ad rustic Eloquentiae torcularia non verborum pampinis sed sensuum quasi uvarum expressionibus redundarent For in these the presses of eloquence abound with leaves of words and luxuriant stemmes of extravagant wit but in it with spirituall senses and divine sentences as it were the juice and bloud of the ripest grapes of the Vine of Engeddi It is a point of wisedome in man who hath but little to make it goe as farre as he can and so thriftily instill it in his workes as Nature doth her influences in simples a great quantity whereof is often distilled to extract one drop of pure quintessence whereas on the contrary no plant of Paradise no branch of a plant no flower of a branch no leafe of a flower but affordeth great plenty of the water of life more precious than any quintessence that Art can force out of Nature The finers of gold Chrysost tom 5. homil 37. as golden mouth St. Chrysostome teacheth us deale not only with wedges ingots and massie pieces of gold but with the smallest portions thereof And the Apothecaries make singular use in divers confections even of the dust of gold When Alexander the great managed his affaires in Judea those whom he imployed to gather the most precious oyle of a Plin. l. 12. nat hist c. 25. Succus è plaga manat quem Opobalsamum vocant suavitatis eximiae sed tenui gutta Alexandro magnores ibi gerente toto dic aestivo unam concham impleri justum erat Opobalsamum thought a whole Summers day well spent in filling a small shell taking it as it fell drop by drop from the twigge And if a skilfull Jeweller will not grind out a small spot or cloud out of a rich stone though it somewhat dimme the bright lustre thereof because the substance is so precious shall we lose or sleightly passe by any Iota or tittle of the Booke of God which shall out-last the large volumes of the heavens for * Mat. 5.18 heaven earth shall passe away but no one Iota or tittle of the Word of God shall passe The Jewish Rabines say that great mountaines hang upon the smallest Jods in the Bible And St. b Chrys in Gen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome will not endure a devout Christian to let goe any syllable in the Scripture no nor pricke or point without observation Surely if God so carefully preserve the smallest parcels of Scripture he would have us religiously observe them Else if wee content our selves with a generall handling of the Word of life how shall wee satisfie the Apostles precept of rightly dividing the Word of God * 2. Tim. 2.15 Shew thy self a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of truth The word in the originall is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dichotomizing the Apostle tyeth no man to a precise Ramisticall method yet is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly cutting or dividing the Word of truth which cannot be done if any sensible part be omitted be it but a conjunctive particle as this Till in my Text which standeth like an hinge in the midst of the sentence turning the meaning divers wayes If it hath reference to the death and resurrection of our Saviour as Cajetan Avendanus conceive it hath in which he brought forth judgement unto victory by condemning the world conquering both death hell then the meaning of the whole is this He shall not strive nor cry c. he shall not offer any violence to his enemies by word or deed although he could as easily destroy them as a man may breake a reed already bruised or tread out the smoaking week of a light ready to goe out of it selfe yet he will not use this power but contrariwise carry himselfe most meekly towards them and by his mildnesse and patience both condemn their fury and conquer their obstinacy If it looke farther forward to the destruction of the City and Temple and the overthrow of the whole Jewish Nation as Theophylact and Musculus imagine expounding Till hee bring forth judgement unto victory till he execute judgement upon them that judged him and fully be revenged of them by the sword of the Romans then the meaning of the whole is Hee shall not breake the bruised reed of the Jewish Nation till by the victory of the Romans he shall execute judgement upon that Nation nor shall he quench the smoaking flaxe of the Aaronicall Priesthood till forty veeres after his death the City of Jerusalem shall bee sacked and the Temple burned downe to the ground and by the propagation of the Gospel and prevailing thereof in all places the dimme light of the Ceremoniall Law be quite extinguished But if the word Untill carry us so farre as the last Judgement to which St. Jerome St. Hilary c Guilliand comment in Mat. Qui diebus carnis suae visus est humilis benignus doctor aderit aliquando Jude◠utetur potentiá absolutâ damnavit hostes suos Guilliandus and many other learned Expositors referre it then the whole beareth this tune See you Jesus now in the forme of a servant how humble and meeke he is so farre from killing and subduing his bloud-thirsty enemies by forcible meanes that hee will not strive with them so farre from lifting up his hand against them that hee will not lift up his voice Hee will not cry nor shall his voice bee heard in the streets complaining against them so farre from wounding the spirit Cic. Catil prim Quos ferro vulnerare oportebat nondum voce vulnerat or hurting the bodies of any men that hee will not breake a bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flaxe The time shall come when you shall see this meek Lambe turned into a fierce Lion He who cryed not upon earth shall thunder from heaven He who came now to suffer in meeknesse shall hereafter come in power to conquer Hee who came in humility to bee judged shall come in Majesty to judge both quicke and dead Hee who came by water and bloud by water to wash our sinnes and by bloud to quench the fire of his Fathers wrath shall one day come in flaming fire to render vengeance to all that beleeve not the Gospel He who in all his life never brake a bruised reed a Beza in Mat. c. 12. Tum rebellia corda confringet non jam clemens humilis sed severus majestate verendus shall after his death and resurrection when he commeth to Judgement if not before rule the Nations with a rod of Iron and breake them in pieces like a potters vessell Hee who here never quenched the smoaking flaxe hee shall hereafter put out the greater lights of the world He shall darken the Sunne and turne the Moone into bloud and shake the powers of heaven and foundations of the earth and the hearts of men and behold he commeth with the clouds and all eyes shall see
of the Martyrs sepulchres when she had no Churches but caves under ground no wealth but grace no exercises but sufferings no crowne but of martyrdome yet then she thrived best then she spread farthest then she kept her purity in doctrine and conversation then she convinced the Jewes then she converted the Gentiles then shee subdued Kingdomes whence I inferre three corollaries 1 That the Roman Church cannot be the true Church of Christ For the true Church of Christ as she is described in the holy Scriptures hath for long time lien hid beene often obscured and eclipsed by bloudy persecutions but the Roman or Papall Church hath never beene so her advocates plead for her that she hath beene alwayes not onely visible but conspicuous not onely knowne but notorious And among the many plausible arguments of perswasion and deceiveable shewes of reason wherewith they amuse and abuse the world none prevaileth so much with the common sort and unskilfull multitude as the outward pomp and glory of the Papall See For sith most men are led by sense and judge according to outward appearance the Church of Rome which maketh so goodly a shew and hath born so great sway in the world for many ages easily induceth them to beleeve that she is that City whereof the Prophet speaks x Psal 87.3 Glorious things are spoken of thee thou City of God What more glorious and glittering to the eie than the Popes triple crowne and the Cardinals hats and their Archbishops Palls and their Bishops miters and crozures their shining images their beautifull pictures their rich hangings their gilt rood lofts their crosses and reliques covered in gold and beset with all sorts of pretious stones These with their brightnesse and resplendency dazle the eyes of the multitude and verily if the Queenes daughters glory were all without and the kingdome of Christ of this world and his Church triumphant upon earth all the knowne Churches in the Christian world must give place to the See of Rome which hath borne up her head when theirs have beene under water hath sate as Queene when they have kneeled as captives hath braved it in purple when they have mourned in sackcloth and ashes But beloved y Rom. 10 17. faith commeth not by sight but by hearing and we are not to search the Church in the map of the world but in the Scriptures of God where we find her a pilgrim in Genesis a bondwoman in Exodus a prisoner in Judges a captive in the book of Kings a widow in the Prophets and here in my text a woman labouring with child flying from a red Dragon into the wildernesse I grant that Christ promiseth her a kingdome but not of this world and peace but it is the peace of God and joy but it is in the Holy Ghost and great glory but it is within z Psal 45.13 The Kings daughter is all glorious within c. 2 That none ought to despise the Churches beyond the seas under the Crosse but according to the command of the blessed Apostle a Heb. 13.3 Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them that suffer adversitie as heing our selves also in the body Their turne of sorrow is now ours may be hereafter God hath begun to them in a cup of trembling it is to be feared it will not passe us but we and all the reformed Churches shall drink of it Our Church in Queene Maries dayes resembled this woman in my text theirs now doth both never a whit the lesse but rather the more the true Churches of Christ because they weare his red livery and beare his Crosse 3 That we ought not to looke for great things in this world but having food and raiment as the woman had here in my text to be therewith contented and as she withdrew her self from the eye of the world so ought we to retire our selves into our closets there to have private conference with God to examine our spirituall estate to make up the breaches in our conscience to poure out our soules in teares of compunction for our sins of compassion for the calamities of our brethren of an ardent desire and longing affection for the second comming of our Lord when he shall put an end as to all sinne and temptation so to all sorrow and feare Amen Even so come Lord Jesu To whom c. THE SAINTS VEST A Sermon preached on All-Saints day at Lincolnes-Inne for Doctor Preston THE XXIV SERMON APOC. 7.14 These are they that came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lambe Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. THe question which the Elder moved to Saint John in the precedent verse to my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what are these mee thinks I heare some put to mee at this present saying What are these holy ones whose feast yee keep what meane these devotions what doe these festivities intend what speake these solemnities what Saints are they Virgins Confessours or Martyrs whose memory by the anniversary returne of this day you eternize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence came they or rather how came they to bee thus honoured and canonized in our Kalendar My direct answer hereunto is my Text These are they c. and the exemplification thereof shall be my Sermon The palmes they beare are ensignes of their victory the robes they weare are emblemes of their glory the bloud wherein they dyed their robes representeth the object of their faith the white and bright colour of them their joy and the length of them the continuance thereof Yea but these holy ones you may object at least the chiefe of them had their dayes apart the blessed Virgin hers apart and the Innocents apart the Apostles apart and the Evangelists apart how come they now to be repeated why committeth the Church a tautologie in her menologie what needeth this sacred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or congeries of feasts blending of devotions thrusting all Saints into one day and that a short one in the rubricke It is that men may see by that which we doe what we beleeve in that Article of our Creed the communion of Saints Wee joyne them all in one collect wee remember them all upon one day because they are all united into one body admitted into one society naturalized into one Kingdome made free Denisons of one City and partakers of one a Col. 1.12 inheritance of the Saints in light In a word we keep one feast for them all upon earth because they all keep one everlasting feast in heaven the marriage b Apoc. 19.9 supper of the Lambe The Romanes beside severall Temples dedicated to severall deities had their Pantheon or all-gods temple See wee not in the skie here single starres glistering by themselves there constellations or a concourse of many heavenly lampes joyning their lights do we not heare with exceeding delight in the singing of our Church
terris the Earth trembled the Stones clave with indignation the vaile of the Temple rent it selfe the Heaven mourned in sables the Sunne that he might not behold such outrage done upon so sacred a person drew in his beams He who suffereth all this quatcheth not stirreth not nor discovereth his divine Majesty no not when death approached When all insensible creatures seemed to be sensible of the injury offered their Maker he who feeleth all seemeth to be insensible For hee maketh no resistance at all and though he were omnipotent yet his patience overcame his omnipotency and even to this day restraineth his justice from taking full revenge of them who were the authours of his death and of those who since crucifie againe the Lord of life and trample under their feet the bloud of the Covenant as a prophane thing Whose thoughts are not swallowed up in admiration at this that he who is adored in heaven is not yet revenged upon the earth You see meeknesse in his passions behold now this vertue expressed to the life in his life and actions Actions I say whether naturall or miraculous so indeed they are usually distinguished albeit Christs miraculous actions were naturall in him proceeding from his divine nature and most of his naturall actions as they are called proceeding from his humane nature were in him wonderfull and miraculous For instance to weep is a most naturall action but to weep in the midst of his triumph and that for their ruine who were the cause of all his woe to shed teares for them who thirsted after his bloud was after a sort miraculous Who ever did the like Indeed we reade that Marcellus wept over Syracuse and Scipio over Carthage and Titus over Jerusalem as our Saviour did but the cause was far different They shed teares for them whose bloud they were to shed but our Saviour for them who were ready to shed his Luke 19.41 His bowels earned for them who thought it long till they had pierced his heart with a launce When the high Priest commanded Paul to be smote on the face hee rebuked him saying The Lord shall smite thee thou painted wall Acts 23 3. but when the Lord himselfe was smitten by the high Priests servant he falls not foule upon him but returnes this milde answer If I have done evill John 18.23 beare witnesse of the evill but if I have done well why strikest thou me The servant thinketh much to endure that from the Master which the Master endures from the servant The Apostles on whom the Spirit descended in the likenesse of fiery tongues were often hot and inflamed with wrath against the enemies of God and brought downe fearfull judgements upon them but our Saviour on whom the Spirit descended in the likenesse of a Dove never hurt any by word or deed 2 Kin. 5.27 Matth. 8.2 Luke 4.27 17.12 Acts 13.11 Acts 5.5.10 Eliah inflicted leprosie upon Gehazi by miracle Christ by miracle cleansed divers lepers Saint Paul tooke away sight from Elymas Christ by miracle restored sight to many Saint Peter miraculously with a word strucke Ananias and Sapphira down dead Christ by miracle raised many from death insomuch that his very enemies gave this testimony of him Mark 7 37. Hee hath done all well giving to the lame feet to the maimed strength to the dumbe speech to the deafe eares to the blind sight to the sicke health to the dead life to the living everlasting joy and comfort I have proposed unto you a notable example shall I need to put to spurres of art to pricke on your desires to follow it the example is our Saviour and the vertue exemplified in him meeknesse How excellent must the picture be which is set in so rich a frame such a vertue were to be imitated in any person such a person to be imitated in any vertue how much more such a vertue in such a person It is hard to say whether ought to bee the stronger motive unto us to follow meeknesse either because it is the prince of vertues or the vertue of our Prince whose stile is Princeps pacis Where the prince is the Prince of peace and the kingdome the Kingdome of grace and the law the Law of love they must certainly be of a milde and loving disposition that are capable of preferment in it If the Spirit be an oyntment as S. a 1. John 2.20 But you have an oyntment from the Holy One and you know all things John calleth it it must needs supple If grace bee a dew it cannot but moisten and soften the heart and make it like Gedeons fleece Judges 6.37 which was full of moisture when all the ground about it was dry What can be said more in the commendation of any vertue than meeknesse and of it than this that God commandeth it in his Word Christ patterneth it in his life and death the holy Spirit produceth it in our hearts our very nature enclineth us to it and our condition requireth it of us No vertue so generally commended as meeknesse Follow after righteousnesse 1 Tim. 6.11 godlinesse faith love patience meeknesse bee no brawler Tit. 3.2 but gentle shewing all meeknesse to all men Walke worthy of the vocation whereunto you are called with all lowlinesse and meeknesse with long-suffering forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the unitie of the Spirit in the bond of peace James 3.17 18. The wisedome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits and the fruit of righteousnesse is sowne in peace of them that make peace No fruit of the spirit so sweet and pleasant as this as on the contrary no fruit of the flesh so tart and bitter as jealousie and wrath which God curseth by the mouth of b Genes 40.7 Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their rage for it was cruell Jacob but blesseth meeknesse by the mouth of our Saviour Matth. 5.5 Blessed are the meeke for they shall inherit the earth The earth was cursed before it brought forth thornes and thistles and briars which are good for nothing but to bee burned Wherefore let us hearken to the counsell of St. c Cypr. de zelo bâ—â—ore Evellamus spinas de cordibus ut dâ—â—minicum semen nos fertili fruge locupletet Cyprian Let us weed out of our soules envie wrath and jealousie and other stinging and pricking passions And of the Apostle Let no root of d Heb. 12.15 Looking diligently lest any root of bitternesse springing up trouble you bitternesse remaine in us that we may receive with meeknesse the engraffed Word which is able to save our soules James 1.21 Our carnall lusts are like so many serpents and of all wrath is the most fiery which will set all in a combustion if it bee not either quenched by the teares of repentance or slacked by the infusion of divine
deâ—â—em Poena ad paucos metus ad omnes perveniat Seneca better adviseth Let the clap fright all the thunderbolt strike but a few For as c Cassex Jan. Grat. not in Tac. Principi non minus turpia multa supplicia quà m medico funera Cassiodore noteth It is as great a shame for a Magistrate as for a Physician to have many dye under his hand Chuse therefore the fattest of the beasts for sacrifice that is make the chiefe authours and ring-leaders in any sedition or riot a sinne-offering for the rest and an example unto all This moderation Tully used in repressing the conspiracy of d Salust in conjur Catil Cataline e Quintus Curtius de gest Alex. Alexander in punishing the rebellion of the Articinae Scipio in disciplinating his Army as if they had all read that divine sentence of f Senec. l. 1. de clem Divina potentia est greâ—aum ac publice servare multos occidere indiscretos incendii ruinae potentia est Seneca To kill men pell mell and murder multitudes together is liker a ruine of a house or the devouring of a common fire than a moderate execution of justice but on the contrary To save whole multitudes of men and that together from death and destruction is an eminent worke of the divine power The eighth rule is to be touched with a g Rom. 12.15 fellow-feeling of anothers misery This is laid downe by S. Paul h Colos 3.12 Weep with them that weep put on the bowels of mercy kindnesse and meeknesse A good Magistrate should not bee like the iron instruments of Chirurgians that have no sense at all of the intolerable paine which they cause in the part pricked or launced but like Zaleuchus who put out one eye of his owne when hee sentenced his sonne according to law to lose both his eyes It should bee a cut in their heart to cut deep into any member of Christ Jesus Why hath God given us soft hearts but to melt into compassion why moist eyes but to shed teares as well for others grievous affliction as our owne sinnes Teares saith the Poet are the most sensible and best sensible parts we have Nostri pars optima sensus and they that have sap of grace in them are fullest of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eras Adag If Augustus never pronounced a capitall sentence without fetching a deep sigh If Marcellus wept before he set fire to Syracuse Valer. Max. Ante fuas lachrymas quà m ipsorum sanguinem effudit If Scipio professed in an Oration to his Souldiers that he drew a sword through his own bowels when he put thirty of them to death to expiate the trespasse of eight thousand Nay if God himselfe who is void of all passion is yet full of compassion At que dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox If hee never pronounce the dreadfull sentence of destruction against any City or Country without great regret and seeming reluctation Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up O Ephraim How shall I deliver thee O Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim My heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together Vers 9. I will not execute the fiercenesse of mine anger for I am God and not man c. Beloved brethren how should wee bee affected when any of his children our brethren are like to be ruined by our sentence How loth should wee bee to draw bloud one from another who are members one of another and fellow-members of Christ Jesus Were Christ againe upon earth could you see him stripped stark naked and flead with whips and pierced with nailes and racked on the crosse and not bee pricked at heart with compunction and wounded deeply with compassion And doth hee not assure us that whatsoever is done bee it good or bad to any of his little ones Matth. 10.42 Acts 9.4 is done unto him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Therefore never look that he will have mercy on you in heaven if you have no compassion on him here calling for food in his starved sighing for home in his banished groaning for ease in his burthened mourning for liberty in his imprisoned crying for pity in his grievously afflicted and tortured members I have applyed this Text to instruction and correction now a word of comfort from this that the Judge of all flesh is so meeke as hath been shewed When Benhadad the King of Syria was discomfited and utterly overthrowne by the King of Israel according to the advice of his servants who told him that the Kings of Israel were mercifull 1 Kings 20.31 32 34. hee sent them clothed with sackcloth with ropes upon their heads to entreat for peace now when the King of Israel saw their submission he made a covenant of peace with them Better advice I cannot give you than to put in practise what they did when you are overtaken with Gods judgements and affrighted with hell torments cast your selves downe to the ground before him and poure out your soules with a showre of teares and put ropes upon your heads that is acknowledge what you have deserved for your sinnes and sue day and night for pardon and in the end you shall finde by your owne experience that he that is over all is rich in mercy unto all that call upon him Rom. 10.12 For he will not only raise you up and set you upon your feet and pull the rope off your neckes Cant. 1.11 but will farther decke you with golden chaines of spirituall graces linked together hee will make you borders of gold with studs of silver Nay as when Tygranes threw first his crowne and after himselfe downe at the feet of Pompey that noble Commander as Xiphiline writeth Xiph. in compend Dion taking pity on him put his Diadem againe with his owne hands upon his head and after took him by the hand raised him from the ground and set him in a chaire of state by him So the great Commander of heaven and earth when he seeth your unfeigned humility and lowest submission to him will raise you up put a crowne of glory upon your head and set you in a throne of majesty on his right hand to sit with him in judgement upon the twelve Tribes of Israel So be it To God the Father c. THE LAMBE TURNED LION A Sermon preached in his Graces Chappell at Lambeth Decemb. 6. Anno Dom. 1619. before his Majesties high Commissioners there assembled THE FOURTH SERMON MATTH 12.20 Till he send forth judgement unto victory Most REVEREND c. THe words of Gedeon to the Ephraimites Judges 8.2 Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer may not unfitly bee applyed to the written Word of God in comparison of other bookes Is not the gleaning of Scripture better than the vintage of all secular learning Hierom.
putteth his trust in him shall glory in these his victories But the mouth of all Jewes and Gentiles Turkes and Infidels Atheists and Idolaters that belch out blasphemies against him shal be stopped when he shall come in the glory of his Father with his elect Angels and sit in judgement upon quicke and dead u Hieron epist ad Heliod Tunc quod vocem inbae pavebit terra cum populis tu gaudebis Judicaturo Domino lugubrè mundus immugiet tribus ad tribum pectora ferient Potentissimi quoâ—dam reges nudo latere pulpitabunt exhibebitur cum prole sua vere tunc ignitus Jupiter adducetur cum suis stultus Plato discipulis Aristotelis argumenta non proderunt Tunc tu rusticanus pauper exultabis ridebis dices ecce crucifixus Deus meus ecce Judex qui obvolutus pannis in praesepio vagiit hic est ille operarii quaestuariae filius hic qui matris gestatus sinu hominem Deus fugit in Egyptum hic vestitus coccino hic sentibus coronatus cerne manus Judae e quas fixeras cerne latus Romane quod foderas Then at the sound of the last trumpe the earth shall tremble with the inhabitants but thou O Christian shalt rejoyce When thy Lord comes to judge the world shall roare hideously all the kindreds of the earth shall smite their breasts the most puissant Kings shall appeare without their guard panting for feare Jupiter himselfe the chiefe Idoll of all the heathen with all his off-spring shall be seene all in true fire foolish Plato shall be brought with his disciples Aristotles sophistry shall stand him in no stead Then thou poore and simple countrey swaine shalt leap for joy and say Behold my God who was crucified behold the Judge who sometimes wrapt in swadling clothes cryed in a manger this is the Carpenters sonne this is he who borne in his mothers armes being God fled from man into Aegypt this he who was clad in purple and crowned with thornes see O Jew the hands which thou nailedst view O Roman the side which thou diggedst with thy speare behold O Jew the head which thou prickedst with thornes now compassed with radiant beames behold the face thou defiledst with spittle shining brighter than the Sun behold the hands thou woundedst with Iron nailes holding a rod of Iron and bruising his enemies like a potters vessell behold O Roman the naked side which thou piercedst with a speare now guarded with a troupe of Angels with their polaxes behold the body thou strippedst starke naked cloathed with light as with a garment In a word behold him whom thou esteemedst the scorne of the earth made now the glory of the heavens in a triumphant march with millions of Saints and Angels riding on bright clouds as it were fiery chariots through the aire to execute speedie vengeance upon all his enemies and to take up all the elect with him into heaven x Apoc. 22.20 Etiam sic veni Domine Jesu Even so come Lord Jesu come quickly You have heard how sweet and heavenly the musicke is if you take the highest cliffe from Christ if you take the middle from David thus the notes follow They that seeke my soule to destroy it that is my bloud-thirsty enemies shall goe into the lowest parts of the earth that is either enter into their graves or hide themselves in caves of the earth they shall make him to run out like water that is cause Saul my capitall and mortall enemie to spill his owne bloud by falling upon his owne sword And they shall be a portion for foxes This clause of the prophecie was not fulfilled in Saul his person nor his sonnes for y 1 Sam. 31.12.13 their flesh was burnt and their bones buried under a tree at Jabesh but in his servants and souldiers which mortally wounded on the mounts of Gilboa and being not able to helpe themselves nor having any to burie them after they had breathed out their last gasp fell to the foxes share and therefore David purposely altereth the number saying not they shall cast him downe and he shall bee a portion for foxes but they shall be a portion for foxes as in the truth of the story afterwards they fell to the foxes commons Now after the death first of Saul and the discomfiture of his royall armie and the overthrow afterwards of the Philistims and destruction of all his enemies round about King David sitting safely and quietly in his throne full of joy and comfort breaketh forth into a Psalme of thanks-giving to God for his wonderfull victories and strange deliverances and all the loyall subjects of Judah and Israel beare a part with him in it whereat all those that before had falsely traduced his person or impugned his right to his crowne were put to silence and shame Thus have I set the tune in my text to the middle key also and as you heare the musicke is sweet if you will have the patience to heare it once more set to the lowest key you will all perceive that every note in it conforteth not onely with our voices but our thoughts and affections at this present I have shewed you how this prophecy in my text was fulfilled in Christ Davids Lord and secondly in David the Lords Christ may it please you out of your love to him to whose honour you have dedicated this feast to stretch out your patience to the length of the houre and I shall briefly exemplifie the same in our Israels David To resume then the words of this Scripture and by the parts of it to draw the lineaments of that narration which shall serve for my conclusion First I will relate unto you the attempt of the conspirators the Earle Gowrie and Alexander Ruthen his brother and their complices by the occasion of these words They that seek my soule to destroy it Secondly the event by occasion of the words following shall goe to the lowest parts of the earth c. They that seeke my soule to destroy it Were there ever any such or are there any at this day Doth hee breathe that would goe about to stop the z Sen. de clem l. 1. c. 4. Ille est vinculum per quod respublica coheret ille est spiritus vitalis quem tot millia trahunt breath which so many thousands draw Doth the Sun give light to any that would go about to quench the light of Israel can the earth bear any such an ungratefull and gracelesse varlet whose conscience is burthened with so heavie and heinous a sin as Parricide in the highest degree laying violent hands upon the Father of his countrey whom for his clemencie and wisedome the world at this day cannot parallel Yes beloved this hath beene the lot of the best Princes that ever ware corruptible Crownes a Suet. in vita Tui Titus sirnamed Delitiae humani generis The darling of mankinde drew this lot and b
but rather m Suet. in Tit. Titus Vespasian who suffered no man by his good will to goe sad from him and in this regard was stiled Amor delicrae humani generis the love and darling of mankinde The laity shew in their name what they are durum genus and how ill they stand affected to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stone and hardly entreat our tribe all have experience who have or ever had pastorall charges Wee cannot pray them so fast into heaven as they will sweare us out of our maintenance on earth And what reliefe wee have at secular tribunals the world seeth and if wee must yet expect harder measure from your officers and servants I know not to what more fitly to compare the inferiour of our Clergy who spend themselves upon their parochiall cures and are flieced by them whom they feed and by whom they should bee fedde through vexatious suits in law than to the poore hare in the Epigram which to save her selfe from the hounds leaped into the sea and was devoured by a sea-dogge n Auson epig. In me omnis terrae pelagique ruina est 4 The spirit of humility Matth. 20.28 The Sonne of man came not to bee ministred unto but to minister The head of the Church vouchsafeth o Joh. 13.14 to wash his disciples feet professing therein ver 15. that hee gave them an example that they should doe as hee had done to them Winde blowne into a bladder filleth it and into flesh maketh it swell but the breath of God inspired into the soule produceth the contrary effect it abateth and taketh downe all swelling of pride Take not Austine the Monke for your patterne from whose proud behaviour towards them the Brittish Monkes truely concluded that hee was not sent unto them from Christ but Saint Austine the Father whose modest speech in a contention betweene him and Jerome gained him more respect from all men than ever the Bishops of Rome got by their swelling buls and direfull fulminations According to the present custome of the Church saith he the title of a p August epist ad Hieron Bishop is above that of a Priest yet Priest Jerome is a better man than Bishop Austine As the q Bruson facet exempl Athenians wisely answered Pompey requiring from them divine honour We will so farre account thee a God as thou acknowledgest thy selfe a man for humility of minde in eminency of fortune is a divine perfection so the lesse you account your selfe a Prelate the more all men will preferre and most highly honour you When Christ consecrated his Apostles Bishops he breathed on them to represent after a sort visibly by an outward symbole the eternall and invisible procession of the holy Ghost from his person In regard of which divine signification of that his insufflation no man may presume to imitate that rite though they may and do use the words Receive the holy Ghost All that may bee done to supply the defect of that ceremony is in stead of breathing upon you to breath out prayers to almighty God for you that you right reverend Fathers may give and for you my Lord Elect that you may receive the holy Ghost for us that wee may worthily administer and for you that you may worthily participate the blessed body and blood of our Saviour and for us all that wee may bee nourished by his flesh and quickened by his spirit and live in him and hee in us and dwell in him and he in us So be it c. THE FAITHFULL SHEPHEARD A Sermon preached at the Consecration of three Bishops the Lords Elect of Oxford Bristoll and Chester in his Graces Chappell at Lambeth May 9. 1619. THE ELEVENTH SERMON 1 PET. 5.2.3.4 Feede the flocke of God which is among you taking the over-sight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind not as being Lords over Gods heritage but being ensamples to the flock And when the chiefe shepheard shall appeare you shall receive a crowne of glory that fadeth not away Most Reverend Right Honourable Right Reverend right Worshipfull c. ARchilochus a Arist Rhet. c. 2. sharpning his quill and dipping it in gall against Lycambes that his satyricall invectives might bee more poignant putteth the pen in Archilochus his Fathers hand and by an elegant prosopopeia maketh him upbraid his sonne with those errors and vices which it was not fit that any but his father should in such sort rip up And b Orat. pro M. Coelio Tully being to read a lecture of gravity and modesty to Clodia which became not his yeares or condition raiseth up as it were from the grave her old grandfather Appius Caecus and out of his mouth delivereth a sage and fatherly admonition to her In like manner right Reverend receiving the charge from you to give the charge unto you at this present and being over-ruled by authority to speak something of the eminent authority sacred dignity into which ye are now to be invested I have brought upon this holy stage the first of your ranke and auncientest of your Apostolicall order to admonish you with authority both of your generall calling as Pastours set over Christs flocke and your speciall as Bishops set over the Pastors themselves That in the former words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feed this in the latter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bishoping or taking the over-sight of them Both they are to performe 1 Not by constraint 2 Not for lucre 3 Not with pride 1 Not by constâ—ant constraint standeth not with the dignity of the Apostles successors 2 Not for filthy lucre filthy lucre sorts not with Gods Priests 3 Not in or with Lord-like pride Lord-like pride complyeth not with the humility of Christs Ministers As Tully the aged wrote to Cato the auncient of old age so in the words of my text Peter the Elder writeth to Elders of the calling life and reward of Elders in the Church of God 1 Their function is feeding and overlooking Christs flocke enjoyned ver 2. 2 Their life is to be a patterne of all vertue drawne ver 3. 3 Their reward is a Crowne of glory set before them ver 4. 1 Their function sacred answerable to their calling which is divine 2 Their life exemplary answerable to their function which is sacred 3 Their reward exceeding great answerable to the eminency of the one and excellency of the other May it please you therefore to observe out of the words 1 For your instruction what your function is 2 For correction what your life should be 3 For comfort what your reward shall be As the costly c Exod. 28.14 ornaments of Aaron were fastened to the Ephod with golden chaines of writhen worke so all the parts and points of the Apostles exhortation are artificially joyned and tyed together with excellent coherence as it were with chaines of gold This chaine thus I draw through them all
If they are to account for their owne Stewardship certainly either at the private audit the day of their death or at the publike audit the day of judgement after which they shall be no longer Stewards but either Lords in Heaven or Slaves in Hell Wherefore O Christian whosoever thou art whether thou swayest the scepter or handlest the spade whether thou sittest at the sterne or rowest at the oare whether thou buildest on the roofe or diggest at the foundation make full account of it thou shalt be called to an account for thy worke be not idle therefore nor secure Secondly that for which thou art to account is no place of authority but an office of trust no Lordship but a Stewardship be not proud of it nor unfaithfull in it Thirdly this office of trust is not a Treasurership but a Stewardship be not covetous nor unprofitable Fourthly this Stewardship is not anothers but thine owne be not curious nor censorious Fifthly this thy Stewardship is not perpetuall but for a time it expireth with thy life be not negligent nor fore-slacke thy opportunity of making friends to receive thee into everlasting habitations after thou must relinquish thy office That God is Lord of all his claime unto all is a sufficient evidence to us For hee cannot pretend a false title who is truth it selfe neither can any question his right in any Court who is author of all lawes as hee is maker of all things which are his by a threefold right 1. Of Creation 2. Purchase 3. Possession 1. Of Creation for that which a man maketh is his owne 2. Of Purchase for that which any one purchaseth is his owne 3. Of Possession for that which any one is possessed of time out of minde is his owne By the first of these the Father may claime us as all things else who made all By the second the Sonne who redeemed the world By the third the holy Ghost who inhabiteth us and after a speciall manner possesseth us g Isa 66.1 Heaven is my throne saith God and the earth is my footstoole You see then great reason why God should be compared to a rich man with whom all the rich men in the world may not compare neither in lands nor in cattell nor in mony and treasure Not in lands for the bounds of the earth are his land-markes and the Sunne is his Surveyer Nor in cattell for h Psal 50. every beast of the forrest is his and the cattell upon a thousand hills Not in mony or plate for i Haggai 2. gold is mine and silver is mine saith the Lord. Nor lastly in goods for that golden chaine of the Apostle k 1 Cor. 22.23 All are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods may bee drawne backward by the same linkes thus All are Gods and God is Christs and Christ is ours Yea but it may be argued against this conclusion that God hath small or no demaines in as much as hee holdeth nothing in his owne hands having let out if I may so speake the heaven to Saints and Angels the ayre to Birds and Fowle the water to Fish the earth to Men and Beasts to dwell in it and reap the fruits thereof But the answer is easie for though God make no benefit of any thing to himselfe yet hee keepeth the right and propriety of all things in himselfe and hee must needs keep all things in his hands who clincheth the Heavens with his fist Moreover hee requireth homage of all his creatures which are but his tenants at will or to speake more properly servants to be thrust out of office and state upon the least offence given or dislike taken Which condition is farre worse than the former For a tenant hath some kinde of propriety and interest in that which hee holdeth of his Landlord and if he performe all covenants provisoes and conditions of his lease or agreement with his Lord hee may not without apparent wrong bee suddenly turned out of house and home much lesse may his Lord seize upon all his goods and dispose of them at his pleasure The case standeth farre worse with a Steward who hath nothing he may call his but his office for which hee may be alwayes called to an account and upon it discharged Yet this is the state of the greatest States and Potentates of the world they have no certainty in any thing they possesse or enjoy For which cause Saint l Hom. 2. ad po◠Antioch Omnes usum et fructum habemus dominium nemo Chrysostome findeth great fault with the wills and testaments of great personages in his time by which they bequeath lands lordships and inheritances in their own name and right as if those things were absolutely in their power they usurpe saith hee upon Gods prerogative who hath given unto them the use and profit of the things of this life but not the dominion no nor propriety in strict point of law unlesse a man will account that to be his own for which he is to give an account to another The Steward is no whit the richer because hee hath more to account for but in this regard more solicitous and obnoxious Which observation we may crowne with this corollary That they who seem to have the greatest and best estates in this world are in the worst condition of any if their gifts be not eminent and their care and industry extraordinary to make the best advantage to their Master of the many talents committed to them The reason hereof is easie to ghesse at and was long ago yeelded by Gregory the m Greg. sup Evang dominic Cum augentur dona crescunt rationes donorum great As their means and incomes so their accounts grow For n Luke 12.48 To whom men have committed much of him they will aske the more to whom more is given more shall be required of him To speake nothing of the many imployments and distractions of men in great place which sacrilegiously robbe them of their sacred houres devoted to prayer and meditation and bereave them of themselves I had almost said deprive them of their God and the sweet fellowship of his holy Spirit they must give so much audience to others that they can give but little attendance on God Publike imployments and eminent places in Church and Common-wealth expose those that hold them to the view of all men their good parts whatsoever they have are in sight and their bad too which men are more given to marke quis enim solem ferè intuetur nisi cum deficit when doe men so gaze upon the Sunne as in the eclipse in so much that the very word Marke is commonly taken in the worst sense for some scarre blemish or deformity A small coale raked up in the ashes may live a great while which if it be raked out and blowne soone dyeth and turneth into ashes They that were kept in close prison by Dionysius enjoyed the benefit of
their sight in those darke roomes which they lost when they were suddenly brought forth into the open ayre by the over bright reflection of the Sunne beames from a wall new white-limed Which I speake not to detract from dignity or obscure glory or disparage nobility or dishonour worldly preferments or honours in them whose merits have been their raisers For these honourable titles and dignities are the lustre of eminent quality the garland of true vertue the crowne of worldly happinesse and to the lowly high favours of the Almighty The marke I aime at is to give some content to them whose places are inferiour to their vertues and advice also to those whom God hath or shall raise to great places and high preferments Let the former consider that there can be no obscurity where the Sunne shineth that he is truly honourable not alwayes whom the Prince putteth in high places but he upon whom God lifteth the light of his countenance that it is sufficient that hee seeth their good parts from whom they expect their reward that the more retired their life is the lesse exposed to envie and more free from danger that the fewer suters or clients they have to them the more liberty they have to be clients to God the lesse troubles they have about their temporall estate the better they may looke to their spirituall and secure their eternall lastly that the lesse they are trusted with the easier their account shall be at the great audit On the other side let those who have degrees accumulated and honours and preferments heaped upon them seeke rather to diminish their accounts than to increase their receipts and pray to God daily for lesse of his goods and more of his grace that they may make a better account at the last day and then receive a Kingdome in Heaven for a Stewardship on earth Beloved brethren you see your calling you are Stewards not Lords thinke upon it seriously that you may be every day you shall be one day called to a strict account for all that you have or enjoy This was the first point of speciall consideration I recommended to you from the nature of our office which is here called a Stewardship The second was that wee are not Gods Treasurers but his Stewards and that our imployment is not to gather up and keep but to expend and distribute our Masters monies for the maintenance and reliefe of his poore servants according to their severall necessities And looke whatsoever we lay out in this kinde shall be allowed upon our accounts and put upon our Masters score who acknowledgeth it to bee his owne debt o Mat. 10.42 Whatsoever you doe unto any of these little ones you doe it unto mee You clothe mee in the naked you feed mee in the hungry you relieve mee in the distressed you visit mee in the imprisoned you ransome mee in the captive you cure mee in the wounded you heale my pierced hands and feet with the oyle which you poure into their wounds Thrice happy Stewards wee if wee can so handle the matter that we may bring our Master indebted to us for the interest of his owne mony For he p Prov. 19.15 who giveth to the poore lendeth to the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay it him againe So exceeding bountifull is he that he giveth us aboundantly to pay our fellow-servants and payeth us double for giving it them After our Saviour had healed the man with a q Marke 3 5. withered hand to shew that it was whole he commanded him to stretch it forth in like manner if wee desire to shew and make a sensible proofe that the sinewes of our faith are not shrunke that the hands of our charity are not withered we must stretch them out and reach our almes to the poore which we will be more willing and ready to doe if we reflect often upon our office shadowed out under this Parable which is to bee Stewards not Treasurers of Gods manifold blessings Secondly if wee consider that wee lay out nothing of our owne but of our Masters purse And thirdly that whatsoever we lay out for him upon earth we lay up for our selves heaven according to that rule of Saint r Leo ser quod Thesaurum coâ—dit in coelo qui Christum pascit in paupere manus pauperis gaâ—aphylatium Christi Leo Hee layeth up treasure in heaven who feedeth Christ in the poore the poore mans hand is Christs boxe This branch of our duties which is to be alwayes fruitfull in good workes extendeth farther than the expending of monies or good usage of the blessings of this life For all the members of our body and faculties of our foule and graces of the spirit are paâ—â— of our Masters goods and must bee imployed in his service and occupied for his profit Besides all these wee are accountable to him for our time which wee may not wastefully and prodigally lavish out in sports and pastimes but so thriftily expend upon the necessary workes of our calling that we may save a good part to consecrate it to exercises of piety and devotion whereby wee may multiply the talent of grace committed unto us There is no covetousnesse commendable but of time of which yet most men and women are most prodigall Å¿ Senec. ep 1. Quem mihi dabis qui aliquod pretium tempori ponat qui diem aestimet c. spenders Any jewell that is lost may be found yea though it bee cast in the sea as Polycraâ—es his ring was which a fish in his mouth brought backe into his Kitchin Yea the treasure of grace and pearle of the word which the rich Merchant sold all that hee had to buy yea God himselfe after we have lost him may bee found if we seeke him in time onely lost time can never be recovered Wherefore that wee may not lose any moment of the time allotted which is so precious but put it to the best use for the increase of our talent of knowledge I passe from the Stewardship of the things of this life to the account we are to give of this Stewardship In which that we may more readily and safely proceed first I will set up a great light secondly remove some rubs out of the way The light shall bee a cleare confirmation of the truth of the point out of the Scriptures which are most evident and expresse both for the unavoidable necessity and strict severity of the last judgement Wee professe in our Creed that Christ who now sitteth at the right hand of his Father in heaven shall from thence come to judge the quicke and the dead and wee have sure ground in Scripture to build this article upon For t Acts 10 42. there wee reade that Christ is ordained of God to bee Judge of the quicke and the dead and that u Rom. 14.10 we shall all stand before his judgement seat nay that wee x 2 Cor. 5.10
thing so much as their tiring In summe they spend all their time in a manner in beautifying and adorning their body to please their lovers but in comparison none at all in beautifying and adorning their soules to please their Maker and Husband Christ Jesus Of these Saint m James 5.5 James long ago gave us the character They live in pleasure in the earth and waxe wanton and are fatted for the day of slaughter I spare to rehearse other lavishing out of time lest the rehearsing thereof might seeme worthy to bee numbred among the idle expences thereof And now it is time to set the foot to the account of my meditations on this Scripture The Conclusion and draw neere to that which we all every day draw neerer unto an end The * 1 Pet. 4.7 end of all things is at hand be sober therefore watch unto prayer The day of the Lord will come as a theefe in the night in the which the heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the workes thereof shall be burned up This great Doomes-day cannot bee farre off as wee see by the fearfull fore-runners thereof howsoever the day of our death which may be called little doomes-day will soon overtake us peradventure before the Sunne yet set or this glasse be runne Wherefore I beseech you all that heare mee this day in the feare of God by occasion of the summons in my Text to enter into a more strict examination of your life than ever heretofore bring out all your thoughts words deeds projects councels and designes and lay them to the rule of Gods Law and if they swerve never so little from it reforme and amend them recount how you have bestowed the blessings of this life how you have imployed the gifts of nature how you have increased your talents of grace wherein the Church or Common-wealth hath been the better by you consider how you have carried your selves abroad in the world how at home in your private families but how especially in the closet of your owne heart You know out of the Gospel that a mans n Mat. 12.44 house may be swept and garnished that is his outward conversation civill and faire and yet harbour seven uncleane spirits within If lust and covetousnesse and pride and envie and malice and rancour and deceit and hypocrisie like so many serpents lye under the ground gnawing at the root of the tree be the leaves of your profession never so broad and seem the fruits of your actions never so faire the vine is the vine of Sodome and the grape the grape of Gomorrah There is nothing so easie as to put a fresh colour upon a rotten post and to set a faire glosse upon the fowlest matters to pretend conscience for most unconscionable proceedings and make religion it selfe a maske to hide the deformity of most irreligious practices But when the secrets of all hearts shall be opened and the intents and purposes of all our actions manifested and the most hidden workes of darknesse brought to light As it is to bee hoped that many that are infinitely wronged in the rash censures of men shall be justified in the sight of God and his Angels so it is to be feared that very many whom the world justifieth and canonizeth also for Saints shall be condemned at Christs barre and have their portion with hypocrites in hell there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Wherefore sith we shall all one day come to such a publike such an impartiall such a particular tryall of all that we have done in the body either good or evill let us looke more narrowly to all our wayes and see that they be streight and even 1. Let us search our heart with all diligence let us look into all the corners thereof and see there lurke no wickednesse nor filthinesse nor hypocrisie there let us looke to our thoughts that they be pure to our desires that they be lawfull to our affections that they be regular to our passions that they be moderate to our ends that they be good to our purposes that they be honest to our intentions that they be sincere to our resolutions that they be well grounded and firme 2. Next let us take our tongue to examination and weigh all our words in the ballance of the Sanctuary and try whether they have not been light and idle but grave and profitable not crafty and deceitfull but simple and plaine not false and lying but true and faithfull not outragious but sober not filthy but modest not prophane but holy not censorious but charitable not scurrilous but ponderous not insolent but lowly and courteous not any way offensive and unsavoury but such as might o Ephes 4.29 minister grace to the hearers 3. Lastly let us lay our hands upon our handy workes and examine our outward acts and deeds 1. Whether they have been alwayes justifiable in generall by the Law of God that is either commanded by it or at least warranted in it 2. Whether they have been and are conformable to the orders of the Church and lawes of the Land For wee must obey lawfull authority for conscience sake in all things that are not repugnant to the divine Law as Bernard piously resolveth saying Thou must yeeld obedience to him as to God who is in the place of God in those things that are not against God 3. Whether they have been agreeable to our particular calling For some things are justifiable by the Law of God and man in men of one state and calling which are hainous sinnes in another as we see in the cases of Uzza and Uzziah 4. Whether they have been answerable to our inward purposes intentions and dispositions For though they are otherwise lawfull and agreeable yet if they goe against the haire if they are done with grudging and repining and not heartily they are neither acceptable to God nor man 5. Whether they have been all things considered most expedient For as many things are profitable and expedient that are not lawfull so some things are lawfull that are not p 1 Cor. 6.12 All things are lawfull unto me but all things are not expedient expedient and because they are not expedient if necessity beare them not out they become by consequent unlawfull For we are not onely bound to eschew all the evill we know but also at all times to doe the best good wee can else wee fulfill not the commandement of loving God with all our heart and all our soule and all our strength To summe up all I have discoursed unto you first of the Stewardship of the things of this life secondly of the account of this Stewardship thirdly of the time of this account The Stewardship most large the account most strict the time most uncertaine After the explication of these points in the application I arraigned foure Stewards before you first the sacred
divinae deducatur injustitia est sordet in districtione judicis quod in aestimatione fulget operantis Gregory drives to the head Our very righteousnesse if it bee scanned by the rule of divine justice will prove injustice and that will appeare foule and sordid in the strict scanning of the Judge which shineth and seemeth most beautifull in the eye of the worker Fiftly a meritorious worke must hold some good correspondency and equivalence with the reward ours doe not so for if wee might offer to put any worke in the ballance certainely our sufferings for Christs sake but these are too light yea so farre too light e Rom. 8.18 that they are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall bee revealed in us Upon this anvile Saint f In ep ad Col. Hom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem in psal 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome formeth a steele weapon No man sheweth such a conversation of life that hee may bee worthy of the kingdome but this is wholly of the gift of God and although wee should doe innumerable good◠deeds it is of Gods pity and mercy that wee are heard although we should come to the very top of vertue it is of mercy that wee are saved And g Ansel de mensurat crucis Si homo mille annis serviret Deo ferventissimè non mereretur ex condigno dimidium diei esse in coelo Anselme steepeth it in oyle If a man should serve God most devoutly a thousand yeeres hee should not deserve to be halfe a day in heaven What have our adversaries to say to these things what doth the learned Cardinall whose name breathes * Bella Arma Minae Warres Armes and Threats here hee turnes Penelope texit telam retexit hee does and undoes hee sewes and ravels after many large books written for merit in the end Quae dederat repetit funemque reducit hee dasheth all with his pen at once saying Tutissimum est it is the safest way to place all our confidence onely in Gods mercy that is to renounce all merit Now in a case so neerely concerning our eternall happinesse or misery hee that will not take the safest course needs not to bee confuted but either to bee pittied for his folly or cured of his frenzie To conclude this point of difference the conclusion of all things is neere at hand well may men argue with men here below the matter of merit but as St. h Ep 29. Cum rex justus sederet in throno suo quis gloriabitur se mundum habere cor quae igitur spes veniae nisi misericordia superexultet justitiam Austine feelingly speaketh of this point When the righteous judge from whose face heaven and earth fled away shall sit upon his throne who will then dare say my heart is cleane nay what hope for any man to be saved if mercy at that day get not the upper hand of justice I need plead no more for this Dabo in my text if it plead not for us at that day wee shall never eat of the Manna promised but it shall bee for ever hidden from us I will give To eat The sight of Manna which the Psalmist calleth Angels food especially of the hidden Manna which by Gods appointment was reserved in a golden pot had beene a singular favour but the taste thereof is a farre greater The contemplation of celestiall objects is delightfull but the fruition of them much more Even of earthly beauties the sight is not so great contentment as the enjoying neither is any man so affected with delight at the view of a rich cabinet of jewels as at the receiving any one of them for his own Now so it is in celestial treasures delights through Gods bounty abundant goodnesse unto us we own what we see we taste what we touch and we feel what we believed and we possesse what we have heard and our heart entreth into those joyes in heaven which never entred into the heart of man on earth In which respect the Psalmist breaketh out into that passionate invitation i Psal 34.8 O taste and see how gracious the Lord is and S. Paul into that fervent prayer k Phil. 1.9 And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Saint l Confes l. 6. c. 10. Te lucem vocem cibum amplexum interioris hominis mei c. ubi fulget animae quod non capit locus ubi sonat quod non rapit tempus ubi olet quod non spargit flatus ubi sapit quod non minuit edacitas ubi haeret quod non divellit satietas Austine in that heavenly meditation O let mee enjoy thee the light the sound the food the love and embracement of my inward man thou art light to the eye musicke to the eare sweet meats to the taste and most delightfull embracings to the touch of my soule in thee that shineth to my soule which no place comprehendeth and that soundeth which no time measureth or snatcheth away and that smelleth which no blast dissipateth and that relisheth which no feeding upon diminisheth and that adhereth which no satiety can plucke away When therefore the ancients define celestiall happinesse to be the beatificall vision of God grounding themselves especially upon these texts of scripture m Mat. 5.8 Psal 27.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and seeke his face evermore My heart said unto thee thy face Lord will I seeke and n Psal 17.15 I will behold thy face in righteousnesse I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse And o 1 Cor. 13.12 Now we see through a glasse darkely but then face to face wee are to understand these speeches by a figure called Synecdoche wherein a part is put for the whole for certainely there is a heaven in the will and in the affections as well as in the understanding God hath enriched the soule with many faculties and in all of them hath kindled manifold desires the heat whereof though it may bee allayed for a time with the delights and comforts which this life affordeth yet it can never bee quenched but by himselfe who made the hearth and kindled these fires in it As the contemplation of God is the understandings happinesse so the adhering to him is the wils the recounting of his blessings the memories the embracing him the affections and generally the fruition of him in all parts and faculties the felicity of the whole man To apply this observation to the words in my text When the dispensers of the mysteries of salvation open the scriptures they set before us heavenly treasure they point unto and shew us the golden pots of Manna but when by the hand of faith we receive Gods promises and are enriched by the graces of the spirit then we
for one Starre differeth from another in glory and so shall be the resurrection of the dead 5. Fifthly looke yee yet neerer upon these shining stones and yee shall finde that they will not onely delight and lighten the eyes of your understanding but also heate and enflame your devout affections They are as twelve precious bookes wherein you may reade many excellent lessons printed with indeleble characters You see cleerly here the names of each of the Tribes in severall engraven let your marginall note be God hath from all eternity decreed a certaine number of Elect to bee saved and hee hath written their names in severall in the booke of life 6. Sixthly observe that the names of the Tribes are not written in paper nor carved in wood but engraven in solid and precious stones with the point of a Diamond never to be razed out let your interlineary glosse be None of those whose names are written in the book of life can be stricken out For there is no blotting interlining nor variae lectiones in that booke stars there are but no obeliskes the Elect therefore though they may fall grievously and dangerously yet not totally nor finally Stella cadens non est stella cometa fuit Were you beloved but embossed or enammeled in the ring upon our Saviours finger you were safe enough for no man can plucke any thing out of our Saviours hand but now that you are engraven as signets on our Saviours heart what can be your feare what may be your joy Is it so doth our high Priest set us on his heart and shall not wee set our heart on him shall we esteem any thing too deare for him who esteemeth us so deare unto him Hee who once upon the Crosse shed his heart bloud for us still beareth us upon his heart and esteemeth of us as Cornelia did of her Gracchi and presenteth us as it were in her words to his Father Haec sunt ornamenta mea these be my jewels Doth he make such reckoning of us and is it our desire he should doe so then for the love of our Redeemer let us not so dishonour him as to fill the rowes of his breast-plate with glasse in stead of jewels let us not make him present to his Father either counterfeit stones through our hypocrisie or dusky through earthlinesse and worldly corruption let us rub scowre and brighten the good graces of God in us that they may shine in us we may be such as our Saviour esteemeth us to be that is orient and glorious jewels The summe of all is this Yee have heard of foure rowes of precious stones set in bosses of gold upon Aarons breast-plate and by the foure rowes you understand the foure well ordered methodicall Sermons by me rehearsed by the jewels either the eminent parts of the Preachers or their precious doctrines by the embossments of gold in which these precious gems of divine doctrine were set their texts nothing remaineth but that the breast-plate being made you put it on and as Aaron did beare it on your hearts By wearing bearing it there you shall receive vertue from it and in some sort participate of the nature of these jewels in modesty of the Ruby in chastity of the Emrald in purity of the Onyx in temperance of the Amethyst in ardent love of the Carbuncle in invincible constancy of the Adamant in sacrificing your dearest hearts bloud and affections to Christ in passion for him if you be called thereunto of the Hematite You shall gloriously beautifie the brest-plate of our Aaron who hath put on his glorious apparrell and sacred robes and is entred into the Sanctum Sanctorum in heaven and at this time beareth our names on his breast for a remembrance before God his father and long it shall not be ere he come from thence and all eyes shall t Apoc. 1.7 see him and all kindreds of the earth shall mourne before him then shall he say to us Lift up your heads looke upon my breast reade every one your name engraven in a rich jewell You were faithfull unto death therefore see here now I give you a crowne of life behold in it for every Christian vertue a jewel for every penitent teare Chrystall Pearle for every green blew wound or stripe endured for me an Emrald and a Saphir for every drop of bloud shed for the Gospel a Ruby and an Hematite weare this for my sake and reigne with mee for evermore Cui c. THE DEVOUT SOULES MOTTO A Sermon preached in Saint Peters Church in Lent Anno 1613. THE XXXVI SERMON PSAL. 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee O Lord and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Right Worshipfull c. THe words which our a Luke 12.49 Saviour spake concerning the issue and successe of his preaching may serve fitly for a preface to my intended discourse upon this Text Ignem veni missurus inter vos quid volo nisi ut accendatur I come to put fire among you or rather in you and what is my desire but that by the blasts and motions of Gods Spirit and the breath of my mouth it may presently bee kindled and burne in your hearts Burne it will not without fuell take heed therefore saith b In opusc Cave ne injicias quod fumum aut foetorem ministret Bonaventure what you cast into this fire to feed the flame for if it be grosse impure and earthy matter the flame will be obscure and the fume unsavoury but if it be refined pure and celestiall the flame will be cleare and the fume a sweet perfume in the nostrils of Almighty God Nadab and c Levit. 10.1 Abihu smoaked themselves for offering strange fire upon Gods Altar but wee are like to burne in unquenchable fire if wee offer not continually the fire I am now to treat of upon the Altar of our hearts and yet it is a strange fire too for it giveth light yet burneth not or rather it burnes yet consumeth not or rather it consumes yet impaires not but dilateth and enlargeth the heart Other fire burnes blacke and marreth the beauty of the body but this contrariwise giveth beauty to the soule for as Saint d Mor. in Job l. 18. Non clarescit anima fulgore aeternae pulchritudinis nisi hic arserit in officinâ charitatis Gregory rightly observeth the soule shineth not with the brightnesse of everlasting beauty that burneth not in the forge of charity With this beauty God is so enamoured that Saint e De dilig Deo Major est in amore Dei qui plures traxerit ad amorem Dei Bernards observation is true that he is greatest in favour and in the love of God who draweth most to the love of God If we desire to know saith Saint f Aug. Enchirid ad Laurent c. 117. Austine what a man is wee enquire not what he beleeveth or what he hopeth
for but what he loveth A man may beleeve the truth and be a false man he may hope for good things and yet be exceeding bad himselfe but he cannot love the best things but he must needs be good he cannot affect grace if hee have not received some measure thereof he cannot highly esteeme of God and not be high in Gods esteeme As the love of the world maketh a man worldly and the love of the flesh fleshly so the love of the Spirit makes the children of God spirituall and the love of God partaker of the divine g 2 Pet. 1.4 nature for God is love Now saith Saint Paul that is in this life abideth h 1 Cor. 13.13 faith hope and charity but after this life of these three charity onely remaineth For when we have received the end of our faith which is the salvation of our soules and taken possession of the inheritance which we have so long expected by hope faith shall be swallowed up in vision and hope in fruition but then love shall be in greatest perfection Our trust is that we shall not alwayes walk by faith and our hope is that we shall one day hope no more we beleeve the end of faith and hope for the end of hope but love no end of our love but contrariwise desire that it may bee like the soveraigne object thereof that is eternall and infinite To leap over this large field at once and comprise all in one sentence concerning this vertue of which never enough can be said Love brought God from heaven to earth love bringeth men from earth to heaven In which regard it may not be unfitly compared to the ladder at the foot whereof i Gen. 28.12 Jacob slept sweetly and in his dreame saw Angels climbing up by it to heaven For upon it the religious soule of a devout Christian resteth and reposeth her selfe and by it in her thoughts and desires she ascendeth up to heaven as it were by foure steps or rounds which are the foure degrees of divine love 1. To love God for our selves 2. To love God for himselfe 3. To love God above all things 4. To love nothing but God or in a reference to him First to love God for our selves or our owne respect whereunto wee are induced by the consideration of his benefits and blessings bestowed upon us and continued unto us The second is to love God for himselfe whereunto wee are moved by the contemplation of the divine essence and his most amiable nature The third is to love God above all things whereunto we are enclined by observation of the difference between God and all things else The fourth is to love nothing but God that is to settle our affections and repose our desires and place our felicity wholly and solely in him To which highest round or step of divine love and top of Christian perfection we aspire by fixing our thoughts upon the all-sufficiency of God who hath in him infinite delights and contentments to satisfie all the appetites of the soule whereof the Kingly Prophet David was fully perswaded when lifting up his heart to God and his eyes to heaven he calleth God himselfe to witnesse that he desired no other happinesse than what he enjoyed in him saying Whom have I in heaven but thee These words may admit â—f a double construction 1 Either that David maketh God his sole refuge and trust 2 Or that he maketh him his chiefe joy and whole hearts delight For the first sense viz. Whom have I in heaven but thee for my refuge and strength of my confidence we are to know that in heaven and in earth there are other besides God in heaven the elect Angels and the spirits of k Heb. 12.23 just men made perfect in earth there are men and the creatures yet a religious soule reposeth no confidence in any of these First not in the creature in generall for it is l Rom. 8.20 subject to vanity not in riches for m 1 Tim. 6.17 they are uncertaine Charge the rich in this world that they trust not in uncertaine riches not in n Jer. 9.23 wisedome or strength or power nor in the favour of o Psal 146.3 Princes nor any childe of man for there is no helpe in them I will yet ascend higher even to heaven and to the Angels and soules there For whatsoever power or strength or helpe may be in them we may not put our trust in them 1 Not in the soules of Saints departed for they p Esay 63.16 take no notice of our affaires here neither have we any order to addresse our selves to them Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not q 2 Kin. 22.20 Good Josiah seeth not the evill which befell his subjects after his death 2 Not in Angels for though they excell in strength and are ministring r Heb. 1.14 Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation yet we have no charge to worship them or relie upon them for our salvation Nay wee are charged to the contrary both from God and from themselves from God Å¿ Mat. 4.10 Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve and t Col. 2.18 Let no man beguile you in voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels and from themselves also u Apoc. 19.10 22.9 And I fell downe at the feet of the Angel that shewed me these things and he said unto me See thou doe it not I am thy fellow servant worship God For the second sense viz. Whom have I in heaven but thee for my chiefe joy and sole hearts delight we are to know that the faithfull soule is wedded to God and like a loyall Spouse casteth no part of her conjugall affection upon any but him Love she may whom he loveth and what he commandeth her to love for him and in him but not as him if she doth so shee becommeth Adultera Christo as St. Cyprian speaketh and may not be admitted to sing in Davids quire or at least not to bear a part in this Antheme Whom have I in heaven but thee O Lord No more than the life of the body can bee maintained without naturall heat and moisture can the life of grace be preserved in the soule without continuall supply of the moisture of penitent teares and a great measure of the heat of divine love wherewith we are to consume those spirituall sacrifices of prayer and praises which we are now and at all times to offer lifting up pure hands and hearts unto God To kindle this sacred fire I have brought you a live coale from the Altar of incense Davids heart sending up sweetest perfumes of most fragrant and savourie meditations This coale the best Interpreters ancient and later conspiring in their expositions blow after this manner St. u Hier. in hunc locum Neque in coelo neque in terrâ alium praeter
may be running at this very moment and point of time the threed of his life may be cut off Now if wee cannot be said truely to have any part of our time how can we have any part in things temporall if the lease of our lives by which we hold all our earthly goods and possessions be of so uncertaine a date let our common Lawyers talke never so much of possessions and estates and firme conveighances and perpetuities and severall kindes of tenures they shall never perswade mee that there is any sure hold or good tenure of any thing save God and his promises it is impossible that wee should have any estate in things that are altogether e Cyp epist l. 2. Nec fiduciam praebent possidentibus stabilem quae possessionis non habent veritatem unstable Hereof it seemeth Abraham was well advised for though he were an exceeding rich man yet we reade of no purchase made by him save onely of a f Gen. 25.10 cave in Machpelah for him and his heires to hold or rather to hold him and his heires for ever If any man ever knew the just value of all earthly commodities it was King Solomon the mirrour of wisedome and yet he after he had weighed them all in the scales of the Sanctuary found them as light as vanity it selfe Omnia sub sole vanitas ergo supra solem veritas as rightly inferreth g Paulin. in opusc Paulinus If all things under the sunne are vanity therefore the verity of all things is above the sunne viz. In heaven Whom have I in heaven but thee that is thee I have and none but thee in heaven I deny not that which Saint h Tract 50. in Johan Habes Christum in praesenti per signum in praesenti per fidem in praesenti per baptismatis sacramentum Austine affirmeth in expresse termes that we have God many waies with us in this life for we see him in his workes we heare him in his word we taste him in the Sacrament we feele him by the motions of the Spirit within us we touch him by faith we embrace him by love we relye upon him by hope we have private conference with him by prayer yet all this is nothing to our modus habendi our manner of having him in heaven Then a man may be truely said to have a lordship mannour benefice or living when he entereth upon the fruits thereof and receiveth the crop The Lord is indeed our lot and portion even in this life but we cannot reap the thousanth part of the profits and delights he hath in himselfe and will afford us hereafter They to whom hee most imparteth himselfe and communicateth his goodnesse here have but a taste onely of the tree of life a weak sent of the flowers of Paradise a confused noise of heavenly musicke as it were afarre off no more than a glympse of the sunne of righteousnesse but a blast of the Spirit onely an earnest-penny of their wages yet such a taste as more satisfieth them than a royall banquet furnished with all the delicacies the sea or land can yeeld such a sent as they will not leave for all the sweet odours of Arabia such a noise as they would not misse the hearing thereof for all the consorts in the world such a glympse as is to be preferred before the full view of all the Kingdomes of the earth and the glory of them such a blast as more refresheth the soule than a constant gale of prosperous fortune such an earnest-penny as they would not lose for the treasures of Solomon This taste this sent this glympse this blast this earnest-penny the Kingly Prophet David so exceedingly desired that he compareth the ardency of his affection to the thirst of a Hart either long chased or after he is stung with the serpent Dipsas that sets all his throat on fire As the i Psal 42.1 2. Hart brayeth and panteth in this case for the rivers of waters to coole his heate and quench his thirst so panteth my soule after thee O God My soule thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appeare before God Of this thirst of the soule they onely can speake feelingly who have been long k Cant 2.5 Stay mee with slagons and comfort mee with apples for I am sicke with love sicke with the Spouse in the Canticles who feeling her heart faint and all her vitall faculties faile cryeth out Stay mee c. that is hold life in mee with cordiall waters and soveraigne smells for I languish I swoune my soule is running out of the doores of my lips after him whom she incomparably loveth above all things in heaven and in earth yet she seeth here nothing but his backe parts that is obscure shadowes and resemblances of him And if she be so enamoured with these how will she be ravished at the sight of his countenance if she take such contentment in the contemplation of his image in a mirrour how will shee be transported when she shall see him face to face and bee united to him spirit to spirit if she take such pleasure in pledging him in the bitter cup of his passion what will she take in l Psal 16.11 drinking of the rivers of pleasures that run at his right hand for evermore To borrow a straine of the Schooles for the closing up of this sweet note Hic Deum amamus amore desiderii at in coelo amore amicitiae Here we love God with a love of desire there with a love of friendship here we desire to have God there we have our full desire and so I fall into the maine doctrine of the Text That there is fulnesse of delight and content in God Quid eo avarius est cui Deus non sufficit in quo sunt omnia Can we desire larger possessions than immensity a surer estate than immutability a longer terme of yeeres than eternity Let Saint m De vitâ contemplat l. 2. c. 15. Quid potest eo esse foelicius cujus efficitur suus conditor census haereditas ejus dignatur esse ipsa divinitas si modo sanctis operibus eum colat omnes fructus ex illo percipiet Prosper speake Who so fortunate as he whose Maker is his fortune who so rich as hee who possesseth him that possesseth all things whose lord is his lot and his owner part of his goods Howbeit because we cannot perfectly survey much lesse take full possession of this our large or rather infinite inheritance in this life Mollerus conceiveth these words not to be uttered in an exultation of spirit ravished with the contemplation of God but rather as a prayer to this effect O that I had thee in heaven as when the Prophet demandeth Who will shew us any good wee take the meaning to be O that any would shew us some good in like maner in the second of Samuel Who n 2 Sam. 23.15
a fellow-feeling of one anothers miseries and to t 2 Cor 1.11 Phil. 1.4 Câ—lâ—s 4.3 2 Thes 3.1 Heb. 13.18 James 5.16 pray one for another but he no where layeth such an injunction upon the dead to pray for us or upon us to pray to them Fourthly we have many presidents in Scripture of the faithfull who have earnestly besought their brethren to remember them in their u Phil. 1.19 Gal. 4.3 2 Thes 3.1 Philem. 22. Heb. 13.18 prayers but among all the songs of Moses psalmes of David complaints of Jeremy and prayers of Prophets and Apostles you shall not find any one directed to any Saint departed from the first of Genesis to the last Verse of the Apocalypse there is no precept for the invocation of Saints no example of it no promise unto it Fifthly lastly we entreat not any man living to pray for us but either by word of mouth when he is present with us or by some friend who wee know will acquaint him with our desire or by letters when we have sure meanes to conveigh them to him whereby hee may understand how the case standeth with us what that is in particular for which we desire his prayers All which reasons faile in the invocation of Saints deceased for wee have no messengers to send to them nor means to conveigh letters to the place where they are neither are they within hearing neither can we be any way assured that they either know our necessities or are privie to the secrets of our heart For the Mathematicall glasse which some of the Schoolmen have set in heaven wherein they say the Saints in heaven see all things done upon earth to wit in God who seeth all things it hath bin long since beat into pieces for I demand Is this essence of God a necessary glasse or a voluntary that is Do they see all things in it or such things only as it pleaseth him to present to their view if they see all things their knowledge must needs be infinite as Gods is they must needs comprehend in it all things past present future yea the thoughts of the heart which God peculiarly x Apoc. 2.23 I am he that searcheth the heart and reines assumeth to himself yea the day of Judgment which our Saviour assureth us no man knoweth not the y Mat. 24.36 Angels in heaven nor the son of z Mar. 13.32 But of that day and houre knoweth no man no not the Angels that are in heaven neither the Son but the Father man as man If they see only such things as God is pleased to reveale unto them how may he that prayeth unto them be assured that God wil reveale unto them either his wants in particular or his prayers how can he pray unto them in faith who hath no word of faith whereby hee may be assured either that God revealeth his prayers to them or that God will accept their prayers for him Certainly there was no such chrystal instrument as Papists dream of to discover unto Saints departed the whole earth all things that are in it in the time of Abraham Isaac or Josiah for St. Austin in his book de a Cap. 13. Si parentes non intersunt qui sunt alii mortuorum qui noverunt quid agamus quid ve patiamur ibi sunt spiritus defunctorum ubi non vidunt quaecunque aguntur aut evenâ—unt in istâ vitâ hominibus curâ pro mortuis out of the second book of Kings the 63. of Esay concludeth that sith kings see not the evils which befal their people after their death sith parents are ignorant of their children without doubt the Saints departed have no intelligence how things pass after their death here upon earth So far is it froÌ„ being a branch of their happines to know the passages of human affaires here that S. b Jerom. in epitaph Nepot Foelix Nepo ianus qui haec non audit non videt Jerom maketh it a part of their happines that they are altogether ignorant of them happy Nepotian who neither heareth nor seeth any of those things which would vexe his righteous soule do cause us who see hear them often to water our plants By this which hath bin said any whose judgements are not fore-stalled may perceive the impiety of that part of Romish piety which concerneth invocation of Saints it is not only needless fruitless but also superstitious most sacrilegious for it robbeth God of a speciall part of his honour and wrongeth Christ in his office of mediatour When he holdeth out his golden scepter unto us calleth to us saying Come unto me come by me I am the way shal we run to any other to bring us to him shall we seek a way to the way shall we use mediatours to our mediatour this were to lay a like imputation upon our Redeemer to that which S. c De civit Dei l. 1. Interpres deorum eget interprete sors ipsa referenda est ad sortes Austin casteth upon the heathen Apollo the interpreter of the gods needeth an interpreter we are to cast lots upon the lot it selfe Let it not seem burthensome unto you my deare brethren that I speak much in behalf of him who alone speaketh in behalf of us all we cannot do our Redeemer a worser affront we cannot offer our mediatour a greater wrong than to goe from him whom God hath appointed our perpetuall advocate intercessor imploy Saints in our suites to God as if they were in greater grace with the Father or they were better affected to us than he Have we the like experience of their love as we have of his did they pawn their lives for us have they ransomed us with their bloud will he refuse us who gave us himselfe will he not powre out hearty prayers for us who powred out his heart bloud for us will he spare breath in our cause who breathed out his soule for us shall we forsake the fountain of living water and draw out of broken cisternes that can hold no water shall we run from the source to the conduit for the water of life from the sun to the beam for light of knowledge from the head to the members for the life of grace from the king to the vassall for a crowne of glory But I made choice of this Scripture rather to stirre up your devotion than to beat down Popish superstition therfore I leave arguments of confutation set to motives of perswasion Look how the Opal presenteth to the eye the beautifull colours of almost all precious stones so the graces vertues perfections of all natures shine in the face of God to draw our love to him among which two most kindle our affection vertue and beauty nothing so lovely as vertue which is the beauty of the mind beauty which is the chief grace and vertue of the body To give vertue her due
to his Father that he tooke upon him the governement of his Church But at the consecration of Christ we have a great deale more of ceremonie and solemnity God his Father taketh an oath and particularly expresseth the nature and condition of his office a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek and he confirmeth it unto him for ever saying Thou art a Priest for ever Of all which circumstances the Apostle in the Epistle to the d c. 7.20 21. Hebrewes taketh speciall notice and maketh singular use to advance the Priesthood of Christ above that of Aaron Inasmuch as Christ was made a Priest not without an oath by so much he was made a surety of a better Testament For those Priests were made without an oath but he with an oath by him that said unto him The Lord c. Jehovah is the proper and essentiall name of God never in the Scriptures attributed to any creature as most of the learned Rabbins and Christian Interpreters observe a name in such sort adored by the Jewes that in a superstitious reverence unto it wheresoever they meet with it in the text they either over-skip it or in place thereof reade Adonai or Lord a name also so much admired by the Gentiles that they called their chiefe God Jove which is but a contraction of the Hebrew Jehovah And as they glanced at the very name so they had a glympse of the reason thereof as may appeare by Plutarch his exposition of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Thou art engraven in golden characters upon the gate of the Temple of Apollo whereby saith he they who came to worship God acknowledged that Beeing properly belonged to him Him whom St. John calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Parmenides and Melissus terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am saith God to e Exod. 3.14 Moses hath sent thee and againe I am that I am Of all things else we may say truely that they are not that they are because they are not of themselves nor are their owne essence nor continue what they are God properly is that he is because himselfe is his owne beeing and because he is that he was and was that he is aad shall be what he was and is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Besides this reason of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God himselfe intimateth another taken from his faithfulnesse and truth in performing his promises I appeared unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the name of God all-sufficient but by my name f Exod. 6.3 Jehovah was I not knowne unto them that is I had not made good my promise unto them I had not given beeing to my words that is I had not performed and accomplished them According to which etymologie of the word Jehovah the first straine of this verse soundeth to this tune Jehovah sware that is he that giveth continuance to all things by his word he giveth his word for the continuance of this thy sacred office he who is alwayes as good as his word nay who is his word hath said nay hath sworne Thou art a Priest for ever The Lord Sware As we honour God in swearing by him so the Father honoureth the Sonne in swearing to him or taking a solemn oath at his investiture An oath is a sacred forme of speech in which for the confirmation of a truth or assurance of faith supreme majestie is called upon as a witnesse or surety this if it be done by any creature whomsoever implieth a kinde of adoration of him by whom they sweare who by this manner of appealing to him is tacitly acknowledged to be the Discerner of our thoughts and supreme Judge of all our actions and therefore Aquinas defineth juramentum adorationis speciem a kind of adoration But if supreme Majesty himselfe vouchsafe to use the like forme he doth not thereby adore himselfe but most surely bindes himselfe to the performance of that for which he pawneth as it were his glory and life Thus St. Austine briefely resolveth the point g Quid est Dei juramentum promissionis firmamentum si tu jurando testaris Deum cur non Deus jurando testetur semetiplum L. 16. de Civit. Dei c 32. Quid est Dei veâ—i veracisque juratio nisi promissi confirmatio infidelium quaedam increpatio What is Gods oath saith he a solemne kinde of attestation to his promise for our greater assurance As for the manner and forme of this oath though it be not here set downe yet it may be easily gathered out of other texts of Scripture For God alwayes sweareth either by his essence or by his attributes by his essence h Ezek. 18.3 As I live saith the Lord or by his attributes either of power as Esay 62.8 He hath sworne by his strong arme or by his holinesse i Psal 22.16 Psal 89.35 or the like Whence we may take up this observation by the way That Gods attributes are his essence and his essence himselfe For sith God cannot acknowledge any greater unlesse he should deny himselfe it followeth that he cannot sweare by any thing that is not himselfe If Princes have this priviledge to confirme all their Proclamations and Patents with Teste meipso Witnesse our selves shall we require farther security from God Not to beleeve him upon his word which is all that heaven and earth have to shew for their continuance were incredulous impietie to expect or demand further an oath of him by whom we all sweare were presumptuous insolencie Yet see how the goodnesse of God overcommeth the distrustfulnesse of man he giveth us more security than we could have had the face to aske or hope to obtaine he vouchsafeth not onely a bill of his hand his written word but also entereth into bands for the performance of all covenants and grants made to us in the name of our elder brother Christ Jesus As often as I endevour to stay my thoughts upon this point they breake out into that exclamation of k Tertul. l. de peniten c. 4. O beatos nos quorum causâ Deus jurat O miserrimos si nec juranti Domino credimus Tertullian O thrice happy we for whose sake God taketh an oath but most wretched we if we beleeve not God no not upon his oath Or the like of Pliny upon occasion of the Emperours deposing before the Consul O strange thing and before this time unheard of he sweareth by whom we all sweare he confirmeth the Priesthood of his sonne by an oath by whom all oathes are confirmed In which consideration I marvaile not that Martin Luther was wont to say he tasted more sweetnesse and received greater comfort in his meditation upon this parcell of Scripture than any other For what doctrine doth the whole Scripture affoord so comfortable to a drooping conscience charged with many foule and grievous sinnes as this that God hath sworne his onely
setting his foot on his neck advanced himselfe blasphemously wresting the Scripture and applying those words of the Psalmist to himselfe Psal 91.13 Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and the Basilisk it was Pope Adrian who was afterwards choaked with a flie I could relate unto you in what Councell divine majestie is ascribed to the Pope and a power above all powers in the Councell of Lateran under Leo the tenth But I tremble at such horrible blasphemies and leave the Authors and maintainers of them to the censure of the true Melchizedek who as he is a Prince of peace so he is also Rex justitiae King of righteousnesse and will one day right himselfe and all his servants and destroy the man of sin with the breath of his mouth and brightnesse of his presence 7. The next point in which this Text instructeth us is the strength and validity of an oath God when he would shew unto us the immutability of his decree concerning Christs Priesthood confirmeth it unto him by an oath thereby declaring that the greatest evidence of truth and strongest assurance of faith between man and man nay between God and man is an oath It is the soveraigne instrument of justice the indissoluble bond of amity the safest refuge of innocency the surest warrant of fidelity the strongest sinew of all humane society Detestable therefore and â—amnable is their doctrine and practice who straine and weaken the sinew which holdeth the members of all politike bodies together who cancell that bond which being made on earth is registred in the high Court of heaven and the three persons in the blessed Trinity are witnesses thereunto who either untye this everlasting knot by cunning equivocation or cut it asunder by Papall dispensation O my deare brethren hold not with them who breake with God sweare not to their doctrine who maintaine forswearing take not part with that religion which taketh away all religious obligation Is that thinke you the Orthodoxe faith which alloweth and in some case commendeth g Aug. de mendac ad consent perfidiousnesse and treachery Is their doctrine truth Qui dogmatizant mendacium who doctrinally teach the lawfulnesse of an equivocating lye anâ— that they may verifie their doctrine of lyes belye the Truth himself and endeavour to make that which I tremble to utter Jesum ipsum h See Parsons sober reckoning with Thomas Morton and the same L. Bishop of Duresme Tract de aequivocat Jesuitam Jesus himselfe in this point a Jesuit O ubi estis fontes lachrymarum Of all beasts we have those in greatest detestation which devoure their owne young What are our words and promises our vowes and oathes but the issue of our owne mouth which they who resume and recall what doe they other than eate and devoure their owne off-spring The first that brake his allegiance in heaven was the Divell and thereby became a Divell and the first that brake promise on the earth was likewise the Divell to Adam and Eve whose scholars they shew themselves who teach that the Pope can dispense with the oath of allegiance that oathes are better broken than kept with Heretickes Such was Julius the second who if we may beleeve i Bodin de rep l. 5. c. 6. Bodin was not ashamed openly to professe Fidem dandam omnibus servandam nemini Such was Alexander the sixth who when his son Borgias had drawne in the ring-leaders of the contrary faction by faire promises and deepest protestations and oathes of pardon and reconciliation and as soon as he had them all in his power put them to the sword his father applauded this his perfidious and barbarous act and cryed out O factum benè O well done and according to my hearts desire Such was k Cocleus hist Hussit l. 5. anno 1423 Noris te dare fidem haereticis non potuisse peccare mortâ—liter â—â— servaris Martin the fifth who when Alexander Duke of Licuania had sworne to protect the Hussites wrote to him in these words Know that thou couldest not nor mightest not give faith to Heretickes and that thou sinnest mortally if thou keepest thy word and oath with them Such was Hambertus the Embassadour of l Sleia l. 6. Anno 1527. Anno 1577. Charles the fifth who when the Lady Katherine the youngest sister of that Emperour was espoused to John Frederick Duke of Saxony the instruments were drawne and sealed as soone as ever there was a change of Religion in Saxony he perswaded the young Lady to break off the match affirming openly that faith was not to be kept with Heretickes Such were the Popish Divines of Paris who both in their Sermons and printed bookes taught openly that the m Aug. Thual hist l. 63. Aperto capitein concionibus evulgatis scriptis ad fidem sectariis servandam non obligari principem contâ—ndebant allato in cam rem Concilii Constantiensis deoreto Prince was not bound to keep faith with Sectaries and to that purpose alledged a decree of the Councell of Constance Such was Clemens the seventh who when Charles the fifth had resolved upon an expedition against the Moores to which hee had formerly bound himselfe by oath sendeth unto him a Bull whereby hee releaseth him of all oathes that hee had taken for the expulsing those Infidels notwithstanding any constitution Apostolicall statute ordinance or oath to the contrary yea though ratified by the See of Rome with an expresse clause of excluding any dispensation or relaxation whatsoever Such was Julian the Popes Legate who perswaded Uladislaus King of Hungarie Bohemia to undertake a wicked warre against Amurath the Turke contrary to oath assuring him that the Pope allowed of it and there is no doubt he did so but as n Loc. ant cit Bodin observeth religiously Pontifex probavit Deus immortalis non probavit Almighty God allowed not of it for Uladislaus the King was slaine in the battell his whole army put to flight Julian the Popes Legate mortally wounded to whom as he was now breathing out his last perjured breath Gregory Sarmosa exprobated his wicked counsell and pestilent doctrine saying o I nunc Juliane dic â—egi tuo apud inferos Haereticis fidem non esse servandam Goe to Julian and tell the King now in the other world or in hell that faith is not to be kept with Heretickes and Infidels You have heard how this Text thundereth against the Fathers of the Romane Church all who embrace or practice their perfidious tenets mark I beseech you now a while how it lighteneth upon the children of our Church and all who defend the certainty as well of morall as theologicall faith As when there came a p John 12.28 voice from heaven Jesus said This voice came not because of mee Ver. 30. but for your sakes so we may truly say of the oath in my Text God tooke not it so much because of Christ to secure him
heaven for them not to contest but to obtest not to attempt any thing against them but cedendo vincere to conquer them by yeelding But the Generall of the Romane military forces hath quite altered the ancient discipline by turning prayers into threats supplications into excommunications cries into alarums teares into bullets and words into swords and which is to be bewailed with bloudy teares the Garland of red Roses as Saint Cyprian sweetly termeth the Crowne of Martyrdome is put upon their heads not who dye for the faith but who kill not who shed their owne bloud but who draw the bloud not of Infidels but of Christians not of private persons but publike not of subjects but of Soveraignes The detestable oration of Pius made in the Conclave upon the news of the murder of the French King and the damnable Legend of Jaques Clement should not have moved me to have laid so fowle an aspersion upon any Romish Priests or Jesuites if I had not seen with my eyes at Paris the names of Old corne Garnet executed for the Powder Treason inserted into their Catalogue of Martyrs and heard also of certaine English Priests sharply censured for offering to pray for their soules because thereby they made scruple of their crowne of Martyrdome which according to their doctrine dischargeth all that are called unto it from Purgatory flames and giveth them present entrance into heaven O blessed Jesu are these of thy company didst thou make such a profession before Pontius Pilate didst thou teach thy Disciples to save mens soules by murdering their bodies to plant Religion and found thy Church by blowing up Parliaments are these of thy spirit that call not downe fire from heaven but rather call it up from hell to consume a whole Kingdome with a blaze and offer it up as a Holocaust to the Molock at Rome No d Bosquier in Evang. Domin fish will be caught in a bloudy net if they see but a drop spilt upon it they will swimme another way Therefore let all the fishers of men that cast the net of the Gospel into the sea of the world to take up soules looke henceforward that they bloud not their net with cruell persecutions and slaughter of Gods servants In the building of the materiall Temple there was heard no noise of any iron toole to shew that in stirres and broyles there is no building of Gods house As King-fishers breed in a calme sea so the Church exceedingly multiplyeth in the dayes of peace which long may we enjoy under our Solomon who deserveth as well the title of Preserver of the Peace as Defender of the Faith of the Church For what doth he not to take up quarrels and compose differences in all reformed Churches wherein God hath so blessed his zealous endeavours that as he hath hindred the growth of much cockle sowne by Vorstius and Bertius in the Low-countries so hee hath cleane cut off two heads of controversies lately arising one in the place of the other in France the former concerning the imputation of Christs active obedience the latter concerning his immunity from the Law As for his love to his Nathans and infinite desire of repairing the Temple I cannot speake more than you all conceive What then is the cause that so good a worke goeth on so slowly How commeth it to passe that in so many places of this Land the Spouse of Christ lieth sick of a consumption crying pitifully Stay me with flagons and comfort me with apples for I faint I swoune I dye Whose fault is it that many hundreds of soules for whom Christ shed his precious bloud are like to famish perish for the want of the bread of life and there is none to breake it unto them It seemeth strange to mee that in France and other countries where the poore flocke of Christ Jesus is miserably fleeced and fleaed by the Romish Clergy yet they finde meanes to maintaine a Preacher in every congregation and that in divers places of this Kingdome where neither the wild Bore of the forrest digges at the roote of ouâ— Vine nor the wild Beast of the field browseth upon the branches thereof there should not be sufficient allowance no not for an insufficient Curate Elie's zeale was none of the hottest yet he made no reckoning of his private losse in comparison of the publike when he heard the messenger relate the flâ—ght of Israel and the death of his two sonnes Hophni and Phineas he was mentis compos and fate quietly in his chaire but as soone as mention was made of the taking of the Arke hee presently fell downe backward and gave up the Ghost Deare Christians many living Temples of the Holy Ghost have bin lately surprised by Papists yet no man taketh it to heart The Jewes as Josephus reporteth in the siege of Jerusalem though they were constrained themselves to eate Mice Rats and worse Vermine yet alwaies brought faire and fat beasts to the Temple for sacrifices And Livie testifieth that when the Tribunes complained of want of gold in the treasury to offer to Apollo the Mations of Rome plucked off their chaines bracelets and rings and freely offered them to the Priests to supply that defect in the service of their gods I pray God these Painims and Infidels be not brought in at the day of Judgement to condemne many of our great professours who care not how the Temple falls to decay so their houses stand have no regard how God is served so they bee well attended take no thought though the Arke be under the curtaines so they be under a rich canopy or at least a sure roofe who are so farre from offering to God things before abused to pride and luxury that they abuse to pride and luxury things by their religious ancestors offered unto God who with Zeba and Zalmunna having taken the houses of God into their possession lay out the price of bloud the price of soules upon riotous feasting gorgeous apparrell vaine shewes Hawkes Hounds and worse What sinne may be compared to this that turneth those things to maintaine sinne that should convert many unto righteousnesse How is it possible that they should escape Gods vengeance who nourish pride with sacriledge maintaine luxury with murder not of bodies but of soules whom they and their heires starve by keeping back the Ministers maintenance who should feed them with the bread of life What boldnesse is it nay what presumption what contempt of divine majesty what abominable profanenesse and impiety to breake open the doores of the Tabernacle and rifle the Arke of the Covenant and rob God himselfe No marvell therefore if hee have shewed extraordinary judgements upon such felons as he did upon Achan who payed deare for his Babylonish raiment for it cost him all his goods and his e Judg. 7.25 And all Israel stoned him with stones burned him with fire after they had stoned him with stones life too and the life of his sonnes
the Prophet should have made an end of his exhortation This Sermon the Prophet Ezechiel now maketh unto us all here present f Ezek. 33.11 18.30.31 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that he turne from his wayes and live turne ye turne ye from your evill wayes for why will yee die Repent and turne your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not bee your destruction Cast away all your transgressions whereby yee have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye perish Shake off the shackles of your sinnes and quit the companie of the prisoners of death and gally-slaves of Satan put in sureties for your good behaviour hereafter turne to the Lord your God with all your heart and live yea live gloriously live happily live eternally which the Father of mercy grant for the merits of his Sonne through the grace of the Spirit To whom three persons and one God be ascribed all honour glorie praise and thankes now and for ever Amen THE DANGER OF RELAPSE THE LVI SERMON EZEK 18.24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall hee live All his righteousnesse that hee hath done shall not bee mentioned in his trespasse that hee hath trespassed and in his sin that hee hath sinned in them shall hee dye Right Honourable c. SAint Jerome maketh a profitable use of the a Gen. 28.12 And hee dreamed behold a ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the Angels of God ascending and descending on it Angels ascending and descending upon the ladder which Jacob saw in a dreame reaching from the earth to heaven The ladder hee will have to bee the whole frame of a godly life set upwards towards heaven whereupon the children of God who continually aspire to their inheritance that is above arise from the ground of humility and climbe by divine vertues as it were so many rounds one above another till Christ take them by the hand of their faith and receive them into heaven They are stiled Angels in regard of their b Phil. 3.20 heavenly conversation these Jacob saw continually ascending and descending upon that ladder viz. ascending by the motions of the spirit but descending through the weight of the flesh rising by the strength of grace but falling through the infirmity of nature and hereby saith that learned Father c Hieron ep 11. Videbat scalam per quam ascendebant Angeli descendebant ut nec peccator desperet salutem nec justus de suâ virtute securus sit wee are lessoned not to despaire of grace because Jacob saw Angels ascending as they fell so they rose nor yet presume of their owne strength for hee saw Angels descending also as they rose so they fell Presumption and desperation are two dangerous maladies not more opposite one to the other than to the health of the soule presumption overpriseth Gods mercy and undervalueth our sinnes and on the contrarie desperation overpriseth our sinnes and undervalueth Gods mercy both are most injurious to God the one derogateth from his mercy the other from his justice both band against hearty and speedy repentance the one opposing it as needlesse the other as bootlesse presumption saith thou maist repent at leasure gather the buds of sinfull pleasures before they wither repentance is not yet seasonable desperation saith the root of faith is withered it is now too late to repent The learned dispute whether of these two be the more pernicious and dangerous the answer is easie presumption is the more epidemicall desperation the more mortall disease Presumption like the Adder stingeth more but desperation like the Basiliske stings more deadly many meet with Adders which are almost found in all parts of the world but few with Basiliskes Presumption is more dangerous extensivè for it carrieth more to hell but desperation intensivè for those whom it seizeth upon it carrieth more forcibly and altogether irrecoverably thither and finall desperation never bringeth men to presumption but presumption bringeth men often to finall desperation To meete with these most pernicious evils God hath given us both the Law and the Gospel the Law to keepe us under in feare that wee rise not proudly and presumptuously against him and the Gospel to raise us up in hope that the weight of our sinnes sinke us not in despaire the threats of the one serve to draw and asswage the tumour of pride the promises of the other to heale the sores of wounded consciences and the Scripture as Saint Basil rightly calleth it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a common Apothecaries shop or physicke schoole wherein are remedies for all the diseases of the soule In these verses as in two boxes there are soveraigne recipes against both the maladies above named against the former to wit desperation vers 23. against the later viz. presumption v. 24. And it is not unworthy your observation that as in the beginning of the Spring when Serpents breed and peepe d Adrianus Chamierus in ep dedicat Eccles Gal. Pastor Sicut ineunte vere cùm primùm è terrae cuniculis prodeunt serpentes ad nocendum parati fraxinum adversus venenatos eorum morsus praesens remedium laturam educit out of their holes the Ash puts forth which is a present remedie against their stings and teeth so the holy Ghost in Scripture for the most part delivereth an antidote in or hard by those texts from whence libertines and carnall men sucke the poyson of presumption The texts are these God hath raised up an horne of salvation for us that we beeing delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare f Rom. 5.20 Where sinne abounded grace did much more abound g Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus * Gal. 5.13 We are called to liberty Now see an antidote in the verses following Lest any man should suck poyson from these words in the first text Serve him without feare it is added in the next words in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life Lest any man should abuse the second the Apostle within a verse putteth in a caveat What shall we say then shall we continue in sinne that grace may abound e Luk. 1.69 72 74. God forbid how shall wee that are dead to sin live any longer therein vers 1 2. Lest any should gather too farre upon that generall speech of the Apostle There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus h Luk. 1.75 there followes a restriction in the same verse who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit Lest any should stumble at those words of the same Apostle Ye are called to libertie he reacheth them a
Papists in their transcendent charity exclude Protestants out of all possibility of salvation See Wright his motives That Protestants have no faith no God no religion Fisher his Treat Out of the Romish Church no salvation Bellar. apol 8. Jacobus quia Catholicus non est Christianus non est W.B. his discourse entituled the Non entitie of Protestants religion deny them to have any Church any faith any hope of salvation any interest in Christ any part in God yet wee have learned from the Apostle to render to no man evill for evill nor rebuke for rebuke nor slander for slander wee deny them not to have a Church though very corrupt and unsound wee doubt not but through Gods mercy many thousands of our fore-fathers who lived and dyed in the communion of their Church and according to that measure of knowledge which was revealed unto them out of holy Scripture in the mysteries of salvation led a godly and innocent life not holding any errour against their conscience nor allowing themselves in any knowne sinne continually asking pardon for their negligences and ignorances of God through Christs merits might bee saved though not as Papists that is not by their Popish additions and superstitions but as Protestants that is by those common grounds of Christianity which they hold with us All that I intend to shew herein is that in some practices of theirs they may bee rightly compared to the Heathen as when the Apostle saith that he that provideth not for his owne family is worse than an Infidell his meaning is not that every Christian that is a carelesse housholder is simply in worse state than a Heathen but onely by way of aggravation of that sinne hee teacheth all unthrifts that in that particular they are more culpable than Heathen In like manner my meaning is not to put Papists and Heathen in the same state and ranke as if there were not more hope of a Papist than a Painims salvation but to breed a greater loathing and detestation of Popish idolatry and superstition by paralleling Baalites and other Heathens together I will make it evidently appeare that some particular practices of the Romane Church are no better than Heathenish See Hom. against the perill of Idolatry p. 3. Of this mind were they who laid the first stones of the happy reformation in England Our Image maintainers and worshippers have used and use the same outward rites and manner of honouring and worshipping their Images as the Gentiles did use before their Idols and that therefore they commit idolatry as well inwardly as outwardly as did the wicked Gentile Idolaters If any reply that these Homilies were but Sermons of private men transported with zeale and carry not with them the authority of the whole Church of England I answer that as those Verses of Poets alledged by the Apostle were made part of the Canonicall Scripture by being inserted into his inspired Epistles so the Homilies which are mentioned by name in the 35. Article and commended as containing godly and g His Majesties declaration We doe therefore ratifie and confrme the said Articles which doe containe the doctrine of the Church of Eâ—gland requiring all our loving subjects to continue in the uniforme profession thereof and prohibiting the least difference from the said Articles wholesome doctrine and necessary for the times are made part of the Articles of Religion which are established by authority of the whole Convocation and ratified and confirmed by the royall assent Were not this the expresse judgement of the Church of England whose authority ought to stop the mouth of all that professe themselves to be her children from any way blaunching the idolatrous practices of the Romane Church yet were not the fore-heads of our Image-worshippers made of as hard metall as their Images they would blush to say as they doe that the testimonies which wee alledge out of Scriptures and Fathers make against Idols and not against Image-worship For the words are h Levit. 26.1 Yee shall make no Idoll or graven Images nor reare up any standing Image nor set up any Image of stone to bow downe to it The words are i Exod. 20 4. Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any Pesel that is any thing carved or graven And if there may seem any mist in this generall word to any the words following cleerly dispell it Nor the likenesse of any thing that is in heaven above nor in the earth beneath nor in the waters under the earth The third Text is thus rendered in their own vulgar Latine k Deut. 4.15 16 17. Take therefore good heed to your soules for yee saw no manner of similitude in the day which the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire lest peradventure being deceived Custodite sollicitâ— animas vestras non vidistis aliquam similitudinem in die quâ Dominus vobis locutus est in Horeb in medio igne ne fortè faciatis vobis sculptam imaginem vel similitudinem masculi vel foeminae ye make you a graven Image the similitude of any figure the likenesse of male or female the likenesse of any beast that is on the earth the likenesse of any winged fowle that flyeth in the aire the likenesse of any thing that creepeth on the ground the likenesse of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth Neither is our allegation out of the Prophet Esay lesse poignant than the former To whom will m Esay 40.18 19 20. ye liken God or what likenesse will yee compare unto him The workman melteth a graven Image and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold and casteth silver chaines Hee that is so impoverished that hee hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot hee seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven Image c. As tor the words Imago and Idolum if wee respect the originall they are all one for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the shape or species of any thing and therefore not onely Aristotle calleth the shapes of things which are received into our senses the idols of the senses but Cardinall n Com. in c. 20. Exod. Cajetan also the images of the Angels in the Arke Idola Cherubinorum If wee regard the most common use of the words they differ as mulier and scortum that is a woman and a strumpet For as a woman abused or defiled by corporall fornication is called a strumpet so all such Images as are abused to spirituall fornication are called Idols Thus Saint o Lib. 8. de orig c. 11. Idolum est simulachrum quod humanâ effigie est consecraâ—um Isidore defineth an Idoll An Idoll is an Image consecrated in an humane shape And at the first all Idols were such but after men fell into grosser idolatry and turned the glory of God not only into the similitude of a p Rom. 1.23
the wrath of God and hee shall be tormented in fire and brimstone before the holy Angels and before the Lamb and the smoak of their torments shall ascend for ever And they shall have no rest day nor night which worship the beast and his image and whosoever receiveth the print of his name I dare boldly say that none of you my Beloved have received any print of the beast yee are yet free from the least suspition of familiarity with the Whore of Babylon yee have kept your selves unspotted of Popery wherefore as yee tender your honour and reputation nay the salvation of your bodies and soules keep your selves still from Idols be zealous for Gods honour and hee will bee zealous for your safety abstaine from all appearance of that evill which the spirit of God ranketh with sorcery and witch-craft If in your travels you chance to see the heathenish superstitions and abominable idolatries of the Roman Church make this profitable use thereof let it incite you to compassionate the blindnesse and ignorance of so many silly soules nuzzled in superstition who verifie the speech of the Psalmist d Psal 115.8 They that worship idols are like unto them they have eyes and see not the wonderfull things of Gods Law they have eares and heare not the word of life they have hands and handle not the seales of grace they have feet and walke not in the wayes of Gods commandements What a lamentable thing is it to see the living image of God to fall downe before a dead and dumb picture for men endued with sense and reason to worship unreasonable and senslesse metall wise men to aske e Hosea 4.12 My people aske counsel at their stocks their staffe teacheth them for the spirit of whoredome hath caused them to erre and they have gone a whoring from under their God counsell of stocks and stones for them who in regard of their soules are nobly descended from Heaven to doe homage and performe religious services and devotions to the vilest and basest creatures upon the earth yea to dust and rottennesse How much are wee bound to render perpetuall thanks to God who hath opened our eyes that wee see the grossnesse of their superstition and hath presented unto us a lively image of himselfe drawne to the life in holy Scripture an image which to looke upon is not curiositie but dutie to embrace not spirituall uncleannesse but holy love to adore not idolatrie but religion to invocate not superstition but pietie If the Lord be God follow him Turne we the Rhetoricke of this text into Logicke and the Dilemma consisting of two suppositions into two doctrinall positions the points which I am to cleare to your understanding and presse upon your religious affections will be these 1. That there is but one true God either the Lord or Baal not both 2. That this one true God is alone to be worshipped either Baal must be followed or Jehovah not both But the Prophet will prove by miracle and the evidence of fire that Baal is not God nor to be worshipped the conclusion is therefore that Jehovah the God of Israel is the onely true God and he alone to be worshipped That there is but one true God is one of the first principles which all Christians are catechized in the Decalogue Lords prayer and Creed all three begin with one God to teach us 1. Religious worship of one God 2. Zealous devotion to one God 3. Assured confidence in one God At our first Metriculation if I may so speake into the Universitie of Christs Catholique Church wee are required to subscribe to these three prime verities 1. That there is a Deitie 1. Above all 2. Over all 3. In all 2. That this Deitie is one 3. That in this Unitie there is a Trinitie of persons We acknowledge 1. A Deitie against all Atheists 2. The Unitie of this Deitie against all Paynims 3. A Trinitie in this Unitie against all Jewes Mahumetans and Heretiques Through the whole old Testament this one note is sounded by everie voyce in the Quire We heare it in the Law Heare O Israel the Lord our God is f Deut. 6.4 one Lord. We heare it in the Psalmes g Psal 18.31 Who is God but the Lord We heare it in the Prophets h Hosea 13.4 Thou shalt know no God but mee for there is no Saviour besides me and i Mal. 2.10 Have we not all one father hath one not God created us The new Testament is as an eccho resounding the same note k Ephes 4.5 6. 1 Tim. 2.5 One Lord one faith one baptisme One God and father of all who is above all and through you all and in you all For there is one God and one Mediatour between God and men the man Christ Jesus And This is l John 17.3 life eternall to know thee the only true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ For although we read m Gen. 1.1 Elohim as if ye would say Gods in the plurall number yet the verb Bara is in the singular number to signifie the Trinitie in the Unitie howsoever we find the Lord n Gen. 19.24 rained upon Sodome Gomorrah brimstone fire from the Lord out of heaven and likewise in the Psalmes o Psal 110.1 The Lord said to my Lord yet S. Athanasius in his Creed resolveth us there are not more Gods or more Lords nor more eternals nor more incomprehensibles but one eternall and one in comprehensible In the mysterie of the Trinitie there is alius and alius not aliud and aliud on the contrarie in the mysterie of the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour there is not alius and alius but aliud and aliud in the one diversity of persons in one nature in the other diversity of natures in one person Sol quasi solus God is as Plato stileth him the Sunne of the invisible world and it is as cleare to the eye of reason that there is one God as to the eye of sense that there is one Sunne for God must be sovereigne and there cannot be more sovereignes The principles of Metaphysick laid together demonstrate this truth after this manner There is an infinite distance betweene something and nothing therefore the power which bringeth them together and maketh something nay all things of nothing must needs be infinite but there cannot be more infinite powers because either one of them should include the other and so the included must needs bee finite or not extend to the other and so it selfe not be infinite Out of naturall Philosophie such an argument is framed Whatsoever is either hath a cause of its being or not if it hath a cause of its being it cannot be the first cause if it have no cause of its being it must needs bee the cause of all causes For there cannot be an infinite processe from causes to causes which nature abhorres therefore wee must needs
grieves not a picture weepeth not these teares then of our Saviour may serve as haile-shot to wound all such Heretickes as imagined that Christ had but an imaginary body 2. Veritatem amoris the truth of his love It is true love which resolveth it selfe into teares upon the sight or apprehension of anothers losse griefe or danger When Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus the Jewes said Behold how he d Joh. 11.36 loved him and when the Disciples and whole multitude saw Christ weepe as soone as he came in sight of Jerusalem they could not but say within themselves Behold how he loveth this city 3. Veritatem prophetiae the truth of his prophecie concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and all the calamities that shortly after befell the Jewish nation they must needs be true evils and judgements certainly to come upon the city which the Sonne of God foretelleth with wet eyes Quum appropinquavit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he came neere If Christ in his humane body could have beene present in many places at once as the Trent Fathers teach and our e Bell. lib. 3. de sacr Euch. c. 3. 4. Romanists set their faith upon the tenters to beleeve he then might have spared many a wearisome journey he needed not to have travelled as he did from country to country and city to city all the progresses which he made through Judea and Galile and Samaria and the coasts of Tyrus and Sidon might have beene saved For without stirring his foote by this doctrine he might have presented himselfe at the same time in Nazareth and Bethlehem and Corazin Bethsaida and Capernaum and Nain and Jerusalem as if we may beleeve f Aelian de Var. hist lib. 4. Pythagoras eodem die horâ visus est in Metapentio Crotona in Olympo femur aureum ostendit Aelian Pythagoras at the same time was seene in divers cities and there shewed his golden thigh a fit miracle for aurea legenda the golden legend sed quia non legimus non credimus but because we find no such thing in Scripture we beleeve it not We are so farre from finding it there that we find the direct contrary g Math. 28.6 He is not here for he is risen If there be any force at all in this reason of the Angel the humane body of Christ cannot be in more places at once for could it be in more places at once it might have beene in the grave and risen out of it at the same time which the Angels for supposeth to be impossible Hector adest secúmque deos in praelia ducit In this battell against the Trent faith we have men and Angels on our side for as the Angel argueth here from the impossibility of the existence of Christs body in more places at once so do the ancient fathers h Lib. 4. contr Eutic Christi corpus quando in terra fuit non erat utique in coelo nunc quia est in coelo non est utique in terra Vigilius Christs body when it was upon earth was not at the same time in heaven and now because 〈◊〉 is in heaven it is not therefore upon earth and Saint i Aug. l. 20. cont Faust Manic c. 11. Secundum praesentiam spiritualeÌ„ nullo modo pati illa possit secundum praesentiam corporalem simul in sole luna cruce esse non possit Austine When ye Manichees teach that Christ was at the same time in the Sun and in the Moone upon the Crosse what meane ye by presence his divine spirituall that is nothing to your purpose for according to that hee could not suffer Do you mean corporall according to that he could not be together in more places and consequently not as ye suppose in the sunne and in the moone and upon the crosse at once As the Poets faigne of Hercules that in his cradle with one graspe of his hand hee killed two serpents so by the handling of this one circumstance if the time and this present occasion would permit mee I might kill two monsters of heresies the former of transubstantiation which you see lieth halfe dead before you the latter of consubstantiation the former holdeth a multi-presence and the latter an omnipresence or ubiquity of Christs body The word appropinquavit he came neere reacheth a blow home to both these For comming neere a place is a locall motion Now every locall motion must have a terminus à quo and a terminus ad quem a place or point to bee left and another to be got which cannot be verified in a body which in the same time is in utroque termino in the terme from which and the tearme to which it is to move much lesse can an infinite or omnipresent body move locally because such a body according to their supposition filleth all places and consequently cannot goe from one to another iâ—â—â—nnot lose any place it had or acquire any it had not This comming heere then of our Saviour to Jerusalem proveth that the Lutherans and all ubiquitaries are as farre out of the way in this point as Papists they that hold this errour must blot out all Christs gests recorded by the Evangelists and reverse all his progresses from Judea to Galile and from Galile to Judea from Jerusalem to Nazareth and from Nazareth to Jerusalem from land to sea and from sea to land Moreover to entitle a creature to ubiquity is to deifie it and to attribute this incommunicable property of the deitie to the humane nature of Christ is to confound his two natures Thus heresies unnaturally engender the later with the former and Lutheranisme begets Eutychianisme at which monstrous error though the Romanists are startled yet the heresie of transubstantiation which they foster at this day is of the same cast Admit once that Christs body may be at the same time in heaven at the right hand of his Father on the Altar in the right hand of the Priest why may it not be in milions of places if it may be wheresoever masses are said why may it not also by divine power be where they are not said why not then every where if it may stand with the unity of an individuall body to be in two distinct and distant places at once it may as well be in two hundred places and if in two hundred in two thousand and if in two thousand every where The nature of an individuall body which is to be indivisum in se divisum â caeteris omnibus is as well destroyed by putting it in two places at once as in two millions Wherefore as wood cleavers drive out one wedge by another and conjurers cast out one spirit by another as bad and as Plato tooke downe Diogenes trampling upon his rich carpet k Eras Apoph and saying I tread Platoes pride under my feete Calcas fastum sed alio fastu thou treadest upon my pride saith
vivificabo impossibile est enim quod Deus semel vivificavit ab eodem ipso vel ab alio occidi I will make alive and I will kill but I will kill and I will make alive for it is impossible that what God once quickneth hee meaneth by spirituall grace should ever be killed or destroyed either by himselfe or any other Saint Cyprian secondeth Origen who will have e Cyp. de simpl prelat Nemo aestimet bonos de Ecclesia posse discedere triticum non rapit ventus nec arborem solidâ radice fundatam procella subvertit no man entertaine any such thought as if good men and true beleevers ever revolted finally from the Church Let no man conceive saith hee that good men can depart from the Church the winde blowes not away the wheat neither doth the storme overthrow a tree sound at root they are like empty chaffe which are scattered away with a whirlewind and weake and rotten trees which are blown down in a tempest Saint Chrysostome joyneth upon the same issue commenting upon the words of Saint Paul by whom also wee have accesse by faith unto this grace wherein we stand thus He saith well the grace wherein wee stand the phrase is worth the noting for such indeed is the nature of Gods grace f Chrys homil in ep ad Rom. c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is stable and constant it hath no end it knowes no period but proceeds alwaies from lesser to greater matters Those whom grace maketh to stand and grow continually cannot fall totally nor finally Saint Ambrose accordeth with Saint Chrysostome in his observation upon the second Epistle to the Corinthians chap. 3.3 The words of Saint Paul are Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with inke but with the Spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart St. a Amo Comment in 2. Cor. 3.3 Nunc legem veterem pulsat â—uae pâ—imum data in lapideis tabulis abolita est fractis tabulis sub Mâ—nte à Mose nunc autem lex in animo scribitur hoc est in corde non per calamum sed per spiritum quia fides aeterna res est à spiritu scribitu ut maneâ—t Ambrose his note upon this place is Here hee toucheth upon or striketh at the old Law which first being given in tables of stone is abolished the tables being broken under the Mount by Moses but now the Law is written in the mind not with a quill or pen but by the spirit because faith is an eternall thing it is written by the spirit that it may abide or still continue Saint Austin and Saint Gregory cleerly conclude on our side by excluding all from the number of Christs Disciples and Sonnes of God and Saints whose revolt and apostacy proveth their hypocrisie Saint b Aug de correp grat â— 9. Qui non habent perseveâ— antiam cut non veâ—è Discipuli Christi ita nec verè Filii Dei fueâ—unt etiam quando esse videbantur ita vocabantur Austin speaketh definitively Those who have not the gift of perseverance as they are not truly Christs Disciples so neither were they ever truly the Sonnes of God no not when they seemed to be so And Saint c Greg. moral in Job l. 34. c 13. Aurum quod pravis diaboli persuasioâ—ibus sterni sicut lutum potuerit aurum ante oculos Dei nunquam fuit qui seduci quandoque non reversuri possunt qua iâ—habitam sanctitaté ante oculos hominum videantur amittere sed eam ante oculos Dei nunquam habucrunt Gregory is as peremptory It may saith he peradventure trouble a weake Christian that this Leviathan hath such power that hee can trample gold under his feet like dirt that is subject unto himselfe men shining in the brightnesse of holinesse by defiling them with vices but wee have an answer ready at hand that the gold which by wicked perswasions of the Divell can be laid under his feet like dirt was never gold in the sight of God and they who may be so seduced that they never returne againe may seeme to lose the habit of sanctity before the eyes of men but before the eyes of God they never were endued with any such habit You see with a little blowing what a cleere light the smoaking flaxe in my Text giveth to this Theologicall verity viz. that regenerating grace and justifying faith cannot be utterly lost or totally extinct Feele I beseech you now what warmth it yeeldeth to our cold affections and sometimes benummed consciences and first to our cold affections Is the oyntment of the Spirit so precious that the least drop of it saveth the life of the soule Is the least seed of the Word incorruptible Is the smallest sparke of true charity unquenchable Cannot justifying faith be ever lost nor the state of grace forfeited Why then doe we not strive for this state why doe we not with the rich Merchant in the Gospel sell all that wee have to gaine this pearle of faith When we have got it why doe we not more highly value it in our selves and others Other pearles and precious stones adorne but the body or cover some imperfection in it this beautifieth the soule and covereth all the skarres and deformities therein Other Jewels be they never so rich are but presents for earthly Princes but with this pearle the King of Heaven is taken and it is the price of that Kingdome Other pearles have their estimation from men but men have their estimation from this pearle Other Jewels when they are got may bee lost and that very easily but this Jewell of faith if it bee true and not counterfeit after it is once gotten can never be lost All the thoughts of worldly men are employed all their cares taken up all their time bestowed all their meanes spent in purchasing or some way procuring unto themselves a fortune as they terme it as a beneficiall office or an estate of land of inheritance or lease for terme of yeeres or lives all which are yet subject to a thousand casualties Why do they not rather looke after and labour for the state of grace which is past all hazzard being assured to us by the hand-writing of God and the seale of his Spirit An estate not for terme of yeers but for eternity an estate not of land upon earth but of an inheritance immortall undefiled reserved in heaven an estate which cannot be spoiled or wasted by hostile invasion nor wrung from us by power nor won by law nor morgaged for debt nor impaired by publike calamity nor endangered by change of Princes nor voided by death it selfe S. a Chrysost in c. 5. ad Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome his eloquence exspatiateth in this field A man saith he hath received rule glory and power here but enjoyeth it not perpetually
overthrow of the Jewish Nation by Vespasian and his sonne Titus Others deferre the accomplishment of this prophecy till the dreadfull day of the Worlds doome when by the shrill sound of the Archangels Trumpet all the dead shall bee awaked and the son of man shall march out of Heaven with millions of Angels to his Judgement seat in the clouds where hee shall sit upon the life and death of mankinde That day saith Saint d August l. 20. de civitate Dei Ille dies judicii propriè dicitur eo quod nullus erit ibi imperitae querelae locus Cur injustus ille sit foelix cur justus ille infoelix Austin may bee rightly called a Day of Judgement because then there shall bee no place left for those usuall exceptions against the judgements of God and the course of his providence on earth viz. Why is this just man unhappy and why is that unjust man happy Why is this profane man in honour and that godly man in disgrace Why doth this wicked man prosper in his evill wayes and that righteous man faile in his holy attempts Nay why for a like fact doth some man receive the guerdon of a crowne and another of a e Juvenal Satyr Sceleris pretium ille crucem tulit hic diadema crosse or gibbet the one of a halter the other of a chaine of gold These and the like murmurs against the justice of the Judge of all flesh shall bee hushed and all men shall say in the words of the f Psal 58.11 Psalmist Verily there is a reward for the righteous Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth And then Christ may bee said properly to bring or send forth judgement when hee revealeth the secrets of all hearts displayeth all mens consciences and declareth the circumstances of all actions whereby all mens judgements may bee rightly informed in the proceedings of the Almighty and all men may see the justice of God in those his most secret and hidden judgements at which the wisest on earth are astonished and dare not looke into them lest they should bee swallowed up in the depth of them I speake of those judgements of God which Saint g August lo. sup cit Dies declarabit ubi hoc quoque manifestabitur quà m justo Dei judicio fiat ut nunc tam multa ac penè omnia justa Dei judicia sensus mentemque mortalium fugiant cum tamen in hac repiorum fidem non lateat justum esse quod latet Austin termeth Occuliè justa and justè occulta Secretly just and justly secret so they are now but at the day of Judgement they shall bee manifestly just and justly manifest then it shall appeare not onely that the most secret judgements of God are just but also that there was just cause why they should bee secret or kept hidden till that day Lastly then Christ may bee said properly to bring forth judgement unto victory because hee shall first conquer all his enemies and then judge and sentence them to everlasting torments Of which dreadfull Judgement ensuing upon the glorious Victory of the Prince of peace over the great Whore and the false Prophet and the Divell that deceiveth them all from which the Archangel shall sound a retreat by blowing the last trump and summoning all that have slept in the dust to arise out of their graves and come to judgement I need not to adde any thing more in this Religious and Christian auditory Wherefore I will fill up the small remainder of the time with some briefe observations upon the ruine and utter desolation of the Jewish Nation who even to this day wandring like Vagabonds in all countries and made slaves not only to Christians but to Moores Turkes and other Infidels rue the crucifying of the Lord of life and the spilling of the innocent bloud of the immaculate Lambe of God that taketh away the sinnes of the World As according to the custome of our country Quarter-Sessions are held in Cities and Shire-townes before the generall Assises so Christ a little more than forty yeeres after his death at Jerusalem and ascension into Heaven held a Quarter-Sessions in Jerusalem for that country and people after which hee shall certainly keep a generall Assises for the whole world when the sinnes of all Nations shall be ripe for the Angels sickle Some of the wisest of the Jewish Rabbins entring into a serious consideration of this last and greatest calamity that ever befell that people together with the continuance thereof more than 1500. yeeres and casting with themselves what sinne might countervaile so heavie a judgement in the end have growne to this resolution that surely it could be no other than the spilling of the Messias bloud which cryed for this vengeance from heaven against them And verily if you observe all the circumstances of times persons and places together with the maner and means of their punishments and lay them to the particulars of Christs sufferings in and from that Nation you shall see this point as cleerly set before your eyes as if these words were written in letters of bloud upon the sacked walls of Jerusalem Messiah his Judgement and Victory over the Jewes 1. Mocking repaid 1. Not full sixe yeeres after our Lords passion most of those indignities and disgraces which the Jewes put upon him were returned backe to themselves by Flaccus and the Citizens of Alexandria who scurrilously mocked their King Agrippa in his returne from Rome by investing a mad man called Carabbas with Princely robes putting a reed in his hand for a Scepter saluting him Haile King of the Jewes Note here the Jewes mocking of Christ repaid unto themselves yet this was not all 2 Whipping repaid The Alexandrians were not content thus scornfully to deride the King of the Jewes they proceeded farther to make a daily sport of scourging many of the Nobility even to death and that which Philo setteth a Tragicall accent upon at their solemnest Feast Note here the Jewes whipping and scourging Christ upon the solemne Feast of Passover repaid unto them 3. Spitting repaid 3. And howsoever their noble and discreet Embassadour Philo made many remonstrances to the Emperour Caligula of these unsufferable wrongs offered to their Nation yet that Emperour because the Jewes had refused to set up his Image in the Temple was so farre from relieving them or respecting him according to the quality he bare that he spurned him with his foot and spit on his face Note here the Jewes spitting on Christ repaid them 4. The Jewes refusing Christ to be their King to flatter the Romane Caesar reveneâ—d on them by Caesar himself 4. In conclusion the Emperour sent him away with such disgrace and discontent that hee turning to his country-men said Bee of good cheare Sirs for God himselfe must needs right us now sith his Vicegerent from whom wee expected justice doth so much wrong us and contrary
lib. 3. Pausanias the Lacedemonian Generall who at Platea when his Army was overtaken by the enemies horse and overwhelmed with flights of arrowes as thicke as haile quietly sate still not making any defence or resistance till the sacrifices for victory were happily ended yea though many were hurt and slaine before any good signe appeared in the enirals But as soon as he had found good tokens of victory he arose and with excellent courage received the charge of the Persians slew Mardonius that commanded in chiefe and many thousands of the Barbarians Did Heathen Religion put such courage and breed such confidence in the worshippers of Idols that they feared no danger while they were about their superstitious rites and shall not true Religion beget more noble resolutions in us who have God bound by promise to deliver us when we faithfully crave his succour and assistance Will he not glorifie n Psal 51.15 himselfe by delivering us in time of trouble who calleth upon us to call upon him to this end Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie mee Wherefore as the Athenians when they were in greatest danger at sea accustomably cast out the great anchor called the holy Anchor Whence o Eras adag ex Lucia Sacram Anchoram solvere dicimur quando ad extremum praesidium confugimus grew the Proverbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so when wee are tossed with waves of persecution and so overwhelmed with violence of tentation that wee are ready to sinke in despaire let us lift up our hands to God and cast anchor in heaven and though wee see no meanes at all to subsist yet still hang upon Gods providence It is scarce possible that wee should bee put to a greater plunge than David was in this wildernesse who having but a handfull of men and most of them hunger-starved or fainting for want of water to quench their thirst was surrounded by Sauls royall Army yet in this deplorate and almost desperate estate after parley with God by prayer shall I say he conceived hope of delivery nay hee assureth himselfe of the Crowne and in a manner insulteth over his enemies as if they were already under his feet saying They that seeke my soule to destroy it shall go into the lowest parts of the earth They shall cast him c. that is they that goe about to cast mee downe from my high throne of Majesty shall fall low themselves they who seeke to devest mee of my royall Purple and Diadem shall bee clothed with confusion as with a garment they who hunt after me and would make a prey of me shall be themselves a portion for Foxes they that seeke my soule to ruine it shall downe themselves They shall cast him downe Doctr. 3 These words in Hypothesi containe a prophecy of Sauls bloudy end and the desolation of his Army on the mountaines of Gilboa but in Thesi a generall judgement of God upon the wicked whom he entangleth in their owne malice and punisheth with their owne sinne and bringeth to confusion by their owne order a Hesiod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. Sibi ipsi mala fabricat homo qui alteri fabricat malum consilium consultori pessimum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which Verses of the prophane Poet may be thus translated and they become sacred Oracles The b Psal 7.15 16. ungodly shall be trapped in the works of his own hands he made a pit and digged it and is fallen into the ditch which hee made his mischiefe shall returne upon his owne head and his violent dealing shall come downe upon his owne pate For it is just with God to mete to the wicked their owne measure as he did to the accusers of Shadrach Mesach and Abednego who were burned in the fire of that furnace which they had caused to be c Daniel 3.22 heat seven times more than ordinary for those three noble Confessors And to the traducers of Daniel who were cast to the Lions which they kept d Daniel 6.24 fasting on set purpose that they might make but one morsell of the Prophet And to e Ester 7.10 Haman who had the honour to bee hanged on that high gallows to which he would have preferred Mordecai And to f Judges 1.7 Adonibezeck who when his thumbes were cut off by Judah beshrewed his owne fingers saying Threescore and ten Kings having their thumbes and great toes cut off gathered their meat under my table As I have done so God hath requited mee All ages yeeld examples in the like kinde insomuch that the Heathen themselves have taken notice of Gods using the wickeds mete-wand to measure out their own ruine Thraseus instructing Busirus how to expiate the wrath of the gods by the effusion of strangers bloud was first himselfe sacrificed and constrained to write a probatum est under that conclusion with his owne bloud g Ovid. de art l. 1. Cum Thraseus Busirin adit monstratque piari hospitis effusi sanguine posse deum Illi Busiris fies Jovis hostia primus inquit Aegypto tu dabis hospes aquam What Puny in the Schooles hath not read Ovids golden Motto upon Perillus his brasen Bull h Ovid ibid. Et Phalaris tauro violenti membra Perilli Torruit infoelix imbuit author opus nec enim lex justior ulla est Quà m necis artifices arte perire suâ There can be no juster law than that the devisers of mans ruine should rue their owne devices and that the inventers of new deaths should dye by their owne inventions Sciron i Plutarch in Theseo the Giant that sate upon the cleft of a high rocke and kicked downe all that scrambled up to it into the sea was himselfe served in the like manner by Theseus who comming behind him push't him downe with his foot into the deep And Termerus who had a strange fashion of beating out mens braines by playing at hard head with them in the end met with his match at that barbarous sport and lost the little braine he had his skull being broken by Hercules What should I relate the tragedy of an agent of Pope k Beno Cardinalis devita gest Hildeb Hildebrands who standing upon a planke in the roofe of a Church in Rome and taking up a huge stone to cast down upon the Emperour when he was at his devotion by the waight of the stone and his owne the planke brake under him and hee fell downe into the floore having his braines struck out by the rowling of that stone upon him Or of Laurentius Medices who having fitted a flesh-baite for l Bodin l. 4. de rep Alexander Medices and as he was greedily catching at it being naked and disarmed set a desperate villaine in the habit of a Masquer to stabbe him with a Stilletto and himselfe was shortly after stilletoed at Venice by a suborned Traitor
have no opinion of his wisedome but to know that undoubtedly he knoweth nothing at least as he ought to know Justinian though a great Emperour could not avoid the censure of folly for calling his wife by the name of Sapientia because saith Saint Austin nomen illud augustius est quam ut homini conveniat because the name of wise and much more of wisedome in the abstract is too high a title for any on earth to beare What greater folly then can be imagined in any man or woman to assume wisedome to themselves whose greatest wisedome consisteth in the humble acknowledgement of their follies and manifold oversights Therefore Lactantius wittily comes over the seven wise masters as they are called whom antiquity no lesse observed than Sea-men doe the seven Starres about the North Pole When saith he n Lact. â— 4. divin institâ— 1. Sicaeterâ— omnes praeter ipsos stulti fuerâ—nt ne illi quidem sapientes quâ—aneâ—â— sapiens veâ—e stâ—ltorum judicio esse potest there were but seven wise men in all the world I would faine know in whose judgement they were held so in their owne or the judgement of others if in the judgement of others then of fooles by their owne supposition empaling all wisedome within the breasts of those seven if in their owne judgement they were esteemed the onely wise of that age then must they needs be fooles for no such foole as he who is wise in his owne conceit This consideration induced Socrates to pull downe his crest and renounce the name of a wise man and exchange Sophon into Philosophon the name of Sophister into Philosopher of wise into a lover of wisedome with which title all that succeeded him in his Schoole of wisedome contented themselves When the o Sphinx Philosoph c. 7. Gryphus Milesian Fishermen drew up in their net a massie piece of gold in the forme of a Table or planke there grew a great strife and contention in Law whose that draught should be whether the Fishermens who rented the fishing in that river or the Lords of the soyle and water In the end fearing on all hands lest this Altar of gold should melt away in law charges they deferre the judgement of this controversie to Apollo who by his Oracle answered that it neither appertained to the Fishermen nor to the Lord of the Mannor but ought to bee delivered as a present to the wisest man then living Whereupon this golden Table was first tendered to Thales the Milesian who sendeth it to Bias Bias to Solon Solon in the end to Apollo whom the heathen adored as the God of wisdome By this shoving of the Table from wise man to wise man and in the end fixing it in the Temple of Apollo they all in effect subscribed to the judgement of him who thus concludes his Epistle To p Rom 16.27 1 Tim. 1.17 To the King immortall invisible the onely wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever God onely wise bee glory for ever And questionlesse if wee speake of perfect and absolute wisedome it must bee adored in heaven not sought for on the earth Hee alone knoweth all things who made all things hee comprehendeth them in his science who containeth them in his essence Yet ought we to seeke for the wisedome here meant as for treasure and although wee may not hope in this life to be wise unto perfection yet may we and ought we to know the holy Scriptures which are able to make us q 2 Tim. 3.15 wise unto salvation In these we find a fourefold wisedome mentioned 1. Godly 1. Godly wisedome is piety 2. Worldly 2. Worldly wisedome is policy 3. Fleshly 3. Fleshly wisedome is sensuality 4. Divelish 4. Divelish wisedome is mischievous subtlety 1. Godly wisedome is here meant as the words following make it evident Serve the Lord with feare and reason makes it yet more evident For the Prophet needed not to exhort Princes to worldly wisdome the point of Policie is too well studied by them nor to fleshly wisdome for they mostly take but too much care to fulfill their lusts and maintain their Port and provide for their temporall peace and safetie As for divellish wisedome which makes men wise to doe r Jer. 4.22 evill so holy a Prophet as David was would not so much as have taken it in his lips unlesse peradventure to brand it with the note of perpetuall infamie The wisedome therefore which he here commendeth to Kings is a godly a holy and a heavenly wisedome A wisedome which beginneth in the feare of God and endeth in the salvation of man A wisedome that rebuketh the wisedome of the flesh and despiseth the wisedome of the world and confoundeth the wisedome of the Divell A wisedome that advertiseth us of a life after this life and a death after this death and sheweth us the meanes to attaine the one and avoid the other Morall or civill wisedome is as the eye of the soule but this wisedome the Spirit here preferreth to Kings is the eye of the spirit Ubi desinit Philosophus ibi incipit Medicus where the Philosopher ends there the spirituall Physician begins The highest step of humane wisedome is but the lowest and first of divine As Moses his face shined after he communed with God so all morall and intellectuall vertues after we have communion with Christ and he commeth neere to us by his spirit receive a new lustre from supernaturall grace Prudence or civill wisedome is in the soule as a precious diamond in a ring but spirituall wisedome is like Solis jubar the Sunnes rayes falling upon this Diamond wonderfully beautifying and illustrating it Of this heavenly light at this time by the eye-salve of the Spirit cleering our sight wee will display five beames 1. The first to beginne with our end and to provide for our eternall estate after this life in the first place For here we stay but a while and be our condition what it will be it may be altered there wee must abide by it without any hope of change Here wee slide over the Sea of glasse mentioned in the Å¿ Apoc. 15.2 And I saw as it were a sea of glasse Apocalyps but there we stand immoveable in our stations here we are like wandring starres erraticke in our motions there we are fixed for ever either as starres in heaven to shine in glorie or as brandirons in hell to glowe in flames Therefore undoubtedly the unum necessarium the one thing above all things to be thought upon is what shall become of us after we goe hence and be no more seene The heathen saw the light of this truth at a chincke as it were who being demanded why they built for themselves glorious sepulchres but low and base houses answered because in the one they sojourned but for a short space in the other they dwelt To this Solomon had an eye when hee termeth the grave mans t Eccles 12.5 Man goeth
Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastours and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ Ver. 12. Till wee all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Sonne of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the age of the fulnesse of Christ Till all the Elect be come God ceaseth not to call by the ministery of the word and none may call without a calling to call Needs must there be therefore a settled order in the Church for the calling of those to the ministery of the word sacraments who are to call others by their ministery This constant ordination of a succession in the Church some make a royalty of Christ or an appendant to his princely function for it is for Kings to set men in authority under them in the affaires of the Kingdome Others annexe it to his priesthood because the high Priest was to consecrate inferiour Priests A third sort will have it a branch of his propheticall office because Prophets were to anoint Prophets All these reasons are concludent but none of them excludent For the entire truth in which these three opinions have an equall share is that the establishing the ministery of the Gospell and furnishing the Church with able Pastours hath a dependance on all three offices 1 On the Kingly in respect of heavenly power 2 On the Priestly in respect of sacred order 3 On the Propheticall in respect of ministeriall gifts Each of Christs offices deliver into our hands as it were a key 1. Clavem Coeli 2. Clavem Sanctuarii or Templi 3. Clavem sacrae Scripturae 1. His Kingly office conferreth on us the key of heaven to open and shut it 2. His Priestly the key of the Temple to enter into it and administer holy things 3. His Propheticall the key of holy Scripture to open the meaning thereof Thus you see ordinem ordinis an order for holy orders you heare who is the founder of our religious order and whose keyes we keepe Which consideration as it much improveth the dignity of our calling so it reproveth their indignity who walke not agreeable thereunto A scar in the face is a greater deformity than a wound or sore in any other part of the body such is the eminency of our calling beloved brethren that our spots can no more be hid than the spots in the Moone nay that it maketh every spot in us a staine every blemish a scar every pricke a wound every drop of Inke a blot every trip a fall every fault a crime If we defile Christs priesthood with an impure life we do worse than those his professed enemies who spit on his face If we foule and black with giving and receiving the wages of unrighteousnes those hands wherwith we deliver the price of mans redemption in the blessed Sacraments we more wrong our Saviour than those who pierced his sacred hands with nailes If we in these holy Mounts of God wherein we should presse the purest liquor out of the grapes of the Vines of Engaddi vent our owne spleene and malice what doe we else than offer to Christ againe vinegar and gall If we Christs meniall and domesticall servants turne m Rom. 12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some copies mis-read and serve the time instead of serving the Lord. If we preach our selves and not Christ crucified if we beare the world in hand to wooe for our master but indeed speake for our selves if we use the staires of the Pulpit as steps only to our preferment if we heare our Lord and Master highly dishonoured and dissemble it if we see the Sea of Rome continually to eat into the bankes of our Church and never goe about to make up the breaches if that should ever fall out which a sweet sounding Cymball sometimes tinckled into the eares of the Pope that n Bernard de considerat ad Eugen Multi necessarii multi adversarii non Doctores sed Seductores non Praelati sed Pilati the greatest enemies of Christ should be those of his owne house if Pastours turne Impostours if Doctours Seductours if Prelates Pilates if Ministers of Christ servants of Antichrist either by silence to give way or by smoothing Romish tenets to make way for Popery no marvaile then if judgement begin at the house of God as it did in the siege at Jerusalem with the slaughter of Ananus the high Priest no marvaile if God suffer sacriledge to rob the Church of her maintenance almost in all places when the Church her selfe is guilty of worse sacriledge by robbing God of his worship and service But on the contrarie if as Ambassadours for Christ we deliver our message faithfully and roundly if we seeke not our owne but the things that are Jesus Christs if we esteeme not our preferments no nor our lives deere unto us in comparison of our Masters honour if we preach Christ crucified in our lives as well as in our sermons if in our good name we are the sweet smelling favour of God as well as in our doctrine we may then Christi nomine in Christs stead challenge audience yea and reverence too from the greatest powers upon earth whatsoever State-flies buzze to the contrary For as he that o Luke 10.16 despiseth Christs ministers despiseth him so he that p Mat. 10.40 receiveth him receiveth them also No man who honoureth the Prince can dis-esteeme his Ambassadours If Scribes and Pharisees must be heard because they teach in Moses chaire how much more Saith St. Chrysostome may they command our attention who sit in Christs chaire The same Apostle who chargeth every soule to be q Rom. 13.1.4 subject to the higher powers who beare not the sword in vaine as strictly requireth the faithfull to r Heb. 13.17 obey them that have the rule over them in the Lord and submit unto them for they watch saith he for your soules as they that must give account that they may doe it with joy and not with griefe for that is unprofitable for you Therefore ſ Sym. epist ad Anast Defer Deo in nobis nos Deo in te Symmachus kept within compasse when he thus spake to Anastasius the Emperour Acknowledge God in us and we will acknowledge him in thee Deus est in utroque parente we hold from Christ as you from God as we submit ourselves to Gods sword in your hands so you ought to obey Christs word in our mouthes And so I passe from the person consecrating to the persons consecrated He breathed on them and said receive ye the holy Ghost The holy Martyr St. t Cypr. de unita Eccles Apostolis omnibus post resurrectionem suam parem potestatem tribuit dicit sicut misit me pater ego mitto vos accipite Spiritum sanctum si cui remiseritis peccata remittentur ei c. Hoc
ut eorum exposcit officium nomen consulant quaeritur enim quantum reddat episcopatus non quot oves pascuae in eo sint Platina giveth a touch hereof in the life of Pope Goodface the third the first question is after a man is chosen Pope what is the Bishopricke of Rome worth Filthy lucre carrieth such an ill favour with it that the precious oyntment of Aaron cannot take away the smell thereof Covetousnesse is a spot in any coat but a stain in the linnen Ephod what so unfit what so incongruous nay what so opprobrious and scandalous as for those who in scripture are stiled Angels and should like Angels by continuall meditations and divine contemplations behold the face of God in heaven to turne earth-wormes and lye and feed upon very mucke How dare they deliver the holy Sacrament with those hands that have received bribes or are defiled with the price of blood or are foule with telling their use-money Holinesse which of all other most be fitteth our sacred calling in the greeke implyeth a contradiction to earthlinesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which wee render holy is all one in that language as unearthly If a glasse bee soyled with dust or beâ—â—â—eared with dirt it reflecteth no image at all in like manner if the minde bee soyled with the dust of earthlinesse the image of God cannot appeare in it the fancie of such a man will represent no spirituall forme conceive no divine or heavenly imaginations If wee seeke our owne and not the things that are Jesus Christs the goods not the good of our flocke wee lose the first letter of our name in the Prophet r Ezek. 3.17 Sonne of man I have made thee a watchman Ezekiel and of speculatores become peculatores and are not to be termed praedicatores but praedatores But I will not make this blot bigger by unskilfully going about to take it out 8 Of those that feede Not as Lords and take the over-sight of Gods flocke that is among them not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready minde some carry themselves like Lords over the flocke not as ensamples to their flock they goe in and out before them in a stately and lordly gate Å¿ Concil Carthag 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fumosus seculityphus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in swelling pride not in exemplary humility seeking rather to over-rule them with terrour and violence than rule over them with the spirit of meeknesse These though they are put up to the highest fourme yet have not learned the first lesson in the schoole of Christianity t Matth. 11.29 to be meek and lowly in heart neither understand they that divine graces which are the plants of Paradise are like to the tree in the Poet that bare golden boughes u Virg. Aen. 6. Quae quantum vertice ad auras Aethereas tantum radice in Tartara tendit whose root was just so much beneath the earth as the top was in height above it The higher Gods Saints grow upwards to perfection the deeper they take root downward in humility considering that they have nothing of their owne but sinne and what a foolish and impious sinne of pride is it to bee proud of sinne He that presumes on his owne strength saith holy Austine is conquered before hee fight To repose trust in our selves saith * Bern. serm 20. in vigil nat dom Sibimet ipsi fidere non fidei sed perfidiae est nec confidentiae sed diffidentiae magis in semetipso habere fiduciam Bernard is not of faith but perfidiousnesse neither breeds it true confidence but diffidence To bee proud of knowledge is to bee blinde with light to bee proud of vertue is to poyson himselfe with the Antidote and to be proud of authority is to make his rise his downefall and his ladder his ruine It is the darke foyle that giveth the Diamond its brightest lustre it is the humble and low and obscure conceit of our owne worth that giveth lustre and grace to all our vertues and perfections if we have any Moses glory was the greater because his face shined and he knew not of it Thus have I numbred unto you the severall linkes of the Apostles golden chaine of instructions for Pastors now let us gather them together in a narrow roome 1 Be not such as neede to be fed but are able and willing to feede 2 Feede not your selves but the flocke 3 Feede not the flocke or droves of Antichrist but the flocke of God 4 Feede the flocke of God not out of your charge or without you but the flocke of God which is among you 5 Content not your selves with feeding them onely with the Word and Sacrament but over-looke them also have an eye to their manners 6 Doe this not constrainedly but willingly 7 Not out of private respects but freely 8 Not proudly but humbly not to shew your authority over the flock but to set before them an ensample in your selves of humility meekenesse temperance patience and all other vertues Thus feede the flocke of God that is among you thus rule those whom you feede thus carry yourselves towards those whom you rule thus give good ensample in your carriage and when the chiefe shepheard and Bishop of your soules Christ Jesus shall appeare you shall receive in stead of a Crosier a Scepter of a Miter a Crowne of a Diocesse upon earth a Kingdome in heaven You see I have a large and plentifull field before mee yet I purpose at this time to follow the example of the Apostles x Matth. 12.1 who as they passed through the corne field plucked only an eare or two and rubbed them in their hands To rub the first eare that you may see what graine it yeeldeth To feed saith y l. 1. de Rom. pont c. 15. In scripturis pascere passim accipitur pro regere ut psal 2. reges cos in virgâ ferreâ in Heb. est pasce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apoc. 2.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bellarmine signifieth to rule with princely authority to sway the scepter as a spirituall Prince over Christs flocke and to this purpose hee alledgeth that text in the Apocalyps 2.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee shall feede or rule them with a rod of iron hard feeding for Christs sheepe hee had need to have an Estridge's stomacke that can digest this interpretation here Feed not over-ruling ver 3. that is over-rule them not feeding this is as naturall an interpretation of this scripture as the glosse upon the word statuimus in the Canon law id est abrogamus or statuimus quod non wee enact that is wee abrogate we command that is wee forbid we appoint this that is wee appoint that this shall not bee If this be a right interpretation of this place and the other parallel to it in Saint z Joh. 20.17 John then Saint * Bernard de considerat
most comfortable for g Gal. 6.14 God forbid saith hee that I should rejoice in any thing save in the crosse of Christ whereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world These points I shall cleare to your understanding and presse upon your devout affections Gods grace assisting your patience encouraging and the time permitting me I determined to know nothing among you c. No people under the cope of heaven were more desirous of knowledge or capable of a greater measure thereof than the Corinthians that were Pupilla Graeciae the apple of Greece the eye of the world and none more furnished with divine and humane knowledge than my Apostle whose portion especially of acquired learning was like to Benjamins of whose tribe hee was h Gen. 43.34 five times greater than his brethren 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eras Adag Yet this every way accomplisht Doctor of the Gentiles so inriched with all knowledge at Corinth the prime City of Greece the Royall Exchange if I may so speake of all arts and sciences whither men of ordinary ranke and quality might not easily have accesse among these who heard of Saint Paul that hee had beene i 2 Cor. 12.2 rapt up into the third heaven and expected that hee should utter unto them what hee saw and heard there hee will bee knowne to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified All that hee tooke up at Gamaliels feet hee layed downe at Christs hee buried his jewels of Egypt which cost him so deare under the wood of the crosse as Jacob did Labans idolls k Gen. 35.4 under the oake at Sichem Hee not onely under-valueth them in respect but maketh no reckoning of them I esteeme nothing of any nor will bee esteemed for any knowledge save of Jesus Christ and him crucified The coherence Which words are spoken by the Apostle here by way of apology to certaine of the Corinthians who prepossessed with the false Apostles making great shew of learning and eloquence could not away with the Apostles plainer and simpler kinde of teaching without ostentation of art or mixture of secular learning To these hee addresseth himselfe after this manner ver 1. And I brethren when I came unto you came not with excellency of words or wisedome declaring unto you the testimony of God For I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of mans wisedome but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith might not stand in the wisedome of man but in the power of God In effect he confesseth that his words were not so pickt The sense his phrase so choice his composition so smooth his sentences so fluent his cadences so sweet his language so polite his stile so flourishing or his lines so strong as were those of the false Apostles who with their puffed up eloquence and word wisedome sought to bring into contempt the simplicity of the Gospell I seeke not saith hee in effect to approve my doctrine unto you by Tropes of Rhetorike or Syllogismes of Logicke or Axiomes of Philosophy but by the evidence of the Spirit I professe no science among you but the science of the crosse and surely the plainest and simplest method and manner of teaching best fitteth it Were it decent and agreeable thinke you to treat of God his emptying himselfe in swelling words to speake of Christ his abasing himselfe in a lofty stile to discourse sweetly upon gall and vinegar to beset nailes and thornes with flowers of Rhetoricke and to bring our Saviour in pompe of words and vaine-glorious pageants of art to his crosse Let them make ostentation of their learning and eloquence who preach themselves I that am a Minister of Christ and called to preach him make conscience to adde any thing of mine owne that may detract from him or any way obscure the doctrine of the Gospell Doct. 1 The Ministers of the word may esteeme of secular learning in it's ranke but they must not as if they were making merchandise thereof expose it to sale in their sermons they must not seek to value themselves chiefly by it or make any shew or ostentation thereof to the obscuring or any way disparaging the doctrine of the Gospell There are many simples goe to the making of a soveraigne Electuary which yet cannot bee discerned in it when it is made wee see not the honey-suckles and other sweet flowers which Kine feede upon in the spring l Virg Geor. 4. Attamen occultum referunt in lacte saporem yet wee have the taste of them in the milke The Prince of the Romane Oratours illustrateth the like observation by a similitude drawne from those that walke in the sunne m Cic. de orat l. 1 who though they walke not to that end to bee sunne-burnt yet if they walke long they will bee so in like manner though a man study not the arts to this end to gaine an opinion of learning or skill in them nay though hee conceale art which is a high point of art with all possible art yet by that which hee performeth in his pleading of causes it will appeare how hee hath profited in them I determine to know nothing c. The Apostle seemeth to bee very flat upon the negative and by a kinde of Ostracisme to banish all eminency of secular learning out of the schoole of Christ yet as Saint n Chrysin hunc â—â—cum Chrysostome well notes hee doth not absolutely condemne humane learning and eloquence wherein himselfe excelled for that had beene to slurre his owne perfections but the edge of his Apostolicall reprehension falleth upon the abuse ostentation or over-prising it to the prejudice of the knowledge of Christ crucified I know the ground I now tread upon is slippery and therefore I must carefully looke to my feete lest they slide on either side To derogate from the all-sufficiency of Scripture is sacriledge and blasphemy and on the other side to detract from the worth and credite of arts and sciences is anabaptisticall frenzie the truth in the middle may bee laid downe in this Aphorisme Scripture is of it selfe abundantly sufficient for us but we are not sufficient for it without the help of the arts or as we terme them liberall sciences Wee cannot sufficiently either conceive our selves or declare to our hearers the works of God without naturall Philosophy nor the law of God without morall nor the attributes of God without the Metaphysickes nor the dimensions of the Arke and Temple without the Mathematickes nor the songs of Sion without Musicke and Poetry Wee cannot interpret the text of Scripture without Grammar analyze it without Logicke presse and apply it without Rhetoricke Wherefore let Brownists and Separatists scoffe at University learning as the Foxe in the Greeke Epigram disparageth the faire and ripe grapes on a high tree because they were out of
see thy selfe in heaven with one eye than to see thy selfe in hell with both better hoppe into life with one legge than runne to eternall death with both better without a right hand to bee set with the sheepe at Gods right hand than having a right hand to bee set at Gods left hand and afterwards with both thine hands bee bound to bee cast into hell fire c ver 44.46.48 where the worme never dyeth and the fire is not quenched and againe and a third time where the worme never dyeth and the fire is not quenched At the mention whereof it being the burthen of his dolefull Sonnet our Saviour perceiving the eares of his auditors to tingle in the words of my text hee yeeldeth a reason of that his so smart and biting admonition saying For every one shall be salted c. and withall hee sheweth them a meanes to escape that unquenchable fire which they so much dreaded and to kill the immortall worme which even now began to bite them The meanes to escape the one is to bee salted here with fire and the meanes to kill the other is to be salted here with salt for salt preserveth from that putrefaction which breedeth that worme He who now is salted with the fire of zeale or heart-burning sorrow for his sinnes shall never hereafter bee salted with the fire of hell this fire will keepe out that as d Ovid. Met. l. 2. Saevis compescuit ignibus ignes Jupiters fire drove out Phaetons and hee who macerateth here his fleshly members with the salt of Gods uncorrupt word and the cleansing grace of his spirit shall never putrefie in his sinnes nor feele the torment of the never dying worme The Philosophers make three partitions as it were in the soule of man the first they call the reasonable or seate of judgement the second the irascible or seat of affections the third the concupiscible or the seat of desires and lusts In the reasonable part they who knew nothing of the fall of man and originall corruption find little amisse but in the concupiscible they note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something like superfluous moisture inclining to luxury in the irascible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something like cold or rawnesse enclining to feare behold in my text a remedy for both fire for the one and salt for the other And that wee may not lose a sparke of this holy fire or a graine of this salt so soveraigne let us in a more exact division observe 1 Two kindes of seasoning 1 With fire 2 With salt 2 Two sorts of things to bee seasoned 1 Men without limitation Every 2 Sacrifices without exception All. God e Gen. 4.4 had respect unto Abel and his sacrifice first to Abel and then to his offering hee accepteth not the man for his sacrifice but the sacrifice for the mans sake First therefore of men and their salting with fire and after of sacrifices and their salting with salt Every one shall bee salted with fire Saint f Hieron in hunc locum Mire dictum est c. ille verè victima domini est qui corpus animam a vitus emundando Deo per amorem consecratur nec sale aspergitur sed igne consumitur quando non peccati tantum contagio pellitur sed praesentis vitae delectatio tollitur futurae conversationi totā mente suspiratur Jerome was much taken with this speech of our Saviour it is saith he an admirable saying That which is seasoned with salt is preserved from corruption of vermine that which is salted with fire loseth some of the substance with both the sacrifices of the old Law were seasoned such a sacrifice in the Gospell is hee who cleansing his body and soule from vice by love consecrateth himselfe to God who then it not onely sprinkled with salt but also consumed with fire when not onely the contagion of sinne is driven away but also all delight of this present life is taken away and wee sigh with our whole soule after our future conversation which shall bee with God and his Angels in heaven It is newes to heare of salting of men especially with fire an uncouth expression yet used by our Saviour to strike a deeper impression into the mindes of his hearers and verily the Metaphor is not so hard and strained as the duty required is harsh and difficult to our nature It went much against flesh and blood to heare of plucking out an eye or cutting off an hand or foot yet that is nothing in comparison to salting with fire salt draweth out the corrupt blood and superfluous moisture out of flesh but fire taketh away much of the substance thereof if not all For the fattest and best parts of all sacrifices were devoured by the flame of such things as were offered to God by fire If such a salting bee requisite wee must then not onely part with an eye or a hand or a foot but even with heart and head and whole body to be burned for the testimony of the Gospell if so the case stand that either we must leave our body behind us or wee leave Christ Such a salting is here prescribed by our high Priest as draweth out not onely corrupt moisture but consumeth much of the flesh also yea sometimes all that is not onely bereaveth us of superfluous vanities and sinfull pleasures but even of our chiefe comforts of life it selfe our friends our estates our honours yea sometimes our very bodies So hot is this fire so quicke is this salt Those that are redeemed by Christs blood must thinke nothing too deare for him who paid so deare for them rather than forfeit their faith and renounce the truth they must willingly lay all at stake for his sake who pawned not onely his humane body and soule but after a sort his divine person also to satisfie the justice of God for us Every one How farre this Every one extends and what this salting with fire signifieth the best Interpreters ancient and latter are not fully agreed Some restraine every one to the reprobate only and by fire understand hell-fire others to the elect onely and by fire understand the fire of Gods spirit or grace burning out as it were and consuming our naturall corruptions They who stand for the former interpretation conceive that Christ in these words yeeldeth a reason why hee said that hell-fire shall never bee quenched Ver. 48. for every one that is say they of the damned in hell shall bee salted with that fire the fire shall be to their bodies as salt is to flesh which keepeth it from putrefying O cruell mercy of hellish flames O saving destruction O preservation worse than perdition O fire eternally devouring and yet preserving its owne fuell O punishment bringing continuall torments to the damned and continuing their bodies and soules in it It is worse than death to be kept alive to eternall pains it is
delicate fruits they who overcome not eat not x Apoc. 2.17 the hidden Manna as they partake not of the Spouse her graces so neither have they any right or title to her titles They are no Temples but rather styes no dove-cotes but cages of uncleane birds no habitations for the holy Ghost but rather haunts of uncleane spirits They indeed live and move in God for out of him they cannot subsist but y Gal. 2.20 Neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Rom. 8 9. 2 Cor. 6.16 God himselfe liveth and moveth in the godly God is in all places and abideth every where yet hee z Ephes 3.17 dwelleth onely in the hearts of true believers For they and they onely are the Temple of the living God Doctr. 4 Are. In the Romane Kalendar no Saints are entred till many miracles be voiced upon them after death but in Gods Register wee finde Saints in the Church on earth among the a Rom. 1.7 Romanes b 1 Cor. 1.2 Corinthians c Eph. 1.1 Ephesians d Phil. 1.1 Philippians at e Act. 9.32 Lydda and elsewhere But what Saints and how Saints by calling Saints by a holy profession and blamelesse conversation Saints by gratious acceptation of pious endeavours rather than of performances Saints by inchoation Saints by regeneration of grace Saints by daily renovation of the inward man Saints by devotion and dedication of themselves wholly to God Saints by inhabitation of the holy spirit in them which maketh them a holy Temple of the living God In this life we are f 1 Cor. 3.23 Gods for all things are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods in the life to come g Apo. 21.22 And I saw no Temple therein for the Lord God almighty and the Lambe are the Temple thereof God is ours In this life wee are Gods Temple but in the life to come God is g Apo. 21.22 And I saw no Temple therein for the Lord God almighty and the Lambe are the Temple thereof ours Now God dwelleth with us and is but slenderly entertained by us but there wee shall dwell with him and have fulnesse of all things yet without satiety or being cloyed therewith Doctr. 5 The Temple Not the Temples but the Temple Gen. 1.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the learned Hebricians from the construction of the noune plurall with a verb singular as if you would say in Latine Dii or Numina creavit gather the trinity of persons in the unity of the divine nature so from the construction here of a singular adjunct with a subject plurall wee may inferre the plurality of the faithfull in the unity of the Church For wee that are many yet are truely one many graines one bread many sheepe one fold many members one body many branches one vine many private oratories or chaplets but one Temple The parts of the Catholike Church are so farre scattered and dissevered in place that they cannot make one materiall yet they are so neare joyned in affection and fast linked with the bonds of religion that they make but one spirituall Temple They are many soules and must needs have as many divers naturall bodies yet in regard they are all quickned guided and governed by the same spirit they make but one mysticall body whose head is in heaven and members dispersed over the earth Can unity bee divided If wee are rent in sunder by schisme and faction Christ his seamelesse coate cannot cover us all The Philosophers finde it in the naturall the States-men in the politicke and I pray God wee finde it not in the mysticall body of Christ h Cyp. de simplic prel A velle radium à sole divisionem lucis unitas non capit ab arbore frange ramum fructum germinare non poterit à fonte praecide rivum prorsus arescet That division tends to corruption and dissolution to death Plucke a beame if you can from the body of the sunne it will have no light breake a branch from the tree it will beare no fruit sever a river from the spring it will soone bee dryed up cut a member from the body it presently dyeth cast a pumice stone into the water and though it bee never so bigge while it remaines entire and the parts whole together it will swimme above water but breake it into pieces and every piece will sinke in like manner the Church and Common-wealth which are supported and as it were borne up above water by unity are drowned in perdition by discord dissention schisme and faction It is not possible that those things which are knit by a band should hold fast together after the band it selfe is broken How can a sinew hold steddy the joint if it bee sprayned or broken or cut in sunder Religion beloved brethren is the band of all society the strongest sinew of Church or Commonwealth God forbid there should bee any rupture in this band any sprayne in this sinew The husbandman hath sowed good seede cleane and picked in this Kingdome for more than threescore yeeres and it hath fructified exceedingly since the happy reformation of Religion in these parts O let no envious man sow upon it those tares which of late have sprung up in such abundance in our neighbour countries that they have almost choaked all the good wheat Let no roote of bitternesse spring up in our Paradise or if it bee sprung let authority or at least Christian charity plucke it up Wee are all one body let us all have the same minde towards God and endeavour to the utmost of our power to i Eph. 4 3. preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace that our spirituall Jerusalem may resemble the old Byzantium the stones whereof were so matched and the wall built so uniformely that the whole City seemed to bee but one stone continued throughout It was the honour of the k Psal 122.3 Jerusalem is builded as a City that is compacted together old let it bee also of the new Jerusalem that it is a City at unity in it selfe Doctr. 6 I have held you thus long in the Porch let us now enter into the Temple Glorious things are spoken of you O ye chosen of God yee are tearmed vessels of honour lights of the world a chosen generation a royall priesthood a peculiar people a celestiall society yet nothing ever was or can be more spoken to Your endlesse comfort and superexcellent glory than that you are Children of the Father Members of the Sonne and Temples of the holy Ghost Seneca calleth the world Augustissimum Dei Templum a most magnificent Temple of God David the heaven Solomon the Church Saint Paul the Elect in the Church and in a sense not altogether improper we may tearme the world the Temple of the Church the Church the Temple of our bodies our bodies the Temples of our soules and our soules most peculiarly the Temples of the
teach us as Saint Austine noteth that neither the poverty of the one brought him thither nor the wealth of the other kept him from thence y John 14.2 In my Fathers house saith our Saviour there are many mansions some for the rich some for the poore some for noble some for ignoble some for z Agapet ad Justin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kings some for beggars and it is hard to say whethers crowne in Heaven shall be more massie and be set with more orient jewells the rich mans who is also rich in God or the poore mans who is poore for God the wealthy who hath given much to Christ or the needy who hath lost all for his sake the noble and honourable man who by his birth and place hath innobled the Christian faith or the ignoble who hath preferred the ignominy of Christs crosse to all the honours of this world the King who layeth downe his scepter at the foot of Christs crosse or the Beggar who taketh up his crosse and readily followeth Christ It is true which Saint a Cypr. de laps Multos patrimonia pondere suo depresserunt in terâ—am Cyprian chargeth many of the rich in his time with that their great patrimonies and large revenues of their lands with the weight thereof pressed them downe to the earth nay some to hell But the fault was in their minde not in their meanes in their desires not in their fortunes or estates For as when a man taketh a heavie Trunke full of plate or mony upon his shoulders it crooketh his back and boweth him down toward the earth but if the same weight be put under his feet it lifteth him above ground in like maner if we put our wealth and riches above us preferring them to our salvation they will presse us downe to the ground if not to hell with their weight but if wee put them under our feet and tread upon them as slaves to us and quite contemne them in respect of heavenly treasure they will raise us up towards heaven As they did Job who made so many friends of unrighteous Mammon that every eye that saw him blessed him As they did Mary Magdalen whose name is and shall bee like an oyntment powred out to the end of the world because shee brake an Alabaster boxe of most costly b Matth. 26.12 13. Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memoriall of her oyntment upon the head of our Saviour As they did Cornelius whose almes-deeds were a forcible meanes to carry up his prayers into Heaven Acts 10.31 Thy prayer is heard and thine almes-deeds are had in remembrance As they did Dorcas whom the clothes which shee made for the widowes and poore orphants kept warme in her death bed The c Acts 9.39 widowes stood by her weeping and shewing the coates and garments which Dorcas made whilest shee was with them and were motives to Saint Peter by miracle to restore her to life As they did Constantine the great who made his crown the basis of Christs crosse As they did Ludovicus who by continuall largesse turned all his state into obligations The meaning then is not that none are blessed but poore for d 1 Tim. 4.8 Godlinesse is profitable unto all things c. Godlinesse hath the promises of this life and the life to come But to make up the harmony of the Evangelicall doctrine in this place wee must take one note from the words as they are related by Saint Luke and another from the words as they are recorded by Saint Matthew in my Text. The note from Saint Luke is That the worlds miserable man is for the most part Christs blessed man Christs words in Saint Luke are these e Luke 6.20 21 24 25. Blessed be yee poore for yours is the Kingdome of God Blessed are yee that hunger now for yee shall be filled Blessed are yee that weep now for yee shall laugh But woe unto you that are rich for you have received your consolation Woe be unto you that are full for you shall hunger Woe unto you that laugh now for you shall mourne and weep Vicibus res disposita est Happinesse goes by turnes Dives shall be Lazarus hereafter and Lazarus on earth shall be Dives in Heaven those who laugh here shall weep there and those who weep here shall laugh there those who feast continually and riot in pleasures in this world shall fast in the other and those who fast upon earth shall feast with the Lambe in Heaven But the note which we are to take from Saint Matthew is That affliction and penury unlesse it be sanctified to us by God no way maketh us happy Blessed are the poore not simply but with an addition in spirit The poore are blessed if poore in spirit that is humble Blessed are they that mourn if their mourning be a godly mourning either out of sense of their owne sinne or compassion of their brethrens miseries For godly f 2 Cor. 7.10 sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to bee repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death Blessed are they that hunger and thirst if it be for righteousnesse for there are that hunger for the flesh-pots of Egypt and there are that thirst after bloud or after g Prov. 9.17 Stolne waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant but hee knoweth not that the dead are there and that her guests are in the depth of hell stolne waters which are sweet in the mouth but poyson in the belly and rottennesse in the bones And neither of these are blessed All that are in want are not Christs poore neither are all that weare blackes his mourners Saint Luke saith in effect not many rich are blessed Saint Matthew addeth nor all poore but the poore in spirit onely that is such as are of an humble spirit or a h Prov. 16.19 Esay 57 15. I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit contrite spirit Those i Beza in Mat. 5. Qui sive paupertate sive aliis calamitatibus domiti sive ultro peccatorum suorum sensu tacti ab omni superbiâ remoti sese Deo subjiciunt who by any affliction outward or inward are so thoroughly tamed and subdued that they humble themselves under the mighty hand of God wholly relying upon his providence for their estate and upon his mercy for their salvation None is poore in spirit saith k Calvin harm Nemo spiritu pauper est nisi qui in nihilum apud se redactus in Dei misericordiâ recumbit namque desperatione fracti cum adversus Deum fremunt elato superboque spiritu esse oportet Calvin but he who being brought to nothing in himselfe casteth himselfe wholly upon Gods mercy For hee who groweth into desperate fits and murmureth against the most
teares from their eyes These are they that came out of great tribulation Great tribulation in the judgement of Marlorat is a periphrasis of the last persecution of the Church by Antichrist which shall be the hottest service the souldiers of Christ shall ever be put to As the last endevour of nature before death putteth the patient to most paine and the last assault of Pharaoh put the Israelites to the greatest extremity so the last persecution of the Church by Antichrist shall exceed all the former i Mat. 24.29 For then the sunne that is the knowledge of the truth or the light of Gods countenance shall be darkned and the moon that is the beauty of the Church shal be obscured turned into bloud that is deformed by bloudy persecutions and the stars shall fall from heaven that is the greatest lights of the Church shall fall from it and there shal be such perplexity and distresse of nations as never was before then as k Aug. ep 80. Tunc Ecclesia non apparebit impiis ultra modum persequentibus St. Augustine inferreth the Church shall have no outward appearance wicked men raging and cruelly persecuting her above measure But I see no reason why we should restraine tribulation to persecution or persecution to that of Antichrist For every great affliction and heavie crosse which the faithfull beare in this world be it losse of goods or of friends banishment imprisonment infamy torture of body or vexation of mind is great tribulation through which any elect child of God may enter into heaven Albeit we yeeld Martyrs a precedency amongst Saints yet they alone enter not into their masters joy Let their garlands have a red rose added unto it and their crowne a rubie above the rest yet assuredly all other that are l Apoc. 2.10 faithfull unto death shall receive the crowne of life all that fight a good fight and keepe the faith after they have finished their course shall receive a crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give at that day to all that love his appearing The article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not demonstrative pointing to any singular persecution but intensive intimating that many and very great tribulations abide the faithfull servants of God and they must through them enter into the kingdome of heaven their life is nothing else but a m Hieron ep ad Heliodor Etras frateâ— erras si unquam putas Christianum persecutionem non pati tunc maximè oppugnatis si te oppâ—gnati nescis race of patience through many tribulations and a battell of faith against all kind of temptations A Christian is never without an enemy to persecute him inwardly or outwardly even this is a temptation of the Divell to thinke that wee are at any time free from all temptation For either wee are in warre with the World Flesh and the Divell or God will fight against us either we are afflicted for our sinnes or afflicted with our sinnes and if God for a long time spare us even this afflicteth us that we are not afflicted For sith God afflicteth them whom he affecteth we have just cause to feare because wee are not under his rod we are out of his care and that therefore he chasteneth us not here because he reserveth us to eternall torments If any demand why God carrieth a more severe hand over his children than over the wicked that deserve lesse favour I answer by propounding them the like questions Why doth a father when hee seeth two boyes fighting in the street correct his sonne and not the other Why doth the Schoolemaster take a stricter account of the Scholar hee best affecteth than of others whom hee suffereth often to play the trewants Why doth the husbandman let unfruitfull and unsavory trees grow out at length without any cutting or pruning but pruneth the fragrant roses and pricketh the fruitfull vines till they bleed Why doth the Physician when hee seeth his patient desperate give order to them that are about him to deny him nothing that he hath a mind unto but if he hath any hope of recovery of any patient of his he keepeth him in diet forbiddeth him such things as he most desireth and prescribeth for him many meats drinkes and potions which goe against his stomacke Lastly why doth a Captaine set the best Souldiers in the forefront of a battell and appointeth them to enter at a breach with apparent hazzard of their lives To the first question they will answer that a wise father taketh up his son sharply and correcteth him for his misdemeanour and not the other because he hath a speciall care of his sonnes behaviour and not of the other thus let them thinke of the Father of Spirits his dealing with his children who chasteneth those faults in them which he seemeth to winke at in others because he beareth a singular affection to his owne and hath a speciall care of their nurture To the second they will answer that a good schoolemaster taketh a more strict account of his best scholar and more often plyeth him with the rod or feruler than any other because he most desireth his profit let them thinke so of our heavenly Teacher that hee holds a stricter hand over those in Christs schoole who outstrip others that they may more profit by him To the third they will answer that an understanding husbandman letteth other trees grow to their full length without cutting or pruning them because they are good for nothing but for fire wood but he pruneth the roses to make them more savoury and the vines to make them more fruitfull let them thus conceive of themselves that they are like vines that runne into luxuriant stemmes and roses apt to grow wilde therefore God the Father who o John 5.1 is an husbandman pruneth them to make them more savourie in their prayers and meditations and more fruitfull in good workes To the fourth they will answer that the Physician doth according to his art to cure the body and God doth the like in wisedome to cure the soule they whom he ordereth not setting them in a course of physick but letteth them doe what they will and have what they call for are in a desperate case To the last they will answer that the experienced Captaine setteth the most valiant souldiers in places of greatest danger that they may get the greater honour so doth God set the most valiant Christian upon the most dangerous service that thereby he may gaine greater honour and a more massie crowne of glory Moreover sinne taketh us oftentimes after the nature of a falling sicknesse out of which our heavenly Father awaketh us by the stroake of his rod. Whereby also hee beateth downe the pride of our flesh and keepeth us alwayes in awe and constraineth us to cry aloud unto him in our prayers he maketh us sensible of our sinnes
unto our spirits that wee are the sonnes of God Pretious metals are digged out of the bowels of the earth and pearles are found in the bottome of the sea and truely seldome shall we fall upon this treasure of spirituall joy and pearle of the Gospell but in the depth of godly sorrow and bottome and lowest point of our humiliation before God 1. The first taste wee have of the hidden Manna of the Spirit is in the beginning of our conversion and nonage of our spirituall life when after unutterable remorse sorrow and feare arising from the apprehension of the corruption and guilt of our naturall estate and a dreadfull expectation of wrath laid up for us against the day of wrath and everlasting weeping howling and gnashing of teeth with the damned in hell wee on the suddaine see a glympse of Gods countenance shining on us and by faith though yet weake hope for a perfect reconciliation to him 2. A second taste wee have when wee sensibly perceive the Spirit of grace working upon our heart thawing it as it were and melting it into godly sorrow and after enflaming it with an everlasting love of him who by his infinite torments and unconceivable sorrowes hath purchased unto us eternall joyes 3. A third taste wee have of it when after a long fight with our naturall corruptions wee meet with the Divels Lievtenant the sinne that reigneth in us which the Scripture calleth the plague of the heart that vice to which either the temper of our body or our age or condition of life enclineth us unto our bosome abomination to which for a long time wee have enthralled our selves and having perfectly discovered it by employing the whole armour of God against it in the end wee get the victory of it 4. A fourth taste wee have after some heavie crosse or long sicknesse when God delivereth us above hope and sanctifieth our affliction unto us and by his Spirit calleth to our remembrance all his goodnesse to us from our childhood and anointeth our eyes with eye-salve that wee may see the manifold fruits of the crosse and finde in our selves with David that it was good for us thus to bee afflicted 5. A fift taste wee have at some extafie in our life or a trance at our death when wee are rapt up as it were into the third heaven with St. Paul and see those things that eye never saw and heare words that cannot be uttered Thus have I opened unto you five springs of the waters of comfort in which after you have stript your selves of wordly cares and earthly delights you may bathe your soules in the bottome whereof you may see the white stone which Christ promiseth to him that overcommeth saying To him that overcommeth I will give to eate of the hidden Manna To whom c. THE WHITE STONE THE XXVII SERMON APOC. 2.17 And I will give him a white stone Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. IT was the manner of the Thracians to reckon up all the happy dayes of their life and marke them in a booke or table with a white stone whereunto the Poet alluding saith a Pers satyr Hunc Macrine diem numera meliore lapillo May it please God by his Spirit to imprint those mysteries in your hearts which are engraven upon this stone I doubt not but this day in which I am to describe unto you the nature of it will prove so happy that it shall deserve to bee scored up with the like stone For this white stone is a certaine token and pledge of present remission of sinnes and future admission into Christs kingdome Whereof through divine assistance by your wonted patience I will speake at large after I have refreshed the characters in your memory of my former observations upon this Scripture which setteth before all that overcome in the threefold christian warre 1 Forraine against Sathan Recapitulat 2 Civill against the world 3 Servile against fleshly lusts three boones or speciall gifts 1 Hidden Manna a type of spirituall consolation 2 A white stone the embleme of justification 3 A new name the imprese of glorification There is 1 Sweetnesse in the hidden Manna 2 Comfort in the white stone 3 Glory in the new name The sweetnesse of the hidden Manna wee tasted 1 In the mysticall meaning of the Word 2 In the secret power of the Sacrament 3 In the unutterable comfort of the Spirit And now I am to deliver unto you in the next place the white stone In the handling whereof I will levell at those three scientificall questions mentioned by b Aristot analyt post l. 2. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Notand quod sit referti ad an sit ubi de accidente quaeritur quia accidentis esse est messe Aristotle in his bookes of demonstration Divis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An sit aut quod sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quid sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Propter quod sit First whether there be any such white stone Secondly what it is Thirdly to what end it is given and what use wee are to make of it for our instruction correction or comfort First of the An sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether there be any such stone or no. There hath beene for many ages a great question De lapide Philosophico of the Philosophers stone to which they ascribe a rare vertue to turne baser metals into gold but there is no question at all among the sincere professours of the Gospell De lapide theologico of the divine stone in my text which yet is far more worth and of greater vertue than that For that if we have any faith in Alchymy after much labour and infinite cost will turne base metall into gold but this will undoubtedly turne penitent teares into pearle and drops of blood shed for the testimony of the Gospell into rubies and hematites to beset our crowne of glory With this stone as a speciall love-token Christ assureth his dearest spouse that c Rom. 8.28 all things shall turn to her good and worke together for her endlesse happinesse Hee that hath this white stone shall by the eye of faith see it suddenly turne all temporall losses into spirituall advantages all crosses into blessings all afflictions into comforts What though some heretickes or profane persons have no beliefe of this white stone no more than they have of that d Mat. 13.46 pearle of great price which the Merchant sold all that hee had to buy What though some have beene abused by counterfeit stones like to this shall wee not therefore regard this or seeke after it This were all one as if an expert Gold-smith should refuse to look after pure gold because some ignorant Merchant hath beene cheated with sophisticated alchymie stuffe for gold or if a skilfull Jeweller should offer nothing for an orient Diamond because an unskilfull Lapidary hath beene corisened with a Cornish or Bristow stone in stead of it The
there be no assurance of faith it selfe Saint u Ep. 112 c 3. Fides ipsa mente uâ—que videtur quamvis hoc fide credatur quod non videtur Austine is most expresse for this reflexive act of faith Faith it selfe saith hee is seene in the minde though wee believe those things by faith which wee cannot see and again * De trin l. 13. c. 2. Fides est in intimis nostris mentibus nec eam quisquam hominum videt in alio sed in semet-ipso Faith is in the inward parts of the soule neither can any man see it in another but in himselfe hee may Could there bee any doubt of this I would evict it out of the expresse words of our Saviour Joh. 14.20 In that day you shall know that I am in the Father and you in mee and I in you And of Saint Paul x 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether you be in the faith or no. Know yee not your selves that Christ is in you except you bee reprobates And y 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed And z 1 Cor. 2.12 Wee have not received the Spirit of the World but the Spirit of God that wee might know the things that are freely given us of God Hang up a taper or a carbuncle in a darke roome and you shall perceive that first it discovereth it selfe by its owne light and then all things in the roome This taper or carbuncle is faith in the soule which as it manifesteth all other graces so most clearly also it selfe The heat by the incident beame of the sunne is but weake the greatest is by the reflected so is it in the act of faith there is but small warmth of comfort from the direct act whereby wee beleeve the singular priviledges of all true beleevers the greatest comfort is by the reflexive viz. that wee are true beleevers and share in those comforts Without this reflexive knowledge there can bee a Rom. 14.5 no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full perswasion in our mindes much lesse b Eph. 3.12 In whom wee have boldnesse and accesse with confidence by the faith of him accesse with confidence Which yet the auncient Fathers not onely teach plainly out of the Apostle but also shew manifestly how it may be obtained S. c Moral q. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Basil putteth this case of conscience How may the soule assuredly bee perswaded that God hath forgiven unto her her sinnes And hee resolveth it thus When shee findeth in her selfe the like disposition and affection to his that said I hate iniquity and all false wayes I utterly abhorre Saint d Amb. Serm. 2. de serm Ambrose thus He that cleaveth to that leaven is made himselfe leaven and thereby sure of his owne salvation and secure of gaining others to the faith Saint e Leo Serm. 2. de pasch Leo thus If they finde any of the fruits of charity in their conscience let them not doubt but that God is in them But wee need not borrow torch light where the sunne shineth so bright in holy scriptures f 1 Joh. 5.10 Hee that beleeveth in the sonne of God hath the testimony in himselfe And the g Rom. 8.16 Spirit testifieth to our spirit that we are the sonnes of God the Spirit of God warranteth the major In whomsoever the markes of Gods children set downe in scripture are conspicuous they are the sonnes of God our Spirit testifieth the minor that these marks are in us Now because this assumption can be proved no otherwise than by experience and our owne inward sense my fourth observation hence directly ensueth That no man knoweth the new name save he that receiveth it which is the last point now to be touched and note to be quavered on in my close viz. the propriety of this knowledge None knoweth save he that receiveth it For no man knoweth the things of a man save the h 1 Cor. 2.11 spirit of man that is in him If this white stone were visible to the eye of the body and it were given to us in presence of others it could not be but that some should see and know it besides him that receiveth it But this white stone is conspicuous only to the eye of faith which is the i Heb. 11.1 evidence of things not seene and it is given by the Spirit which is invisible and received also by the inward faculties of our soule which are likewise invisible Were this knowledge onely conjecturall and gathered from outward signes and tokens others might have notice thereof as well as our selves but the Spirit saith here No man knoweth save he that receiveth it It must be therefore a speciall act of speciall faith whereby we are assured of our adoption by faith and of faith by the Spirit k In Apoc. Sint duo quorum uterque laudat mel sed alterus lingua loquitur quod fauces ignorant alterius quod delectatio gustus cum docuerit Ansbertus giveth good aime to the meaning of this text Suppose two saith he commending hony of whom the first discourseth out of his reading the tongue of the second hath tasted that he speaketh of such saith he is the knowledge of him who hath received the white stone Others may know it in specie but he in individuo others contemplatively but he experimentally l in Apoc. Tantae excellentiae est nomen istud ut nemo sciat quid valeat quantum boni comprehendat nisi qui adoptatus est Sardus commeth nearer the marke This name saith he is of such excellency that no man knoweth it that is the value and worth of it but he who is adopted by God m Rupert in Apoc. Cui nemo scit nisi qui accipit quia nominis ejus scientiam non alterius extrinsecus documentum sed proprium interius efficit experimentum ideo nemo scit nisi quem spiritus regenerando filium Dei effecerit ipsâ regeneratione scientem ejus rei doctumque suo tactu effecerit Rupertus hitteth it Why saith he doth no man know this name saving he that receiveth it Because this name cannot be knowne by any outward document but by an inward experiment not by externall evidence but by inward sense therefore no man knoweth it saving he whom the Spirit by regeneration maketh the sonne of God and by the same act maketh him know it There is a great difference betweene a contemplative and an experimentall knowledge of the priviledges of Gods children A blind man from his birth may heare the theory of the Sun read unto him but he can never conceive rightly of the beauty of that glorious lamp of heaven or take the hundreth part of that delight which we doe who see it The discourse of the Jewish Rabbins concerning the delicacy of this Manna in my text is sweet but nothing to the taste of it The meditations of Divines upon the joyes of
heaven are able to ravish the soule with delight yet are they nothing to St. n 2. Cor. 12.2 Pauls rapture into the third heaven so farre experimentall knowledge in particular exceedeth contemplative in generall Out of this experimentall knowledge the Spouse testifieth o Cant. 5 1. I have eaten my hony combe with my hony To this the Prophet David inviteth p Psal 34.8 O taste and see how gracious the Lord is For this the Apostle prayeth that the Philippians might abound in all spirituall wisedome and q Psal 1.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 experience or sense and this is the knowledge here meant You have heard the lessons set in the lines of my text what remaineth but that according to my proposed method I direct you to foot the spirituall dance accordingly 1 And in the stone a new name Mutatio nominis mutatio hominis Applicat a new name should carry with it a new man When God changed r Gen. 32.28 Jacobs name into Israel he changed his condition and certainely Christ giveth this new name to none to whom he giveth not withall a new nature If therefore we expect that Christ should write this new name in a white stone and give it us let us give all diligence that the image of the new man may shine in our soules otherwise if the old Adam be young in us if our old infirmities be strong in us if the old leven puffing us up with pride and sowring the whole lumpe of our nature is still in us if our old corruptions be they vitious or ambitious or a varitious or superstitious still master us this white stone here mentioned will prove a black stone to us and this new name written in it a hand-writing against us For a ſ Salvianus de provid l. 4. Reatus impii pium nomen l. 3. Quid est in quo nobis de Christiano nomine blandiamur cum utique hoc ipso magis per nomen sacratissimum rei simus quod a sanctimoniâ discrepamus holy and godly title in a wicked man improveth the guilt of his sinne This new name is the title of the Son of God which appellation should bind us to our good behaviour that we carry our selves so in private towards God so in publike towards men so holily in our devotion so faithfully in our vocation so uprightly in our conversation that we may be Proles tanto non inficianda parenti children not unworthy to be owned by such a Father who hath adopted us in Christ What a shame is it for a Prince or the sonne of a Noble man to filch and cheat and take base courses and live sordidly Tertullian strongly refuteth Montanus his prophecies by his personall infirmities What saith he a Prophet and a Dicer a Prophet and an Usurer a Prophet and fleshly given a Prophet and distemper himselfe with drinke Wee may streigne this string higher What a Christian beleever and a Pagan liver the Sonne of God and doe the workes of the Divell the childe of light and walke in darknesse in gluttony chambering and wantonnesse strife and envying an heire of heaven and all his mind and thoughts upon the mucke and dung of the earth Why dost thou reproach thine owne t Basil seleuc Cur appellationi cujus virtute cares contumelium irrogas quid gestas cognomen quid personae probro sit quid factis appelationem impugnas calumniâ nomen tuum afficis name Why dost thou disgrace thy greatest honour Why dost thou overthrow thine owne title by thy deeds 3 If Christ hath written our new name in a white stone let us imprint his name in our hearts as Ignatius did and that so deepely if we may beleeve the Legend that the characters thereof were legible in it after his death let us sing a new song to him that hath given us this new name 4 If no man upon earth know to whom Christ hath given this white stone saving he that receiveth it let us take heed how we suddenly write any mans name in a blacke stone I meane passe the censure of Reprobates upon them The u Mat. 7.1 Judge himselfe adviseth not to judge lest we be judged The foundation of God remaineth sure having this seale God knoweth who are his not we we ought to labour for the reformation and pray for the conversion and hope for the salvation of any to whom God for ought we know may give repentance unto life as he hath given to us They cannot be worse than we have beene x Cypr. ep l. 3. Nemo id sibi arroget quod sibi soli reservat pater Let no man arrogantly assume that to himselfe which the Father hath reserved to himselfe alone viz. the fanne to sever the wheate from the chaffe in Christs floore 5 Lastly if we desire to eat of the hidden Manna let us loathe the flesh-pots of Egypt if we covet this white stone let us value it above all precious stones if we expect this new name let us contemne the titles of the world let us study lesse other mens titles and states on earth and more our owne state in Gods promises and title to heaven let us view in the glasse of holy Scripture the true markes of Gods children and seeke to find them all in our selves So shall we be sure before death closeth up our eies to have a sight of this new name here and after we remove hence to read it written in glorious characters in the gates and walls of the new Jerusalem descending from God whose x Apoc. 21.19 streets are paved with gold and the gates and foundations of the walls garnished with pearles and all sorts of precious stones into which heavenly Mansions when we are ready for them God receive us for his sake who is gone thither before to prepare them for us To whom c. SATANAE STRATAGEMATA THE XXIX SERMON 2 COR. 2.11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. SCaliger hath long since set forth an excellent worke de emendatione temporum but wee need rather bookes de emendatione morum For in this Chrisis of distempered humours such is the condition of most hearers that the Minister of God though upon good warrant from his text can hardly rebuke the publike enemies of Church or State but hee shall procure private enemies to himselfe Every one is jealous that something is said or meant by our Pauls against his great Diana If he stand for or be inclinable unto the new or newly taken up expressions of devotion he suspects the Preacher glanceth at him under the name of a temporizer or symbolizer with Papists If hee bee averse from such customes and rites hee conceiveth himselfe to bee taxed under the name of a refractary Non-conformitant If hee make any great shew of religion hee thinkes himselfe pointed at in the reproofe of an
of taste bitterish at first and sweetish at last Whether is it a sweet or a bitter fruit To the first we must not answer simply that he was a right handed or left handed man but as the Historian termeth him an Ambodexter To the second we must not answer simply that it is a noune or a verbe but as the Grammarians call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 participium a participle To the third we must not answer simply that it is a maid or a fish but with the Poet a Syren in some respect a maid in some a fish Prima hominis facies pulchro corpore virgo Pube tenus postremâ immani corpore pistrix To the fourth we must not answer simply that it is a plant or a beast but with the Geographer a Plantanimall To the fift we must not answer simply that it is a man or a woman but with the naturall Philosopher an Hermaphrodite To the sixt we must not answer simply that it is a sweeting or a bitter apple but with Seneca that it is pomum suave-amarum a bitter-sweet So if the question be of a Christian by profession of all or the most fundamentall points who yet holdeth some hereticall opinion wee must not answer simply that he is a Christian or a Miscreant but a Miscreant or mis-beleeving Christian Some write of the River Jordane that the water thereof is sweet and that store of fish breed and live in it others that it is brackish yea and venemous also in such sort that no fish can live in it and both write most truly in a reference to divers parts thereof For all that is behether the lake Asphaltites is most sweet and wholesome all that is beyond it is salt and brackish and in some places poysonous and accordingly the fish that swim not beyond the lake or tasting the water salt return speedily back to the sweet springs live but if they are carried farther with a full streame into Mare mortuum or the dead sea they instantly perish What then shall wee deny Jordan in which Christ himself was baptized to be a sweet river or do we doubt but that the doctrine of the Church of Rome like the river Jordan is sweet in the spring I mean the Font of baptisme in which so many thousands of our fathers were christened or that good Christians may live the life of grace there so long as they keepe within the bounds of the common Principles of Christianity or if they have tasted some of the brackish waters the errours of popery if yet they returne back to the springs of holy Scripture may they not recover questionlesse they may but if they passe over the lake Asphaltites and swimme with the full current into the midst of the Mare mortuum of Antichristian errours superstitions and Idolatries and are not taken up in the net of the Gospell before the venemous water hath sunke into their heart and bowels and corrupted all their blood wee can have little if any hope of their safety Those that are such and have a resolution to continue such I leave In mari mortuo in the sea of death and come to the Disciple in the bosome of Jesus the Fountaine of life even that Disciple Object Whom Jesus loved Did Jesus love him onely did hee not love all his Apostles save Judas to the end nay doth hee not love us all with an endlesse love z Joh. 10.11 Surely greater love than this can no man shew to lay downe his life for his friend Is not hee the good Shepheard that gave his life for the sheepe did he not lay down his life for us all did one of us cost him more than another shed he not as much and as pure life blood for one as for another doth the Sunne of righteousnesse shine brighter upon one than another in perfection of love can there be any remission or intention in that which is infinite are there any degrees can any thing be said to bee more or lesse infinite The determination of this point dependeth upon the consideration of our blessed Saviour 1 As God 2 As Man 3 As Mediatour As God his love is his nature and his nature is himselfe Solut. and himselfe is infinite and in that which is infinite no degrees can bee distinguished As Mediatour hee seemeth to bee like the Center from which all lines drawne to the circumference are equall hee casteth the like beames of affection if not upon all yet certainly upon all his Elect for whom hee prayed jointly and satisfied entirely whom hee washeth equally in the same Font of Baptisme feedeth equally with his blood incorporateth equally in his body and maketh equally coheires with him of his kingdome in heaven Notwithstanding as man hee might and did affect one more than another and in particular hee loved John more than the rest of his Disciples Neither is it any disparagement at all to our discretion or charity to enlarge our hearts more to one than another if the cause bee not a by or carnall respect but a different measure of gifts if those bee more in our grace in whom Gods graces shine brighter Saint Paul had his Barnabas Saint Austine his Alypius Saint Jerome his Heliodorus Saint Bernard his Gervafius Saint Basil his Nazianzene Eusebius his Pamphilus David his Jonathan and Jesus here in my text his beloved Disciple But here Saint Austine putteth in a curious Quere Why did Jesus love John best sith it should seeme Peter loved Jesus best else why doth Christ say unto him * Tract 124. in Joh. lovest thou mee more than these Hee who more loved Jesus is the better but he whom Jesus more loveth is the happier To avoid this seeming jarre in Christs affections S. Austin streineth up the plaine history to a mystery Saint Peter saith hee was a type of the Church militant Saint John of the triumphant now the Church militant expresseth more love to Christ in fighting his battailes and suffering for him but Christ manifesteth more love to the Church triumphant crowning her with celestiall glory in this life like Peter we more shew our love to Christ in the other Christ sheweth more love to us as he did here to Saint John These conceptions of that seraphicall Doctour like a waxe light newly blowne out yeeld a sweet savour and have much heat in them of pious affection but little light of knowledge For as Christs love to us is consummate in heaven at the Lambes marriage so is then our love most complete in him And for the two Disciples Saint Peter and Saint John betweene whom there was never any contention greater than this Whether should more love our Saviour wee may safely resolve that though both exceedingly loved him yet if wee must needs enter into a comparison betweene them that the oddes is on Saint Johns side For doubtlesse hee whom Christ more loved hee found or made him more thankefull the ground of our Saviours love could
be no other than grace and he who hath a greater measure of grace must needs more love the Fountaine of grace Christ Jesus As Jesus therefore more loved John so John more loved Jesus hee followed him boldly to the high Priests hall hee never denyed him once as Peter did thrice hee with his mother attended him at the crosse and from that day tooke the blessed Virgin to his owne home and therefore though Christ promised the keyes of heaven to Peter first yet hee gave Saint John a greater priviledge to leane on his breast Which leaned on his breast Of Saint Johns leaning on Christs breast foure kindes of reasons are given 1 A civill by Calvin 2 A Morall by Theophylact. 3 A mysticall by Saint Austine 4 A tropologicall by Guilliandus Though saith a Calv. in Harmon Calvin for a servant to lye on his masters breast may seeme unseemly yet the custome of the Jewes being not to fit at table as we do but at their meales to lye on beds or carpets on the ground it was no more for Saint John to lye on Christs breast than with us to sit next to him unlesse with Theophylact we conceive that Saint John upon the mention of our Lords death and that by treason tooke on most grievously and beginning to languish through griefe was taken by Christ into his bosome to comfort him or wee interpret with Saint Austin and others of the Ancients Sinum Christi Sapientiae secretum the bosome of Christ the cabinet of celestiall jewels or treasury of wisedome and inferre with Saint Ambrose from thence b In psal 118. Johannes cum caput suum super pectus domini reclinaret hauriebat profunda secreta sapientiae That John when hee laid his head to Christs breasts sucked from thence the profound secrets of wisedome and with c Beda in Evang Johan Quia in pectore Christi sunt omnes thesauri sapientiae scientiae reconditi meritò super pectus ejus recumbit quem majore caeteris sapientiae scientiae singularis munere donat Beda That Christ revealed to Saint John as his bosome friend more secrets and that the reason why his writings are more enriched with knowledge especially of things future than the rest is because he had free accesse to Christs breast wherein all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge were hid Moreover as d Guil. com in Johan c. 21. Guilliandus observeth S. John lay upon Christs breast for the same reason that Moses appointed in the law the breast of all sacrifices for the Priest to teach us that wisedome and understanding whose seat is the breast and heart ought to be the speciall portion of the Priests Among so many ingenuous reasons of this gesture of Saint John if wee leane to Saint Austines opinion the use wee are to make of it is with reverence and religious preparation to read and heare all the bookes of holy Scripture and especially Saint Johns writings who received those hidden and heavenly mysteries in Jesus his bosome which Jesus * Joh. 1.18 No man hath seene God at any time the onely begotten Sonne which is in the bosome of the Father hath revealed him heard in his Fathers bosome All Scriptures are given by e 2 Tim. 3.16 divine inspiration and are equally pillars of our faith anchors of our hope deeds and evidences of our salvation yet as the heaven is more starry in one part than another and the seas deeper in one place than another so it is evident that some passages of Scripture are more lightsome than others and some books contain in them more profound mysteries and hidden secrets and most of all S. Johns Gosspell and his Apocalypse wherein by Saint Jeromes reckoning the number of the mysteries neare answereth the number of the words quot verba tot sacramenta If wee like of Theophylact his reason wee are from thence to learne not to adde affliction to the afflicted not to vexe them that are wounded at the heart but to stay with flaggons and comfort with apples those that are in a spirituall swoune and by no meanes to withhold from them that faint under the burden of their sinnes the comforts of the Gospell to support them especially considering that hee as well killeth a man who ministreth not to him in due time those things which may hold life in him as hee that slayeth him downe right Lastly if wee sticke with Calvin to the letter it will discover unto us the errour of many among us that contend so much for sitting at the Communion and a table gesture as they speake whereas Christ at his last Supper neither sate nor used any table at all In eating of the Passeover wee read f Mat. 26.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 14.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 22.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Christ with the twelve fell down or lay downe after the Jewish manner which was nearer to kneeling than sitting But what gesture precisely hee used in the delivery of the holy mysteries it is not expressed in Scripture most probable it is that he kneeled or at least that the Apostles kneeled when they received the sanctified Elements from him For no doubt they who in the first ages immediatly succeeded the Apostles received the Communion as the Apostles maner was and that they kneeled the heathen cavill against them that they worshipped bread and wine maketh it in a maner evident For had they sate or stood in the celebration of the Sacrament the Gentiles could have had no colour to cast an aspersion of bread-worship on them but because in receiving the sacred elements of bread and wine they kneeled downe and religiously called upon God the Paynims conceived that they adored the creatures of bread and wine And they among us who cannot distinguish betweene kneeling at the Sacrament and kneeling to the element bread worship and the worship of Christ in religiously and reverently participating the holy mysteries of his body and blood are as grossely ignorant in Christian rites as the ancient heathen were Verely did they consider seriously who it is that under the forme of bread and wine offereth unto them his body and blood even Christ himselfe by his Spirit and what they at the same time in a thankfull love offer to God their bodies for a holy and living sacrifice and what then they receive a generall pardon of all their sinnes under the seale of the King of heaven I perswade my selfe their hearts would smite them if they strived not to receive so great a benefit from so gracious a Majesty as in the most thankfull so in the most humble manner But it is not the position of your bodies but the disposition of your mindes which in this rare patterne of my text I would commend to your Christian imitation The best keeping the Feast of a Saint is to raise him as it were to life by expressing his vertues and
Solomon So Dives at whose gates Lazarus lay is by some no meane ones ghessed to be Herod or some other King and so are Jobs friends termed by the Seventie Yea the rich is not onely a little King among his neighbours but dives quasi divus as a pettie god to his underlings yet Timothie hath authoritie to charge and command such rich That foolish shaveling soared too high a pitch when in his imperious Bull hee commanded the Angels but wee may safely say all powers below the Angels are liable to our spirituall charge and the power of the keyes which Christ hath given us But what now becommeth of them that I may not say in some of our hands they are suffered to rust for want of use in others as the Pontificians the wards are altered so as they can neither open nor shut Sure I am the power of them is lost in the hearts of many they have secret pickelockes of their owne making presumption and securitie whereby they can open heaven gates though double locked by our censures and shut the gates of hell at pleasure which their owne sinnes have opened wide to receive them What use then is there of us but in our chaire and there but to be heard and seene Even in this sense spectaculo facti sumus we are to gaze on and not to implie Yet it was well noted by one that the good father of the Prodigall though he might himselfe have brought forth the prime robe or have led his sonne into the wardrobe to take it yet he commands his servants to bring it forth because hee would have his sonne to be beholden to his servants for his glorie He that can save you without us will not save you but by us Hitherto the power implyed in the charge the sufficiencie followes This Evangelicus must be Parangelicus Like as the forerunner of Christ had a charge for all sorts so hath Timothie in this epistle a charge for wives for husbands for Bishops for Deacons for Widowes for Servants and here for the rich And I am perswaded that no Nation under heaven ever had more sufficient Timothies to instruct all sorts of men in the wayes of salvation than this our Land so that what Jerome spake sometime of Britaine is now most true comparing it with Jerusalem as it had beene De Hierosolymis de Britannia equaliter patet aula coelestis For the Northren parts since his sacred Majesty in his last journey as if the Sun did out of compassion goe beyond his tropicke line to give heat to that climate visited them are better provided of Preachers and maintenance for Preachers and both Pastours and people professe themselves mutually blessed in each other and blesse God and their King for their blessednesse And as for the Southerne when I behold them me thinkes I see the Firmament in a cleere night bespangled with goodly Starres of all magnitudes that yeeld a pleasant diversity of light unto the earth but above all this Citie is rich in this spirituall provision Other Cities may exceed you in the glory of outward structure in the largenesse of extent in the uniforme proportion of streets or ornaments of Temples but your pulpits are past theirs and if preaching can lift up Citizens to heaven yee are not upon earth Heare this O yee Citizens and bee not proud but thankefull unto God I adde also to your Preachers no vice more hatefull to God and man than ingratitude no ingratitude more abominable than to parents no parents ought to be dearer unto you than those who have begot you through the Gospell in Christ Charge them But whom The rich The rich Who are rich According to Moralitie and Christianity they that have enough with content so saith the Apostle Godlinesse is great gaine if a man be content with that which he hath St. Jerome saith victus vestitus divitiae Christianorum According to the vulgar use of the word they are rich who have more than is necessarie Now there is a double necessitie of nature of estate that is necessarie to nature without which wee cannot live that is necessarie to estate which is superfluous to nature and that which were superfluous to nature is not so much as necessary to estate nature goes single and beares little breadth estate goes ever with a traine the necessity of nature admits little difference especially for quantity the necessity of estate requires as many diversities as there are several degrees of humane conditions and severall circumstances in those degrees Thus understanding what is meant by the word come we now to the matter Man that came naked out of the womb of the earth was even then so rich that all things were his heaven was his roofe or canopie the earth his floore the Sea his pond the Sunne and Moone his torches all creatures his vassals and if he lost the fulnesse of this Lordship by being a slave to sinne yet we have still dominium gratificum as Gerson termeth it In this sense every sonne of Abraham is heire of the world but to make up the true reputation of wealth for thus we may be as having all things and possessing nothing another right is required besides spirituall which is a civill and humane right wherein I doubt not but our learned Wickliffe and Armacanus and Gerson have had much wrong whilest they are accused to teach that men in these earthly things have no tenure but grace no title but charitie which questionlesse they intended in foro interiori in the consistorie of God not in the common pleas of men in the court of conscience not in the courts of Law For it is certaine that besides this spirituall right there is a civill right in earthly things and the Scripture speaking secundum jus gentium whereon the division of these earthly possessions is grounded calleth some poore some rich The Apostle saith not charge men that they be not rich but charge the rich that they be not high minded The rich In this one word and as it were with one graspe the Apostle crusheth the heads of two heresies the ancient Apostolici who denied the lawfulnesse of earthly proprieties and our late Popish votaries who place holinesse in want and povertie Did these men never heare that the blessing of God maketh rich that the wise mans wealth is his strong Citie If Lazarus was poore yet Abraham was rich pium pauperem suscepit sinus divitis in divitiis cupiditatem reprehendit non facultatem saith Austine Bona est substantia si non sit peccatum in conscientia substance doth well in the hand if there be no evill in the heart Let the rich take heed how he became so Ecclus. 13.25 that God which can allow you to be rich will not allow you all wayes to your wealth hee hath set up a golden goale to which he allowes you all to runne but you must keepe the beaten rode of honestie justice charitie and truth If
winde The heavenly doctrine of the Preachers powred downe in great abundance like great showers of raine from heaven they themselves were as golden spouts at whose mouth though I set my pitchers as close and steady as I could yet many silver drops went besides them notwithstanding you see they are full and runne over Take you yet another similitude that you may have similitudines according to the letter of my Text as the Seventy reade it The foure Sermons were like foure Garlands crowning the Spouse of Christ out of which I have culled some of the chiefest flowers and howsoever in the plucking of them and sorting them many leaves are shattered and some flowers lost yet there are more left than can bee contained within the handfull of the time allotted Wherefore now I will leave gathering and fall to making up my Posie winding up all the flowers orationis meae filo with the remainder of the thrid of my discourse upon the Text. We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver As out of the branches of trees there shoot first buds then blossomes and last of all fruit so out of Texts of Scripture which are branches of the tree of life issueth first the literall sense which because it groweth immediatly out of the barke and stocke of the letter resembleth the bud and then the spirituall which because it is most pleasant and beautifull to the eye of the soule may bee likened to the blossome and thirdly the morall sense which because it is most fruitfull and immediatly profitable for our instruction may be termed the fruit To illustrate this by the words of my Text or rather the words of my Text by it The literall sense is of Solomon his Queen richly decked the spirituall is of Christ his Church rarely furnished the morall is of sacred vowes religiously to be performed You see 1 The bud of the literall 2 The blossome of the spirituall 3 The fruit of the morall sense But herein you are to observe a remarkable difference between the tree of life and other trees for their buds are but a degree to the blossomes and the blossomes to their fruit neither bud nor blossome beare fruit but in the tree of life both the bud which I compared to the literall and the blossome which I called the spirituall and the fruit which I termed the morall beare severall and distinct fruits For instance the bud yeelds this fruit That it is lawfull for noble and honourable women especially Kings wives daughters to weare rich attire and costly ornaments The blossome yeelds this fruit That as Gods goodnesse hath abounded to the Church under the Gospel so all Christians ought to abound in love and thankfulnesse to him Lastly the morall sense which I termed the fruit yeeldeth over and above this fruit That what the friends of the Spouse here promise all godly pastors and people ought to performe that is these out of the riches of their learning they out of their worldly wealth ought to adorne and beautifie the Church and in different kindes make for the Spouse of Christ borders of gold with studs of silver To gather first the fruit of the bud or literall sense If costly apparrell and precious attire were an abomination to the Lord if cloth of gold and silver and borders of pearle and precious stones were as great a deformity to the minde as they are an ornament to the body the Scripture would not set out b Gen. 24.22 Rebecca in bracelets and abiliments of gold nor c Ezek. 6.11 12. Ezekiel in the person of God upbraid the Synagogue as he doth I decked thee with ornaments and I put bracelets upon thine hands and a chaine on thy necke and I put a jewell on thy fore-head and eare-rings in thine eares Ver 13. and a beautifull crowne upon thy head thus wast thou decked with gold and silver and thy raiment was of fine linnen and silke nor Solomon described his d Psal 45.9 Queene in a vesture of gold of Ophir neither the Prophet e Esay 61.10 Esay have compared the Spouse of Christ clothed with the garments of salvation and covered with the robes of righteousnesse to a Bride adorned with jewells And therefore howsoever Saint f 1 Tim. 2.9 Paul and Saint g 1 Pet. 3.3 Peter forbid women to aray themselves with gold or pearles or costly aray and Saint h De habitu Virg. Cyprian is yet severer against costly apparrell saying Nullarum ferè pretiosior cultus est quà m quarum pudor vilis est and Serico purpurâ indutae Christum induere non possunt auro margaritis monilibus ornatae ornamenta pectoris perdiderunt which I spare to English in favour of that sexe yet as I conceive the holy Apostles the devout Father in these the like wholsome and necessary admonitions condemne not simply Gods servants for the use but rather prophane persons for the abuse of these beautifull creatures of God they seek to abase the pride of the heart not abate the price of these merchandizes They taxe and that most justly three vices too common in these luxurious times 1 Vanity in the garish forme of apparrell 2 Excesse in the costly matter or stuffe 3 Indecency and immodesty in both or either Or they speake comparatively that women should not so much desire to i Antiph Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adorne their out-side with resplendent pearles as their inward parts with jewells of vertue and grace We have gathered the fruit of the bud come we now to the blossome that is the beautifull allegory or spirituall sense which containeth in it a gracious promise made to the Church either of larger bounds and limits likened to the borders of gold or of a greater measure of knowledge in holy Scriptures quae sensibus aureae sunt eloquii nitore argenteae Rupertus Isidorus and Gregorius or abundance of the gifts of the spirit which no otherwise adorne the Church with their variety than a golden chaine or border wrought about with studs or specks of silver Now if God hath made good these his promises to us shall we make frustrate our holy vowes to him the better he hath been to us the worse shall we prove to him hath hee made more of us than any Nation upon the earth and shall we make lesse of him No the more we have received at his hands the more let us lift up our hearts and hands unto him or else for our unthankfulnesse hee will take the chaines and borders of gold from our Church and put them on some other that will more thankfully accept them O let us resemble these resemblances in my Text the borders of gold with studs of silver which as they receive lustre from the Sunne-beames so they gild them and reflect them backe with clearer light and greater heat Sacriledge hath already picked out and plucked away many Oe's and Spangles of
compulsive meanes to bring men to the true service of God our Saviour delivereth a Parable of a certaine x Luke 14.16 man that made a great Supper and when the guests that were bid came not in the Master said to his servants Ver. 23. Goe to the high wayes and hedges to compell them to come in that my house may be filled On which ground St. y In hunc loc Non quia cogantur reprehendant sed quò cogantur attendant Austine thus descanteth What are the hedges here meant but schismes and heresies that make partitions and separations in the house of God from which when the sheepe of Christ are pulled let them not find fault because they are haled but looke whither they are haled into Christs sheepfold A prudent advice and seriously to be thought upon by all that murmure and repine at the Church and States proceedings against obstinate Recusants be they Papists or Brownists they could not mislike that they are compelled if they entered into a serious consideration whither they are compelled to goe to wit to a marriage Supper to partake of the Manna of the Word and Sacraments O happy violence that puls men out of hell fire happie bonds that tye us to Christs body happy fetters that hold our feet in the way of peace happy scourges and whips that drive us into heaven happy outward compulsion that workes inward compunction 7 Seventhly to these constraining arguments for compulsories against refractarie persons we may adde infinite examples of zealous Princes to counterpoize all the presidents brought before for connivencie at schisme or heresie I spake but even now of Josiah and Hezekiah after whom may be ranked z 2 Chr. 15.16 And all the people sware unto the Lord with a loud voyce with shouting trumpets and cornets that whosoever would not seeke the Lord God of Israel should be slaine Asa who deposed Maacath his mother from her Regencie because she had made an Idol in a grove which he brake downe and stamped to powder And Nebuchadnezzar made a Decree That every people nation and language which spake any blasphemie against the God of Shadrach Misach and Abednego should be drawne in pieces and their houses made a jakes Dan. 3.29 And that I may joyne Ecclesiasticall stories with the inspired I will relate some constitutions of the best Emperours which swayed the Roman Scepter a Euseb in vit Constant Constantine the Great appointed that all the Temples of Heretickes should be pulled downe and that it should not be lawfull for them to assemble together in publike or private And that Theodosius and later Emperours were as quicke against them it appeares by the Code of Justinian b Lib. 1. tit 5. Omnes vetitae legibus divinis imperialibus constitutionibê° haereses perpetuò conticescant Let all heresies forbidden by the law of God and Imperiall sanctions keepe silence for ever And againe c Tit. cunc Cuncti haeretici procul dubiò noverint omnia sibi loca adimenda esse Let all Heretickes understand that all places of meeting as well Churches as private houses are to be taken away from them let them be debarred from all service day and night the Lord Deputie to be fined a hundreth pound if he permit any such thing Will you heare yet sharper lawes Peruse the chapter of Manicheos d Manicheos meritissimâ severitate persequimur ac primum volumus publicum esse crimen quia quod in religionem divinam committitur in omnium fertur injuriam in eos severitatis nostrae aculei erigantur qui eos domibus suis damnandá provisione defendunt We prosecute the Manichees with most deserved severitie and first we determine that this heresie shall be held a publike crime because that which derogateth from the true worship of God cannot but be many wayes prejudiciall to the State These Manichees therefore we punish with confiscation of goods we debarre them from buying or selling bequeathing goods or lands by will or otherwise from recovering any legacies or enjoying their fathers inheritance and let them all be liable to the same penalties who keepe and foster such persons in their houses 8 Eighthly for the mitigation of which lawes when the Hereticks expected that S. Austine should mediate with the Emperor he falls thus foule upon them Yes forsooth what else I shall gainesay the constitution of the Emperour and intercâ—de that you lose not the things which you call yours and you without feare spoyle Christ of that which is his A reasonable demand is it not that the Roman lawes should permit you to make your last will and testament whilest you with cavelling and sophistry goe about to frustrate Gods last will and Testament that in buying and selling your contracts may be good and you the whilest share among you that which Christ bought when he was sold that you be not banished from the place of your abode when you as much as in you lieth drive Christ from the Kingdome purchased with his blood Tertullian is as peremptory in this point e Scorpiacum c. 2. Ad officium haereticos compelli non illici dignum duâ—â—tia vincenda est non suadenda utique satis optimum praeâ—udicatur quod probabitur a Deo constitutum We must deale roundly with Heretickes and overcome their obstinacie by more powerfull Rhetorike than perswasive speeches For that course must be thought the best which God himselfe hath taken St. f Cypr. ep 6. Cyprian pointeth to those texts of Scripture wherein God alloweth of yea and expressely commandeth severe proceedings against Heretickes and Idolatours with whom St. g Greg. com in Cant. Gregorie accords in his note upon those words Catch the foxes that spoyle the vines Of the same minde are h Hier. in Crâ—s Leo. ep 93. Hierome Leo and the Synod of Burdigala who all approve of Maximus his proceedings against the Hereticke Priscillian and Epiphanius and Cyrill who to strike a terrour in the hearts of Heretickes relate the fleaing of Manes the father of the Manichees by the King of Persia To fill up the ranke i Lib. 3. cont Parm. Optatus likeneth Macarius to Phineas and Elias for making a quicke dispatch with the Heretickes of his time Dioscorus Alexandrinus cries out in the Synod of Chalcedon that Heresie is to be purged with fire Haereticos flammâ dignos Clemens Alexandrinus wisheth all happinesse to the Scythian King who hung a Citizen and after commanded him to be shot through with arrowes for sacrificing to the mother of the gods after the manner of the Grecians k Ep. ad Ser. Procul dubio melius esset ut gladio coercerentur illius qui sine causà gladium non gestat Lastly St. Bernard after he had made mention of some private persons who ranne upon blasphemous Heretickes and tare them in pieces for rending the Church interposeth his owne judgement in this maner They should have done better to
word of God as it is written which here I must change and say Hearken unto the word of God as it writeth For to the Angel of Thyatira the second Person which is the Word of God thus writeth Write It is a great honour to receive a letter from a noble Personage how much more from the Sonne of God St. d Eâ— 40. Quid est aliud Scripture sacra n â—i quaedam epistola Omnipotentis Dei ad creaturam suam Gregorie excellently amplifieth upon this point in his epistle to Theodorus the Physician If your excellencie saith he were from the Court and should receive a letter from the Emperour you would never be quiet till you had opened it you would never suffer your eyes to sleepe nor your eye lids to slumber nor the temples of your head to take any rest till you had read it over againe and againe Behold the Emperour of heaven the Lord of men and Angels hath sent you a letter for the good of your soule and will you neglect to peruse it Peruse it my son studie it I pray thee meditate upon it day and night Where letters passe one from another there is a kinde of correspondencie and societie and such honour have all Gods Saints they have fellowship with the Father and the Sonne O let us not sleighten such a societie whereby we hold intelligence with heaven let us with all reverence receive and with all diligence peruse and with all carefulnesse answer letters and messages sent from the Sonne of God by returning sighes and prayers backe to heaven and making our selves in the Apostles phrase commendatorie letters written not with inke but with the Spirit Thus saith the Son of God Not by spirituall regeneration as all the children of promise are the sonnes of God but by eternall generation not by grace of adoption but by nature Who hath eyes like a flame of fire and feet like fine brasse Eyes like a flame of fire piercing through the thickest darknesse feete like brasse to support his Chuch and stamp to pouder whatsoever riseth up against it like fine brasse pure and no way defiled by walking through the midst of the golden candlestickes Wheresoever he walkes he maketh it holy ground Quicquid calcaverit hic rosa fiet There are three sorts of members in holy Scripture attributed to our head Christ Jesus 1 Naturall 2 Mysticall 3 Metaphoricall Naturall hee hath as perfect man Mysticall as head of the Church Metaphoricall as God By these members wee may divide all the learned Commentatours expositions They who follow the naturall or literall construction of the words apply this description to the members of Christs glorified body in Heaven which shine like flaming fire or metall glowing in a furnace But Lyra and Carthusian have an eye to Christ his mysticall eyes viz. Bishops and Pastours who are the over-seers of Christ his flocke resembling fire in the heat of their zeale and light of their knowledge whereby they direct the feet of Christ that is in their understanding his inferiour members on earth likened to fine brasse to set forth the purity of their conversation and described burning in a furnace to expresse their fiery tryall by martyrdome Alcasar by the feet of fine brasse understandeth the Preachers of the Word whom Christ sendeth into all parts to carry the Gospel Those feet which e Esay 52.7 Rom. 10.15 How beautifull are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace Esay calleth beautifull Saint John here compareth to the finest brasse which f Beda in Apoc Pedes sunt Christiani in fine seculi qui similes erunt orichalcho quod est aes per ignem plura medicamina perductum ad auri colorem sic illi per acerbissimas persecutiones exercebuntur perducentur ad plenam charitatis fulgorem Beda and Haimo will have to bee copper rendring the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the most resplendent brasse such as was digged out of Mount Libanus but Orichalchum that is copper and thus they worke it to their purpose As brasse the matter of copper by the force of fire and strong waters and powders receiveth the tincture of gold so say they the Christians that shall stand last upon the earth termed in that respect Christs feet shall by many exercises of their patience and fiery tryalls of their faith be purified and refined and changed into precious metall and become golden members of a golden head I doe not utterly reject this interpretation of the mysticall eyes and feet of Christ nor the former of the naturall members of his glorified body because they carry a faire shew and goodly lustre with them yet I more encline to the third opinion which referreth them to the attributes of God For me thinkes I see in the fiery eyes the perfection of Christ his knowledge to which nothing can bee darke or obscure as also his vigilant zeale over his Church and the fiercenesse of his wrath against the enemies thereof Bullenger conceiveth our Saviour to be pourtrayed by the Spirit with eyes like a flame of fire because hee enlighteneth the eyes of the godly but Meyerus because he suddenly consumeth the wicked both the knowne properties of fire for in flaming fire there is both cleare light and intensive heat The light is an embleme of his piercing sight the heat of his burning wrath Where the eye is lightsome and the object exposed to it the eye must needs apprehend it but the Sonne of Gods eyes are most lightsome nay rather light it selfe in which there is no darknesse and g Heb. 4 13. all things lye open and naked before him yea the h Apoc. 2.23 heart and the reines which he searcheth In Courts of humane justice thoughts and intentions and first motions to evill beare no actions because they come not within the walke of mans justice but it will not be so at Christs Tribunall where the secrets of all hearts shall be opened Let no man then hope by power or fraud or bribes to smother the truth or bleare the eyes of the Judge of all flesh For his eyes like flames of fire dispell all darknesse and carry a bright light before them Let not the adulterer watch for the twi-light and when hee hath met with his wanton Dalila carry her into the inmost roomes and locke doore upon doore and then take his fill of love saying The shadow of the night and the privacy of the roome shall conceale mee For though none else be by and all the lights be put out yet he is seen and the Sonne of God is by him with eyes like a flaming fire Let not the Projector pretend the publike good when he intends nothing but to robbe the rich and cheate the poore Let not the cunning Papist under colour of decent ornaments of the Church bring in Images and Idols under colour of commemoration of the deceased bring in invocation of Saints departed under colour
in themselves in themselves they never were without imperfection nor are since the fall of Adam without impurity and corruption but in him they are perfect without defect pure without pollution permanent and stable without any shadow of change in regard of which their eminent manner of subsistence in him they change their names and appellations and as that which in earthly bodies is matter the Philosophers call forme or * Zab. Phys lib. de coel materia formalis in heaven and parts degrees and beauty light or clarity and qualities influences so that which is accident in the creature is substance in the Creator and that which is called beauty in us is majesty in him life is immortality strength omnipotency wealth all-sufficiency delight felicity affection vertue vertue nature nature all things For a Rom. 11.36 of him and through him and in him are all things as the grand master of Philosophy discerned by the glimmering light of reason saying that it is manifest that the Deity is in all things Arist mor. ad Eud. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all things in it in him the understanding apprehendeth all truth the will all good the affections all vertue and glory the senses all pleasure the desires all contentments and therefore it followeth And I desire nothing in the earth with thee The heart resembleth a perfect triangle but the figure of the world is circular and no more can it satisfie the heart of man than a circle can fill a triangle God onely who is a trinity in unity can fill all the corners of this triangle of his owne making For nothing can delight the spirituall nature of the soule but a pure spirit nothing can content the soveraigne faculty of the understanding but a soveraign object nothing can satisfie the infinite desires of the will but infinitum bonum which must be infinite foure waies 1. In power to remove all things that may be offensive or hurtfull to us 2. In bounty to supply all those good things that may bee delightfull or usefull to us 3. In essence to furnish us with infinite variety of delights 4. In continuance to perpetuate unto us the infinite variety of continuall delights and contentments Now what is there in heaven or in earth thus spirituall in substance soveraigne in place infinite in power goodnesse and essence everlasting in continuance but thou O Lord whom because we have in heaven we desire nothing on earth What should we desire there where wee find nothing to fixe our thoughts or afford us any solid comfort or contentment Who can aime steadily at a moving mark or build firmly upon sinking sand or hold fast a vanishing shadow or rest himself upon the wings of the wind as impossible is it to lay any sure ground of contentment or foundation of happinesse in the unstable vanities and uncertaine comforts of this life How can they fulfill our desires or satisfie our appetites which are not only empty but emptinesse it selfe How can they establish our hearts sith they are altogether unstable themselves How can they yeeld us any true delight or contentment which have no verity in them but are shadowes and painted shewes like the carved dishes Caligula set before his flatterers or the grapes drawn by Zeuxis wherewith he deceived the birds The best of them are no better than the apples of Sodome of which Pliny and Solinus write that they are apples whilest you behold them but ashes when you touch them or like the herb Sardoa in Sardinia upon which if a man feed it so worketh upon his spleen that he never leaveth laughing till he dyeth through immoderate mirth Honours riches pleasures are but glorious titles written in golden characters under them we find nothing but vanity under the title of nobility nothing but a brag of our parents vertue and that is vanity under honour nothing but the opinion of other men and this can be but vanity under glory but breath and wind and this is certainly vanity under pleasure but b Eras Apoph Demos Non emam tanti poenitere repentance folly and is not this vanity under sumptuous buildings rich hangings gorgeous apparrell but ostentation of wealth and outward pomp this is vanity of vanity Nobility in the originall of it is but the infamy of Adam for it knew not Hevah till after his fall grievous prevarication beauty the daughter of corruption apparrell the cover of shame gold silver the dregs of the earth oyles costly ointments the sweat of trees silkes velvets the excrements of wormes and shall our immortall spirit nobly descended from the sacred Trinity match so low with this neather world and take these toyes and trifles for a competent dowry And let this suffice to be spoken to the words for their full explication let us now heare what they speake to us for our further use and instruction 1. They speake to our faith that it be resolved upon God only 2. To our devotion that it be directed to God only 3. To our love that it be entirely fixed on God only 1. True faith saith Whom have I in heaven but thee to relye upon 2. True religion saith Whom have I but thee to call upon 3. True love saith Whom have I but thee to settle upon No Papist can beare a part with David in this song saying Whom have I in heaven but thee O Lord for they have many in heaven to whom they addresse their prayers in generall often solicite them upon speciall occasions as for raine for faire weather in a common plague in danger of child-birth in perills by sea in perills by land for their owne health and recovery and for the safety of their beasts cattell as appeares by the forms of prayers yet extant in their Liturgies Offices Manuels Service books Doubtlesse these monopolies were not granted to Saints in Davids time for he had recourse every-where to God immediately for any thing he stood in need of neither had the ancient Fathers any knowledge of so many new masters of requests in heaven to preferre their petitions to God for they addressed themselves all to one Mediatour betwixt God and man the man Christ Jesus who sitteth at the right hand of his Father to take all our petitions to recommend them unto him I can make no other construction of the words of c Lib. 8. cont Cel. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origen Wee must religiously worship or invocate none but God and his only begotten Son We must call upon none but God saith d Hieron in Prov. l. 1. c 2. Neminem invocare nisi Deum debemus Jerome e Tertul. apol c. 30. Quaecunque hominis Caesaris vota sunt haec ab alio orare non possum quà m à quo scio me consecuturum quoniam ipse est qui solus praestat ego familus ejus qui eum solum invoco Tertullian goeth farther on our way
shall hee bee his wife shall bee as the fruitfull vine by the walls of his house his children shall bee like Olive branches round about his table * 1 Tim. 4.8 and godlinesse hath the promises of this life and the life to come Howbeit a weake Christian may bee troubled in minde when hee seeth houses full of the treasures of wickednesse and hee heareth it as a common Proverbe that fawning and cosenage are the gainfullest trades in the world x Juven sat 1. Criminibus debent hortos praetoria mensas The Courtier is indebted to his flattery for his large revenues the Citizen to usury and misery for the swelling of his bagges the Artisan to his fraud and cozening for his wealth the Impropriator to his sacriledge for his best mannors and palaces the ambitious Diotrephes to simony for his dignities and preferments Notwithstanding these and many the like instances may bee brought against the doctrine delivered yet is not the truth thereof impeached For either the great gainer by sin and bargainer with Satan shall never live to enjoy his wealth which the Prophet David observeth saying y Psal 37.1.2 10 Psal 73.18 19. Fret not at the ungodly neither bee thou envious at the evill doers for they shall bee cut downe as the grasse and wither as the greene herbe O how suddenly doe they consume perish and come to a fearefull end Or if like fortunate Pyrats they live long and goe cleare away with the prize they have gotten yet they can take no quiet contentment therein because they know they have no right to it and therefore they are still in feare either of losing it or paying too deare for it And howsoever they may escape while they are at the sea yet when they arrive at the haven of death they shall make shipwracke of it and their soules Or God bloweth upon the fruits of their labors and blasteth the increase of their wealth according to the words of St. z Jam. 5.2 James Your riches are corrupt your garments are moth-eaten your gold and silver are cankered and the rust of them shall bee as a witnesse against you and eate your flesh as it were fire And as they got their goods so they shall lose them * Eras Chil. Salis onus unde venerat illuc abit saith the Latine Proverb the burden of salt is returned thither from whence it was first taken The occasion wherof was a ship laden with salt by a wracke torne in pieces let the salt fall into the sea from whence it came so for the most part goods gotten by the spoyle are lost likewise by the spoyle For wee see daily that they which spoile others are spoiled themselves and that which is gotten by extortion is extorted againe out of the hand of the extortioners a Suet. in Vesp Vespasian his covetous officers that by rapine and exaction filled themselves like spunges after they were full were squiezed by the Emperour and as the Prophet b Mic. 1.7 Micah observeth that which was gathered by the hire of a whore returneth to the wages of an harlot Or if their goods and honours sticke by them and they have wrought themselves into so great favour with the Prince that they have no feare at all of being called to an accompt much lesse of being discomposed and turned out of their offices honours wealth and all yet they can take no comfort in their estate no joy in that they enjoy For what doth musicke delight him who hath an aposteme in his eare or gold silver or pretious stones him who hath a pearle in his eye or daintie dishes him whose taste is distempered with sicknesse This is the worldlings case hee hath goods laid up for him many yeeres but they are not goods to him because they doe him no good hee is no whit the better for them but the worse no whit the richer in mind but the more wretched and poorer Magnas inter opes inops Hee may take his fill of pleasures but they are no pleasures to him because hee hath no sense of them all dainties are provided for him but they are not dainties to him because hee cannot taste them and the reason is hee is heart sicke with cares and griefes and affrighted with terrours of conscience Yea but it will bee objected that no such thing appeares for none seeme so merry and frolicke as some of these albae galinae filii the worlds darlings I answer with Saint c 2 Cor. 5.12 Paul That they laugh in the face but not in the heart and with Solomon d Eccl. 7.6 That all their mirth is but like the crackling of thornes under a pot soone turned into ashes and mourning Their merriment is like to that of those who have eaten the herbe Sardonia in Sardinia who are said to e Solin c. 12. Sardonia herba comesta rictu ora diducit ut morientes ridentium facie intereant dye laughing or like that of Hannibal which the Historian calleth amentis risum the laughing of a man distracted which is suddenly accompanied with teares Lastly adde we to all these disadvantages the price wee are to pay for Satans commodities in the prison of hell whereof one f Mat. 5.26 Thou shalt not goe thence till thou hast paid the utmost farthing farthing shall not bee abated and I doubt not but as the Prophet Daniel spake of King Nebuchadnezzars dreame g Dan. 4 19. This dreame bee to the Kings enemies so ye will all say the gain that is gotten by evill meanes and ungodly practices bee unto Gods enemies let them trucke with Satan who have no part in God but let all that desire to thrive both in their outward and inward estate and to be h Mat. 6.19 rich in God follow the advice of our Saviour Lay not up for your selves treasures especially treasures of wickednesse upon earth where the canker of covetousnesse corrupteth and the moth of envie fretteth and restlesse cares and watchfull feares like theeves in the night breake through the walls of your body and enter into the closet of your heart and steale away all your joy and contentment but lay up for your selves treasures in heaven where neither the moth nor canker corrupt and where theeves do not breake through nor steale For where your treasure is there will your heart be Our treasure O Lord is in heaven even in thee let our heart be there continually with thee Cui c. THE GRAPES OF GOMORRAH THE XLII SERMON ROM 6.21 What fruit bad yee in those things c. Right Honourable c. SOlinus a Cap. 35. Praecipua ficus Aegyptia poma non ramis tantum gestitans sed caudice septies anno fert fructum c. writeth of the Egyptian figge-tree that it beareth fruit not only on the branches but also on the main stock trunck so fruitfull is this parcell of Scripture on which my meditations have pitched
Thou shalt plant vineyards and dresse them but shalt neither drinke of the wine nor gather the grapes for the worme shall eate them Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts but thou shalt not annoint thy selfe with the oyle for thine olive shall cast his fruit Hereunto if we adde the infinite armies of plagues and judgements mustered in this chapter against Gods enemies we cannot but subscribe to the Prophets conclusion Non est pax impio there is no l Esay 48.22 57.21 peace to the wicked saith my God there is no fruit of sinne for it is the vine of m Deut. 32.32 33. Sodome and of the fields of Gomorrah the grapes thereof are the grapes of gall their clusters are bitter Their wine is the poyson of Dragons and the cruell venome of Aspes Would yee know all the miseries that sinne hath brought into the world reckon then all that are or ever were in the world For they are all concomitants effects or punishments of sinne Sinne cast the Angels from Heaven into Hell thrust man out of Paradise drowned the old world burnt Sodome and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone ruinated the greatest Monarchies destroyed the ancientest Cities and hath rooted up the most flourishing Churches and shall wee looke for better fruit of it But this interrogatory of the Apostle What fruit had yee seemeth to mee rather to aime at the particular endammagement and detriments of sinne which every soule that committeth it sustaineth within it selfe whereof many have been already recounted yet the greater part is behind among whom this is not the least that it blindeth the eyes of the mind and infatuateth the sinner Whereupon Saint Austines observation is If a theefe or fellon should presently upon his fact lose the sight of his eyes every body would say that it was the judgement of God upon him Oculum cordis amisit ei pepercisse putatur Deus behold God hath taken away the sight of his soules eyes and doest thou thinke that hee spareth him or letteth him goe n Cic. de Arusp respons Oculorum caecitas ad mentem translata est unpunished What greater losse to a noble mind than of libertie which is forfeited by sinne Sinne enthralleth our soule to our body and our body and soule to the Divell If captivitie of the body be so grievous a calamity what may wee judge of the captivitie of the soule If wee so disdaine to be slaves to men how much more should wee to bee vassals to beastly lusts To speake nothing of peace of conscience which crying sinnes disturbe and divine motions which worldly cares choake and heavenly comforts which earthly pleasures deprive us of and sanctifying graces which impure thoughts and sinfull desires diminish to leave the consideration of shame and death for matter of ensuing discourses by that which hath been already delivered all that are not besotted by sin and blind-folded by Sathan may see great reason for this question of the Apostle What fruit had yee A question which the proudest and most scornfull sinners who have them in derision that make conscience of unlawfull gaine shall propound unto themselves one day and checke their owne folly therewith as we reade in the booke of o Wisd 5.8 Wisedome What hath pride availed us or what profit hath the pompe of riches brought us Then shall they change their mindes when they cannot their estates and sigh for griefe of heart and say within themselves looking up to Heaven and seeing the felicity of the righteous crowned with eternall glory Ibid. Ver. 4 5 6 7. This is hee whom wee sometimes had in derision and in a parable of reproach Wee fooles thought his life madnesse and his end without honour But now how is hee accounted among the children of God and what a portion hath hee among the Saints Therefore wee have erred from the way of truth and the light of righteousnesse hath not shined upon us We have wearied our selves in the wayes of wickednesse and have gone through many dangerous pathes and the way of the Lord wee have not knowne Howbeit two sorts of men in the opinion of the world seeme to make great gaine of sinne the covetous and the ambitious the former is indebted to his extortion oppression and usury for his wealth the other to his glozing dissembling undermining perfidious and treacherous dealing for his honour and advancement in the Court of Princes The spirit of the former hath been conjured downe heretofore by proving that whosoever gathereth wealth or mony by unjust and indirect meanes putteth it into a broken bagge and that his mony shall perish with him unlesse hee breake off his sinne by repentance and make friends of unrighteous Mammon I come to the Politicians who correct or rather pervert that sentence of Saint Paul Godlinesse is great gaine thus a shew of godlinesse is great gaine of whom I would demand what shew of reason they have for this their politicke aphorisme If they beleeve there is a God that judgeth the earth they cannot but thinke that hee will take most grievous vengeance on such as goe about to roote out the feare of God out of mens hearts and make Religion a masque and God himselfe an Image the sacred Story a fable Hell a bug-beare and the joyes of Heaven pleasant phantasies If men hold them in greatest detestation who faulter and double with them shall not God much more hate the hypocrite who doubleth with his Maker maketh shew of honouring and serving him when hee indeed neither honoureth nor serveth him at all Simulata sanctitas est duplex iniquitas counterfeit sanctity is double iniquity and accordingly it shall receive double punishment When our Saviour threateneth the most hainous transgressours that they shall have their p Mat. 24.51 portion with hypocrites hee implyeth that the condition of none in Hell is lesse tolerable than of the hypocrite The q Psal 14.1 foole hath said in his heart there is no God and even in that hee shewed himselfe the more foole in that hee said it in his heart supposing that none should heare it there whereas God heareth the word in the heart before it bee uttered in the tongue and what though other know it not sith hee whom hee wrongeth who is best able to revenge it knoweth it But to wound the Politician with his owne sword If a shew and appearance of Religion is not onely profitable but necessary in politicke respects shall not Religion it selfe be much more Can there bee a like vertue or power in the shadow or image as in the body it selfe If the grapes painted by Zeuxis allured the Birds to pecke at them would not the Birds sooner have flowne at them had they been true grapes All the wit of these sublimated spirits wherewith they entangle the honest simplicity of others cannot wind them out of these dilemmaes If it bee a bad thing to bee good why doe they seem so If
night and are very earnest at their game but in the midst of it the candle goeth out they perforce give over who no doubt if the light had lasted would have played all night This inch of candle is the time of life allotted to a wicked man who is resolved to spend it all in sinfull pleasures and pastimes and if it would last perpetually he would never leave his play and therefore sith he would sin eternally though by reason that the light of his life goeth out hee cannot he deserveth eternall punishment 4. Though the sins of the reprobate are finite in respect of the time and the agents yet as they are committed against an infinite Majesty the guilt of them is infinite Here it will be objected That if sinnes be infinite in any respect they must needs be all equall because infinity admitteth no degrees nothing can be more or lesse infinite I answer that although b Camp rat 8. Paradox Campian and other Papists charge the reformed Churches with that absurd Paradoxe of the Stoickes That all sinnes are equall and consequently that it is as great a wickednesse to kill a Capon to furnish a luxurious feast as to kill a man yet their heart cannot but smite them for so notorious a calumny for they themselves teach That mortall sinnes as they are committed against God are of infinite guilt and deserve infinite and eternall punishments and yet they hold not that all mortall sinnes are equall their Casuists teaching that parricide is a greater sinne than murder incest than adultery blasphemy than perjury all of them being mortall As for the knot of the former objection it is thus easily untyed That sinnes may be considered either in a genericall notion as they are breaches of the eternall Law offend an infinite Majesty in which respect as they are infinite so they are equall or in a specificall reason as they are of this or that kind clothed with such such circumstances as they are breaches of the first or second Table as they are committed immediately against God or mediately once or often on the sudden or unadvisedly ignorantly or wilfully out of infirmity or presumptuously tending much or little to the hurt or prejudice of our neighbour In all which and divers like respects the guilt of sinne is improved or diminished and one sinne is more hainous and lesse pardonable than another We have said enough to these words for their coherence sense and construction let us now see what they say to us for our further use and instruction There is no physicke but if it worke maketh the patient sicker for the present and for the most part the smarting plaister most speedily cureth the wound These observations are true in corporall physicke and much more in spirituall because the smart of sinne and trouble of conscience for it are not so much signes and symptomes of maladies as the beginning of cures Some say the feare of the plague bringeth it but if we speake of this plague and other judgements of God for sinne it is certaine that the feare of them is the best preservative against them he onely may be secure of the avoiding Hell torments and escaping the pangs of eternall death who feareth them as he ought and he that feareth them not is in a most fearfull case O c Ecclus. 41.1 death how bitter is the remembrance of thee It was spoken of the first death but may with greater reason of the second some tastes whereof I wil give you at this present as well to make you loath the morsels of Sathan as the better to rellish the fruits of the tree of life The first shall be out of Saint Matthew d Mat. 25.10 Clausae sunt fores the doores were shut Conceive ye that to be now which if ye prevent it not certainly shall be that after ye have heard the Archangel sound the last Trump and with him a Quire of heavenly spirits singing an Epithalamium or marriage song ye should see the gates of Heaven opened and the Sonne of man marching out of them with an innumerable company of Angels presently sent abroad to gather the Elect from the foure windes and soone after infinite troupes of them assembled from all parts in goodly order and glorious armour accompanying our Saviour in his triumphant returne into heaven to receive each of them a crowne of glory and you caught up into the clouds pressing hard after them to enter with them into heaven should be presently stayed and the gates shut against you and fastened with everlasting barres O! what a corrasive would this be what a disgrace what an unspeakable griefe to have a glimpse of the celestiall Jerusalem and to be excluded for ever out of it to see those whom ye sometimes scorned reviled and trod under foot admitted into Christs Kingdome before your face and you repelled with a non novivos Away from mee I know you not Have ye enough of this taste or doe ye yet desire a second ye have it in Saint Matthew e Mat. 25.30 Projicite in tenebras exteriores Cast the unprofitable servant into utter darknesse there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Suppose ye were stripped stark naked and then bound hand and foot with iron chaines and throwne into a deep darke loathsome and hideous dungeon full of Adders Vipers Basiliskes and Scorpions hissing croaking biting stinging you in all parts of your body you being not able to stirre a joynt or make any resistance at all Are yee affrighted at this The torment of the damned is farre worse for the stinging of Serpents is nothing to the tormenting with Divels nor the darknesse of a dungeon to the horrour of Hell For though there be fire there yet it yeeldeth no comfortable light but as the flame in the bush had the f Exod. 3.2 light of fire yet not the consuming heat so on the contrary the flames of Hell have the scorching heat but not the comfortable light of fire As ye like this take another taste g Mar. 9.44 Vermis eorum non interit Imagine that whilest ye lye in the darke dungeon bit stung in your outward parts there should be a venemous worme within your bowels gnawing at your very heart and upon remembrance of every hainous sinne giving you a deadly bite what paine and torment might this be yet it is nothing to that which Christ there addeth Ignis eorum non extinguitur Their fire is not quenched There is none such a blocke but apprehendeth what unsufferable paine it is to lye soultering in the fire or boyling in a river of brimstone or frying in the flames of a furnace and crying but for one drop of water to coole the tip of the tongue and not obtaining it If these tastes affect you not take you yet a fourth made of the very gall of Aspes h Apoc. 20.10 They shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone and shall
compass that they can do nothing but what God for just causes permits them to doe God hath Sathan and all his instruments like Mastiffs tyed in a chain they cannot go beyond their tether he letteth them loose and calls them in at his pleasure If God be at peace with us p Psal 34.20 not a bone shal be broken nay not a q Mat. 10.30 haire of our head shall fall The foure Angels in the r Apoc. 7.3 Apocalypse had not power to touch the earth or any tree till Gods servants were sealed If this be so what security doth the feare of God bring to man and what a Potentate is the feeblest Christian on earth Qui Deum timet omnia timent eum qui Deum non timet timet omnia He which feareth not God hath cause to feare all things for all the creatures will take their Makers part against him on the contrary hee that feareth God all things feare him for nothing dares or can doe him hurt Surely no Prince or Emperour could ever so secure his state or guard his person that neither outward power could annoy him nor home-bred treachery surprise him yet neither rebell nor pyrate nor rich nor poore nor open enemy nor counterfeit friend nor principality nor power nor man nor divell can touch Gods children protected by his omnipotency and guarded by his holy Angels except they turne rebels to God and traitours to themselves For no evill can come neere them while God is neere them and God will be ever neer them if they depart not from him 2. Hath God a hand in all the stroakes of his children let us not then so much fret and fume at the immediate agents or rather instruments as wee doe It is all one as if a Noble man sentenced by the King or his Peeres to lose his head should fall foule upon the Heads-man or pick a quarrell with the axe or as if a patient to whom a wise Physician hath prescribed a bitter potion for the recovery of his health should fall out with the Apothecary for ministring it Nay it is like to them that use the unguentum called Armarium who when a party is wounded by his adversary with a sword or speare apply nothing to the party but annoint the instrument I speake not this to justifie or excuse the malice or iniquity or cruelty of those in whose hands God putteth his scourge for us if they exceed his prescript and rather exercise their owne passions than execute his judgements For as God is no way accessary to their cruelty so neither doe they participate of Gods righteousnesse in afflicting his children and as God hath made them now instruments so hee will hereafter make them subjects of his justice as a tender mother after she hath beat her infant casteth the rod in the fire so God dealeth with these men The Assyrians were his rod wherewith he chastened the Israelites the Persians his rod wherewith he chastened the Assyrians the Grecians his rod wherewith he chastened the Persians the Romane Emperours the rod wherewith he chastened the Grecians and now all foure rods one after another are cast into the fire But my aime is to perswade you to looke higher than the executioners and ministers of Gods vengeance and when ye see that hee sitteth in heaven who ordereth and appointeth how many stroaks shall be given to you who hath not only a glasse to keep every drop of bloud that is drawne from you but also a Å¿ Psal 56.8 bottle to keep every teare that falls from your eyes to struggle with the infirmity of your flesh and endeavour to the uttermost of your power to suffer his will because ye have not done it to make the best amends ye can to supply the defect of your active obedience by your passive Holy Job could discerne Gods arrowes though in the hand of Sathan and his hand though on the armes of the Sabean robbers and therefore when he was stript of all his goods even by the worst of men he curseth not the instruments but blesseth God saying t Job 1.21 Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne thither again the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. What Christ spake to Pilate vaunting of the power and authority he had over him the feeblest Christian in the world may reply to the greatest Potentate on earth u John 19.10 11. Thou couldst have no power at all against me unlesse it were given thee from above Wicked and ungodly men may have a will of themselves to vexe hurt and persecute Gods children yet power they can have none so much as to take a haire from their head unlesse it be given them from above by God who can and doth sometimes execute his just judgements by unjust ministers and though they intend evill and mischiefe against his servants yet hee will turne it into * Gen. 50.20 As for you you thought evill against me but God turned it unto good good to them as he did to Joseph Solinus writeth of x Solin c. 20. Hypanis Scythicorum amnium princeps haustu saluberrimus dum in Exampeum inferatur qui amnem suo vitio vertit Hypanis that the water thereof is very bitter as it passeth through Exampeus yet very sweet in the spring so the cup of trembling which is offered to the children of God is often very bitter at the second hand as it is ministred unto them by profane persons haters and despisers of their graces yet it is sweet at the first hand as it is sent them downe from heaven 3. Are the afflictions which befall Gods children in their bodies soules good name or estates darts shot from heaven how then can they avoid them what shall they doe in this case Surely cast themselves on the ground and hold up their buckler of faith saying with y Job 13.15 Job Though hee slay mee yet will I put my trust in him And with the z Psal 44.17 18 19. Israelites All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee our heart is not turned backe neither have our steps declined from thy way though thou hast sore broken us in the place of Dragons and covered us with the shadow of death Or cast up our darts to heaven that is our ejaculatory prayers as * Psal 38.1 2 9. David doth O Lord rebuke mee not in thy wrath neither chasten mee in thy hot displeasure for thine arrowes sticke fast in mee and thine hand presseth mee sore Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee When a great Philosopher was taxed for not holding out his argument with Adrian the Emperour but presently giving up the bucklers his apology for himselfe was Is it not reason to yeeld to him who hath thirty legions at his command I am sure there is greater reason whatsoever the cause
the first law of equity to heare both the plaintiffe and defendant with indifferency For as q Senec. in Trag. Qui aliquid statuerit parte inauditâ alterâ aequum licet statuerit haud aequus est Seneca saith truely Hee that giveth a right judgement without hearing both parties is no righteous Judge and therefore r Suet. in Claud. Pronunciabat saepè alterâ parte auditâ saepè neutrâ Suetonius justly chargeth Claudius with injustice for precipitating his sentence before hee had given a full hearing to both parties nay sometimes to either 2 They must lay all that they heare and what is brought on both sides in an even ballance and poyse them together Res cum re causa cum causâ ratio cum ratione concertet by the collision of arguments on both sides the fire of truth is struck out Protagoras his exception was good against them who to prove the providence of their paynim gods brought a number painted in a Table of them that calling upon them escaped shipwracke At picti non sunt inquit qui naufragio perierunt True saith he but none of those who notwithstanding their prayers to them suffered shipwracke are any where painted neither is there any register kept of them 3 They must maturely advise and seriously consider of the matter before they passe sentence The eye unlesse it bee fixed upon the object cannot perfectly discerne it nor distinguish it from things that are neare and like unto it And howsoever in a cleare water we may easily perceive any thing that is in the bottome yet if it bee troubled wee cannot and in every Court there are many troublers of the water the Lawyers by their wrangling and the witnesses by their varying the Judges by their different opinions to speake nothing of Angels also troubling the cleere streame of justice at certaine times 4 The eyes of their judgement must bee free from all mists of prejudice and clouds of affection For as that which a man looketh upon through red or greene glasse seemeth to bee of that colour the glasse is of though it bee of a far different if not a contrary so that which wee judge out of a forestalled conceit or prejudicate opinion seemeth to answer to our opinion of it how contrary soever it bee The Romane souldiers as t Div. instit l. 1. Lactantius noteth thought verily that the goddesse worshipped at Syracuse being demanded whether shee would bee carryed by them to Rome answered that shee would not that the image spake any such word but because they were before strongly perswaded that the goddesse would give such an answere Unlesse those that sit in judgement observe these rules they may easily take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fallacy for a demonstration and a malitious calumniation for a legall conviction If their eyes be either dimme with private affection or blinded with rewards or wink through carelesnesse or are shut through wilfulnesse that will fall out which S. u L. 2. ep 2. Inter leges ipsas delinquitur inter jura peccatur innocentia nec illic ubi defenditur reservatur qui sedet crimina vindicaturus admittit ut reus innocens pereat sit nocens judex Cyprian so grievously complaineth of Injustice sitteth in the place of justice and even in the sight of the lawes hanging about the judgement seat the lawes are broken the Judge who sitteth to revenge wrongs offered offereth that which hee should revenge and committeth that which hee should punish and hath his conscience coloured with sinnes of a deeper dye than the scarlet of his robes The Empresse wisely advised her husband when sitting at play and minding as it seemes that more than the cause before him hee rashly pronounced sentence Non est vita hominum ludus talorum The sitting upon life and death is not like the playing a game at Tables where a Table-man of wood is taken up by a blot and throwne aside without any great losse the life of man is of more worth than so Though all men detested Seianus and that most deservedly yet when they heard him adjudged to a most cruell and infamous death by no legall proceedings or course of justice the hate of all men recoyled backe upon the Judges and the people began to pity that great favourite who before was most odious Crepat ingens Seianus great Seianus is drawn upon an hurdle and hee suffereth for too much abusing his Princes favour * Juven sat 9. Sed quo cecidit sub crimine quisnam Delator quibus indiciic quo teste probavit c. Nil horum Verbosa grandis epistola venit A Capreis Benè habet nil plus interrogo What crime was laid to his charge what evidence was given in against him what witnesses were sworne I heare of none onely I heare of a long letter sent from the Emperour taking his pastime at the Capreae Hush not a word more Who doth not observe in our owne Chronicles how God met to Hastings his owne measure who the same day that the Earle Rivers Gray and others in the reigne of Edward the fourth without triall of law were by his advice executed at Pomfret had his head strucken off in the same manner in the Tower of London Such as Tiberius his Judges or Edward the fourth's are no fit Presidents for Christian Magistrates this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my text will evidently convince them at Christs tribunall in the clouds for not looking better to their evidence when they sate on the bench here below let them therefore take judicii praefidem for a president in their judgements even God himselfe who as wee x Gen. 18.20 reade though the sinne of Sodome were exceeding great and the cry of it went up to heaven yet came downe from heaven to see whether they had done according to that cry Chrys in Gen. before hee rained down fire and brimstone to burn their bodies with unnaturall fire whose soules burned with unnaturall lust As the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I rebuke rebuketh the carelesnesse rashnesse of Judges and Magistrates in giving sentence upon the life or state of any in question before them so the other word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I instruct by chastening instructeth fathers and mothers to performe that duty which they owe to God and must performe to their children viz. before them continually to rehearse the law of God y Deut. 11.19 4 10. To talke of it when they are in their house and when they walke abroad when they lye down and when they rise up Above all things they must take care to season their young and tender years with pure and incorrupt religion and bring them up in the feare of God otherwise they are but halfe parents if they have not as well a care of their soules as of their bodies if they pamper the flesh in them but starve the spirit if they labour
and reluctancy nay rather they for Christs sake desired them and rejoyced in them Something then it was above all the torments man can devise much lesse beare that our Saviour felt in his agony and expressed by his bloudy sweat and strong cries Whilest our Saviour was in this wofull plight what doe his Disciples Doe they condole him pray with him arme themselves to defend him Nay in this feare and perplexity of their Master they fall fast asleep at the first after in his greatest danger forsake him only Judas commeth neere him and saluteth him with a kisse O that perfidious treachery should touch those lips in which there was no guile that he should be m Cyp. de bon patient Insultantium sputamina exciperet qui sputo suo caeci oculos paulò ante formastet coronaretur spinis qui Martyres floribus coronat aeternis palmis in faciem verberaretur qui palmas veras vincentibus tribuit spoliaretur veste terrenâ qui indumento immortalitatis caeteros vestit cibaretur felle qui cibum coelestem dedit potaretur aceto qui poculum salutare propinavit spit upon who cured the eyes of the blind with spittle that his face should be smitten with palmes of the hand who putteth palmes into the hands of all that overcome that he should be crowned with thornes who crownes Martyrs with never withering flowers that he should be stripped of his earthly garments who arraies us with celestiall robes that hee should be fed with gall who feeds us with bread from heaven that vinegar should be given to him for drinke who prepareth for us the cup of salvation But before we goe out of the garden we will gather some flowers As the first sinne was committed in a garden so the first satisfaction was made in a garden in that garden there was an evill Angel tempting in this garden a good Angel comforting Adams sentence in that garden was that hee should get his living with the sweat of his browes and in this the second Adam procureth life unto us by the sweat of his whole body Adam was driven out of that garden by an Angel brandishing a fiery blade and our Saviour is fetched out of this with swords and staves and brought into the high Priests palace where he is most injuriously dealt withall they cannot hold their hands off him whilest he is examined before the Judge but contrary to all law and good maners they smite him with staves at his arraignment Yea but they were but rude souldiers or fawning servants Is there any more justice in the high Priest or the Councell who not only take willingly any allegation against him but also seeke out for false witnesses and when they find none that were contests yet they condemne him and that for no ordinary crime but for blasphemy in the highest degree Neither were the Judges more unjust than the people mad against him Away with him say they away with him Crucifie him crucifie him Why what evil hath he done Spare Barabbas not him What save a murderer and murder a Saviour O ye people of Judea and inhabitants of Jerusalem what so enrageth you against him He hath cleansed your lepers he hath cured your blind he hath opened your deafe eares he hath loosened your tongue-tyed he hath healed your sicke he hath raised your dead he hath preached unto you the Gospel of the Kingdome and the glad tidings of salvation and is he not therefore worthy to live He inviteth you to grace Come unto mee all ye that are heavie laden unto glory Come ye blessed of my Father and therefore away with him away with him With these out cries Pilate is overborne as if clamours of the promiscuous rout were to be taken for depositions of sworne witnesses and hee pronounceth the unjustest sentence that ever was given that Jesus was guilty of death After the sentence execution immediately ensueth he is stript starke naked before the multitude what would not an ingenuous man rather endure than this shame his flesh is torne with whips and scourges appointed for slaves so cruelly that Pilate himselfe moved at so lamentable a spectacle sheweth him to the people with an ecce homo either to move them to pity or to satisfie their bloud-thirsty appetite As for the insolencies and indignities offered unto him by the souldiers they are so odious and intolerable that I cannot with patience relate them and therefore I passe with our Saviour to Mount Calvarie where foure great nailes were driven into the most tender and sinewy parts of his body wherewith after he was fastened to the crosse his crosse was set up in the midst betwixt two theeves the Mediatour of God and man now hangeth in the middle betwixt heaven and earth I need not amplifie upon the death of the crosse a death for the torment most grievous most infamous amongst men and n Deut. 21.23 accursed of God himselfe Any one may conceive what a torment it must needs be when the whole weight of the body hangeth upon the wounds in the hands feet But there were foure circumstances which very much aggravated his passion 1. The nature of his complexion for being made of Virgins flesh and thereby of the purest and exactest temper hee could not but be more sensible of excruciating torments than any other 2. The place and time the place Jerusalem the Metropolis of all Judea the time at Easter when there was a concourse of people from all parts of Palestine besides an infinite multitude of strangers that came to see that great solemnity 3. The sight of his mother and dearest Disciple in their sight to be put to so infamous and cruell a death what a corrasive must it needs be This was the sword that pierced his mothers heart and how thinke wee it affected him his compassion was no lesse griefe to him than his passion 4. The insolency of his adversaries now flocking about his crosse and by their deriding scoffes and taunts powring sharpest vinegar into his wounds To endure that which man never did nor could to be put to all extremiy of tortures and torments and not to be bemoaned nay to be mocked at and reviled Others he hath saved himselfe he cannot save Thou that destroyedst the Temple and buildedst it up againe in three dayes come downe from the crosse and we will beleeve thee O this is an hyperbole of misery There are yet foure considerations which put as it were a spirituall crosse upon his materiall and more tortured his soule than the other his body 1. His unconceivable griefe for the obstinacy of the Jewish nation 2. The apprehension of the destruction of the City and Temple with a desolation of the whole Country to ensue shortly after his death 3. The guilt of the sins of the whole world 4. The sense of the full wrath of his Father for the sinnes of mankind which he tooke upon himselfe And now ye have the full dosis
hand and giveth them a stay in the next clause onely use not liberty for an occasion unto the flesh Lest any presumptuous sinner should lay hold on the hornes of the Altar and claspe about that gracious promise i Tit. 2.11 The grace of God that bringeth salvation unto all men hath appeared he beateth off their fingers in the next verse teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts wee should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world In like manner lest any should * 2 Pet. 3.16 wrest the former verse of this Prophet as they doe the other Scriptures to the building forts of presumption but to the apparent ruine of their owne soules the Prophet forcibly withstandeth them in the words of my text But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse c. The life of a Christian is not unfitly compared to a long and dangerous sea voyage the sea is this present world the barkes are our bodies the sailers our soules the pylot our faith the card Gods Word the rudder constancie the anker hope the maine mast the crosse of Christ the strong cables our violent affections the sailes our desires and the holy Spirit the good winde which filleth the sailes and driveth the barke and marriners to the faire k Act. 27.8 haven which is heaven Now in our way which lyeth through many temptations and tribulations there are two dangerous rockes the one on the right hand the other on the left the rock on the right hand to be avoided is presumption the rock on the left threatning shipwracke is despaire betweene which we are to steere our ship by feare on the one side and hope on the other To hold us in a solicitous feare that we touch not upon presumption let us have alwayes in the eye of our minde 1 The glorious and most omnipotent majesty of God 2 His all-seeing providence 3 His impartiall justice 4 His severe threatnings against sinne 5 The dreadfull punishments hee inflicteth upon sinners 6 The heinousnesse of the sin of presumption which turneth Gods grace into wantonnesse 7 The difficulty of recovery after relapses 8 The uncertainty of Gods offer of grace after the frequent refusall thereof To keepe us in hope that wee dash not upon the rocke of despaire on the contrary side let us set before our troubled and affrighted consciences these grounds of comfort 1 The infinitenesse of Gods mercy 2 The price and value of Christs blood 3 The efficacy of his intercession 4 The vertue of the Sacraments 5 The universality and certainty of Gods promises to the penitent 6 The joy of God and Angels for the conversion of a sinner 7 The communion of Saints who all pray for the comfort of afflicted consciences and the ease of all that are heavie laden with their sinnes 8 The examples of mercy shewed to most grievous sinners Upon these grounds the contrite penitent may build strong forts of comfort after this manner My sins though they be more in number than the heires of my head yet they are finite whereas Gods mercy is every way infinite if my debt bee as a thousand my Saviours merits are as infinite millions And not onely Gods mercy but his justice also pleads for my pardon for it is against justice that the same debt should be twice paid to require a full ransome from my Redeemer and expect it from my selfe I l â— Joh. 1.9 confesse my sinnes and therefore I know he is faithfull and just to forgive mee my sinnes and cleanse mee from all my unrighteousnesse One drop of the blood of the Sonne of God was a sufficient price for the ransome of many worlds and shall not such store of it spinning from his temples dropping from his hands gushing out of his side and trickling from all parts of his body both in the garden and in the High Priests Hall satisfie for one poore soule that preferreth his love even before heaven it selfe All my sinnes are either originall or actuall the guilt of originall is taken away in baptisme and as often as I have received the blessed Sacrament a generall pardon was tendred unto mee for all my other sinnes and the seale delivered into my hands What though God will not heare the prayers of such a sinner as I am yet he will heare the prayers of Jesus Christ the righteous who is the propitiation for my sinnes I acknowledge to my hearts griefe and sorrow that neither faith nor hope nor any other divine vertue beareth any sensible fruit in mee for the present yet the seed of my regeneration remaineth in mee And as the blind man knew that his sight began to be restored to him even by the defect he found in it when he thought he m Mark 8.24 saw men walke like trees so even by this I know that I am not utterly destitute of grace because I feele and unfainedly bewaile the want of it If there were no heavenly treasure in mee Satan would not so often and so furiously assault mee for theeves besiege not much lesse breake open those houses where they are perswaded nothing is to be found The greater my sorrow is for my sinne and my spirituall desertion the greater is my hope for the spirit maketh intercession for the sonnes of God n Rom. 8.26 with groaning which cannot be expressed None were cured by the brazen Serpent which before had not beene stung by the fiery neither doth Christ promise ease unto any but to those that feele themselves heavie burdened But to confine my meditations to the letter of my text Before ye heard Repent you of your sinnes and you shall surely live God pawneth his life for it therefore despaire not how grievous soever your sinnes be But now I am to tell you plainly if you repent you of your repentance and turne from righteousnesse to sinne and end your dayes in that state you shall surely die eternally therefore presume not how compleate soever your former righteousnesse seeme to have beene In these two verses are implyed a double conversion 1 From evill to good 2 From good to evill To turne from evill is good from good is evill the former is repentance upon which I spent my last discourse the later is relapse or apostacie against which I am now to bend all my forces But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquity c. in the transgression which he hath transgressed and in the sinne which he hath sinned in them hee shall surely die The contents of this verse are like the Prophet Jeremies figges of which wee read that the bad were exceeding bad for in the antecedent or fore-part we have apostacie that totall and in the hinder part or consequent death and that finall The words divide themselves into first a supposition When or if the righteous forsake secondly an inference his former righteousnesse shall not be remembred c. The supposition is dangerous the
complexa gremio jam reliquà naturà abdicatos tum maximé ut mater operiens nomen prorogat tiâ—ulis c. Pliny calleth the earth our tender mother which receiveth us into her bosome when wee are excluded as it were out of the world and covereth our nakednesse and shame and guardeth us from beasts and fowles that they offer no indignity to our carkasses Now because it is to small purpose to bestow the dead in roomes under ground if they may not keep them Abraham wisely provided for this for hee laid downe a valuable consideration for the field where the cave was Were laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a summe of money As Abraham here bought a field out-right and thereby assured the possession thereof to his posterity so by his example the Synagogue under the Law and the Catholike Church under the Gospel especially in dayes of peace secured certaine places for the buriall of the dead either purchased for money or received by deed of gift and after they were possessed of them sequestred them from all other and appropiated them to this use onely by which sequestration and appropriation all such parcells of ground became holy in such sort that none might otherwise use or imploy them than for the buriall of the dead without sacriledge or profanation As the holy oyle ran from Aarons head to his body and the skirts of his garments so holinesse stayeth not in the Chancell as the head but descendeth to the whole body of the Church and the Church-yard as the skirt thereof Mistake mee not brethren I say not that one clod of earth is holier than another or any one place or day absolutely but relatively only For as it is superstition to attribute formall or inherent holinesse to times places parcells of ground fruits of the earth vessell or vestments so it is profanenesse to deny them some kind of relative sanctity which the holy Ghost attributeth unto them in Scripture where wee reade expresly of holy ground holy daies holy oyle and the like To cleare the point wee are to distinguish of holinesse yet more particularly which belongeth 1. To God the Father Sonne and Spirit by essence 2. To Angels and men by participation of the divine nature or grace 3. To the Word and Oracles of God by inspiration 4. To types figures sacraments rites and ceremonies by divine institution 5. To places lands and fruits of the earth as also sacred utensils by use and dedication as 1. Temples with their furniture consecrated to the service of God 2. Tithes and glebe lands to the maintenance of the Priests 3. Church-yards to the buriall of the dead Others come off shorter and dichotomize holy things which say they are 1. Sanctified because they are holy as God his name and attributes c. 2. Holy because they are sanctified 1. Either by God to man as the Word and Sacraments 2. Or by man to God as Priests Temples Altars Tables c. Of this last kind of holy things by dedication some are dedicated to him 1. Immediately as all things used in his service 2. Mediately as all such things without which his service cannot be conveniently done and here come in Church-yards without which some religious workes of charity cannot be done with such conveniency or decency as they ought The Church is as Gods house and the yard is as the court before his doore how then dare any defile it or alienate it or imploy it to any secular use for profit or pleasure To conclude all Church-yards by the Ancients are termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dormitories or dortories wherein they lye that sleep in Jesus Now it is most uncivill to presse into or any way abuse the bed-chamber of the living and much more of the dead What are graves in this dormitory but sacred vestries wherein we lay up our old garments for a time and after take them out and resume them new dressed and trimmed and gloriously adorned and made shining and Å¿ Mar. 9.3 exceeding white as snow so as no Fuller on earth can white them These shining raiments God bestow upon us all at the last day for the merits of the death and buriall of our Lord and Saviour Cui c. THE FEAST OF PENTECOST A Sermon preached on Whitsunday THE LXIII SERMON ATCS 2.1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all together with one accord in one place SAint a Hom. in die ascens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome comparing the works of redemption with the works of creation observeth that as the Father finished the former so the Sonne the later in six dayes especially in memorie whereof his dearest Spouse the Catholique Church hath appointed six solemnities to be kept by all Christians with greatest fervour of devotion and highest elevation of religious affections These are Christ his 1. Virgin birth 2. Illustrious Epiphanie 3. Ignominious death 4. His powerfull resurrection 5. His glorious ascension 6. His gracious sending downe of the holy Ghost The day of 1. His incarnation by which he entred into the world 2. His manifestation on which he entred upon his office of Mediatour 3. His passion on which he expiated our sinnes 4. His resuscitation by which he conquered death the grave 5. His triumphant returne into heaven on which hee tooke seizin and possession of that kingdome for us 6. His visible mission of the holy Ghost in the similitude of fiery cloven tongues on which he sealed all his former benefits to us and us to the day of redemption This last festivall in order of time was yet the first and chiefest in order of dignity For on Christs birth day hee was made partaker of our nature but on this wee were made partakers after a sort of his in the Epiphany one starre onely stood over the house where hee lay on this twelve fiery tongues like so many celestiall lights appeared in the roome where the Apostles were assembled on the day of his passion he rendred his humane spirit to God his father on this hee sent downe his divine spirit upon us on the resurrection his spirit quickened his naturall body on this it quickened his mysticall the Catholique Church on the ascension he tooke a pledge from us viz. our flesh and carried it into heaven on this hee sent us his pledge viz. his spirit in the likenesse of fiery tongues with the sound of a mighty rushing wind After which the Spouse as Gorrhan conceiveth panted saying b Cant. 4.16 Awake O North wind and come thou South blow upon my garden that the spices therof may flow out let my Beloved come into his garden eat his pleasant fruits The wind she gasped for what was it but the spirit and what are the fragrant spices shee wishes may flow but the graces of the holy Ghost which David calleth gifts for men in the eighteenth verse of the 68. Psalme the former part whereof may furnish the feast we
Sacrament of our Lords body and bloud wee shall feele the effects of both in us viz. more light in our understanding more warmth in our affections more fervour in our devotions more comfort in our afflictions more strength in temptations more growth in grace more settled peace of conscience and unspeakable joy in the holy Ghost To whom with the Father and the Sonne bee ascribed c. THE SYMBOLE OF THE SPIRIT THE LXIV SERMON ACTS 2.2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting SAint Luke in the precedent verse giveth us the name in this the ground of the solemne feast we are now come to celebrate with such religious rites as our Church hath prescribed according to the presidents of the first and best ages The name is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the feast of the fiftieth day from Easter the ground thereof the miraculous apparition and if I may so speake the Epiphany of the holy Spirit in the sound of a mighty rushing wind the light of fiery cloven tongues shining on the heads of the Apostles who stayed at Jerusalem according to our Lords command in expectation of the promise of the holy Ghost which was fulfilled then in their eyes and now in our eares and I hope also in our hearts After God the Father had manifested himselfe by the worlds creation and the workes of nature and God the Sonne by his incarnation and the workes of grace it was most convenient that in the third place the third person should manifest himselfe as he did this day by visible descension and workes of wonder Before in the third of Matthew at the Epiphany of our Saviour the Spirit appeared in the likenesse of a dove but here as yee heare in the similitude of fiery cloven tongues to teach us that we ought to be like doves without gall in prosecution of injury done to our selves but like Seraphins all fire in vindicating Gods honour This morall interpretation Saint a Greg. tert pas Omnes quos implet columbae simplicitate mansuetos igne zeli ardentes exhibet Et ib. Intus arsit ignibus amoris foras accensus est zelo severitatis causam populi apud Deum lachrymis causam Dei apud populum gladiis allegabat c. Gregory makes of these mysticall apparitions All whom the spirit fills he maketh meeke by the simplicity of doves and yet burning with the fire of zeale Just of this temper was Moses who took somewhat of the dove from the spirit and somewhat of the fire For being warme within with the fire of love and kindling without with the zeale of severity he pleaded the cause of the people before God with teares but the cause of God before the people with swords Sed sufficit diei suum opus sufficient for the day will be the worke thereof sufficient for this audience will be the interpretation of the sound the mysticall exposition of the wind which filled the house where the Apostles sate will fill up this time And lest my meditations upon this wind should passe away like wind I will fasten upon two points of speciall observation 1. The object vehement the sound of a mighty rushing wind 2. The effect correspondent filled the whole house Each part is accompanied with circumstances 1. With the circumstance of 1. The manner suddenly 2. The sourse or terminus à quo from heaven 2. With the circumstance of 1. The place the house where 2. The persons they 3. Their posture were sitting 1. Hearken suddenly there came on the sudden 2. To what a sound 3. From whence from heaven 4. What manner of sound as of a mighty rushing wind 5. Where filling the roome where they were sitting That suddenly when they were all quiet there should come a sound or noise and that from heaven and that such a vehement sound as of a mighty rushing wind and that it should fill the whole roome where they were and no place else seemes to mee a kind of sequence of miracles Every word in this Text is like a cocke which being turned yeeldeth abundance of the water of life of which we shall taste hereafter I observe first in generall that the Spirit presented himselfe both to the eyes and to the eares of the Apostles to the eares in a noise like a trumpet to proclaime him to the eyes in the shape of tongues like lights to shew him Next I observe that as there were two sacred signes of Christs body 1. Bread 2. Wine so there are two symboles and if I may so speake sacraments of the Spirit 1. Wind 2. Fire Behold the correspondency between them the spirit is of a nobler and more celestiall nature than a body in like manner the elements of wind and fire come neerer the nature of heaven than bread and wine which are of a more materiall and earthly nature And as the elements sort with the mysteries they represent so also with our senses to which they are presented For the grosser and more materiall elements bread and wine are exhibited to our grosser and more carnall senses the taste and touch but the subtiler and lesse materiall wind and fire to our subtiler and more spirituall senses the eyes and eares Of the holy formes of bread and wine their significancie and efficacy I have heretofore discoursed at large at this present by the assistance of the holy Spirit I will spend my breath upon the sacred wind in my Text and hereafter when God shall touch my tongue with a fiery coale from his Altar explicate the mystery of the fiery cloven tongues After the nature and number of the symboles their order in the third place commeth to be considered first the Apostles heare a sound and then they see the fiery cloven tongues And answerable hereunto in the fourth verse we reade that they were filled with the holy Ghost and then they began to speake with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance For b Mat. 12.34 out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh With the c Rom. 10.10 heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and then with the tongue he confesseth unto salvation My d Psal 45.1 heart saith David is enditing a good matter and my tongue is the pen of a ready writer first the heart enditeth and then the tongue writeth They who stay not at Jerusalem till they are endued with power from above and receive the promise of the Father but presently will open their mouthes and try to loosen the strings of their fiery tongues I meane they who continue not in the schooles of the Prophets till they have learned the languages and arts and have used the ordinary meanes to obtaine the gifts and graces of the holy Spirit and yet will open their mouthes in the Pulpit and exercise the gift of their tongues doe but fill the eares of their auditors with a
sound and their zealous fiery cloven tongues serve but to put fire and make a rent in the Church of God The organ pipes must bee filled with wind before the instrument give any sound our mouthes lips and tongues are the instruments and organs of God and before they are filled with the wind in my Text they cannot sound out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his wonderous workes whereof this is one as followeth And suddenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every circumstance like graines in gold scales addeth to the weight e Oecumen in Act. c. 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecumenicus conceiveth that this sound came on the sudden to scare the Apostles and out of feare or amazement to draw them together And indeed this sudden noise in this upper roome the Apostles sitting still and there being no wind abroad stirring seemeth not lesse strange than the sudden calme after Christ rebuked the f Mat. 8.26 wind and the sea Windes are not raised to the height on the sudden but grow more and more blustering by degrees this became blustering on the sudden and which is more strange it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 privative and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appareo without any cause appearing To heare a thunder clap in summer when we see a blacke cloud overcasting the whole skie or a report where we know there is a canon mounted no way amazeth us but to heare thundering in a cleere sun-shine when there is no cloud to be seen in all the skie or the report like that of a canon where there is no peece of ordnance or a sudden light in a darke roome without lamp candle torch or fire somewhat affrighteth and amazeth us so it was here a noise is heard as of a mighty rushing wind yet no wind or if a wind a wind created of nothing without any cause or prejacent matter There is a great controversie among the Philosophers about the causes of winds Some as Democritus imagined that many atomes that is such small bodies and motes as wee see in the beames of the Sunne meeting together and striving for place stirred the aire and thereby made winds others as Agrippa that the evill spirits ruling in the aire as they raise tempests so also they cause winds Aristotle endeavoureth to demonstrate that the rising up of dry exhalations from the earth generateth the winds which so long rage as the matter continueth after that faileth the wind lies The Divines resolve with g Psal 135.7 David that God draweth them out of his hidden treasures To which our Saviour seemeth to have reference The h John 3.8 wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but knowest not whence it commeth that is originally There came a sound Some will have this sound to bee an eccho or a sound at second hand because so it will bee a fitter embleme of the Apostles preaching to the people and ours to you For first the sound of the Gospel comes from God to us and then it rebounds from us to you but the word in the originall is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eccho but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sound besides the eccho comes by reverberation from below but this sound came from above From heaven Lorinus and other Commentatours are of opinion that heaven here as in many other Texts of Scripture is put for the aire as God is said to i Gen. 7.11 open the windowes of heaven and to raine fire and k Gen. 19.24 brimstone from heaven But I see no reason why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here may not signifie the efficient cause and heaven bee taken properly For though the sense of hearing judged it that the sound began but in the aire yet it was there made without any apparent cause and why may not this sound be as well from heaven properly as we reade of a voice from heaven saying l Mat. 3.17 This is my well beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased and another voice from heaven saying m John 12.28 I have both glorified it my name and will glorifie it againe and yet a third voice from heaven saying Blessed are the n Rev. 14 13. dead which dye in the Lord But what manner of sound was this As of a rushing mighty wind or rather a rushing blast For in the originall it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ruentis flatus not venti As our breath differeth from our spirit and breathing parts so the spirit which the Apostles received was not the holy Ghost himselfe the third person but some extraordinary gifts and graces of the spirit Though Peter Lumbard the great Master of the sentences seemed to encline to that opinion that the Apostles received the very person of the holy Ghost yet this conceit of his is pricked through with an obelisque and à magistro hic non tenetur by the later Schoolmen who rightly distinguish between the substance of the spirit and the gifts The infinite substance neither is nor can bee imparted to any creature but the finite graces whereof they were only capable The Law the Gospel both came to the eares of men by a sound the one from Sinai the other from Sion that was delivered in thundering lightening with darknesse and an earth-quake this in a sound of a gale of wind and in the likenesse of shining tongues the Apostles sitting still the place being filled but not shooke with the blast As in lessons skilfully pricked the musicall notes answer to the matter of the ditty so the manner of the publishing of the Law and Gospel was correspondent to the matter contained in them that was proclaimed in a dreadfull manner this in a comfortable For the o Rom. 4.15 Law worketh wrath but the Gospel peace the Law feare the Gospel hope the Law an obscure the Gospel a more cleere and evident knowledge according to that sacred aphorisme of Saint Ambrose Umbra in Lege imago in Evangelio veritas in coelo there was a shadow in the Law an image in the Gospel the truth it selfe in heaven Moses himselfe quaked at the giving of the Law but we reade not that the Apostles were terrified but exceedingly comforted at the receiving of the Gospel as the roome was filled with the blast so their hearts with joy And it filled the place where they were sitting The Apostles expected the fulfilling of Christs promise and it is very likely that they were praying on their knees yet they might be truly said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our translators render sitting For the word in the originall importeth only a settled abode as it is taken in the verse following There appeared cloven tongues like fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it sate upon each of them Sitting as the word is taken in our language is a kind of posture of mans body which cannot
there But Christ himselfe assureth us to the contrary not every one that saith Lord Lord z Mat. 7.21 shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but hee that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Doing and life working and salvation running and obtaining winning and wearing overcomming and reigning in holy Scripture follow one the other Wherefore the young man puts the question to our Saviour What a Mark 10.17 thing shall I doe that I may attaine evelasting life and the people likewise and the Publicans and the Souldiers to b Luk 3.10.12.14 S. John and the keepers of the prison to c Act. 16.30 Saint Paul and the Jewes in my text to Saint Peter and the rest of the Apostles What shall wee doe not What shall wee say or What shall wee beleeve but What shall wee doe This is the tenour of the Law Doe this and thou shalt live Whosoever doth these things shall never fall And the Gospel also carryeth the same tune full d Mat. 7.24 If ye know these things happie are yee of yee doe them Hee that heareth and doeth buildeth upon a rocke Not the hearers but the doers of the e James 1.22 Ezek. 1.8 Law shall bee justified Why are the Cherubims described with the hands of a man under their wings but to teach us that none shall see God who under the wings of faith and hope whereby they flâ—e to heaven have not the hand of charity to doe good workes As Darius used the Macedonian souldiers whom hee tooke prisoners so the divell doth those over whom hee hath any power hee cutts off their hands that they may be able to do no service The heathen Philosopher observed that of three of the best things in the world through the wickednesse of men three of the worst things proceeded and grew 1 Of vertue envie 2 Of truth hatred 3 Of familiarity contempt Wee Christians may adde a fourth viz. of the doctrine of free justification carnall liberty The catholike doctrine of justification by faith alone is the true Nectar of the soule so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it keepeth from death yet this sweetest Wine in the Spouses Flagons proves no better than Vinegar or rather poyson in their stomackes who turne grace into wantonnesse and liberty into licence fit Nectar acetum Et vaticam perfida vappa cadi But let no man adulterate the truth nor impose upon Christs mercy what it will not beare nor endeavour to sever faith from good workes lest hee sever his soule from life For though faith justifie our workes before God yet our workes justifie our faith before men though the just shall g Habac. 2.4 Rom. 1.17 live by his faith yet this his faith must live by h James 2.20 charity as never man any dyed with a living faith so never any man lived by a dead faith I grant when we have all done wee may nay wee must say i Luk. 17.10 Wee are unprofitable servants yet while we have time k Gal. 6.10 we must doe good unto all especially to those of the houshold of faith None may trust in their owne righteousnesse but on the contrary all ought to pray that they may be found in Christ l Phil. 3.9 not having their owne righteousnesse yet their righteousnesse must exceed the m Mat. 5.20 righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees or else they shall never enter into the kingdome of heaven It is evident unto all except they be blinde that the eye alone seeth in the body yet the eye which seeth is not alone in the body without the other senses the forefinger alone pointeth yet that finger is not alone on the hand the hammer alone striketh the bell yet the hammer which striketh is not alone in the clocke the heate alone in the fire burneth and not the light yet that heate is not alone without light the helme alone guideth the ship and not the tackling yet the helme is not alone nor without the tackling in a compound electuarie Rubarb alone purgeth choler yet the Rubarb is not alone there without other ingredients Thus wee are to conceive that though faith alone doth justifie yet that faith which justifieth is not alone but joyned with charity and good workes Many please themselves with a resemblance of Castor and Pollux two lights appearing on shippes sometimes severally sometimes joyntly If either appeareth by it selfe it presageth a storme if both together a suddaine calme yet with their good leave be it spoken this their simile is dissimile For those lights may be severed actually are often but justifying faith cannot be severed from charity nor charity from it Thus farre onely it holdeth that unlesse we have a sense and feeling of both in our soules we may well feare a storme S. Bernards distinction of via regni and causa regnandi cleareth the truth in this point Though good workes are not the cause why God crowneth us yet we must take them in our way to heaven or else we shall never come there It is as impious to deny the necessity as to maintaine the merit of good workes sed Cynthius aurem Vellit The time calleth mee off and therefore that it may not exclude mee I will conclude with it In this holy time of Lent three duties are required Prayer Fasting and Almes prayer is the bird of Paradise fasting and almes are her two wings the lighter is fasting but the stronger is almes use both to carry your prayers to heaven that you may bring from thence a blessing upon you through the merits and intercession of Jesus Christ Cui c. THE LAST OFFER OF PEACE A Sermon preached at a publike Fast THE LXX SERMON LUK 19.41 42. 41. And when he was come neere he beheld the City and wept over it 42. Saying If thou hadst knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes WHen the Romans fought a pitched field after the rankes of their prime Leaders and chiefe Souldiers which they called Principes had charged valiantly if the enemy still kept his ground the Triarii containing the whole shock of the army put on and upon their prowesse and valour depended the fortune of the day and chance if I may so speake of the bloudy die of war Whereupon it grew to be a proverb a Eras chil Res rediit ad Triarios it now stands upon the Triarii as if you would say it is now put to the last plunge And is it not so now my Christian brethren We have taken to us the proper weapons of Christians fasting prayers and teares to fight against the fearfull combinations of powerfull vigilant enemies The rank of our Principes the King himself the Princes Nobles and Peeres have already watered this field with their teares and put on with all their force of zealous praiers how far they have prevailed
God only knowes Jam ad Triarios res rediit now the whole shock of the army and the maine battell is to advance and upon the sinceritie of the humiliation and fervency of devotion and strength of our united praiers sighes this day dependeth much the safety and life of our State and in it of our Church and in it of our true and incorrupt Religion Let no man goe about with Mercuries inchanted rod to close the eyes of our Argus's let no man sow pillowes under the elbowes of our true Patriots to make them sleep in security lest destruction steale upon us at unawares It is certaine our enemies sleep not and it is most certaine that our crying sinnes have awaked Gods justice it standeth us therefore upon to watch and pray Judgement is already begun at the house of God the Angel hath poured out his viall of red wine upon the Churches of Bohemia and their fields are thicke sowne with the blood of Martyrs the same Angel hath emptied another viall upon the Churches in the Palatinate and the sweet Rhenish grape yeelds in a manner now no liquor but blood a third viall runneth out at this houre upon the reformed Churches in France and our sinnes as it were holloe to him to stretch his hand over the narrow sea and cast the dregges of it on us who have beene long settled upon our lees and undoubtedly this will bee our potion to drinke if wee stretch not our hands to heaven that God may command his Angel to stay his hand If hee have already turned his viall and wee see drops of bloud hanging in the ayre yet the strong wind of our prayers may blow them away and dispell them in such sort that they shall not fall upon us a gale of our sighes may cleare the skie Moses praiers manicled the hands of Almighty God and shall not the united devotions of this whole Land either stay or turne his Angels hand Away with all confidence in the arme of flesh away with all hope in man away with all cloakes of sinne and vizzards of hypocrisie there is no dissembling with God no fighting against him Albeit our land bee compassed with the sea as with a moat and environed with ships furnished with ordnance as with brazen and iron walls though the most puissant Princes on earth should send us innumerable troupes to succour and aide us yet we have no fence for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we lye open to heaven wee are naked to the arrowes of the Almighty and no carnall weapons for succours can stand us in any stead onely the helmet of salvation and the buckler of faith and the powder of a contrite heart and the shot of pious ejaculations may doe us some good It is our pride Beloved that hath throwne us downe and it is humility which must raise us our divisions have weakened us and it is union that can strengthen us our luxury hath imbezelled us and now nothing but fasting and abstinence can recover us our sinnes have made a breach and nothing but repentance can make it up our profane oathes our sinfull pleasures our carnall security and sensuality hath driven away the Spirit of grace and comfort from us and nothing can wooe him to returne backe againe but our vowes of amendment unfeigned teares and sorrowfull sighes Let us therefore ply sighes and b Cyp. ep 1. Incumbamus igitur gemitibus assiduis deprecationibus crebris haec enim sunt arma coelestia quae stare perseverare fortiter faciunt haec sunt munimenta spiritualia tela divina quae protegunt nos Et serm de laps Oportet transigere vigiliis noctes tempus omne lachrymosis lamentationibus occupare stratos solo adhaerere cineri in cilicio volutari sordibus prayers for these are the spirituall weapons we alone can trust to through the intercession of Christs bloud which speaketh better things for us than the bloud of Abel These weapons our Lord himselfe made tryall of in my Text and sanctified them to our use viz. passionate teares and compassionate prayers When hee drew neere to Jerusalem and fore-saw in spirit that shee drew neere to her ruine his eyes melted with teares he beheld the City and wept and his heart breaketh out into sighes Oh that thou knewest Teares trickle not down in order neither are sighes fetched by method Expect not therefore from mee any accurate division or methodicall handling of this passionate Text only in the first place fasten the eye of your observation upon the eyes of our Saviour and you shall discerne in them 1. Beames of love He beheld 2. Teares of compassion He wept over it In the next place bow the eares of your religious attention towards his mouth and ye shall heare from him 1. Sighes of desire Oh or if that thou knewest 2. Plaints of sorrow But now they are hid from thine eyes I have pitched as you see upon a c Hom. Il. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moist plat or fenny ground wherein that your devotion may walke more steadily I have laid out for you five knolls or steps to rest upon and pawse 1. Venit He came 2. Vidit He beheld 3. Flevit He wept 4. Ingemuit He sighed 5. Oravit He prayed 1. Venit or appropinquavit he drew neere The end of our Saviours life here was the sacrifice of his death he was borne that he might die for us and by one oblation of himselfe on the crosse satisfie for the sinnes of the whole world Now all sacrifices by the Law were to be offered at Jerusalem to Jerusalem therefore hee comes up to finish the worke of our redemption and he maketh the more haste because Easter was neere at hand when he was to eate the Paschall Lambe with his Disciples and to be eaten of them in the mysterious rite of the Sacrament to kill the passover in the type but to be killed himselfe in the truth Oh how farre hath our Saviour left us behind him in his love He came with a swift foot to us we returne with a slow foot to him he made more haste to give himselfe than we make to receive him After hee received the commandement from his Father to lay downe his life for his sheep he rode more cheerfully into Jerusalem and was led more willingly to the altar of the crosse where hee lost his life than we repaire to his holy table there to be partakers of the bread of eternall life He came neere to the City that he might view it he viewed it that hee might weep over it hee wept over it that hee might testifie a threefold truth 1. Naturae of his Nature 2. Amoris of his Love 3. Doctrinae of his Doctrine or prophesie 1. Veritatem naturae the truth of his humane nature He must needs be a true man who out of compassion sheds teares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sic fatur lachrymans Cold stone or metall relenteth not a phantasme
First it is sinne for God in the Law appointed a z Levit. 4.2 5.15 sacrifice for a trespasse by ignorance and the servant in the Gospel which knew not his Masters will and therefore did it not shall be beaten with fewer a Luke 12.48 stripes indeed than the other who knew his Masters will and did it not yet with some Secondly it is the parent of sinne viz. of many errours in matter of faith which are sinnes This b Psal 95.10 people saith God hath erred in their heart because they have not knowne my waies And Christ imputeth the grosse errour of the Pharisees concerning the resurrection to their ignorance of the Scriptures c Mat. 22.29 Ye doe erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God And it is also the punishment of sinne as we reade Because they did not like to retaine God in their d Rom. 1 21 28. knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate sense and their foolish heart was darkened Even this is a sin of ignorance not to know that ignorance is a sin I speake not only of ignorantia pravae dispositionis of wilfull ignorance but also of nescience which they call simple ignorance why else doth the Prophet pray Effunde aestum tuum in gentes quae te ignorant Poure downe thine indignation upon the e Psal 79.6 nations that know thee not and upon the people that call not upon thy Name Why doth the Apostle threaten f 2 Thes 1.8 flaming fire to all that know not God I would S. g De grâ—t lib arbitr c. 3. Sed illâ— ignorantia quae non est eorum qui scire nolunt sed eorum qui tantum simpliciter nesciunt neminem sic excusat ut sempiterno igne non ardeat Austines censure might upon good ground from Scripture be qualified where he passeth the sentence of damnation to eternall fire even upon those who never had knowledge of the means of salvation and not only upon those who might have known them if they would Yea but we have all knowledge our ignorance will not cast us the clearest beames of the Gospel have for these many yeers shined in our climate we should be most unthankful to him that dwelleth in an unaccessible light if we should not acknowledge as much It is most true in these parts as in the part of heaven over our heads we see continually many goodly starres yea many constellations of starres but as about the South pole so in divers remote parts of this Kingdome there is scarce any starre to be discerned or if any but a blinking starre of the sixth magnitude Yet to yeeld us a greater knowledge than other nations I feare that this plea will rather hurt us than help us if we could say truly we were blind we should not have so much to answer for but h John 9 41. now because we say we see our sinne remaineth if we so perfectly know our Masters will and doe it so imperfectly a few stripes will not serve our turne i De gubern Dei lib 4 Quanto minore periculo illi per Daemonia pâ—jerant quà m nos per Christum Et nunquid tam criminosa est Hunnorum impudiâ—itia quam nostra nunquid tam rep chensibilis Almanni ebrietas quam Christiâ—ni Doe ye thinke saith Salvianus that the heathen so much dishonour God when they forsweare themselves by their false gods as you when you forsweare your selves by the true Doe you thinke a Jew or a Pagan or a Papist by his profane or loose life causeth the truth to be so evill spoken of as we that have the word taught among us most purely yet live impurely who know better yet doe worse As we presume of our knowledge so did Jerusalem which is by interpretation the k Rob. Steph. interpret nominum Heb. Châ—ld Visio pacis seu visio perfecta vision of peace much more yet our Saviour upbraideth her with ignorance saying Thou even thou Our Saviour strikes twice upon the same string he rubbeth againe and againe upon the same sore Thou even thou Thou which carriest peace in thy name thinkest not thou of those things that belong to thy peace Jerusalem was once the light of the world and yet behold she is darknesse From Moses to the daies of John Baptist and from the daies of John Baptist till this present she was instructed by Seers sent from God and directed to the way of peace yet she seeth it not Let those who assume to themselves most knowledge take heed lest they be like Pentheus Sapientes in omnibus praeterquam in iis in quibus sapientem esse convenit wise in all things save those where wisedome might stead them l Eurip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is not to be accounted a wise man saith the wise l Eurip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Poet who knoweth simply most things but who knoweth things of most use Is Jerusalem ignorant of the maine point of all of the comming of the Messias notwithstanding all the light she might have taken from the Law of Moses from the visions of the Prophets from the doctrine and miracles of our Saviour how grosse then is that errour of all the rest in the Romish Church by which shee maintaineth and holdeth that she cannot erre Was Jerusalem seated upon so high a hill so neer heaven obscured with the fumes arising from the bottomlesse pit and may not the City situated on seven hills have a thicke mist cast over her What can shee plead for her immunity from errour in matter of faith more than Jerusalem could that faith was planted in her by S. Peter the Christian faith was planted in Jerusalem by Christ himselfe that it was watered in her with the bloud of the Apostles Jerusalem was watered with the bloud of Christ himselfe If Rome can alledge any one promise made to her Jerusalem can many But to leave Rome and come with a Nathans application to our selves mee thinks I heare Christ saying to us and our Church If thou even thou if thou which art the Queen of all the reformed Churches if thou which hast enjoyed the sun-shine of the Gospel without any eclipse by persecution for more than 60. yeers if thou who hast had line upon line precept upon precept admonition after admonition exhortation after exhortation if thou whom God hath miraculously preserved from imminent destruction by defeating the invincible Armado in eighty eight since discovering the matchlesse powder plot if thou even thou who sittest quietly under thine own vine when all thy neighbour vines are plucked up by the roots or trampled under foot if thou even thou knowest not or wilt not take notice of the things that belong to thy peace At least in this thy day that is the day of thy visitation the day of grace a day given thee for this end to provide for thy peace to call thy selfe
him Apoc. 1.7 even they that nailed him to the Crosse and pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall mourne before him Yea and Amen then he shall bring or send forth judgement unto victory He brought forth judgement in his life by preaching the Gospel in his owne person and he sent it forth after his death by the ministery of his Apostles and doth still by propagating the Church but hee bringeth not forth judgement unto victory in the Evangelists phrase because this his judgement is much oppressed the light of his truth smoothered the pure doctrine of the Gospel suppressed the greater part of the Kings of the earth and Potentates of this world refusing to submit their scepter to his Crosse and saying as it is in St. Lukes Gospel Luke 17.14 Wee will not have this man to reigne over us but when the sonne of man shall display his banner in the clouds and the winds shall have breathed out their last gaspes and the sea and the waters shall roare when heaven and earth shall make one great bonefire when the stage of this world shall be removed and all the actors in it shall put off their feigned persons and guises and appeare in their owne likenesse when the man of sinne 2 Thes 2.3 8. that exalteth himselfe above all that is called God shall be fully revealed and after consumed with the spirit of Christs mouth and be destroyed by the brightnesse of his comming then he shall suddenly confound the rest of his enemies Atheists Hypocrites Jewes Turkes Idolatrous Gentiles and Heretikes and breake the neckes of all that stubbornly resist him and then the truth shall universally prevaile and victoriously triumph All this variety of descant which you heare is but upon two notes a higher and a lower the humility and the majesty the infirmity and the power the obscurity and the glory the mildnesse and the severity of our Lord and Saviour his humility upon earth his majesty in heaven his infirmities in the dayes of his flesh and his power since hee sitteth at the right hand of his Father the obscurity and privacy of his first comming and solemnity of his second his mildnesse and clemency during the time of grace and mercy and his wrath and severity at the day of Judgement and Vengeance Ecce tibiâ cecinimus vobis Behold out of this Scripture I have piped unto you recording the pleasing notes of our Redeemers mildnesse and mercy who never brake the bruised reed nor quenched the smoaking flaxe now I am to mourne unto you sounding out the dolefull notes of his justice and severity which shall one day bring forth judgement unto victory But before I set to the sad tune pricked before mee in the rules of my Text I am to entreat you to listen a while till I shall have declared unto you the harmony of the Prophet Esay and the Evangelist S. Matthew the rather because there seemeth some dissonancy and jarre between them For in Esay we reade Esay 42.3 Hee shall bring forth judgement unto truth that is give sentence according to truth but in St. Matthew He shall send forth judgement unto victory which importeth somewhat more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. that the judgement he shall send forth viam inveniet aut faciet shall either finde way or force it take place or make place no man or divell being able to withstand it Besides this discord in their notes there is a sweet straine in the Prophet he shall not faile Verse 4. nor bee discouraged till hee have set judgement on the earth left out in the Evangelist To the first exception the Jesuit Maldonat saith that the Syriack word signifieth both truth and victory and that Saint Matthew wrote not in pure Hebrew but in the Hebrew then currant which was somewhat alloyed and embased with other languages which if it were granted unto him as it is not by those who defend that the Greeke in the New Testament is the originall yet the breach is not fully made up For still the originall Hebrew in Esay and the Greeke in Saint Matthew which hath been ever held authenticall are at odds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew signifying truth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greeke signifying victory and not truth I grant the truth of Christ is most victorious and hath subdued all the false gods of the Heathen as the Arke laid Dagon on his face and the rod of Aaron devoured all the rods of the Magicians yet truth and victory are not all one A weake Judge may bring forth judgement unto truth yet not unto victory as on the contrary a potent and corrupt Judge may bring forth judgement unto victory yet not unto truth Tully in a bad cause prevailed against Oppianicus by casting dust in the Judges eyes And Aeschines prevailed not against Ctesiphon in a good cause Right is often overcome by might and sometimes by the sleight of a cunning Advocate for the false part To the second objection Beza answereth that these words that hee will not faile nor be discouraged till he hath set judgement on the earth were anciently in St. Matthew but of late through the carelesnesse of some transcriber from whose copy ours were drawne are left out But sith this Verse is wanting in all the copies of Saint Matthew now extant neither can Beza bring good proofe of any one in which this Verse was ever found it is not safe to lay any such imputation upon the first transcribers of St. Matthewes Gospel whereby a gap may be opened to Infidels and Heretickes to cavell at the impeachable authority of the holy Scriptures in the originall languages A safe and easie way to winde out of these perplexed difficulties is to acknowledge that the Evangelist who wrote by the same spirit wherewith the Prophet Esay was inspired tyed nor himselfe precisely to the Prophets words but fitteth the Prophets sense to his owne purpose and what the Prophet delivered in two Verses he contracteth into one For what is hee shall bring forth judgement unto truth and he shall not faint nor be discouraged till hee hath done it but that he shall doe it effectually and powerfully and what is that but he shall send forth judgement unto victory Hee shall send forth Cal. in Mat. 1. Hoc verbum educere quo utitur Propheta significat officium Christi esse Regnum Dei quod tum inclusum erat in angulo Judeae propagare in totum orbem This phrase reacheth forth unto us a twofold observation the first touching the extent the second touching the freedome of this judgement here spoken of By judgement is here meant the Kingdome of Christ which must not bee confined to Jury nor bounded within the pale of Palaestine but hee sent forth that is propagated and spread over the whole world according to the prophecy of the Psalmist a Psal 110.2 The Lord shall send a rod of thy strength out