most admiration is begotten only with a look by mere aspect and intuition as the Fathers speak and the Scriptures intimate and therefore who shall declare These and many other the like high and inexplicable mysteries of this wonderful generation the Apostle seems not to express but to shadow as well as he might when he terms him the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express image of his Person Heb. i. 3. For though these words cannot reach home to the thing yet others more apt and significant may not be found For brightness is ever coeval with the thing that is bright if bright in it self the brightness of the Sun is neither before nor after but fully as ancient as that Sun that begat it and so begat it as it doth not cease still to beget it For it is not produced once for all but is generated perpetually and generated not of two but of one only who can communicate it to other things and yet lose none of it himself Excellently therefore the brightness of his glory and as fully the express image of his person to shew as far as may be shown the manner of his generation by sight and intuition For the images which we behold when we look on our selves in a glass are of all others the most exact and perfect Now God himself is his own mirrour wherein beholding and comprehending himself he produceth the most express and absolute image of himself So that the Divine intellect of the Father reflecting inwards and fully conceiving his own perfection doth at once both conceive and bring forth his own and only Son the substantial and essential picture of himself And therefore no thought here of Mother or Matrimony nor imperfection or inquination but he is begotten after a pure clean chast high and sublime manner as the beam from the Sun as the image from the glass as being the brightness of his Fathers glory and the ingraven Character of his person Though neither of these can fully express it for it is wonderful and therefore to our ears cannot be uttered it is singular and therefore hath no example for how should the imperfect Creature every way square with the absolute perfection of the Creatour And therefore let us adore in Soul and believe it in heart but lay our hand on our lips and not think to utter it in words whereof when we have spoken yea and thought all that we can we must shut up all with the Prophets Admiration who shall declare And this shall suffice for the non-declaration of his Divine birth and generation we now pass on to his humane the subject of this days Solemnity and therefore the chief theam of this hours discourse but a theam every way beset also with so many Pearls of highest admiration as we may well say of it as of the other Quis enarrabit Nay in some things it may seem something stranger than his other generation For that God should be born of God though we can no way apprehend it yet in reason it carries some Correspondence and proportion But that God should be born again and born of a woman hath such an infinite disparity that unless it had been foreshewn by such illustrious prophecies and confirmed by so many and great miracles it had exceeded not only reason but even all belief Well therefore did S. Paul term it a mystery and a great mystery and great too without controversie without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. iii. God in the flesh a great mystery indeed yea how many great mysteries are there in it The Antient of days is become a swadled Child and he who was the Son of God without a Mother now made the Son of a woman without a Father a woman that is at once both a Mother and a Maid conceiving and bearing a Son and yet a Virgin in and after both conception and birth Nay more the Mother of her own Maker and so the daughter of her Son as he the Son of his own daughter No marvel therefore that at this admirable birth of his he had marvail and admiration it self given him for his name for his first To us a Child is born and to us a Son is given the principality shall be upon his shoulders and you shall call his name Wonderful Isa. ix wonderful and full of wonders as in other things so especially in his birth and generation and therefore Quis enarrabit Wise Solomon having with all his skill and diligence searched into the depths and profundities of Nature after all his travel could find out no new thing under the Sun but that you may know a greater than Solomon is here our Saviour this day together with himself brought many new things you see into the world which the Sun never saw before nor ever shall see again A new birth new man new person new Heavens new Earth a new Creation for all had need of renewing and all things in him are made new Ecce nova jam facta sunt omnia behold all things are become new saith the Apostle All things but wretched men that regarding it not grew old in their Sins but shall receive a punishment hereafter that shall never grow old in it self because it shall never be ended And therefore Quis Yet that we may declare it as far as we can or at least declare how far it is above all declaration we will in their order briefly touch upon these circumstances of his birth and generation Who it is that is born of whom and in what manner and where he was born For there is newness and strangeness in them all not fully to be declarable And first who or what he is that is born And what is he an ordinary man as we our selves are one of the rout one of the vulgar A Man indeed he was and when he was at the lowest and worst Pilate could term him so ecce homo behold the Man but yet no ordinary Man he was a King too and a King born where is he that is born king of the Jews say the Wisemen of the East Nay no petty King no King of the Jews alone he shall have the Nations too for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possessions saith God in the Psalm And therefore an universal Monarch And yet higher for I will make him my first-born higher than the Kings of the earth higher indeed even the high God that is King both of Heaven and Earth and therefore his name shall be called Wonderful and mighty counsellor and Deus fortâ—s the strong God pater aeternus the everlasting Father saith my Prophet in the place but now quoted And it is worth the observing in the beginning of the verse A child is born and a son is given towards the end this weak child is the mighty God this young Son is the everlasting Father for the Son of God is our
he seeks to infer the necessity of the Gospel doth apply it to shew that all men are naturally evil and deprived of the glory of God and therefore stand in need of the Grace of Christ that they might attain unto it In like manner it is said in another place Omne Animal in Arca Noae that every Creature was in Noahs Ark which notwithstanding cannot be verified of every Creature but of one of all sorts and kinds of Creatures and not of those absolutely neither but of all kinds that could not live in the waters for there were no Fishes there It were easy to give you instance in many more but these may suffice Now that in this place this Inhibition here is of the like nature though absolute in terms yet not in sence restraining Oaths but yet not all without limitation or distinction is manifest both by the letter of the Scripture and the example of St. Paul that writ it and the perpetual practice of all Churches since The Text of Scripture is that before cited in the 6. to the Hebrews where St. Paul doth not only approve and allow of an Oath now under the Gospel but sets it down as a principal remedy for the establishing of peace and dissolving of quarrels and discords amongst men if so be that St. Paul were the Author of that Epistle as is most commonly held though it be not greatly material whether he were or no for it skills not much whoâ— was the Pen where it is confest by all that the Holy Ghost was the Writer And if he were not the Author of the Doctrine yet he doth elsewhere frequently maintain it by his own practice and example often confirming his speeches even in his holy writings sometimes with a bare and simple Oath as Rom. i. 9. God is my witness whom I serve in the Spirit c. Sometimes even with an execratory mixed with imprecations as Testem invoco Deum in Animam meam I call God for a record upon my Soul 2 Cor. i 23. and in divers other places Now who can imagine that blessed Apostle either so ignorant or so evil as not to understand the precepts of Christ or else so often to disobey them especially in those holy pages and sacred instructions of the whole Church wherein he was but the quill or at most the Scribe unto the blessed Spirit that did dictate and indite them Whereunto if we add the consent of all famous Churches from that Apostles time unto this very day not only approving but in divers cases even requiring of an Oath it will be more than abundantly manifest that that speech of our Saviour is not so absolutely Universal as to be received without all limitation and restraint only the difficulty is unto what kind of Oaths it ought to be restrained For even they that consent unto a limitation as the most of the Fathers do yet they do not consent in the specialty whereunto it is to be limited Some conceive that our Saviour doth here prohibit not those Oaths that are made in the Name of God but such only as are sworn by some of his creatures for which cause after the inhibition Swear not at all he immediately infers neither by heaven for it is his Throne neither by the Earth for it is his Footstool of this opinion was St. Hilary yea and St. Hierom Consider saith he upon this place that our Saviour doth not here forbid men to swear by the Lord but by the Heaven the Earth Jerusalem and his head But this Commentary seems to fail because the assuming of a Creatures Name in an Oath is not utterly unlawful as you shall hear when we come to it as also for that the words of our Saviour tying up our speech unto yea yea nay nay and afterwards that whatsoever is more proceeth from evill doth clearly exclude all forms of Oaths promiscuously as well those in the name of the Creator as those by the name of a Creature Others are of opinion that the words are to be restrained unto all false Oaths taking jurare for pejerare swearing for forswearing To whom if you object that according unto this exposition nothing is added by our Saviour about that which was said unto them of old if swear not at all be no more than thou shalt not forswear thy self They answer yes that there is because the Lord in the latter part doth forbid all kind of forswearing even that by the Creatures specified in heaven earth Jerusalem and the head which the Jews did not conceive to be forbidden of all for they had a Tradition which they sucked from the Pharisees that there were certain Creatures by whom if they made their Oath they did not stand bound to perform it It is true indeed that such a Tradition they had which made a distinction of Creatures in this kind as of the Temple and the gold of the Temple the Altar and the gift on the Altar affirming that to swear by the one was nothing but he that sware by the other was a debtor which our Saviour in the 23 of this Evangelist doth both mention and refel and not without indignation But it seems not to be his intent here both because yea and yea and nay and nay doth debar all swearing as well as forswearing as also for that our Saviour doth purposely alter the first word forswearing into swearing to shew and signify that he understands an Oath as it differs from Perjury And yet St. Austin himself lib. de Sermon Domini Cap. 17. did sometimes give this Interpretation Others again as St. Bernard and Christianus Duthmanus that lived long before him upon this place desire to have it esteemed rather for a Counsel than a Mandate a Counsel of extraordinary perfection rather than a Mandate of necessary duty wherein he that fails doth not sin though he that observes it doth the better But neither may this satisfy for it is clear that our Saviour doth prohibit something which the Scribes and Pharisees thought to be lawful Neither is it likely that St. Paul whom we find often swearing in his Epistles would neglect the Counsel of Christ when he ought to give example of perfection unto others But St. James puts it out of all question who repeating those very words of our Saviour he so repeats them as a Mandate and Commandment as he makes damnation a punishment of the breach for where Christ says let your speech be yea yea and nay nay for whatsoever is more cometh of evil he to shew that this evil is sin and a sin that deserveth death doth paraphrase it thus let your speech be yea yea and nay nay lest you fall into Condemnation No counsel therefore James v. But not to hold you any longer with several and erroneous opinions They seem to make the best interpretation that restrain this prohibition unto the idle trivial and customary Oaths of common speech which the Lord did forbid as well as unjust and false
certain and ought to be acknowledged by either That the first Graces of God either confer'd in time upon Earth or prepared eternally by him who dwelleth in the Heavens are a free collation and absolute without any thing of reward otherwise Grace were not grace as the Apostle speaks Secondly The last punishments in Hell a meer reward in justice without any thing of free and undeserved collation otherwise Punishment were not punishment But the Kingdom of Heaven and the joyes of that place come to us after a mixed manner though originally and principally yet not altogether by grace neither yet altogether by merit not as a gift only nor yet wholly as a reward but is so a reward as it is still a gift so a gift as it is still a reward A reward because promised unto works a gift because that promise was of grace and these works no way deserve the reward And therefore the Scriptures apply themselves unto both terming it sometimes an Inheritance by Adoption sometimes a Crown of Righteousness sometimes a gift of Grace sometimes a Reward of our Works But that we mistake not we are most commonly careful not to mention the one respect without some intimation of the other In that very place where the Apostle affirms it a Crown of Righteousness yet that we may receive it as a Crown rather given than deserved it follows immediately which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me in that day On the other side in those places where it is called an Inheritance as it is in many yet in all we shall find it to be an Inheritance of the Saints and never conferred but on obedient Childeren My Sheep saith our Saviour hear my voice and follow me wheresoever I go do istis vitam eternam and I give them eternal life There it is a gift but yet to his sheep that hear and follow him dâ—num datâ—m non personae sed vitae a gift given not to the persons of men but to their lives and that is no other than a reward as St. Jerom rightly In the v. of St. Maâ—thew it is a reward merces vestra your reward is great in the Kingdom of Heaven yet it is merces coprosa a great and plenteous reward magnanâ—mis as God said unto Abraham I am thy exceeding great reward a reward with excess far exceeding indeed all the works and passions too of men that are to be rewarded So true is that rule of the Rabbins concerning the holy Scriptures In omni loco in quo invenis objectinoâ— pro haeretico ibi quoque invenis medicamentum in latere ejus Not a place that seems to favour an heresy but hath an Antidote or Medicine hanging at the side of it But on the other side most true it is Hell and eternal death are the wages and meer wages of wickedness That of the Prophet Vita â—ors a domino life and death are both of the Lord is right but yet must be rightly understood not both of him after one and the same manner but with St. Aâ—stins difference Vita scilicet à Donante mors à Vindicante which we may render in the words of the Apostle Life is the gift of God but death the wages of Sin To shew therefore that death is be to attributed not so properly to the Inâ—â—ctour as to the deserver the Wiseman is bold to say Deus mortem non fecit God hath not made death but men by the errours of their life have sought it out and drawn it down upon their own heads Let not any man therefore conceive the evil works oâ— wicked men as effects of a foredoomed destruction buâ— destruction rather wherever it lights to follow both iâ— design and execution as a just meede and recompence of evil doings for the merciful Lord that preserver of Souls as the same Author hath it cannot possibly hate any man as Davids enemies did him gratis without any cause but is ever as the Scriptures teach and the Fathers proverbially affirm Primus in amore ultimus in odio first in love and last in hatred And they that will needs think otherwise if they be not reckoned among the haters of God sure I am they will be found lyars at the last for the Lord is a just God and so is his reward that will look precisely on the work without respect unto any mans person be he what he will or may be for so it follows in the next place reddet unicuique he shall reward every man c. Great diversity there is among the Sons of men but the summons of this day is universal and will reach unto them all Be they rich or poor noble or ignoble none so mean as to escape unregarded none so mighty as to decline the Tribunal we must all appear saith the Apostle we and we all no remedy we all must make our appearance before the judgment-seat of Christ. And however here upon earth there doth indeed belong great respect and reverence unto the persons and dignities of great and honourable men yet these things are all now passed away and Christ the great Judge in this terrible day will have no regard unto any mans person or titles farther than these have had an influence into his actions and rendred them justly rewardable with greater honour or else with sorer punishment For the Virtue or Vice of such Men dies not at home in their own bosoms but as their persons are great so their works and ways in like manner eminent and every way more exemplar And therefore the Wise man saith but right Potentes potenter mighty Men that have done amiss shall be mightily tormented and for the same reason those that have done well as mightily rewarded There is nothing mean in them now nor shall be hereafter For these are they whom God hath made great upon Earth filled them with substance and honour that pouring out of their plenty upon the distressed and relieving the oppressed by their power they might become even as Gods unto their brethren These he hath placed tanquam majores venae as the greater veins in the body Politick to minister blood and spirits unto the rest of the members tanquam communes Patriae parentes as the common Fathers and Parents of their Country to whom all the weak and injured may fly as unto a refuge and sanctuary of protection yea tanquam planetae stellae majores as the greater Stars and Planets in the Firmament of power by sweet and propitious influence to cherish the Earth under them and all good things that are in it These now if clean contrary shall abuse this wealth and power push the weaker cattle with them as with horn and shoulder as the Scripture speaketh If the higher Potentates and Princes like so many mighty Nimrods molest and vex the world they should govern provoke Heaven and take peace from the earth embrue and embroil all to satisfy their own impotent and unlimited
us seek his face while he may be found and make our prayers in an acceptable time So shall our petitions be heard and we in all our tribulations in the hour of death and in the day of judgment as we desire be most assuredly delivered finding comfort in our life and life in our last end And what is all the wealth and honour pomp and glory of the world in comparison of this They may yield discontents enough as being gotten with travel kept with care and lost with grief but can never give any true satisfaction to the Soul especially in that last and perillous time which most requires it Surely every Mans thought is a secret watch unto his own heart let him then ask his own Soul and it will tell him versa reversa in tergum in latera in ventrem dura sunt omnia Christus solus requies muse and forecast toss and turn all the night long from side to side still still no true ease nor true contentment no perfect joy to be found but in the sweet peace of a good Conscience sprinkled and washed with the blood of Jesus Christ the Prince of peace All other things fail us at our death and therefore are unworthy of our care whilst we live No no Thoughts of remorse and joyes of sorrow silent moans and melting tears an heart truly humbled and a Spirit ever setled chearfully to live and willing to die in the loving arms of a gracious Redeemer this is the prize this is the Crown we should contend for and this is the way now to live a Saint on Earth and ever hereafter to injoy an exceeding and an eternal weight of glory in the highest Heavens Which the Lord of all glory grant unto us for and in the meritorious Passion of his Son Christ Jesus our Lord. To whom with the blessed Spirit c. Laus Deo in aeternum Amen FINIS * Antiquitates Univers Oxon L. ii p. 109. * â— x. Instit C. 2. * Better known perhâ—ps by the name of Mercurius Rusticus an 1647. Psal. cxi 2â— Ecclus. i. 16 Ecclus. i. 18 1 Joh. iv 18. Ecclus. i. 12 Psal. xix 10 Rom. viii Matt. x. Job xxxi Psalm xliii Jon. i. Gen. xxxi 53. Deut. vi Matt. iv Isa. viii 12. Rev Matâ— Job xxviii 28. Rom. 8. Matt. 7. 24. Rom. 4. Rom. 8. Gen. viii 4. Exod. xxiv 16. Josh. vi 16. Matt. 25. Heb. 1. Matt. 25. Prov. xxiv 12. Heb. ix 8. Heb. â—i 40. slev vi 10 Verse 6. Jam. iii. Rev. xx 10. Rev. xx 14. 2 Tim. Job xxix Rom. i. Rom. v. â—2 Acts xi 48. Gen. xvii Rom. v. 18. Rom. i. 2 Cor. v. 10. Mat. xxvâ— Aristot. De fide operibus Galat. i. 19. Mark xi 40. 1 Pet. 2. 11. Rom. 6. 2 Sam. 2. Judg. v. 23. James iii. 15. Jam. iii. 16. 2 Tim. iv 3. Matt. V. Gen. iii. 12. verse 14. 1 Cor. xv 55. Ber. de Con. ad Cleric Abbot in praesat Exercitat de gratia perseverant De bono Persev cap. 14. Rom. ix Phil. i. 2. John xv 16 Rom. ix Epist. 103. Aug. Enchirid cap. 98. De sp lit c. 34. Lib. 12. â—â—iâ—it Del cap. 9. Wisd. i. 13. Gen. Lib. 3. contra Julian cap. 13. Aug. lib. de Orat c. 22. Ad Moni lib. 1. c. 22. Suit cap. 61. Lib. advers mort sibi falso imp ad artic 10 Inst. lib. 3. cap. 23. Moral lib. 26. cap. 10. 2 Per. ii 1. Retract lib. 1. cap. 11. Isai. v. Lib. 4. cap. 71. Matt. xxiv Luk. ix 33. 2 Cor. xii 4. Exod. xii 48. xxii 6. Knowledge Faith Repentance Love Jer. xxx 24. 〈◊〉 Gen. xlix 10. Esa. vii 14 Jer. xxiii 5. Dan ix 25. Zaâ— vi 12 Hag. ii 8. Psal. lxxi lvi xxxv
the abuse that makes it evil for that it is both lawful and good in it self in its own nature and kind is evident if we consider either the original from whence it springs or the end for which it was ordained The original is from Faith and a faith of the knowledge omniscience and power of God for it is grounded upon a persuasion that God understands and knows whether we speak the Truth and is able to take revenge of us it we speak otherwise an oath being nothing else but the calling of God for a witness of our speech and a Judge against us if we speak untruly for a further Confirmation of such things as have no other humane witnesses or proofs And the End is no less profitable than the Original Religious for it is ordained to no other purpose but to give an assurance of the Truth in question and so to determine dissentions and controversies among men as the Author to the Hebrews testifies for an Oath saith he is an end of all strife Heb. vi 16. For which reasons especially the first it is that an Oath wherein God is confessed and acknowledged as an immutable and infallible Truth in himself so a Judge and revenger of falsehood in others as being the only searcher of the heart that alone can bring to light the secrets that lie hid in the Closets thereof for this cause I say it is that an Oath if rightly performed both is and in Scripture is often accounted as a part of the very service and worship of God And therefore in the vi of Deut. 13. it is set down side by side with the fear and service of the Lord wherewith it is made but one Commandment Thou shalt fear the Lord and serve him and swear by his Name So Esay prophesying of the Vocations of the Assyrians and Egyptians unto the same Covenant and worship of God with Israel expresseth it in these terms They shall all speak the language of Canaan and swear in the Name of the Lord as if the swearing in his Name were a sufficient professing of the Religion he commands Esa. xix 18. yea the very Heathen themselves did acknowledge it an honour due only unto the Gods Praesens Divus habebitur Augustus c. we honour thee Augustus when thou art present as a God erecting Altars whereon we swear by thy Name So that an Oath is not only good in it self but a special Act of Religion and therefore cannot be evil unless irreligiously used And though this religious use be more evident and solemn in Oaths that are publick yet it may be no less truly though not so manifestly in others that are private if performed with a due respect unto God and out of a Charity to our Neighbour which is then done when reverent respect unto God in him that makes the Oath and the utility of him whose infirmity requires it do meet together And though the other have a stronger foundation by precept yet this wants not evidence in Scripture and frequency of example for if the Oath between Abraham and Abimeleck were publick as is pretended and is likely yet that between Jacob and Laban was certainly private Boas was a private man and yet he confirms the promise of Marriage unto Ruth with an Oath Ruth iii. 13. Obadiah was a private man yet a just man and one that feared the Lord as the Text hath it yet he spared not to strengthen his speech even unto the great Prophet Elias with an Oath As thy Soul liveth c. 1 King xviii 10. Again in the 2 King v. 16. the holy Prophet Elisha himself swears in the 1 Cor. xv and in divers other places the holy Apostle St. Paul swears In the x. Apoc. an Angel of heaven swears yea and in many places God himself swears and yet none of them required unto it by a Superior that had authority over them And it hath as well evidence in Scripture as example For there is no sufficient reason why that testimony of St. Paul unto the Hebrews should be restrained unto publick Oaths And it cannot be but that my Text must extend it self unto such as are private and if it did not yet that in the xv Psalm is without question where he that swears unto his Neighbour and disappoints him not is said to be the man that shall dwell in the Tabernacle of God which no man can doubt to be spoken of a private oath But leaving those that acknowledge publick Oaths and deny private let us come unto those that condemn both both publick and private the use whereof they confess was tolerated under the Law which now they conceive as wholly abolished by the coming of the Gospel The foundation and only strength of which opinion is grounded wholly upon that speech of our Saviour Matth. v. You have heard it hath been said by them of old Thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform unto the Lord thine Oath But I say unto you swear not at all neither by Heaven for it is Gods throne neither by the Earth for it is his footstool c. But let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of Evil from whence they infer a double Argument the one from the Inhibition the other from the reason of it The inhibition is general Non jurabis omnino swear not at all and the reason is as universal laying the stain of evil upon all others equally without difference or distinction of any for whatsoever is more than yea and nay cometh of evil The place seems to be very strong for them and sure is not without some difficulty from which that we may the easilier free it we must speak something of both But first of the Inhibition and then of the reason And first we are to consider that there are many passages of Scripture set down in general and universal terms which notwithstanding have not simply and absolutely an universal sence but universal in a certain kind What can be more generally pronounced than that in the Psalms God looked down from Heaven upon the Sons of men to see if there were any that would seek after him and behold they were all gone astray they were altogether become abominable there was none that did good no not one And yet notwithstanding in the same Psalm we find another sort of people clean opposite unto these whom God terms his own people because they faithfully served him a people therefore whom those wicked ones could not endure but sought to destroy and utterly devour eating up my people as it were bread So that the former passage cannot be understood simply of all the Sons of men whatsoever but only of all in a certain kind of all the Sons of men who were only the sons of men and not by the spirit of Regeneration become also the Sons of God In which sence the Apostle St. Paul in the beginning of his Epistle to the Romans ere
would not have him fall instantly into such a fit of hideous Oaths as if with Jobs Wife they were resolved presently to curse God and die If the former were profanations these sure are direct blasphemies when men enraged with their trifling misfortunes pour forth floods of direful Oaths as the desire to wreak their anger upon that God whose providence they know doth guide them and because they cannot reach unto his Essence they will at least this way avenge themselves on his Name For you shall see such Tear-Gods sometimes swear a whole Catologue of Oaths over and over still swear them and still say nothing else as having no other end in their swearing but to swear for they swear not to affirm a truth or confirm a promise yet they swear and to no other purpose but to offend God by swearing Their Tongue as the Psalmist speaks walketh through the Earth and they set their mouth against heaven and yet as if neither Heaven nor Earth could afford them Oaths enow to swear by they set their invention on work for strange uncouth and unheard of blasphemies which not without rancor of mind they dart at God himself and spit with more than Epicurean Liberty in the very face of the Almighty The Tongue saith St. James is but a little member yet it hath in it a world of wickedness it sets the world on fire and its self is set on fire of Hell Which though it were spoken of the malicious and slanderous Tongue yet it may be no less true also of the blasphemous for this if any is certainly set on fire of Hell and flames with a sin hot enough and likely enough to set fire on the whole world in the last day when for that world of wickedness it shall find a world of sorrow and torment and as it was fired from Hell before so it shall now be fired in Hell where like Moses bush it shall ever burn and never be consumed for this later fire none shall ever escape but such as with a River of penitent Tears do quench the former before they come there But omitting such high and horrid blasphemies the hellish impiety whereof every one must needs perceive and none that have any goodness remaining can choose but abhor We will a little insist only on those lesser Prophanations in the vain and frequent Oaths of common speech which though men can be content to account a sin yet they would willingly esteem it such as may easily be excused It is only a Custom that is grown upon me I like it not but I cannot leave it the plea of the world as common as the swearing and if it might stand for an excuse it were easily excused indeed But consider it well and you will find it such an excuse as only seems to make the sin more inexcusable since that very reason which they give to lessen the Crime is the principal thing that augments the offence for sin never becomes above measure sinful until it grow into Custom that heaps it up infinitely and so makes it immensurable until it rule and reign in our mortal bodies which alone can stile us not only sinful but the slaves and vassals of sin and then we are sinners indeed There is no man not the best of us without sin yet all are not sinners it is not the falling into sin but the habit and serving of sin that gives the denomination A man may sin and be the servant of God for what servant of Gods doth not sometimes sin but to serve sin and be the servant of God is impossible And therefore of all things else the habit and custome of sin especially mortal and presumptuous sin is most dangerous as being incompatible with the state of Grace and reconciliation with God who never gives remission of the sin unless we abhor and utterly renounce the custom for which cause the Swearer and no man hath the name of a swearer but from the habit of swearing is set down in the same Catalogue with the Adulterer the Drunkard and other heinous sinners which St. Paul tells us shall never enter into the kingdom of God And therefore let no man flatter himself and deceive his own Soul it is a custom that we must leave one time or other or God will eternally leave us The which that we may be the better induced to do I beseech you do but consider besides the greatness of the sin already shewn to how little or rather no purpose it is committed and with what severity it will be punished both here and hereafter for so highly to offend God and no way in the world to pleasure our selves is the utmost of folly and treads on the very heels of madness Why he that burns in Hell for his Mistris had once yet some delight for that torment he shall ever suffer All other sins have their strong provocations in our corrupt nature whereunto they give some content but this idle and wanton sin is without all instigation of the depraved flesh and can give satisfaction to no one appetite of our frail condition unless death and everlasting sorrow dwell in our desires And as it can give no pleasure and delight because it hath no affection in nature to fulfil and content so neither that you may perceive it to be utterly vain can it plead any other benefit there being no just pretence or reason or end for it why it is used And if neither pleasure nor profit be in it the malice of the Devil is in it if to gain nothing here we will run headlong into eternal destruction hereafter If there be any end of it in the world or benefit that we may reap by it it can be no other than the gaining of credit to our speech and to be believed of others when we speak which is indeed the true and proper end of an Oath but an end which the trivial and customary swearer of Oaths in reason cannot expect and if he deal with rational and wise men shall never obtain though they urge it often and think it their best plea to stop the mouth of reproof for this sin Why they would not believe me whereby notwithstanding instead of excusing they do but condemn themselves and yet gain not their purpose with others For first if they mark it what doth it argue but that they do not usually speak truth that cannot be believed without an Oath Qui jurat suspectus est de perfidia The very use of swearing is a manifest sign that he is suspected of perfidy saith Philo. And therefore rightly St. Basil Turpe omnino stultum c. he doth no less basely than foolishly accuse himself as unworthy of credit and belief that perpetually flies unto the safeguard and sanctuary of an Oath for which cause the Esseni saith Josephus did avoid and abhor swearing no less than perjury as conceiving that he was before-hand condemned for lying that could not be credited without
originally aspected But a Platonick year were any such possible would sooner be spent I suppose than these wise men agree among themselves when and what time this great Revolution will be finished This atempt therefore as rash and vain so ridiculous also The Modern Jews and Talmudists seem to go upon better grounds and with them some of the Fathers as Lactantius and others these all resolve the former for certain the latter in a strong opinion upon six thousand years for the worlds continuance two thousand under the Law of Nature two thousand under that of Moses and two thousand under the Gospel of Grace And that these once expired the son of man then comes without fail in the glory of the Father And the truth is they have some shews of reason and pretty congruities to countenance their divinations Some of the Rabbies by their Cabal learning have found this out even in the first verse of Genesis where Alpha the first of the Hebrew Alphabet and the Numerical letter that denotes the number of thousand is just as they observe six times written That so the worlds Age and dissolution might be mysteriously read in the very front and forehead of the worlds Creation which in the Creation it self and the manner of it is they suppose much more legible as farther typed out and more fully discovered For in six days it pleased God to create the Heaven and the Earth and all that is therein and on the seventh day he rested And to shew that this concerned mans continuance of Travel in this world God afterwards commanded him also six days to labour and to observe the seventh for a Sabbath the figure of Eternal rest in the Heavens now mille anni coram Deo sicut dies una A thousand years with the Lord are but as one day one day therefore in signification here as a thousand years And the self same they would have yet farther insinuated in the first Patriots and Progenitors of this new-born world Generis humani satores the first storers of the Earth with Mankind six succeded one another in order and then died Adam Seth Enos Cainan Mahalaleel and Jared but Enoch the seventh from Adam was translated taken up to walk with God as the type and figure of all his Children To these others add divers other sutable instances That the Ark of Noah the Type of the Militant Church floated six Months on the Waters and that in the seventh it rested on the mountain That Moses six days was in the Cloud and in the seventh was called unto the prefence of the Lord. That Jerico the figure of this world as being opposed unto Jerusalem the type of that to come being six days compassed by the command of God in the seventh fell utterly and ruined which happened too just as the Israelites were going off the Wilderness to possess their promised Land Some more yet there are to this purpose but of another strain and fetcht something farther There be that fish for it out of the sixscore years given to the old world for amendment before the coming of the Flood which though in that regard literally meant yet in a mystery these say they do design as many great years or years Mosaical and Jubilar every one whereof contained fifty of the common and ordinary and then fifty drawn on six-score every score producing a thousand the product that results from the whole must needs be just six thousand years the general space they conceive for the repentance of the whole world before the coming of the second deluge diluvium ignis that deluge of Fire The same these Men collect likewife from the life of Moses who lived precisely a hundred and twenty years forty years in the Court of Pharaoh which answers as they would have it unto two thousand years under Nature forty years in the Desart with Jethro keeping Sheep on the backside of Horeb which responds unto two thousand under the Law given in that Mountain and forty years in the wilderness governing the people of God and leading them on unto their Land of rest which design the other two thousand under the conduct and Kingdom of Christ our Lord who when these shall be once elapsed and spent will come again and deliver up the Kingdom unto his Father So some But Lactantius and others otherwise That he shall come indeed at the end of six thousand years but the end for all that is not yet For he shall spend they suppose a thousand years in a kingdom of Righteousness upon Earth as a spiritual Sabbath from sin which first kept they shall then pass into that great and eternal Sabbath of Glory even for ever These may be pretty Speculations to say no worse of them but they cannot conclude any thing They are little better than what that learned man tearms them Commenta quibus malignus ille humana detinet ingenia something indeed they have of wit much of curiosity but of certainty nothing at all For suppose the conjecture true were six thousand years as they would have it the full period of the Worlds age yet what could certainly be discovered from thence when the different Calculators themselves are at a fault or rather an unrecoverable loss concerning the just age of the world and how much of it is spent already But what need such computations Excellently St. Austin Omnium de hac re calculantiuâ— digitos ... quiescere jubet qui ait non oft vestruni noscere c. He raps all Accountants on the fingers and commands them to cease who says it is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power What the Son of God with such a check refused to reveal why should any other the sons of men dare presume to search or think to discover But such are the cross and preposterous ways of perverse Mortals ever attempting to know where they are enjoyned to be ignorant and there for the most affecting ignorance where God most requires their knowledge Otherwise we might find other computations much fitter to be busyed in forbear counting of the Times and think rather upon that Redde rationem Vilicationis how we may make up our own Accounts against that day which when all calculations are ended will notwithstanding steal upon the world undescryed like a Thief saith our Saviour in the night when men least dream of it overtake even these busie Calculators as the Enemy did Archimedes drawing his Circles for prevention in the dust and not suffer him to finish his diagrams nor These peradventure their Computations For as it was in the days of Noah men eat and drank and married securely until the Flood came and carried all away So saith he himself will it be at the coming of the Son of man who will come as a sweeping deluge indeed yea much more unresistable For he shall come in power and Majesty and great glory even in
gloria Patris Our third Point The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father For though the time of his coming be concealed yet not so the manner of it That indeed is plainly exprest and revealed unto all but in such and so high terms as mortal man can no way worthily speak of no nor rightly in any degree conceive in his thoughts until he shall come to see and behold it with his Eyes Then indeed and then only he shall know what it is to come in gloria Patris in the glory of the Father He came once already in the days of his humiliation and then he came Filius hominis the Son of Man emptying himself of his Divine Honour and vailing it up in the cloud of our mortality when he was content to suffer himself to be contemned scorn'd and derided reviled spit upon and buffeted scourged with whips and crowned with thorns until he became a worm and no Man having neither form nor beauty why we should desire him and last of all crucified on a Tree But now the scene comes to be altered the face of things utterly changed That was dies hominis Mans day indeed and the hour of the powers of darkness They did then what they list and he was pleased to suffer whatsoever they list to do Now comes dies Domini and the Lord shall have his day too He will now be active and men another while must be content to suffer every one according to his deservings This poor despised filius hominis this worm without form or beauty to be desired will now appear in the strength of his Glory as the Sun breaking out of a Cloud or the Lightning out of the East striking all eyes even with astonishment at his beauty and brightness yea and make all faces all faces of the wicked gather blackness too to behold it For as every hand hath wounded him so every eye shall see him whom they have pierced but not every eye endure the sight of such overawing and dreadful Majesty as shall draw them to embrace Rocks and cry unto deaf Mountains to cover them from the presence of the Lamb and him that sitteth on the Throne for he now comes in gloria Patris But why in the Glory of the Father Indeed at his first appearance it was Ecce Rex tuus venit mitis Behold thy King cometh unto thee meek sitting on an Ass and the foal of an Ass. Now it is Ecce Judex tuus venit terribilis Behold thy Judge cometh with terrour flying upon the wings of the wind and riding upon Cherubins as the Psalmist speaks yea many Cherubins and Seraphins millions and myriads of holy Angels attending on his Glorious Majesty when the whole Earth and Heavens too shall be filled with the Majesty of his Glory Because he endured the Cross and despised the shame valued not his life but humbled and bowed down his Soul even unto death therefore God now exalts him sets him on high yea gives him a name above all names whereat the knees that now are so stiff shall then will they nill they bow and bend and the tongue of every one confess laudando as he speaks vel ululando that Jesus is the Lord to the Glory of the Father for he now comes in gloria Patris in the Fathers Glory He comes at this time for Judgment and that originally belongs unto the Father Vengeance is mine I will recompence saith the Lord. But yet the Father judgeth no man saith Christ but hath referred all judgment to the Son even filio hominis to this Son of man to whom as man he hath given all power both in Heaven and Earth The son indeed himself even as the son of God is a Receiver from the Father even of the Glory which he hath for glory he receives from him from whom he receives his Essence the fountain of glory as having his very being not of himself but of the Father Fons Deitatis the fountain that communicates the Deity immediately to the other persons solely unto the Son who is therefore Deus de Deo God of God and light of light Yet having received it from eternity it is his own even his Fathers both essence and glory and so though God of God and light of light yet because the same both God and light he is in Majesty equal in Glory coeternal equal without robbery saith the Apostle and though not without reception yet without any duty of gratitude for the receipt as receiving it not by a free and voluntary but by a generation no less natural and simply necessary than absolutely eternal For which reasons he is elsewhere said to come not in gloria Patris but in gloria sua even in his own glory when the Son of Man shall come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his own glory as he doth here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with his own Angels In the glory of the Father and with his Angels And his Angels sure they are whom they are commanded to adore and worship Worship him all ye Angels of his All of them must worship and all attend on him now even the whole Quire and Court of Heaven not an Angel left behind for he shall come with all the Angels No marvel if Daniel said thousand thousands shall minister unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand shall stand before him in that day what a presence of state indeed will this be how full and every way Majestick But yet these are not only for State and Majesty at this time but for ministration also Thousand thousands shall minister unto him for the time is now come when that of the Apostle out of David is to be fulfilled He shall make his ministers a flaming fire at least to minister to those flames that shall never be quenched for the great Harvest of the world is now come and their imployment in it is set down before-hand The Angels must be the Reapers These are they that must separate the Sheep from the Goats sever the Tares from the Wheat We may be too forward in plucking them up now indanger the good Corn 't were best let this alone for them whose proper office it is and will do it exactly gather the Tares in fasciculos into bundles as the Text hath it bind them up too and cast them into everlasting fires Bind them in bundles indeed to tell us that sinners in the same kind shall be sure to participate in the same punishment The profest and merciless Mamonist with all his brokers and bribing ministers that assist his incestuous money to engender on it self in one bundle bound up now and presently burning in bands of their own parchments The tatter'd young Prodigal whom they undo with his Tapsters and Drawers and the whole knot of Roarers and Ranters about him taken all as in a net and bound up in another bundle The Adulterer and his Mistris the Adulteress with the Chamber Attendant
delight which can be no less than a Paradise of pleasure unto them But yet that they now are already in that happy place or in the actual fruition of that full happiness and glory which shall hereafter give them the fulness of their reward this the Scriptures do not seem to teach nor the Eatheâ— to affirmâ— but a great consnt of both may he rather sound to the contrary Of those that departed this life before the coming of Christ our Lord in the flesh or his going away again and ascending into the highest Heavens 〈…〉 as the Apostle speaks unto the Hebrews that of the same Apostle may not be denied All these died and received not the promises but behold them a far off And that very beholding holding was their refreshing it seems in that place of rest where they lay after death as it were at anchor in a calm and quiet Harbour free from those winds and tempests wherewith they were beaten whilst they stood off at Sea in the painful Navigation of this life for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek and sinus in the Latine may import and so Theophylact doth expound Abrahams Bay as well as Abrahams Bosome But yet though at rest they as yet saith he received not the promises and he gives his reason for it too God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect Which reason too will serve for all others that died since the Ascension of our Saviour For as it was not convenient they should be made perfect without us so neither that we our selves should be made perfect without the rest of our brethren If any were so who sooner than the Souls of those Saints and Martyrs that refused not even death for Christ and his Gospel And yet even these are arrayed only in white Robes as Candidati and ready drest in their wedding apparrel for the marriage of the Lamb but are willed withal to rest a while until their fellow servants and the rest of their brethren to be slain likewise should be fulfilled also That so all might be perfected together and by three degrees according to the three estates of life death and judgment draw on unto the fulness of that perfection as having a good hopâ— in life infallible assurance in death and plenary possession at the resurrection In life here we walk by Faith we see not God In the estate after death we see him but afar off as the Apostle speaks but at the Resurrection face to face Here in this world we lie as cripples in Solomons Porch but cured by the name of Jesus death carrieth us into the body of the Temple where we are leaping for joy exulting and praising God but the day of Christ will draw the Veil lead us into the Holy of Holies where God himself dwells between the Cherubins Lastly now upon earth we are Militant Pugnatoâ—es wrestlers and warriours in death we are declared Victours and Conquerors but in the resurrection triumphant and crowned even with that Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the just Judge will give saith St. Paul in die illo in that day laid up indeed before as he there speaks but not before that day it seems to be given but then it shall for then he shall reward c. The like on the other side may well be conceived of the wicked their Souls asâ— soon as departed enter into sorrows and torments the worm that shall never die begins presently to feed upon them but drench'd it seems as yet they are not in that lake of fire which shall never be quenched and will be the fulness of their reward The Devils themselves are not yet there and therefore are bold to say unto our Saviour Art thou come to torment us aâ—te tempâ—â— before our time A set time sure there is appointed for that In the interim as the Crown is reserved for the Righteous so these and all their Adherents are reserved it seems unto that day which shall give them the full accomplishment of their sorrows So St. Jude Reserved in chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day This they all know and cannot without horrour think of it They believe therefore saith St. James and tremble And so likewise all other the Spirits lewd and diabolical people they understand their final and fearful doom already on which their condemning thoughts do perpetually feed not without infinite regret indignation and fury and so though locally seated in Hell yet as yet scalding there and burning only in the flames that arise from their own bosoms But when that great day shall once come and the Son of Man appear in his glory then shall that old Dragon the deceiver with all those apostate people whom he hath deceived and are not written in the Book of the Lamb be thrown into that Lake burning with fire and brimstone Yea death and Hell too shall be cast into that Lake Hell to shew that all they who are now there in custody shall then be thrown into that Lake as into the Center tower-ward and Dungeon of that fearful Prison And death too to signify their immortality there in a perpetual dying life and everlasting living death even for ever and ever And death and Hell were cast into that Lake of fire For now the time of full Retribution is come this is the great day of reward and there is no other To that then let us pass with my Text from the time to the reward it self Then he shall reward c. This word of Reward seems to stick in the Jaws of many men at least to come forth fumbling between their Teeth as if they did not very well like it But whether they like it or no so the Scriptures often speak and accordingly we must be content to receive them The truth is there are extreams in this point as in most others lyable unto dispute and controversy and Verity like Virtue lies in the golden mean between both For some are wholly and totally all for reward and no Grace unless it be a stock of Grace whereby they may condignly merit the reward Others again can away with no Reward at all but will have all of meer Grace when the truth consists in a mixture compounded of both neither totally grace nor meerly reward but merces gratiosa a gracious Reward And that not only in regard of the Grace first given but of the work too it self that is to be rewarded The former take Heaven to be as fully merited by the works of the Righteous as Hell is deserved by the sins of the wicked The latter suppose Heaven to be meerly a free gift and in the consequences of their Positions make Hell as free a Collation as the Kingdom of Heaven Both seem to be equally out and not much unequally to share both truth and errour between them For thus much I conceive is clear and
hard man as that lazy fellow in the Gospel would make him to reap where he did not sow or else like Pharaoh requiring his Brick where he doth not afford Straw for the making Not therefore according to the Faith which they knew not but according to the good and evil which they knew so shall all be judged by him who now comes to reward every man according to his works From the opera now if we come to the sua remove the Accent thither we shall but remove from one difficulty to another For some there are that have no works of their own How many that die as soon as born and not a few before and both before they have done either good or evil for which they may be rewarded It may be said peradventure that yet even these have one work of their own for being all in Adams loins when he sinned his Sin by virtue of the first Covenant becomes theirs and theirs therefore by St. Paul it is expresly termed in quo omnes peccâ—verunt in whom all have sinned This is right and hath nothing but truth in it if we consider only the Nature of the first Covenant and go no farther than so But farther I suppose we are to go for since there is a second Covenant passed and the second as the Apostle to the Hebrews and reason it self will tell us must disanul the fâ—rst A second strucken even with the same Adam and in him we all were at the transaction of the one as well as of the other and reputed in his loyns when he was restored as well as when he fell for that is the perpetual nature of Gods Covenants Vobis liberis vestris Deus tuus seminis tui And sure if we make our stay in the old Testament the Father must have come in his own glory the Son of man could never have come in the glory of the Father to render unto every man his own works for had he not first been our Mediatour he had never been our Judge Now therefore we are to look up unto him contemplate the person before whose seat of Judgment we are to appear even Christ our blessed Lord that innocent Lamb that was slain from the beginning that Lamb of God which by his blood being slain took away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sin of the world in the singular and other such singular sin of the world but there was not any And for this cause is rightly termed Adam secundus a second Adam a second through whom all receive justification unto life that became lyable unto death and condemnation in the first This is our Judge even the Author of the second Covenant who therefore will not sentence men as those Apostate Angels strictly after the Law of the first but as St. Paul speaks secundùm Evangelium meum according to my or rather his own Gospel Before this Judge when St. Paul cites every man he assures us no man shall answer but for what himself hath done or be rewarded with punishment but as my text hath it secundùm opera sua according to his own works and those his own not because acted in the loyns of another but because done in his own body for so saith St. Paul expresly and purposely it seems to prevent the interpretation we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things done in his body or rather not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some of the best Copies read and ancient Fathers cite and the vulgar doth render propria Corporis the proper things done in the body This therefore will not satisfy the doubt and were it admitted would yet satisfy but on one part the part that perish still the difficulty would remain how those on the other side that are saved by Sacrament should be rewarded with heaven secundum opera sua according to their own works But not to meddle any farther in this matter the truth is and it is the fullest answer I can give it That we may not measure such ignorant Innocents either always by the common rules of doctrine or at any time by the general precepts of duty For those the Scriptures are usually spoken of and these perpetually directed unto none but the full-grown and adult as they that alone are capable of them The not observing whereof is the chief cause I conceive of the great variety of opinions and intricate difficulties which this point of Infants hath begotten Some excluding them utterly from this day and seat of judgment because without Works either good or bad to be then discussed Others admitting of their presence there but yet neither among those on the right hand or yet on the left and so not liable to either of these two grand Sentences which shall then be pronounced A third sort subjecting them unto a Sentence and of these some unto such a Sentence as shall carry them to beatitude but in a Paradise apart others conveying them thence directly to heaven A fourth sort even to Hell and a fifth unto a middle state a condition between both But yet among all these varieties this is remarkable not any one of the Antients was ever so severe unto any of these whether baptized or otherwise as to cast them into that nethermost Hell and those torments which he suffers there of whom our Saviour said it had been better for him if he had never been born No not that learned and holy man who was esteemed durus Infantum Pater of all others a hard Father unto infants for even he though he placed them in a Region of Hell yet in such a tolerable condition therein as it were better for them to be even there than not to be at all August lib. 4. cont Julian cap. 8. But for my part I determine nothing amidst so many doubts and distractions 't were best leave them to stand or fall to their own Master especially since my Text which speaks of works rewardable like other general Scriptures doth not as I said concern impotent and ignorant Infants but grown Men knowing and operative for whoever of such receives the Kingdom of Heaven must receive it meerly as an Inheritance without any respect of works They are exempted from such common rules and so not included in this every man here that shall now be rewarded secundùm opera sua according to his own works And now in the last place let us come to this secundùm the first of the words and then sure we shall find our selves in no less streights than any of the former yea ut unda undam so one doubt and difficulty seems here to drive on another For first since the good shall now be rewarded ultra meritum beyond their merit and the evil citra condignum short of their desert which is a Maxime in Divinity they may well be rewarded for but not
farther care of them according to that of Gregory Non sinit neglectè perire quod est qui hoc etiam quod non fuit creavit ut esset The manifestation whereof will consist in these three points 1. That God left not the sick world destitute of a Saviour but sent him to die for all 2. That to as many as he calls he gives sufficient grace whereby they may if they will lay hold of this Saviour 3. That he Reprobates none of them but after a long and often abusing and rejecting of this Grace All three high and noble points worthily challenging a large and full discussion which the straitness of time will not now permit me I shall therefore only point at them briefly and so conclude And first for the first the extent of the death of our Lord and Saviour unto all I know not how 't is possible for the wit of Man to set it down in plainer fuller and more variety of terms as if the Holy Ghost did strive to free it from all objections What terms of universality are there wherein it doth not seek to express this truth He died for all for the world for the sins of the whole world and that the word may not still be taken only for the Elect it is here used with opposition to them not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world saith St. John 1 Ep 2. 1. And yet that it might not be understood of the world of Elect only that were in after ages to succeed St. Paul hath the same Antithesis in other terms that utterly rejects the cavil God is the Saviour of all men especially of the faithful 1 Tim. 4. 20. Nay yet more directly the Saviour of those that perish for through thy knowledge shall thy Brother perish saith the same Author for whom Christ died Yet more positively for those that are damned There shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction For All for the world the wole world the wole world of faithful and others and those others they that perish they that are damned what can be said more for it or answered unto it I know not To say herein that he died for all sufficiently if truly meant is as much as is required as the places enforce but if their intent be as it is That the merit of Christs Blood and death is in it self considered sufficient for all had it been as it was not intended and laid down for them then to say that he died for all sufficiently is but to abuse others and contradict themselves For how can it be said he died sufficiently for those for whom he did not die This is all they can answer and the consequence that if Christ died for all they cannot see but how all should be saved is all or the chief thing they can object which they would not object neither if they observed the difference and distinction between the imputation of Redemption and the application thereof His life may be laid down for the whole world though his death be actually imputed and applyed to those only that are faithful believers for he was as the Brasen Serpent hung up for the good of all but benefits none but those that look upon him that is believe in him A distinction sweetly insinuated and strongly confirmed by the Oracle of Learning the non sicut of Divines in the non sicut of Sermons upon the non sicut of Christs passion whereof to the former purpose he thus speaks It pertains unto All but All pertain not to it ◠after whose authority it were but ill manners to seek a farther proof To proceed therefore to the second point wherein we are to shew that this Saviour is wanting unto none with sufficient power whereby they may lay hold on him and if they will be saved by him to none that are called that are within the pale of the visible Church that come to hear his Gospel and profess his name according to that of the Apostle quotquot receperunt eum as many as received him dedit iis potestatem filios Dei fieri to them gave he power to become the Sons of God And according to St. Austin where power is given necessity is not also imposed that you may know many might receive this power who never become the sons and servants of God for of all that are called and come not that of the same Father is true qui velle praecepit posse praebuit non impune nolle permisit He that commands to will gives power to perform and yet justly permits to neglect which place he doth not retract though he repeat it in his Retractations Unto that supper prepared in the Gospel saith he elsewhere neither would all come that were called neither could they have come that did come unless they had been called Itaque nec illi debeut sibi tribuere qui venerunt quia vocati venerant nec illi qui noluerant venire debent alteri tribuere sed tantùm sibi quoniam ut venirent vocati erant in eorum libera voluntate Lib. Arbit cap. 16. What can be more manifest From whence it is that that which from thence he infers is as just That he which deserved not to be called begins to deserve punishment when he neglects to come being called because then it first begins to be in his power Sicut non habuit meritum praemii ut vocaretur sic inchoat meritum supplicii cum vocatus venire neglexerit lib. Quaesti 38. quaest 68. Many other passages of this Father might be produced unto this purpose but I pass them over now to come to the places of Scripture which are infinite from whence this Doctrine may be concluded I will only point at two in one whereof God makes men themselves the Judges and in the other the Prophet calls heaven and earth for witnesses of this truth Deut. l. 19. I call heaven and earth to record this day saith Moses against you that I have set before you life and death cursing and blessing therefore chuse life that both thou and thy seed may live The reason hereof he had before set down because the Commandment which I command thee this day is not hidden from thee neither is it far off that is thou art neither ignorant of it neither is it out of thy reach or beyond thy power to perform and effect it This then being so plain no marvel that God calls to the Men of Israel themselves to judge between him and his Vineyard that is between him and themselves judge I pray you between me and my vineyard I have not chosen out any barren soil for it is seated pingui dorso in a very fruitful hill I did not plant it with a wild or degenerate or bastard slip but generosa stirpe with the choicest Vine
matter important The main parts but two A Precept The Precept seek A Promise The Promise All these things shall be added unto you A promise not as it sounds only of these things which shall be added but of those spiritual things also we are willed to seek for if those be added it implies these shall be given These given as the Reward of our search Those added ex Abundanti as an overplus or surplusage out of his Providence so the Promise is of all both spiritual things and secular of the one sort expresly implicitely of the other And so it should be for Righteousness hath the promise of this life and the life which is to come saith the Apostle The precept on which the accomplishment of this promise doth depend and wherein only I think I shall at this time proceed hath these particulars 1. The Action enjoyned and the manner and modification of that Action Seek and first seek 2. The object of our search proposed a double object prime and secondary The Kingdom of God and the Righteousness of God for both must be sought that intentionally as the end of our Travel this by prosecution as the way the only way that leads unto it Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Rigeteousness c. But because the object as the Schools speak doth ever precede the Action that works upon it not ever indeed as really existent but yet always Ideally in the mind and contemplation of the worker whether it be God or man whether actions transient or immanent external Creation Decrees and prefinition internal Though they suppose nothing in being but their Author yet they presuppose all things as being understood and apprehended before they can be either wrought or willed 3. Therefore in the third place the right way thither is discovered Righteousness a way as clean as right unto happiness through the paths of holiness to the Kingdom of God by the righteousness of God But Righteousness is not so easily found or being found is not so easily kept and observed And therefore it is not a bare seeking that will serve the turn here he must seek and search knock and call with his best might and his utmost endeavour which will be the fourth and last point though first named First seek So have we all the direction and incitation too that may be desired The Port and Haven of our rest and happiness everlasting proposed the Kingdom of God Our duty and endeavour urged to weigh Anchor put to Sea for the search and discovery of it Seek Our course shaped and directed that we wander not in the Ocean by the Righteousness of God And lastly because the voyage is tedious and difficult unto flesh and blood and no less perilous than painful by reason of many Rocks and Shelves and Quick-sands that lie in the way at least about it our vigilance is farther admonished our best attention and industry again and more earnestly called upon with a primùm quaerite first that is chiefly and above all things most carefully seek For so seeking we shall be sure to find performing our part in the precept God will not fail to perform his part in the promise give both the Kingdom which we sought and add those other things which are unworthy of our search But I begin with the Precept and in it with that Kingdom that should quicken us to the practice of it The Kingdom of God Whereof yet at this time I shall speak but little because no Man can say enough or indeed any thing to purpose of that which neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor possibly can enter into the heart of Man St. Peter saw but a weak beam of it in the transfiguration of Christ and he was so ravished with it as he spake presently he knew not what St. Paul heard but a little sound of it with his ear in an ecstasie and rapture into Paradise and he was himself he knew not what whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell only he heard words there which when he came to himself he could not utter neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ineffable words words impossible and were they possible not lawful to be uttered The holy Spirit himself seeks not to express this happiness in it self but only to intimate it by similitudes and such feeble notions as we are capable of and acquainted withal And of all such this here this of a Kingdom is the best Kings and Kingdoms they are the most glorious things that are upon Earth and therefore fittest to resemble the glory of Heaven And yet they are but resemblances neither indeed shadows as the Author of the Hebrews rather than full resemblances of this Kingdom Regnum Dei the Kingdom of God A Kingdom fully accomplished with all Dignities and Prerogatives Royal and that in an eminent and excellent manner They seem principally to be but four 1. Dominion 2. Majesty 3. Wealth 4. Pleasure Dominion and Empire Majesty and Glory Wealth and Treasure Pleasure and Delights these are the dazling beams that give such lustre and brightness unto sublunary Monarchies and they are all here and all infinitely more illustrious in the celestial the Kingdom of Heaven For Empire and Dominion how full and absolute how large and spaciousâ— extending it self not only from Sea to Sea from the flood unto the lands end but from Land to Sea from Sea to Air from Air to Heaven from thence to the Heaven of Heavens which as they contain not his person so neither may they limit his Dominion and Power It is called the Kingdom of Heaven not that it is there â—onfined and bounded for it runs through Heaven and Earth the heaven is his throne and the earth is his footstool That indeed is the City of the great King the Metropolis and principal Province of the Kingdom the Heaven of Heavens Next unto it is the Ethereal Region wherein are the Celestial Orbs the Stars and wandering Planets all of them keeping the due course and order their King hath appointed them and not fainting in their watches as the Wise man speaketh From hence it passeth into the Aereal wherein are the strange and formidable Meteors lightning and thunder fire hail snow vapours winds and tempests and all of them fulfilling his word as the Psalmist hath it After this into the Aqueous the Region of Waters the great Sea and all that walk in the paths of the Sea all subject to his power that made them they and their raging Element He hath given them a law which they may not break he hath set this bound which it cannot pass hitherto shalt thou come and here shalt thou stay thy proud waves The earth follows as the Center and Foundation of all which yet hath no foundation it self but is hung out upon emptiness as Job speaks And this though a remote yet a principal Region it is of his Empire and furnished with the noblest
Mary whom all generations must call blessed though a Virgin though the best of Women though separated and sanctified for the Mother of God yet as you may read in the very Chapter before this at the appearance of an Angel they are afraid both and both comforted as these here with a noli timere by the Angel fear not Zachary v. 13. fear not Mary v. 30. And the like might be shown of divers others so general it was to fear at the appearing of an Angel that scarce ever any Angel appears but with this salutation of fear not seven times as a learned Man observes we read it in this very Gospel But whence is it and how comes it about Timere ubi non est timor to fear where no fear is argues a guilty Conscience but these were innocent and just persons why then do they fear the Messengers of their comfort Sure though some may be more innocent than others yet it is not so absolutely right as it ought to be in any None so good and unreproveable in the sight of Men but yet they may be conscious of something more or less within themselves But say they were not suppose them free from actual sin yet they cannot be freed from natural infirmity occasioned by the first original sin which Adam had no sooner committed but he was afraid of God himself when he appeared and hid his head in a bush as soon as he heard his voice in the Garden And ever since all the Sons of Adam have been afraid at the appearing of any Messenger or receiving of any message from that Divine Majesty Two things therefore it argues first that our nature is fallen from her first original that her primitive excellence and dignity is gone since he saith Stella who was framed and created to behold the Glory of God cannot now endure the aspect of one of his Angels And secondly besides weakness it argues something of wickedness and shews all is not right Heaven and we are not in the terms we should be not the best of us all Angels are Messengers from Heaven what tydings they bring good or bad we know not and therefore we fear because we know not a plain sign all is not well between Heaven and us that upon every coming of an Angel we presage to our selves no better news from thence but still are afraid of the messages and Messengers that come from that place Since then it befell so great Saints it might well be the case of poor Shepherds in this case to be afraid and being afraid they must be comforted or the message will hardly be received fear being in the mind nothing else can well enter fitly therefore before he pours in the one doth he seek to cast out the other with a nolite timere And the c. But fear is not so easily cast forth it is plenus consternationis affectus a tenacious affection full of distraction and consternation and will not presently be thrown out with a couple of words Comfortable words they are indeed and may well serve to stay their minds and collect their spirits but not throughly to eject their fear To effect this something more is required than bare words It is not enough to speak them but he must give a reason for them too that would have them prevail And what better reason not to fear than to shew them there is no reason of their fear Timor est expectatio mali fear is the expectation of evil and here is no evil towards nothing but good and good not towards but present that were but tydings of hope this is of joy and great joy to them and to all the people besides And this is a nolite timere indeed a fear not to the purpose not barely propounded but backed with a reason of power to destroy it for behold c. Wherein the Angel doth at once as dispel their passion so with an honourable Elogy advance and magnifie his own message before he will deliver it he pours it not forth presently but sends a preface of state before to usher it in with reverence and regard And every degree that is in it for you see it hath many joy great joy common joy and every degree I say in it is as a comfort to the Shepherds and diminution of their fear so an ecce of admiration and attention unto his errand for Ecce Behold c. ecce est vox admirantis it is ever commonly the watch-word to a wonder atleast is seldom set but as a note or mark upon things of greatest importance and such as require our special regards And indeed what do Men regard so much as news rare and admirable events who grows not erect what ear is not open and attent to receive them And such here is this no ordinary and trivial matter every day to be seen and met withall but news it is unusual and unheard of it is which you are called to behold Behold I bring you tidings strange tidings indeed of a strange birth full of prodigies and wonders wherein the Antient of days is become a swadled child and he who is the Son of God without a Mother now made the Son of a Woman without a Father a strange Woman too that is both a Mother and a Virgin nay at once both Mother of her own Father and the Daughter of her own Son For such a Mother she must needs be that is the Mother of God Where is Solomon with his nibil novum sub sole there is no new thing under the Sun sure here are many new things which the Sun never saw nor the world ever heard of before and therefore a greater than Solomon is here of whom Jeremy spake when he said creavit Dominus novum super terram a new thing hath the Lord created upon the earth a woman shall compass about a man Jer. xxxi News then it is and that strange and admirable but yet if it be as well good as strange as well beneficial to us as wonderful in it self we much more willingly behold it Do so then for it is both both news and good news tidings and tidings of joy great joy too for behold I bring you tidings of great joy Joy for the benefit and honour great joy for the great benefit and honour we reap by it Such as the fewel is such is the fire and as the benefit is such should be the joy Never such a benefit never so great honour to us and our nature never therefore so great cause of joy nay never any cause of joy at all but in this or at least in the hope of this Set it aside and nothing but argument of wo and lamentation through the whole world to be seen All mankind without it utterly lost in everlasting sorrow and the whole frame of Nature and whatsoever is within the compass of it subject to malediction too for their sakes and therefore could do nothing but groan and travel
in pain together with us as the Apostle speaks Rom. viii whose case is well expressed in the Psalm for we all sate in the region of death and darkness and quale gaudium iis qui in tenebris sedent and what joy hath he that sits in the dark said blind Tobe unto the Angel But that is not all we were fast bound too in misery and iron bound with the chains of our sins and shut up to condemnation under the Law as in a Prison of misery and quale gaudium what joy unto such not only in darkness but in chains chained both in darkness and misery This was our case and in this case to tell men now of a glorious light of a rising Sun that should shine into their darkness and not only so but to tell them of a strange deliverer also born into the world to give them liberty as well as light for light without liberty would serve them only to see their own misery of a mighty deliverer indeed that both could and would break the gates of Brass and smite the bars of Iron in sunder and so open the Prison to the miserable Captives quale gaudium hoc how great were this joy the joy of these tidings And these are the joyful tidings the Angel now brings well therefore may he term them tidings of joy and great joy by which we are delivered from darkness and misery utter darkness and everlasting misery Behold I bring you tidings of great joy Joy then there is in it and great joy yet this is not all that is in it 't is publick joy too and that is something more Great joy there may be and we see there often is which yet concerns but a very few others in the mean while may wail and mourn This is not such but as it is great in it self so it spreads and diffuseth it self unto many to all omni populo to all the people Behold c. And well fare that joy where it is merry with all every good heart will like it the better bonum quo communius eo melius for the better it is ever whatsoever is good the more general it is This is a degree beyond general it is universal joy a joy that runs through the universe and affects the whole world And the world may well wonder at it It never saw I am sure never could give any the like As our Saviour said of his peace so he might well say of this his joy non sicut mundus dat gaudium not as the world giveth joy so give I joy the world is poor and beggarly and cannot give to one but it must take from another cannot make one rich but it must impoverish another cannot advance one but it must depress another and therefore cannot give joy to one but it must give sorrow to another This is the condition of the world and all worldly joy The Conquerer celebrates his triumph and the vanquisht lament their misery The heir joyes and rejoyceth in his inheritance the possessor dies weeping and mourning that he must leave it The advanced ascends merrily unto his seat of dignity whilst his predecessor tumbles from thence with sorrow into his own ruin Run through all the glory of this present life and see if you can any where find any man happy whereto felicity doth not arise out of anothers misery and whose joy is not built upon another mans sorrow and therefore if some be merry some must be sad if some laugh others must weep if some rejoyce others must mourn no joy in it to all the people Non vox hominem sonat it is not the condition of humane felicity this neither can it spring out of the Earth an Angel must bring it from Heaven from that God who is truly rich and of unexhausted bounty able alone to fill some without any diminution or emptying of others Yea to fill all and leave none empty Only exinanivit semetipsum it pleased him to empty himself of his honour this day by assuming our flesh that we and our nature might be replenisht with it he made himself poor lying in a manner among brute beasts that his poverty might redound unto the riches of the world and make men who for want of understanding might well be compared unto the beasts that perish in knowledge and goodness too like the Angels of God that stand about his Throne unless themselves refuse it And this is the tydings of joy the Angel here now brings true joy indeed and publick joy Christmas joy right gaudium omni populo Joy unto all the people to all that will but entertain and embrace it to all that do not wilfully reject and refuse it To such indeed this joy shall be turned into sorrow but that is their own fault If when the Prison is open'd any of the captives be enamoured of their own misery and still love darkness more than light they may questionless perish in it but then they may thank none but themselves it was still matter of joy that a passage was made and they might have come forth if themselves would We must still distinguish between the event of a thing unto obstinate men and Gods intention of it in his own mercy which though some men abuse to their hurt and sorrow yet the news of it in it self is news of joy unto all to all the people to all that then were and to all that ever shall be quod erit omni populo which shall be to all people c. Not only it is joy which is unto the present age unto all the men of that or any one time but which shall be unto all ages and generations successively unto the worlds end and therefore she that now brought forth the blessed tydings which the Angel here delivers all generations saith the Scripture shall call her blessed And this is our comfort it is the word of tenure by which we hold that it shall be to all people But this good Erit that shall be is not reserved only to omni populo all the people that shall be but may be read with the joy that goes before gaudium quod erit joy which shall be not joy which is for a while and then vanisheth but which shall be for ever and ever everlasting joy And this gives us one degree more in the joy For joy though never so great in it self though publick and common unto never so many yet if it abideth not it is but a perishing and transient joy but if great publick and permanent too then 't is compleat and absolute joy indeed when it is gaudium quod est erit joy which is and which shall be that is none but Christs joy a joy which none can take from us The worlds joy is quod est non erit a joy which is but which shortly shall not be but a flash but a blaze quickly kindled but as suddenly out Invicem cedunt dolor voluptas Joy and
Father and this Father now became the Son of Man and made himself our Brother The Antient of days that sate on the throne in the 7. of Dan. whose garment was white as snow and the hairs of his head as pure wooll to shadow his eternity who hath neither beginning of days nor end of life This is he that is this day born a young and tender child even that mighty and Almighty God now a weak and swadled Infant This sure is new and marvellous rightly therefore still do his titles begin with wonderful whose person and birth may well be admired cannot be expressed for Quis enarrabit And yet this is not all the wonder that is in him strange and very strange it is that he should be the Son of Man and Mans everlasting Father that is God and Man but yet it is another new thing and little less strange that this God should be perfect Man and yet have no Humane Person A Humane Nature he had but a Humane Person he had not And therefore non solum actus est novus sed is qui nascitur est homo novus it is not only a new birth but he that is born is a new kind of Man the like whereof was never known having a Humane Nature but a Divine Person Nestorius indeed after the manner of other Hereticks not content to leave this mystery unto his Faith but seeking to comprehend it with his reason was so blinded with gazing upon a light too strong for his eyes as he would not acknowledge the thing because his weakness could not conceive who it should be how a Humane Nature should be and subsist without a created and Humane Person and therefore he impiously formed unto himself a double Person in Christ and so in effect two Christs one that had a Humane another that had a Divine both Nature and Person a great errour and pernicious For were it so were they not several Natures but two distinct persons the actions or passions of the one could not properly be attributed to the other since the one is not the other Christ the God could not be Man and Christ the Man could not be God but one God alone the other Man alone and so neither could have redeemed the world for God could not suffer nor Man satisfy Christ Jesus therefore our blessed Lord is but one one substance and hypostasis that hath two Natures Divine and Humane both knit and united in one and the self-same Person and therefore justly and truly may be said to be and is both God and Man and because Man could die because God could add an infinite price unto his death and so reconcile both God and Man But you will say how is it possible that a Humane Nature should subsist in a person and hypostasis not her own who may conceive who can apprehend it neither do I say you should but that you should believe it Had we reason to demonstrate it it were not wonderful had we example it were not singular But now when besides and above the whole order of created Nature a new Man and after a new manner with so great a miracle is born and brought forth having a created and Humane Nature subsisting in a Divine and uncreated Person we may truly say quis enarrabit And this for the person who or what he is that is born Now if we shall remove our consideration unto her of whom he was born peradventure we shall find neither less nor fewer marvels and miracles in this than in that other For certainly that God should become Man is very much but that he should be born of a Woman is yet much more For he might have created a Humane Nature out of the Earth as he did the first Man and had it pleased him assumed it in an instant and therefore needed not have lain nine months in the womb after that manner as we shame to imagine and is altogether unfit we should speak there is horror in the very conceipt of it and therefore well saith the Hymn thou didst not abhor the Virgins womb This would be very strange indeed could we apprehend the infinite Majesty of that God who was pleased for our sakes to descend so low That that sublime and excellent glory in presence whereof the holy Angels themselves cover their faces with their wings that Almighty Lord which sate on the circle of the Heavens and in comparison of whom the inhabitants of the Earth are but as Grashoppers and all the Nations of the World but as the dropping of a bucket that such and so great a God for our good and that we might have nearer affinity with him should disrobe himself of all his honour and be wrapped in films and skins instead of a Garment leave that circle of the Heavens and cast himself into the Dungeon of the womb not abhorring that dark place which we our selves abhor but to think on Astonishment may well seise the mind that shall truly meditate on it If it do not kindle your affection and devotion it cannot at the least but raise up admiration enforcing us to cry out with the Prophet Quis enarrabit Neither is this all the strangeness that God was born of a Woman who by this means was advanced into a strange affinity with her Maker becoming at once both the Mother of her Father and Daughter of her own Son It is strange too and a miracle in Nature that he was born of none but a Woman that he who before had a Father and no Mother should now have a Mother and no Father Three sorts of Generation or rather Production had passed before The first without Man or Woman so Adam The second of Man without Woman so Eve The third of both Man and Woman so we all their posterity But now to make all compleat and never till now the fourth is added of a Woman without a Man that so a Fatherless Son and a Virgin Mother might double the wonder this is it which my Prophet intimates in the first entrance of this Chapter he shall grow up as a pleasant plant and as a root out of a dry ground as a root springing of its own accord from that virgin earth untill'd unsown and unmanured by the hand of Man So sprang he from the maiden loins of his Mother and had no Mans assistance living for a Father who then shall declare c. And as he was begotten without a Father so that we may touch upon the manner was he born as it is likely without pain or hurt unto his Mother It is true a punishment it was and from the beginning and from the beginning until now hath it ever prevailed all Women naturally bringing forth in sorrow But our Saviour was no natural Man All things in him you see are miraculous and supernatural And why not this in his birth as well as so many things else why not born without sorrow as well as conceived without pleasure It is
thence drops on the very skirts of his rayment even the rest of the Creatures who have all some interest in his body and therefore in his glory Whereby we are given to consider not only the greatness but the large extent of the Almighty's goodness in this Act of his Incarnation For bonum est sui diffusivum goodness is diffusive and loves to communicate it self and that of God the supream good most of all other And indeed whatsoever we every where see whatsoever any where is or hath any being it is nothing else but a Communication of the Divine goodness from whence they have all that they have whatsoever they are But now in this mystery God did communicate a new goodness and a greater than ever before not only unto man but in a sort unto all his Creatures which all have some title in his person and shall in their time receive a benediction from it for man as he was Supremum Creationis colophon the last and supream work of the Creation so was he the sum and recapitulation of all that was created before him and all that was so created was but either spiritual as the Angels or corporeal as the rest of the world and in man who hath a material body with the one and an immaterial Soul sutable to the other both were bound up together in one Creature A Creature which hath being with the Elements whereof he is compounded life and vegetation with plants sense with beasts reason and spiritual existence with the Angels and therefore a little but compleat world within himself Nexus vinculum totius creaturae the very knot and band that holds together the whole Creation And therefore the whole world being united in man and man unto God every Creature of the world cannot but have some interest in the union who have a part in the Nature that was united Had he assumed the nature of Angels the rest of his works that are corporeal had been excluded Had he taken unto him a Celestial body and made his Tabernacle in the Sun the Creatures that have life and sense had lain unregarded and should any of these have been honoured with it those that are intelligent and spiritual men and Angels had been left out under contempt for ever Man therefore was the only creature in whom he could interest and honour all the rest as being both corporeal and spiritual and having in him being life sense intellect and whatsoever the rest have and are And mansnature therefore he only assumed ut dum una assumitur in qua reliquarum gradus continentur in una reliquae omnes quoad suos gradus assumerentur That so assuming the one wherein the degrees of all the rest were contained all the rest in that one according to their degrees might be assumed Wherefore that Cardinal Schoolman Cajetan said not amiss Incarnatio est elevatio totius universi in divinam personam the Incarnation is an exaltation of the whole Universe into the Divine Person Since by it man in whom all things are knit together is himself knit and united unto God that as man is all in one so God might be all in all And all from God receive not only elevation and honour but blessing and benediction in Christ Jesus the Son of God who is therefore the head both of men and Angels to them a Conserver to us a Redeemer and not unto us only but unto all other Creatures that were made for our use and become subject unto vanity through our sin that as they suffered by mans transgression so in man they might partake of mans Redemption And therefore the whole Creation saith St. Paul travaileth in pain together with us and together with us shall be delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of God and therefore waiteth until they shall be revealed For which reason our blessed Lord fully is as he is termed Saelvator mundi the Saviour not of man alone but of the whole aspectable world and whatsoever is in it Thy truth reacheth unto the Heavens saith David of him and thy faithfulness unto the Clouds how excellent is thy name in all the World thou Lord shalt save both man and beast and what name is that which is so excellent in all the world but the name of a Saviour thou Lord shalt save both man and beast And therefore the prophet Esay calls unto Heaven and Earth the Forest and all the Trees that are in it that is the whole world and whatsoever dwelleth therein to sing and rejoyce together for this Redemption Sing O Heavens for the Lord hath done it shout ye lower parts of the Earth break forth into singing ye Mountains O Forest and every Tree therein for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and glorified himself in Israel Esay xliv 22. And St. Paul gives the reason which is the same we have hitherto given because in this Redeemer all things in Heaven and Earth were collected and gathered together in one even in Christ Eph. x. 10. And not only gathered and collected but restored in him and renewed For nova jam facta sunt omnia all things are now made new saith the same Apostle Most worthily therefore at the name of Jesus the knee of every Creature both in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth is injoyned to bow and give glory as being by that name glorified in a sort and restored to more excellent perfection So great so universal is the goodness declared in this Act Yet this is not all But as it is great unto man and universal unto the Creature so is it the highest Communication of goodness in it self and the best demonstration of the intrinsick goodness of the Creator the highest in it self because in this he communicates himself which is not goodness but goodness it self Besides this there are but three degrees of communication Nature Grace and Glory but this fourth of hypostatical union infinitely exceeds them all on which all acknowledge their dependance for it restores Nature gives Grace purchaseth Glory Nature indeed and natural properties are a great communication of Gods goodness unto natural things supernatural Grace unto the Soul of man in this life a greater Divine glory unto body and Soul in the life to come greatest of all yet the best goes not farther than a Created quality for though being glorified we shall see God see his Essence and be blessed in seeing it yet we shall see it but per speciem by a Divine indeed but a created light but in this of Incarnation he doth not exhibit any shews or similitudes he doth not bestow any created gift whether of natural or supernatural order but he gives and bestows himself immediately unto his Creature who doth as immediately see and injoy him in himself being the self-same Person with him a communication of goodness wonderful above all other and not to be conceived had it not been revealed And as the highest in it self so is it the greatest
season and who is so mad as to build and plant garnish and make great provision in an Inn in his passage and upon the way being to depart ere long peradventure the next morning For here we have no abiding place no permanent City but as strangers and pilgrims we look for one which hath a foundation And in such a Soul which is in it self as an Inn and esteems the world for no other and therefore void of all scraping and wretched desires the Son of God is ever most infallibly born and will as certainly bear it where are true riches and everlasting Now these three pleasure profit and pride that is the flesh the world and the Devil are the three heads whereunto all sins are reducible and as Christ cuts them all off in his birth so must we cut them off in our selves or he will never be born in us Carnal pleasure must depart he will be born of a Virgin Devilish pride abandoned he is born in a Stable worldly cares and covetous desires utterly discharged he is born in an Inn. And when the Soul is thus prepared by being truly cleansed from all these the time is at hand and then let him make hast and go up with confidence unto Bethlem for there he will be born that is the last and general place of his nativity born in Bethlem And Bethlem is domus panis so the name signifies the house of bread and never so truly as now when the bread of life was born in it And as then so will be still be born in Bethlem in the house of bread Of bread not corporal but spiritual and such as can nourish the Soul and what house think you is that surely Bethlem is nothing but Bethel the house of bread none other but the house of God Where Men eat Angels food and that bread of life is freely dispensed not only panis verbi but panis verbum the bread of the word but the bread which is the word the eternal word of God panis de Coelo bread from Heaven of which whosoever eateth shall never die And this is that house ecce and behold there is that heavenly bread indeed not so much bread as the body of thy Redeemer the bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Lords body the Communion sure of his body and blood too of himself and all that he did or suffered yea or purchased either For all are communicated in these the same Symbols of all and Conduits by which all are conveyed to us And therefore Christ Jesus himself is under this bread and comes down to thee as from Heaven in this shape that he might be at once both received in thy mouth and conceived in thy heart conceived and born live and inhabit therefor ever So justly was Bethlem the seat of his Nativity and therefore as Jacob said when he awoke out of sleep in that place where some suppose the Temple was afterwards built how fearful saith he is this place the Lord was in it and I was not aware this is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven if he said so of the Temple the house of that bread how much more justly may we say of the bread of this house How fearful is this bread the Lord is in it and much more especially than in the Temple and wo unto them that are not aware of it that discern it not for they do but eat damnation to themselves because they discern not the Lords body Take heed therefore above all things unto thy self when thou comest to this fearful twice fearful place this double Temple the Temple of his worship and Temple of his Body and so that thou make thy approach with due regard and diligent preparation with that deep sorrow as becometh thy sins that low reverence as becometh thy Saviour And so in the end think on the night wherein he was to be born and betake thee to thy sweet and silent meditations consider the deep of Winter and embrace thine afflictions Look upon the days of peace and let go wrath view the Stable and down with thy pride see the Inn and contemn the World contemplate the Virgin and cleanse thy self from all pollutions of the flesh so shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty and thy Virgin Soul come up safely into Bethlem and take of the bread of life freely and with it the blessed Lord of life himself who will make thy spirit another spiritual Bethlem or house for this living bread an habitation for this living Lord to be born and live in so long as thou livest and give thee everlasting life when thou canst live no longer Which God of his infinite mercy c. To whom c. Laus Deo in aeternum TWO FUNERAL SERMONS The FIRST for the MOTHER SERMON XII Upon PSAL. cxlii verse ult Bring my Soul out of Prison that I may give thanks unto thy Name which thing if thou wilt grant me then shall the Righteous resort unto my Company DO not marvel the Text may be fitter than you imagine or I could have made choice of for it is not I but another it was not taken but given me She that is now gone and at rest and may she rest for ever in peace she whose dissolved Tabernacle the prison of whose blessed Soul lies here before your eyes as a spectacle of mortality as a document of the frailty of our humane condition which I would if I might so wish it had this day appeared by some other example She this worthy and honoured Lady now glorious Saint in Heaven to whom we are at this time to perform our last office and Christian duty She it is who as she made it her frequent praise in her life so she desired it might be commended to your meditations in her death And you will anon perceive how justly when you shall see how well it sorted with the one and how fully it is now accomplished in the other But for this you must stay a little First therefore of her Theam then of her self Bring my Soul c. The whole Psalm is a prayer of Davids pursued by Saul and shut up in a Cave as appears by the Title but whether that of Adullam in the xxii of Samuel as Haimo and Remigius or else of the other of Engedi in the xxiv of the same book as Ambrose and Athanasius suppose is uncertain nor is it material to enquire In one of them it was and in this distress he flees unto the Lord for sucour in this whole Psalm the sum and substance of whose devout prayer you have in this last verse Bring my Soul c. This is the Historical truth and the literal sence of the Text which ariseth from thence is manifest Deliver my Soul out of Prison Espelunca out of this Cave and not so only not out of the Cave alone for so he might have fallen into the hands of Saul from whom it
desires it may be freed Bring my Soul c. First then it is well and rightly directed not to Saint or Angel or any creature else in Heaven or Earth but unto the Creator of Earth and Heaven and Angles and all to him that made them and is Lord over them He cried unto the Lord this cry Bring my Soul c. He well knew what Isâ—iaâ— wrote afterwards Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel knows us not And if they should know and understand him and his prayers yet he well understood they could not help him in his distress for which reason amongst an hundred and fifty Psalms which he wrote one hundred whereof at least are prayers you shall not find one directed to Cherub or Seraphim to Gabriel or Raphael Abraham or Moses or any other whatsoever but still his cry is unto the Lord He was sure he could hear his complaints and no less able than willing to relieve him when he complained It is he only that is Lord indeed of Death and Hell of sin and affliction too who alone hath the Keys of all these Prisons who opens and no Man shuts who shuts and none shall ever open that hath power and strenght in his holy arm to break the Gates of Brass and smite the bars of Iron asunder and so make way for the Captives that are fast bound in misery and iron either in the Iron chains of sin or the misery of distress and affliction To him therefore must this prayer come of all others Bring my soul out of prison that of all others can break it up at his pleasure And however in small and petty grievances we may cast about for humane succours and strain our wits for stratagems to relieve us neglecting the Lord in the mean time yet cùm dignus vindice nodus inciderit in great and overwhelming calamities especially if sudden too when neither head nor hand counsel or force can provide a remedy when it is once come to Davids case in this Psalm that we have no place to flee unto nor any Man that careth for our Souls tunc Deus intervenit then we run readily whether Papists or Protestants leave all they their Papois and Pictures we our projects and devices whatsoever and betake our selves only unto the Lord the Lord alone of deliverance and in Davids cafe approach with Davids petition deliver thou my soul out of prison So then the object was right and his prayer well directed And the manner was answerable devout and fervent he cried it out Deliver my soul out of prison And yet it is not likely he cried with his voice he now lay hid in a cave and it was not safe for him to make any loud cries saith Theodoret and Austin It was not therefore the outward sound of the lips but the inward affection of the heart that sent forth this the cry of this voice as those Authors observe for as St. Bernard hath it Desiderium vehemens clamor magnus a strong and earnest desire cries loud though the lips say nothing And this is the cry the cry of the heart that gives acceptance to our prayers and deliverance too from our Prisons The prayer of the Just availeth much if it be fervent saith St. James otherwise even the prayers of the Just if they be cold and of custom rather than Devotion and Piety may hurt but they profit nothing The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him faithfully saith David not formally if as those Jews we draw near only with our lips when our heart is far from him he may draw near unto us with plagues and miseries but his heart will be as far from our supplications and distresses when you stretch forth your hands I will hide mine eyes and though you make many prayers I will not hear you saith the Lord in Isa. i. The reason is there your hands are full of blood the reason to us may be your hearts bleed not Your Altar is without fire your prayer without heat how should I accept your sacrifices The very wooden Priests of Baal may be an instruction to us They called saith the Text on the name of their god from morning till noon and when they had no answer they cried loud nay they themselves with knives and lances till they prayed not only in tears but in blood that they might be heard and I would the children of light were as zealous in their generations though not so foolish But yet rather let us receive directions here at home from our own Prophet You saw how zealous he was in praise and he is as well affected in Prayer it was his darling this and delight of his Soul and it is hard for any Man ever to pray well that hath not learnt it of him No Man ever so frequent so fervent in this holy exercise I will pray saith he at Morning Noon and Night yea seven times a day will I pray and that instantly with the inwardst and deepest affections of his mind His bleeding heart may easily be discerned at his weeping eye which every night washt his Bed and watered his Couch with tears He mingled his bread with weeping nay made weeping his bread tears were his meat and drink Sure he had a strange fire within him that made him run over so fast or at least he was watered plentifully with the dew of Heaven that could minister such continual fountains to his eyes We why we go to prayers as if our Souls and tongues were strangers like the right hand and the left in the Gospel one seldom knows what the other doth as if we gave God an Alms and not prayed for our own necessity Our Bodies peradventure are in the Church but our affections abroad our lips utter prayers our hearts are on our penny and then no marvel if our eyes be dry when our devotions are so drousie But this is not it that can do it such faint and feeble prayers will break open no Prisons He must cry louder and deeper that will be heard in his distress when we can say with David è profundis out of the deep have I called on the Lord when the depth of our sins calls for the depth of our sorrow and both upon God for the depth of his mercies when Abyssus Abyssum shall call one upon another then with David we shall be sure to be heard and have our Souls brought out of Prison which is the matter of the Prayer our last point but hath many points in it Bring my Soul out of prison For it is not a Prayer only for one penn'd up in a Cave but whatsoever doth any way inclose and straiten the Soul as was said afore may not unfitly be termed the Souls Prison and for ought we know intended in this Scripture at least applyable to it And of these things that thus besiege and shut up the Soul though they are infinite almost in themselves yet they may be reducible to
these four Afflictions the World or worldly cares sin and this body of sin and death And under any of these we may say and pray with David here Bring my Soul out of prison The first to take them in order are afflictions sorrows and distresses and that these imprison the Soul and are here specially meant and intended there is no question all agree tribulatio angustia are inseparable companions Tribulation and anguish upon every Soul that hath done evil saith the Apostle and Anguish is nothing else but the English of Angustia for streights and pressure there are in all tribulations Prosperity and Joy do dilate the spirits and draw forth the Soul but stricken with grief and sorrow like a prickt Snail she shrinks into her shell and is instantly straitned But yet of all the Prisons this is the most necessary It is the Bridewel of the world and without it we should quickly grow Bedlam and run mad in excess and wanton delights For all sins are frenzies and such sinners seldom recover their wits any where else The wild Prodigal whilst free and in prosperity runs on in his course and never perceives his own distraction till shut up here and well whipt a while redit ad se then he comes to himself and can say surgam ibo ad patrem I will arise and go unto my Father For tribulatio id habet proprium ut hominem revocet reducat ad se it is the very nature and property of affliction to call home and reduce Men again unto their senses Neither doth it only give them their wits but sets them on work affording them matter whereon they may exercise themselves and all the Christian virtues Faith Hope Patience Meekness Humility and the rest which otherwise would languish and vitiate if not exhale for want of imployment This Prison therefore is of excellent use But why then if it be so profitable should we pray to be freed of it why absolutely we do not but with limitation if God shall think it expedient for us who when the cure is perfected it may be will dismiss us or if he keep us there longer he will make us large recompence for it hereafter Our Saviours Prayer is our rule in this point because all afflictions are grievous for the present we may say with him if it be possible transeat calix ista let this cup pass but still with submission to his good pleasure not mine but thy will be done And thus much though not always exprest is ever reserved and understood whensoever in this case we shall say here with David Bring my Soul out of prison The second is the world or rather worldly cares that â—log and fetter the Souls of most Men nailing them fast unto the Earth that they cannot stir a foot nor move a thought towards Heaven and heavenly meditations This is a large prison wherein every one hath seen restraint more or less as they have learnt that high precept of the Apostle to use the world as if they used it not but satisfying nature only account the rest that belongs to pomp and superfluity nothing near at that high rate as they are bought and sold for in this Market of Fools quanti venduntur emuntur in nundinis stultorum These indeed have some freedom and though they are in a sort prisoners yet they are prisoners at large and have liberty as large as the Prison wherein they have elbow room enough not to be straitned But those miserable wretches that admiring the wealth and honour of the present world have inthralled and wrapt their Souls in terrene and base solitudes how close are they shut up and how miserable a servitude do they indure No Gally-slave can be tied in stronger chains than the Ambitious and Covetous Man like those condemned to the Mines he digs under earth and sweats for Ore all his life long and when he dies hath his mouth stopt only with a handful of gravel And here every one may freely pray and without any restriction at all Out of this Prison O Lord deliver my Soul The Third of these Prisons and worst of all is Sin the Third indeed it is in order but first in time that gives power and strength unto both the other Had not that in the beginning seised on our Souls and fast bound them to their hands they could never have touched us The world instead of a Prison had been a Paradise and the men in it subject neither to Cares nor afflictions But now being fast tyed by this we have a thousand Chains cast on us besides and are become prisoners almost to every thing else This therefore is the head and fountain of our misery and as the first so the worst straitest and closest prison of all other a common Jayl indeed rather than a Prison and the very hole of the Jayl wherein millions of men lie fast bound indeed in misery and Iron putrifying and stinking in their corruption like Lazarus in his Grave the very emblem both of the Prison and Prisoners And unless that Son of God who came down himself from Heaven to open this Prison and preach liberty unto the Captives unless he graciously call unto us yea cry aloud as in the Gospel he did even groaning in his Spirit to shew how difficult a thing it is to dissolve these bonds wherewith custom and habit hath tyed us as with cords unless he I say by the power of his holy voice cry unto us all as lie did unto him Lazare veni foras Lazarus come forth we shall all perish in our captivity for ever and never see light For this sink of sin wherein the longer we lie the deeper indeed we sink doth at length empty it self into Hell the bottomless Pit and Prison of everlasting sorrow But blessed be his name the barrs are smitten asunder and the doors thrown open by his death And he still calls unto us by the voice of his Ministers yea and Spirit too to come forth and unless we be enamoured of our own misery and like Beasts delight to lie in our own filth till we perish in that nethermost Gulf let us hearken unto his calls and rouse up our selves betimes answering his voice with another call of our own calling and crying with all our might and without ever ceasing all of us From this Prison good Lord deliver our Souls But yet call and cry as long and as loud as we can our Souls shall never be clearly freed either from this Prison of sin or those others of Cares and Sorrows so long as they are still inclosed in this of the corruptible body Which is the Fourth and last Prison of the Soul and here intended by David according to the exposition of many Fathers whose words I cannot now stand to recite And therefore Laurentius Justinianus said well of this Prayer Verba sunt peregrinationis suae miserias meditantis c they are the words saith he of one
neither comfort himself nor receive any from the rest of the world shall he for his last refuge as thousands of others have done cry Lord Lord be thou my help and comfort and bring my Soul out of Prison But alas unto what purpose and upon what acquaintance He that gave his Soul unto sin and Satan in his life time why should he think God in his death will embrace and entertain it No no Either give up thy Soul unto God when he calls for it in his word in the provocations of his love in the holy motions of his Spirit unto thine or else when thou wouldest give it he will none of it unless as an angry Judge to deliver it over to the tormentor And in these streights what remains but that he either take up the ditty of that dying Emperour heu quae nunc abibis in loca fearfully part with his Soul he knows not whither or else embrace the counsel of Jobs wife desperately curse God and die Either way he comes to his deserved end and he whose whole life was as the way of a snail not a step but leaving filth behind at the last dies like a Candles end in the Socket boyling and burning in the flame of his own distressed and distracted Soul till he go out in a suff and leave an ill savour behind him amongst all good people Such is oftentimes the fearful departure of those whom God for their former wicked lives shall refuse to lead out of their Prisons when they die No this favour belongs not unto them it is reserved for those faithful Souls that with holy David have throughly sorrowed for their sins for they only shall partake of Davids Prayer that imitate Davids repentance And these however he may seem to absent himself for a while and hide his countenance from them yet in that day of need in that last and Fearful time that most requires it they shall be sure of his comforts He will not fail then to discover his face and make the light of his countenance shine into that region of darkness and by the beams thereof chear up his people leading and lighting them through all the dark and winding Alleys of death until they arrive in the glorious Kingdom of immortality and peace Believe not me but behold the holy man of God and see it performed with your Eyes Look upon Jacob the Patriarch and Father of the Patriarchs he that wrestled not only that one time at the River Jabbock but all his life long with the arm of the Almighty continually afflicting him yet in the end all these storms are blown over and he is gathered unto his Fathers in a calm of content and peace But first mark how the Lord gave him strength before he went hence and was no more seen wherewith he collects his fainting Spirits raiseth himself up in his bed calls his Sons about him gives every one his several blessing and benediction in such a high and Prophetical strain as if an Angel had sate on his lips and I think many Angels sate waiting in that door of his body for the coming forth of his Soul which stayed not long after to convey it into the bosom of his Grand-father Abraham there to rest in everlasting peace Look upon Joshua the Captain of Israel after all his Wars and Battles past at length he sits him down and divides the spoil among the Tribes of Jacob and death drawing near see how he summons the whole people together and with such power of speech exhorts them to the fear and service of God which had dealt so mercifully with them that the whole Congregation as if it had but one heart and one tongue and both throughly affected joynt ly cry out unto him God forbid that we should forsake the Lord nay but we will serve him for he is our God Thus out of the flame of his own zeal having kindled a fire in the breast of others this great Worthy was led forth from his Prison in peace See Samuel the Judge of Israel going to his grave as to his bed and in him consider the power and vertue of a good Conscience arising from the memory of a well acted life Whose Oxe or whose Ass have I taken whom have I defrauded or at whose hands have I received a bribe saith he unto the Congregation as all bear him Record saith the Text hoc ducit ad funus sepulturam This is it which accompanies him to his grave and laies him in his rotten Sepulchre Lastly consider St. Paul and his marvellous confidence even before his death that made him bold to deliver up his Soul almost like his Saviour with a consummatum est I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the just Judge shall give me at that day words worthy of a Soul so near unto its Heaven such have been the blessed ends of these holy Men of God and many more famous in their generations and such it is and shall be in all others that faithfully serve him though it be not ever manifest in all And what is there now that can more deeply affect a good heart what can a religious mind so much desire unto it self or behold with so great delight in another as to see a devout and penitent Soul give a peaceful farewel unto Nature and in the midst of death depart full of comforts of immortality and life as those Souls only do whom God shall vouchsafe to lead out of their corruptible prisons with the sweet consolations of his spirit But peradventure far off examples will be left too far off respects Usually those that are nearest do affect us most if so this sad occasion will afford you a worthy one for I have done with her Text and must speak as I promised and you expect of her person that made choice of the Text and by this time you cannot but perceive how justly She delighted in prayer and praise while she lived and she left this behind her written with her own hand that it might testify so much for her even after her death and that by it she might in a sort lest her thankfulness being private should die with her self publickly praise the name of God amidst the company of the righteous the congregation of good men here on earth even then when she her self freed from her prison should be singing honour and glory with Saints and Angels in Heaven Yet this was not all the reason of her choice It sorted well with her condition whilst she was in the body and she knew it would be fully accomplished when she should be led out of it For she had her part of afflictions and they prest sore upon her too even straitned her Soul Her branches she saw were rent away branch after branch and to so loving a nature they could not but go off as limbs from her body What Bernard
not then a Carnal presence but a Spiritual that doth link and associate unto Christ. To make up our union with him it is not needful that his humane nature should be drawn down from Heaven or that his body should be every where present on Earth as the Ubiquitaries affirm or that the Bread in the Sacrament should be transubstantiate into his body as the Papists imagin His dwelling in us is by his Spirit and his union with us is spiritual So himself in the same place where he speaks of eating his flesh and drinking his blood doth interpret himself the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak are spirit and life And his Spirit it is not his body that shall give life unto the Spirit when the body shall perish If Christ c. This touch shall suffice for the condition I proceed to the substance of the Text. The Body is dead It contains as I said an admonition of our frailty corruption and death and comforts against death It is but the body that is dead the Spirit is life First of our corruption and frailry The body is dead That we all tend unto death we all know but the Apostle's speech is more remarkable he says not the body is subject to death but by a more significant phrase of speech he presseth it homer The body is dead There is a difference between a mortal body and a dead body Adams body before the fall was mortal in some sort that is subject to a possibility of dying but now after the fall our bodies are so mortal as they are subject to a necessity of dying yea if we'll here with the Apostle esteem of death by the beginning and seisure of it they are dead already The forerunners and harbingers of death dolours infirmities and heavy diseases have seised already on our bodies and marked them out as lodgings which shortly must be the habitation of their Master But how near this manner of speech draws unto true propriety they best conceive who best understand how that malediction of God and curse of the Law The day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death was fulfilled If God spared not the Angels when they waxed proud will he spare thee who art but a putrifying worm Ille intumuit in coelo erga in sterquilinio he was puft up in Heaven and therefore was cast down from the place of his habitation and if I wax proud lying on a dunghil shall I not be cast down into Hell So often therefore as corrupt nature stirreth up the heart to pride because of youth and health beauty and strength and the like perfections of the body let this consideration humble thee that though these are fair and beauti ful flowers yet they cannot but suddenly wither because the root from whence they sprung is corrupt and rotten and even dead already Neither is it more available to the cutting down of arrogance and pride than to teach us Temperance and sobriety What availeth it to pamper that Carcase of thine with excess of delicate feeding which is possessed by death already If Men took the tenth part of that care to present their spirit holy and without blame unto the Lord which they take to make their bodies fair and beautiful in the eyes of Men they might in short time make a greater improvement in Religion and Virtue than they have done But herein is their folly they make fat the flesh with precious things which within few days the worms shall devour but never care to beautify the Soul with holy and virtuous actions which shortly is to be presented to God Let us therefore refrain from the immoderate cherishing this proud and dead flesh meats are ordained for the belly and the belly for meats but God will destroy them both 1 Cor. vi 13. I might inlarge this point almost infinitely for the benefit of this consideration is not confined unto Humility Sobriety and Temperance or any particular virtues but it 's universal restraining from all evil and inciting powerfully unto all virtue and goodness Nihil sic revocat bominem à peccato quà m frequens mortis meditatio saith St. Aug. nothing can so recall a Man from his evil ways as the frequent meditation of death especially if he consider as the certainty of death so the uncertain time of his death and the unchangeable estate of everlasting misery if he die in his sins Would to God we were wise thoroughly to apprehend and apply this unto our own Souls It is strange that there is nothing so well known nothing of greater benefit and yet nothing so little regarded What a Prodigy is it that sinful Men should carry about their death in their bosoms and in every vein of their Bodies and yet scarce admit a thought of their mortality into their minds but live here as if they verily thought they should never die If we had no Religion yet reason would teach us that our strength is not the strength of stones and yet them even the drops of water weareth nor our sinews of Brass and Iron as Job speaks and yet these the rust and canker consumeth but a vapour but a smoak which the Sun soon drieth or the wind driveth away It was wittily said of Epictetus the Philosopher who going forth one day and seeing a Woman weeping that had broken her Pitcher and the next day meeting another Woman that had lost her Son Heri vidi fragilem frangi hodie video mortalem mori Yesterday saith he I saw a brittle thing broken and to day I see a mortal Man die And what difference of frailty between these two surely none unless Man be the frailer of the two For as St. Austin hath it Take the brittlest veslel of earth or glass and keep it safe from outward violence and it may last many thousand of years but take a Man of the most pure complexion of the strongest constitution and keep him as safe as thou canst he hath that within his own bowels and bones that will bring him to his end Nay I hear some say saith the same Father that such a one hath the Plague or the Pleurisie and therefore sure he will die but we may rather say such a one liveth and therefore sure he will die for diverse have had these Diseases and did not die of them but never any Man lived that did not die The Consumption of the Liver is the messenger of Death the Consumption of the Lungs the Minister of Death the Consumption of the marrow and moisture the very Mother of Death and yet many have had these Diseases and not died of them But there is another kind of Consumption which could never yet be cured it is the Consumption of the days the common Disease of all Mankind David saw it and spake of it when he said my days are consumed like smoke Psal. cii yea the Philosopher saw it and could say of it quicquid praeteritum est temporis mors