reproof as being a sin that like a deluge hath overrun the whole World and covered the face of the whole Earth as a flood which is so much the more intolerable saith Calvin quod assuetudine ipsa pro delicto imput ari desiit That the frequent use and custom hath taken away the sense and apprehension of the sin and though there be little hope in this case of redress for as Seneca says well desinet esse remedio locus ubi quae fuerunt vitia mores sunt there is no place left for remedy when those things which were made to be vices are now become fashions and manners yet not despairing of Gods goodness and mercy unto any both for our own sakes and yours we are at least to shew you the peril and danger of so great a sin and leave the success unto him And sure there were danger enough in it though it were no sin and did we never transgress so long as we swear frequently for as St. Austin hath it Use runs into facility into custom and from the custom of swearing we easily fall into the detestable sin of Perjury and forswearing And indeed it is almost impossible that he which swears daily and hourly and almost perpetually should not sometimes swear deceitfully and falsly Neither do I think there is any if he impartially examine and observe himself that doth familiarly use the one but he will find that he hath often and easily slipt into the other for the Conscience that dares to play with the sacred name of God and continually to use it with irreverence and contempt it is likely will not stick now and then to abuse it by perjury And therefore the Counsel of the same Father is good Epist. 89 ad Hil. 2. Abstain from swearing as much as is possible melius quippe nec verum juratur quam jurandi consuetudine in perjurium saepe caditur semper perjurio propinquatur For it were better not to swear any truth than that by a custom of swearing we should often forswear our selves and ever endanger it Excellently therefore to the same purpose he concludes in another place Falsa juratio exitiosa est Vera juratio periculo sa at nulla juratio secura False swearing is damnable and exitious true swearing is dangerous but no swearing is secure which is the reason that under the name of swearing is included oftentimes perjury and forswearing the Scripture for this cause knitting and linking them both together as in the sin so in the punishment Since no Man can be subject unto that but he will be found also often guilty of this And therefore there were danger enough as I said in this unadvised custom if it were no sin but how much more then when it doth not only lead and conduce unto sin and the greatest almost of sins but also is little less sinful in self I am sure is more expresly forbidden in the Commandment which says not Thou shalt not swear falsly though that be included but thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain that is lightly and idly and David gives the reason for saith he holy and reverend is his name Now that which is holy if it be brought into common use it is prophaned And that which is reverend if it be irrespectfully handled is contemned So that it is not only a bare sin but a threefold a trebble sin and terrible compounded of irrâ—vâ—rence profanation and presumptuous contempt The least whereof were enough to plunge a rebellious Soul in the depth of eternal sorrow whereof he is now thrice worthy as being guilty of all three For what indignity must it needs be unto the Divine Majesty and how unsufferable with idle and empty supervacuous and unnecessary Oaths every moment and in causes of no moment irreligiously and contemptuously to toss and bandy if not tear in pieces that sacred name which should never be thought on but with trembling nor ever be uttered without religious adoration That Name vererable above all names so excellent and admirable in all the world how excellent is thy name in all the world saith David by way of question and none can answer it That Name which the Jews thought so sacred as they never durst utter it nor was lawful for any but the high Priest ever to carry it about him Exod xxviii so much as written who was commanded to wear it on his forehead in a leaf of Gold the very sight whereof made the greatest Monarch of the World even proud Alexander that would needs be a God himself yet to stoop and do his reverence Lastly that Name which the very Devils in Hell and spirits of darkness cannot hear without horror no nor Powers and Principalities Cherubin and Seraphin the blessed Angels of God ever mention without glory and great worship What dishonour must it needs receive to be at length thus shamefully contemned by dust and ashes thus hourly and idly to be belched out from the foul mouth of a sinful man without all esteem or respect yea or so much as ever thinking of it Rather consider those glorifyed Spirits and tremble I saw God saith the Prophet Isaiah Chap. vi sitting on his Throne high and exalted and the Cherubins and Seraphins standing round about it crying and calling unto one another and saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbath Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory Behold saith Chrysostom with what fear and horror with what redoubling of praise and glory they make mention of his holy name I may say thrice holy that is most sacred Name And shall the Sons of men presume contemptuously to violate that which the Angels themselves when they mention do with Reverence adore Why if we say saith the same Father of one of our selves if of extraordinary vertue and worth Os lava wash or wipe your mouth before you name him And if a servant will not mention his Lord nor a subject his Prince without Titles of Respect and Honour with what fear and reverence should the name of the Lord of Lords and King of Kings the God both of men and Angels be warily pronounced Our mouths here had more need of fire than water not to be washed but with Isaias Cole from the Altar inflamed with a religious zeal when we dare to mention it Judge therefore in your selves how great is his Sin that can assume boldness not only with unhallowed and polluted lips to mention but even with idle nay rhetorical and wanton Oaths fearfully to prophane and lacerate that Name which some mens Reverence never durst utter and no Angels without terms of praise and glory will ever pronounce Now if our light trival and customary Oaths are so derogatory unto the honour of God what then may we think of intemperate passionate and cholerick Oaths the Oaths of Gamesters and others wedded unto other sports who if a Die or Dog run not to their liking or a Kite fly where they
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
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
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
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
up themselves unto us in these particulars 1. The person filius hominis that here is his appellation The Son of man 2. The appearance of this Person once more unto the world venturus est he shall come 3. The form or manner of his coming in gloria palris in the glory of his Father 4. The end or purpose of his coming for retribution â— tunc reddet then shall be reward 5. The impartiality of it without respect of any mans person reddet unicuique he shall reward every man 6. And lastly the justness of his reward in due proportion to his desert He shall reward every man secaudum opera sua according to his works The points lie in the same order as the words do in the Text and therefore I shall handle them without any material transposition beginning first with the Person that here speaks this of himself and his appellation fillus hominis The son of man He that was both God and Man may stile himself as he please by either but yet our blessed Lord whether to intimate his love unto our whole kind or to instruct us in the imitation of his humility usually makes choice of the meanest of his Titles and though the Son of God yet seldom or never speaks of himself but in the Stile and Title Filii hominis of the Son of Man But yet as he assumes it it is no vulgar or common stile neither for he assumes it with a difference and distinction from all other the Sons of men whatsoever for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The or That son of Man the son of Man after such a special and eminent manner as will make it a peculiar title an Attribute proper only unto himself and applyable unto no other As for our selves we are all Filii hominum Sons of Men indeed in the plural he only in the singular and therefore he only singularly Filius hominis the Son of man Homo hath both genders and here in the right sence it is only feminine and Filius hominis no more than semen Mulieris the Son of man than the seed of the Woman the Son of the she-man for Son of man but in this regard he was not as being that mighty stone in Daniel cut out of the mountain without hands and flos campi the flower not of the Garden but of the field growing up without setting for he who as the Son of God had a Father but no Mother as the Son of man had a Mother but without any Father and therefore by the Mothers side only Filius hominis the Son of Man There was indeed a woman once that was filia hominis Eve taken out of Adam without the help of woman as Christ our Lord filius hominis taken out of woman without the assistance of man And as Eve the daughter of man was both daughter and wife unto her own Father So Christ the Son of Man was both son and husband unto his own mother And being Son unto that Mother in Her he was the Son of her Ancestors of David and Abraham and others but not otherwise for no descendant from them or any other was ever or might be his natural and immediate Father Of necessity therefore the Son of Man can be no more than the Son of the blessed Virgin that is the son of a woman And however in relation unto God Christ though both God and man may not have two son-ships the one as man the other as God as God the natural and as man the adopted because the Relation of a Son adheres not to the Nature but to the Person and so having but one Person cannot have two â—iliations yet nothing doth hinder but that in reference unto some other this whole Person though the Son of God may rightly be termed the Son of Man also For when the Son of God vouchsafed not to abhor the Virgins womb he then received a new Relation and being brought forth into the world though otherwise the Son of God he now became really the son of a woman and she that brought him forth as truly Deipara the very Mother of God In regard whereof St. Peter being demanded by our Saviour who do men say that I the Son of man aâ— Answers Tu es filius dei viventis Thou the Son of man art the Son of the ever-living God Two Sonships and but one Person but in regard of two several relations and that unto two several Persons The prime Article This of our Faith and foundation of that Church against which the gates of Hell shall never prevail The Son of God then and the Son of Man too The Son of Man he was here before he went hence and as the Son of Man he shall return again For so it follows in the second place Filius hominis venturus est The Son of Man shall come And come indeed he shall nothing more sure but the when the Time of his Coming than that nothing more uncertain And therefore without all limitation is doubtfully delivered here and indefinitely only with a venturus est He shall come and no more Our Saviour would have all men stand upon their guard be vigilant and watchful for that hour have their Loyns ever girt and their Oyle always ready in their Lamps for that cry at midnight may come at unawares and for this reason he would have men aware of it That it cannot be long hence indeed he hath given sufficient warning shewn it clear unto all For a thousand years it is and six hundred since it was said These are the last times yea Horae novissima the last hour and Judex prae foribus the Judge is at the doors and that Judge himself in the last of the Revelation Ecce venio citò behold I come quickly and my reward is with me but how much time this Quickly hath in it how near or far off it may be this he hath not shown unto any yea hath refused to shew unto his own though desired by his own Apostles But keeps it as a secret reserved unto himself and to be reserved for ever in his own bosom The Angels in Heaven understand it not yea the Son of man himself that is to come as the Son of man only that is in his humane nature he doth not he cannot discover the time of his coming How vain then are the endeavours and enquiries of all other impotent and ignorant men And yet mans busy head must needs be working nothing can restrain his curiosity from prying at least and though he cannot possibly affrm any thing for certain yet he will be old to deliver his conjecture And conjectures indeed there have been many but all no less temerarious than vain The Astrologian and the Philosopher will needs have it fall out just in the fatal period of the great Platonick year when all the Sphears and Stars fixt and wandering shall return again unto their first points and positions wherewith they were
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
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
answer of the Schoolmen that sin hath infinity only secundùm quid that is in regard of the object and that therefore other circumstances there are which may add degrees unto it because not simply infinite For even that which is but one way infinite cannot be enlarged by any finite additions the other way As a line that should run on without end though pieced out never so much at the beginning would yet be never a whit the longer If the world be supposed eternal à parte ante though days and months and years be added yet it would be no older an hundred years hence than it is at this very day or if having had a beginning yet conceived to be perpetual à parte post it would then be as near the end this very day as an hundred years hence But this peradventure comes to pass because the addition is still made in the same kind that is in length and longitude only Nothing hinders for all that but that two things equally infinite in one dimension may yet be unequal in another and capable of augmentation The Mast of a Ship and the Spear of a Souldier that should stand by it though both allowed to run on in insinitum and so of one and the same length yet notwithstanding in bulk and body there would be great difference still between them and might be greater as we should add unto the one or withdraw from the other And so in like manner all sins may well have a punishment equal in duration because all offences against God and yet by reason of other different circumstances that give the bulk and magnitude not all receive punishment equal in degree and intension but some a sorer punishment than others though not a longer But this though it look well will not satisfy for the punishment is one thing and the sin another In that indeed we may distinguish the duration from the magnitude or intention but in the sin we cannot so distinguish This doth not receive longitude in one respect body and bulk in another but the sin is infinite in magnitude only not in length and deserves a punishment infinite even in intension that it becomes so only in duration is accidental for being that a punishment intensively infinite as the sin deserves may not possibly be actually inflicted not through any impotence in God but incapacity in the Creature hence in this supposition it comes to pass that what could not after an infinite manner be at once received should yet in a finite manner as it may be perpetually suffered The punishment therefore by succession is only potentially infinite not in act nor shall be ever but the sin is actually infinite otherwise the punishment should be even actually finite The instance therefore of the Spear and the Mast is besides the matter and yet even in these though this be greater in sound than that yet not in matter and substance For still not an inch of wood or an ounce of weight in the one more than in the other Others therefore propound a third way and that is from the infinite reward that is proposed unto the righteous whence they conceive it but right that as infinite a punishment should be prepared for the wicked when two infinites are laid in the ballance the scales cannot but hang the more equal for what injury is there done unto any if an eternal Heaven or an everlasting Hell be set open unto all and then every man accordingly rewarded as he shall freely through Gods grace or his own perversness â—run himself into either And sure it seems but reason and every way just that they who for temporary and trifling pleasures neglect full and never fading joys should receive for their meed no less great and never ending sorrows And indeed we our selves that by the condition of our birth without any sin of our own came at first to be plunged into that pit of everlasting misery by the transgression of another could not it seems with Justice have been so through the meer nature of sin for then all the sins of our intermediate fore-Fathers should lie upon the Children also but only by virtue of a Covenant grounded in this very equity that we who were in his loins should not incur more hurt by his fall than receive benefit by his standing For he was to stand or fall not to himself alone but to all his posterity This notwithstanding may be subject to some objections though not so unanswerable which the time now forbids me to discuss However be it this upon what regard it may be that so it shall be is most certain and that without injury unto any God is a righteous Judge and will clear himself both when he is judged and when he judgeth also For my part I am satisfied with this last reason and were I not with it or any other yet in a point so clearly delivered in the Scripture my reason should be led captive by my Faith For it abundantly sufficeth that it is as I said at first wrath revealed from Heaven And I would it were a little better considered on upon Earth what a miserable ruine and calamity it will then bring upon all the Sons of Pride and Children of disobedience sorrows no less insufferable than interminable in both by Man in this life inconceiveable For who knoweth or can know the power of his wrath But this destruction is nor near enough to affect us now though as that learned Man says there is only that puff of breath which is in our Nostrils betwixt us and it and that God knows how suddenly too may be taken from us Yet I say it is not near enough to affect us now but in novissimo intelligetis planè in the end ye shall understand all things clearly In the end indeed when the Son of Man shall come in Glory and his reward with him then they shall understand and know when they begin to feel their sorrows the strange folly of their ways and truly then apprehend the vanity of their pride and pleasures here only this one way of value that once they might have been given in exchange for their Souls In the mean time what a misery is it transire hinc in Infernum ut ibi discant quod bîe crederâ— noluerunt To pass from hence into Hell there to learn the truth which here they refused to believe How much better were it for us to believe and practise too whilst we may and whilst it may do us good Profit in any thing else there is not any though a man should gain the whole world For most assuredly whosoever hath the wealth and honour now yet the Righteous only shall have the dominion in the morning In the morning of this great day when God shall shew himself no less terrible unto Sinners than as David speaks marvellous in his Saints Happy men are we if in that manner we shall compose our lives as may enroll
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
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
But considering that God meant not to deliver Man by a powerful conquest but a just redemption by a just Redeemer that should dissolve the just condemnation of the Law there is something more in it than the conquest of Satan In this case he that shall undertake it must not only vanquish the Prince of darkness but by satisfying Divine Justice appease the King of Glory that was offended And this I suppose no meer creature endued with any power of God whatsoever unless that which ariseth from personal union with the Creator and maketh him cease to be a meer creature could ever be enabled to perform and accomplish He that shall come to Redeem as it is here that is lay down a full price for Mans transgression He that shall put himself under the Law that is undertake the penalty which Divine Justice doth injoin unto the breakers if he be but a finite person he shall be sure to suffer infinite sorrow or rather because being finite he cannot at once suffer any thing that is infinite he must suffer it infinitely that is never make an end of suffering but lie under it for ever The person satisfying must be as infinite as the person offended otherwise he can never be of that infinite merit as to make a temporary passion equivalent to a perpetual punishment And this still adds fulness to the Fathers love and to his wisdom too who by sending this person not only sent one that was full and answerable unto his own love but full and sutable also to our necessity When no other Creature either in Heaven or Earth was either of worth sufficient to be imployed or of sufficient ability to perform the imployment of this message and embassy misit filium he sent his Son So the Fathers love is full twice full he sent and sent his Son sent first and sent the best thing that he had We now pass on to the Sons humility wherein we shall perceive his love arising unto fullness by two degrees made and twice made Made of a Woman and made under the Law It must needs be a great degree of humiliation for the Son of God to be made at all to be made any thing for to make him saith one well is to mar him be it what it will be He is the maker and Creator of all things and therefore when he himself is made no less than the Creator is made a Creature which cannot be but an infinite abasement But yet since he may not come in his own glory but must be made if there be any thing better than other let him be made that some Angel or Archangel or any other of that Celestial Hierarchy No he would by no means take on him the nature of Angels that descent was not low enough for his humility He made himself lower than the Angels he was made man and a man not made immediately by the fingers of God like Adam in his full strength and beauty but bred by degrees in the womb of a Woman for even that he vouchfafed not to abhor factum ex muliere made of a Woman c. Thus it pleased the Lord to abase himself and thus it pleased him to exalt us and our Nature by the assumption whereof man is now become God and God is made man He that was the Son of God without a Mother is now become the Son of a Woman without a Father and as God at the first drew a Woman out of Man without the help of a Woman so he now took a Man out of a Woman without the help of Man For he was not begotten but made made a man but of the substance only of a woman made of a woman c. Blessed woman from whose body the redeemer of mankind took the blood that was to be shed for the sins of the world yea of whose blood he made that body which men and Angels must ever adore What wonderful titles hast thou obtained thou Daughter of the Father Mother of the Son and I had almost said spouse of the Holy Ghost that wrought thy conceptionâ— how and how strangely art thou become as the Daughter of thy Son so the Mother of thy own Father For so she must needs be that is the Mother of God Blessed therefore thou art and well may all generations so call thee from whose bowels so great a blessing is descended to all generations This much we willingly afford and more than this we may not give thou maist not receive we honour but we may not adore thee we bless thee we praise thee we magnify thee only we do not worship thee that belongs unto thy Son which is both thy Son and thy Saviour For the blood which he took from thee he even paid for thee he took it from thee so he is thy Son he pay'd it for thee so he is thy Saviour God thy Saviour and therefore thy Father as well as thy Son as well as thy Saviour So his thou art and his Creature by a double title of Creation of Redemption Thou maist not then take unto thy self any part of his honour and worship whom thou thy self art for ever bound to worship and honour Honour enough it is for thee that he that made thee vouchsafed to be made of thee Made of a woman c. Neither hath he honoured her alone in her own person or in her own Sex but man and all mankind For though he were made of a woman yet not made by a woman made of a woman but made himself a man that both man and woman might rejoyce and glory in him How well may we cry out with David Domine quid est homo Lord what is man that thou didst magnify him or the Son of man that thou didst so visit him And how well may we answer with the same Prophet Homo est res nihili man is a thing of nought that is a thing drawing near unto nothing of no worth no value no continuance yet such a thing it pleased the Son of God to be made and therein to be made lower than the Angels that he might raise and advance this thing of nought far above all principalities and powers and crown him with worship and glory So have you both his natures God and man the Son of God and yet the Son of a woman So he was and so it was convenient he should be that was to be the redeemer of man who might not be redeemed but by a passion proportionable unto a perpetual punishment For as I said before had he not been God his sufferings could never have been of that infinite value so I now say had he been nothing else but God he could not have suffered at all and for this reason be was both God and man man to suffer God to merit man to serve God to set free man to die God to rise again from the dead for had he been God alone he could never have suffered had he
been man alone he could never have made an end of suffering God only could not die nor man only rise again from the dead rightly therefore was he both both the Son of God neither made nor created but begotten of the Father and the Son of a man not begotton by any Father but made and created of the substance of a woman Made of a woman c. And even unto this his love brought him for our sakes for whatsoever else he had been made it would have done us little good In this then was the fullness of his love as before of his Fathers that he would be made and was made not what was fittest for him but what was best for us not what was most for his glory but what was most for our benefit and behoof But yet this is but the first step of his fulness he was made once more for our sakes made of a woman and made under the Law too made under the Law It was a marvellous descent and humiliation that the only begotten of the Father should vouchsafe to be born of a woman that the Son of the everliving God should be content to lay aside his own Majesty and glory and cloath himself with the raggs of our mortality to leave his habitation in the highest heavens and dwell in a Tabernacle of Clay whose foundation is in the dust as Job speaks Surely were man turned into a beast into a worm into dust into nothing it were not so great a disparagement as that the Son of God should be made man This making cannot but make his humility and with it his love unto us deep and full but this next making made under the law makes it deeper and fuller still For in that he only took on him our nature but in this our condition First our nature as Man now our condition as sinful men men under the law as it follows that is subject unto the heavy malediction wherewith the Law threatens the breakers of it This was our condition and this he undertook which was much more than to take our nature by that he was made man but by this he that knew no sin was made sin 2 Cor. v. that is made a sacrifice for sin was contented to be handled as a sinner and to endure whatsoever the Law could lay upon sinners and this is factum sub lege made unden the Law indeed under the Law he was and freely was so and it must needs add some fulness to his love that 〈◊〉 was meerly voluntary and free from necessity We indeed though we willingly sin yet we would not willingly lie under the Law but we are either born under it through corruption of nature or cast under it for our corrupt actions whether we will or no but for him who neither knew original soil nor actual sins who though he took on him our flesh yet not that flesh which lusteth against the spirit though born of a woman yet of a woman only without mixture of fleshly generation of a woman but a woman overshadowed by the Holy Ghost and therefore pure in his conception And as conceived by the Holy Ghost so he was united to the Son whereby he became uncapable of voluntary transgression and therefore no less pure in his actions than in his conception but clear and innocent in both just so he was born so just he lived for him I say if he come under the Law it must be Love and not necessity that shall bring him lex justo non est posita no Law for the just no Law could touch him The Law was added because of transgressions saith the Apostle 1 Tim. i. 9. but no transgression was found in him who could convince him of sin and therefore quid illi legi what had he to do with the Law or the Law with him He might indeed well be Dominus legis Lord of the Law as he said he was Lord of the Sabbath but sub lege under the Law or subditus legi subject to the Law to the pain and penalty of the Law no Law in the world could make him had he not of his own accord made himself so And therefore it is not natus but factus not born under the Law no nor fallen under it neither that 's our condition but made under the Law to shew that it was not laid upon him either by natural necessity or through voluntary breach but meerly by his own free undertaking was made that which naturally he was not and in justice ought not to be Made therefore not by any other but by himself who of his own accord and out of his own love unto us freely undertook and pay'd that debt which he owed not otherwise no power of Law no malice of Devils no nor the wrath of the Father could ever have seised on an innocent person had he not of grace and great compassion unto men taken on him the person of sinners and in their stead put himself under the Law that they might be freed from the punishment Freely therefore and of his own accord without all constraint without any necessity of meer love and compassion factum sub lege made under the Law And now the doctrine begins to be comfortable indeed comfort there was in it and not a little in his first making ex muliere when he was made of a woman for made of women we are all so there was an alliance and consanguinity between us in that besides the flesh and blood which the Divinity assumed must needs be advanced to great glory so there is honour in it also to our nature But yet if this were all if there were no more in it than so his alliance with us and the honour of our nature in him would prove but a cold comfort God knows for what good is it to us that our nature is exalted in anothers person though to the height of Heaven if we our selves be thrown down and perish in the depth of Hell in our own persons or what were we the better to have a kinsman great and wealthy if notwithstanding we lye in prison under the Law for our own debts Sure his wealth is little unto us unless he relieve us with his wealth But if he please to become our surety to enter into bond and put himself under the Law for us then he shews the part of a true kinsman and there is real comfort in that Such and far worse was our case and estate such and infinitely beyond it was his love and compassion We were debters indeed by virtue of a handwriting that was against us Colos. ii 14. a handwriting of ordinances which was our bond for we were bound to keep and perform them but we brake the covenants and so forfeited our bond and in it forfeited no less than our lives The condition of our obligation was no money matter it was not pecuniary but capital and the debt of a capital obligation is death Now he
that we may bound our discourse within certain lines and limits this generation of our Lord and Saviour is not simple and of one sort but various and manifold As his Person is compounded of divers things so hath he accordingly several generations In the blessed Trinity there are three Persons and but one Substance In Christ Jesus three Substances and but one Person he hath but two Natures indeed Divinity and Humanity but the Humanity again is compounded of two several Essences corporal and spiritual a body and a Soul so in all there are these three a body a Spirit and the Divinity whereunto both are united And according to these three we shall consider a threefold generation Divine Humane and Spiritual For Christ was born from all Eternity and still is in heaven without a Mother on earth he had in due time a humane birth without a Father and in the minds and Souls of men he is spiritually born without Father or Mother of a Mother without a Father he was born once without Father or Mother he is born often of a Father without a Mother he is born always and perpetually Lastly of his Father in Heaven he is born God of a Mother on Earth he was born man without Father or Mother in the Souls of men he is born God and man As there are three Substances therefore in our Lord and Saviour so hath he three births or generations which we shall consider in their order Divine Humane and Spiritual all three so hid and full of admiration inutterable as the Prophet and we with him may well say of them all Generationem c. To begin then with the First his Divine generation whereof we shall say but little because indeed we can say nothing worthily and as we should say For how shall frail man say what no man can possibly conceive since he cannot fully say and enunciate what he doth conceive That there are several persons in the God-head is the high yea highest Act of our faith no subject for our expression That God hath a Son we are bound to believe but how he begat him we are bound not to inquire because he hath not revealed nor will reveal peradventure may not but to the glorified eye Then indeed and then only when we shall see him as he is we shall see his generation and be happy in seeing it it is the eternal and everlasting blessedness of the Father to beget him for it is his inmost natural Act and essential and it shall be our perpetual happiness hereafter to behold it which we shall then but behold comprehend it we may not but know it we shall And this is life everlasting to know thee and him whom thou hast sent In the mean time till that life everlasting come whilest we are Pilgrims and lead a life temporary here upon earth wherein we know and prophesie but in part it is not our least wisdom to know such high mysteries are no part of our knowledge It is enough for us with holy Moses to see the back-parts of the Lord to see him in his effects his word and outward works to see him in his glory in his Essence and inmost operations we cannot and live And they who will attempt it with those Bethshemites that would needs pry into the Ark shall assuedly die Such aspiring Spirits that with the bold Schoolmen do pierce into the hidden secrets of Divinity what do they but like foolish flyes flutter about the light till they are at length singed with the flame For qui scrutatur majestatem opprimetur à gloria he that searcheth into the majesty of God shall assuredly be opprest with his glory And therefore it is docta ignorantia a learned ignorance as St. Austin hath it not to know what may not be understood and it were much better piously to profess it than rashly to arrogate science For that may deserve pardon but this shall never want punishment saith the same Father Serm. 15. For which reason well said the great St. Basil of this high Point when he came to treat of it mysterium hoc silentio potiùs quà m oratione colendum it is a mystery to be adored in silence not exprest by words Homil. de Nat. Domini The Prophet Esay himself was not able to do it and which is more he knew that none else could And therefore quis enarrabit who shall declare it for his Interrogation hath the force of a Negation who shall that is none can who shall declare c. There is indeed in it self nothing so light and clear and evident as this Divine generation wherein light of light and very God of very God is produced and begotten but withal unto us nothing more hidden secret and obscure Not that there is any obscurity in God in quo tenebrae non sunt ullae in whom there is no darkness saith the Scripture but that he dwells in unaccessible light and is cloathed with Majesty inapproachable as with a garment aciem oculorum vincens non solùm hominum sed etiam Angelorum darking and blinding the sight both of men and Angels And therefore how is it possible to behold the light of his generation who is the brightness and very splendor of his Fathers glory mens deficit vox silet non mea tantùm sed etiam Angelorum the eye of the mind fails and the tongue of every Creature becomes mute and dumb not mine alone saith St. Cyprian but of the bâ—lessed Angels also Therefore Quis enarrabit Before ever the world was or any foundation of it laid Ibi non tempus non seculum intercessit nemo spectator adsuit when as yet saith St. Basil neither time nor age was formed nor any spectator by to witness or report it but God alone injoying and embracing himself from all eternity in himself and of himself he begot his only Son who is none other but himself no other God though another person And who then shall declare Again the Father begets a Son and yet the Son is not younger than the Father nor the Father any antienter than the Son he begets him by communicating his Essence unto him and he communicates not any part for it is indivisible but his whole and intire Essence unto his Son and yet parts with none himself who hath heard or may conceive such things who therefore shall declare Yet once more the Son of God is perfect and compleat within himself and so hath been from everlasting intire and wanting nothing and yet which is strange as continually produced and begotten for not as in the beginning God made the Heavens so in the beginning he begot his Son who in the beginning both was and was begotten the Heaven was made once but the Son is begotten for ever and who c. Lastly to omit many things the eternal word is truly the Son of God and is truly born of him and yet notwithstanding hath no Mother that ever bare him but which hath
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
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
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