut fieremus quod non eramus sicut qui adoptatur antequam adoptaretur nondum erat ejus filius à quo adoptatur erat jam tamen qui adoptaretur ab hac generatione gratiae discernitur ille filius qui cum esset filius Dei venit ut fieret filius hominis donaretque nobis qui eramus filij hominum filios Dei fieri Many of the Fathers doe daintily describe this free adoption filiation for so the Greekes interpret this word Adoption having no other to expresse his signification but this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filiation or adoption but that wee may remember that when our first Father Adam fell from the state of grace in which he was created hee became the enemie of God for sinne by his gluttonie having seased the dungeon of his soule inciteth and provoketh him continually to warre against God by disobedience to his divine commaundements and by the same sinne he made God his enemie so that his revenging justice instantly tooke from him that faire Robe of Iustice holinesse and innocencie in which he was created But his mercie being not able to suffer that man that maister-piece of his hands should be for ever banished confined within the paines and torments of hell to satisfie his Iustice hath left some in their Reprobation to endure and suffer the punishment due to their faults and hath chosen and elected some to testifie in them the effect of his compassions breaking the chaines wherewith Satan kept them bound and that by sending into the world his onely and well beloved Sonne who hath paid their ransome by the inestimable price of his pretious blood and moreover having given them liberty hee hath besides bestowed on them the gift to be made the children of God and coheires with his Sonne of eternall and most blessed life And thus it is that wee are called the children of God in our text children by adoption by favour and by grace This custome of adopting is common and familiar among men for we see many that having cast their affection upon strange children receive them into their houses love them dearely bring them up with great care and at their lifes end appoint unto them either all or part of their best inheritance Let us now draw some instructions from all this discourse and let us say That since God hath so much honoured us as to adopt us for his children that we must not beare unworthily that title to the end that we may receive the effect of his invariable promises to wit the inheritance of heaven and life eternall Good children strive to tread upon the holy steps of their Parents imitating in all things their good and laudable actions so must wee with all our power follow the steps and imitate the actions of our heavenly Father whose name is the great God of peace Let us also imitate our eldest brother Iesus Christ our Saviour who is the true image of the Father who exhorteth us by the mouth of the vessell of his election to fly quarrels and contentions saying 2. Cor. 13.11 Brethren live in peace and the GOD of love and peace shall be with you Let us live a blamelesse and innocent life both before God and before men before God in holinesse before men in justice that so God may be appeased with us and that our soules may be voyd of those feares which sinne conceiveth in the hearts of the wicked who continually representeth and setteth before his eyes the deposition of the witnesses the mortall sentence of the Iudges and the intollerable cruelty of the hangman although oftentimes no man have any knowledge of his crime This peace is for our selues for the rest and tranquillity of our consciences and for the salvation of our soules Let us also seeke to have peace with all the world as much as in us lieth let us hate noyse and fly from ryots and contentions that so our conversation may be pleasing to all the world and this is the true politick or civill peace Let us be like Lamps and Torches lighted in the middest of darknesse let vs be that water of pacification and rest to quench the fire of quarrels and contentions that are among our brethren least that fire consume them to ashes And in so doing wee shall be true imitatours of our heavenly Father who justly stiles and calls himselfe the God of peace and then with a great deale of right and equity wee shall beare the blessed and glorious title of his children
And after we have quenched and put out the trouble of our hearts vexation of our soules caused by the fire of sinne when wee shall have scattered those flames that destroy and devoure that union and concord which God hath so strictly commanded us to keepe then shall wee be called to that heavenly Ierusalem which is the Citie of peace and there shall wee enter into the possession of the inheritance promised to adopted children in Iesus Christ our Lord wee shall partake with him eternall blessednesse hee shall be our head in those divine sessions and we shall be his members wee shall shine as the Sun the holy Ghost shall enlighten us and the God of peace shall be for ever with us Amen O Soveraigne Monarch of heaven and earth that governest all things by thy providence which to us is altogether incomprehensible we thy most humble Subjects calling unto thee from the bottome of our soules beseech thee by the greatnesse of thy compassions that it may please thee to plant in our hearts a holy and perfect justice which taking deepe rootes therein may bring forth fruites of peace and concord which thou straightly recommendest unto us in thy holy word Make us perfectly just that we may love peace perfectly as being the daughter of justice enkindle O good God the fire of thy love in our hearts and soules that we may love our brethren even as thou hast loved us give us a spirit of gentlenes meekenes that we may fly eschew quarrels contentions not only in our selues but also when we shal see them kindled among our brethren make us knowe O good Saviour that those enmities and dissentions are the devils daughters who loves nothing but noyse and disorder and that peace and mildnesse are the daughters of divine justice which thou lovest dearely which wee must embrace and practise if we will be honoured with the title of thy children and not onely be called so but also to be indeed children of God and heires of eternall and blessed life to the which the Father Sonne and holy Ghost bring us Amen The fourth way to Sion 1. PETER 2. 17. Feare God and honour the King AS rayes or Sunne-beames follow and beare observance to the Sunne As all rivers runne to the Sea and as many lines end and terminate in their center so there are many wayes to bring us to the Paradise of God to Ierusalem above which is our heavenly and happy Country Neverthelesse wee must herein use the Maxime of the Mathematicians who hold that the shortest line â—s still the rightest also in all these different wayes of new Sion the shortest is the best and surest When God gave his Law to Moses upon the Mountaine of Sinay he divided it into ten commandements which are so many perfect wayes to conduct and bring us to heaven for IESVS CHRIST the sweet Saviour of our soules being himselfe descended from Heaven to shew and point us out this way hee drew a short Compendium and Abridgement of all these Ten Commandements of the Law and reduced them to two as wee shall finde it written in the 22. Chapter of St. Mathew where wee see him disputing against a Doctor of the Law who demanded of him which was the first and greatest Commaundement and Iesus answered him Thou shalt love God with all thy heart with all thy soule and with all thy minde which is the first and greatest commandement and the second is like unto it which is Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe and of these two Commaundements depend the whole Law and the Prophets as our Apostle Saint Peter in the imitation of his blessed Master Christ after hee had instructed and admonished his faithfull flocke in all their duties in the precedent verses of our Text hee drawes an abridgement of all which concerned their saluation when he said Feare God and honour the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In these words we have all the instructions which we must practise in our soules and bodies concerning those divine and humane duties which wee must convert and reduce into practise which wordes naturally divide themselues into two severall branches or heads to wit 1. the feare which wee ought to beare unto God and 2. The honour which wee must obserue and give to the King The sweetest and most pleasingst sacrifice which we can offer up unto the Lord Almighty is a heart replenished and fraughted with the feare of his holy name a minde trembling before his sacred Majestie and a soule terrified with the sublimity and greatnesse of his fearefull judgements as the royall Prophet affirmeth in Psal 2.11 Serue the Lord with feare and reioyce with trembling And againe Psal 2.7 I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy and in thy feare will I worship towards thy holy Temple We can offer up no sacrifice so pleasing nor performe no action or duty so acceptable to God as when wee adore him in all feare and reverence him in all astonishment trembling which lively depaynteth and prefigureth his Greatnesse and Magnificence perfectly demonstrateth us our Duties and witnesseth our humility and obedience which is exceeding delightfull and pleasing to him That Romane Emperour perspicuously expressed and deciphered the excellent power and effects of this feare when he caried for his Motto and Devise Oderint dum metuant Let those hate me that will so they feare me shewing thereby what small account and esteeme hee made of the hatred and how dearely he prised and respected the feare which hee would have given and borne to him Morall Philosophers affirme and say That Love and feare are two fister germanes because the one is conjoyned to the other and both linked together produce one the same effects for still the Lover is in care and feare of the thing beloved whereas wee never feare to lose that which wee hate but that Which wee love dearely and cherish tenderly and both of these together produce the conseruation of their object But this distinction takes no place but here on earth among creatures and doth neither regard nor looke up towards Heaven to God the Creator For God is all Love but he can never be capable of alteration or defect as is that feare which he hath left and given unto man for his portion and inheritance So he which is possessed with a perfect feare to offend his God or to lose his favour he is linked and joyned to God with the Gordian knots of his love which are then wholly made indivisible and inseparable and the Love of God conjoyned with the feare of man cause the conservation of the soule and this it is where the Apostle Saint Peter tells us in our text Feare God By which word feare wee must not understand a cowardize a pusillanimity or any irregular passion which freezeth our blood in our veines which causeth our hearts to pant and beat with an incessant motion which calls and attracts
and docible and so to instruct and civilise him to the service of God It still shewes him the eminent dangers wherein shee will ingulph precipitate him in offending his God but still with an indulgent intent to prevent and hinder him from it Pondus timor is est anchora cordis The burthen which feare caries with it is the hearts anchor to prevent that it bee not reversed and overblowne by the waves nor of all sides split and shipwrack'd by the violence and impetuosity of tempestuous passions which without intermission assayle and beat upon it But the mercy of the Lord saith David is from generation to generation upon all those who feare him In a word and so to draw to the conclusion of this part of the Text the two principall pillars of Christian Doctrine and the two firme and vnremoveable foundations thereof is Feare and Love which are the two proper meanes to containe the godly and to retaine the wicked in the observation of Gods Commandements The wicked by Feare the godly by Love as the Poet speakes but morally in a Christian sense and language Oderunt peccare mali formidine Poenae Oderunt peccare boni virtutis amore The wicked abhorre to offend for feare of punishment and the Godly will not be drawne to sinne because of their love of vertue But here fearing least I should runne astray and so lose and ingulph my selfe in this great and vast Ocean of the feare of God it makes mee rowe abord thereby to gaine the desired shore and so to treat and discourse of the second part of the Text which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Honour the King The two noblest and most excellent offices which the Angels and blessed soules enjoy above in the triumphant Church are the vision of God and the ordinary action of glorifying and honouring God about the which they are eternally imployed and therefore the holy Ghost to fashion and dispose us here belowe in the militant Church to glorifie in time his sacred Majestie in heaven commandeth us in our text likewise to Honour the King as being the true Image and lively representation of that great King of glory of the Father of Eternitie of the mighty God of Hoasts Feare God saith hee and Honour the King Divine and altogether admirable words as being the summe and abridgement of all the duties which we ought to practise in this world both in body and soule both for the morall and spirituall life the performance whereof brings us to absolute perfection for if we feare God wee serve him and never offend him and in honouring the King besides the performance of our duty wee obey the Commaundement of God So these 2. commandements are so straightly link'd and joyned together that the breach of the one is the violation of the other for we cannot displease the King without offending God nor offend God without violating the Kings lawes Let us see what that chosen vessell saith in very earnest and pressing words Rom. 13.1 Let every soule be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but from God and all authority is given from the Lord which is the reason of the commandement followed presently with a threatning wherefore who so resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and therefore incurres condemnation for the Prince beares not the sword in vaine seeing he is the servant and minister of God to punish evill doers therfore must ye be subject not onely for feare but also for conscience sake and therefore pay ye tribute because they are the ministers of God ordained to that end Give then unto every one his due tribute to whom tribute custome to whom custome feare to whom feare and honour to whom honour Before we enter into an exact and particular exposition of the words of our Text wee will examine the consequence of this commaundement and as those who desire to know the sweetnesse and goodnesse of water ascend to fetch it from the spring that wee may esteeme the more the excellencie and greatnesse of this commandement we must observe that this ordinance is not made by men either to flatter Kings for feare of their soveraigne authority but that it is Gods owne ordinance dictated unto our Apostle by the holy Ghost Which brings great matter of consolation to those who with zeale undertake the execution of it knowing that God loves those that feare him and blesseth those that are obedient to him And contrarily it must greatly terrifie the disobedient when they remember the infallible threatnings and the irrevocable sentence pronounced by Gods owne sacred mouth saying Cursed is hee that breakes the least of these commandements Math. 5.19 Cursed is hee that shall not be permanent in all the things written in the book of the law to doe them Deut. 27.26 We must againe note that the Commandements of God are like the Sciences which are more or lesse esteemed according to the nobility and excellencie of their object for as that affection and charity which we owe to our neighbour without comparison gives place to that extreame and infinite love which wee owe to our God and heavenly Father so the honour we are to beare to all men in generall is so much inferiour to that we owe the King as his dignity is elevated above that of other men and therefore you see that as soone as our Apostle commandeth us to feare God hee addeth presently Honour the King Shewing by that order that the honour and service due to the King immediatly followes that which wee owe to God and therefore a great servant of God of our times expounding these words saith after Tertullian That in the performance of these two precepts the Christian makes himselfe perfect both for the religious and morall life for in fearing God hee walkes through the pathes of justice holinesse and innocencie which leades in the end to eternall felicity And in honouring the King he observes his lawes and by those meanes buildeth up for himselfe a delightfull rest and an incomparable felicity But because it is to undertake to sayle over a boundlesse and bottomlesse Ocean if we should goe about to alledge here all the places which we might cite out of the Fathers and many others let us hearken to the holy Ghost in the most common places of Scripturel and imitating the Israelites we will onely take some few drops of water out of the land of Edow and shew onely the springs afarre off we will passe over quickly like the dogge of the river Nilus least some Crocodile thirsting after our innocencie should open his stinking mouth to accuse us as though our intention were other then tending to the service and glory of God which is the onely centre unto the which all the lines of our intentions immediatly tend and ayme Wee very easily learne the definition or description of this word to Honour in the 6. Chap of Esther when Ahashuerâ—sh asked Haman what should be done unto the