Declaration of an inward purpose by execution of that purpose that his Dixit his saying R. Moses It is sufficiently expressed by Rab Moses In Creatione Dicta sunt voluntates In the act of Creation the Will of GOD was the Word of God his Will that it should be was his saying Let it be Of which it is a convenient example which is in the Prophet Jonah 2.10 The Lord spake unto the Fish and it vomited Jonah upon the dry Land that is God would have the Fish to do it and it did it God spake then in the Creation but he spake Ineffabiliter says St. Aug. August without uttering any sound He spake but he spake Intemporaliter says that Father too without spending any time in distinction of syllables But yet when he spoke Aliquis ad fuit as Athanasius presses it Athan. surely there was some body with him there was says he VVho Verbum ejus ad fuit ad fuit Spiritus ejus says he truly the second Person in the Trinity his Eternal VVord and the third Person the Holy Ghost were both there at the Creation and to them he spoke For By the Word of the Lord were the heavens framed and all the host of them Spiritu oris ejus Job 33.4 by that Spirit that proceeded from him says David The Spirit of God hath made me 26. 13. and By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens So that in one word thou who wast nothing hast employed and set on work the heart and hand of all the three Perâ—ons in the blessed and glorious Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost to the making of thee and then what oughtest thou to be and to do in retribution and not to make thee that which thou art now a Christian but even to make thee that wherein 〈◊〉 wast equal to a worm to a grain of dust Hast thou put the whole Trinity to busie themselves upon thee and therefore what shouldst thou be towards them But here in this branch we consider not so much not his noblest Creature Man but his first Creature Light He commanded and he commanded Light And of Light we say no more in this place but this that in all the Scriptures in which the word Light is very often metaphorically applyed it is never applyed in an ill sence Christ is called a Lyon but there is an ill Lyon too that seeks whom he may devour Christ is the serpent that was exalted but there is an ill serpent that did devour us all at once But Christ is the light of the world and no ill thing is call'd light Light was Gods signature by which he set his hand to the Creation and therefore as Princes signe above the Letter and not below God made light first in that first Creature he declared his presence his Majesty the more in that he commanded light out of darkness There was Lumen de Lumine before light of light very God of very God an eternal Son of an eternal Father before But light out of darkness is Musick out of silence It was one distinct plague of Egypt darkness above and one distinct blessing that the children of Israel had light in their dwellings But for some spiritual Applications of light and darkness we shall have room again when after we shall have spoken of our second part our Vocation as God hath shin'd in our hearts positively we shall come to speak of that shining comparatively That God hath so shin'd in our hearts as he commanded light out of darkness And to those two Branches of our second part the positive and comparative Consideration of that shining we are in order come now In the first part we were made in this second we are mended Part II. in the first we were brought into this world in this second we are led through it in the first we are Creatures in this we are Christians God hath shin'd in our hearts In this part Divisio we shall have two Branches a positive and a comparative consideration of the words First the matter it self what this shining is and it is the conversion of Man to God by the ministry of the Gospel and secondly how this manner of expressing it answers the comparison As God commanded light out of darkness so he hath shin'd in our hearts And in the first the positive we shall pass by these few and short steps first Gods action Illuxit he shine it is evidence Manifestation And then the time when this day breaks when this Sun rises Illuxit he hath shin'd he hath done enough already Thirdly the place the sphere in which he shines the Orb which he hath illumin'd in Cordibus if he shine he shines in the heart And lastly the persons upon whom he casts his beams in Cordibus nostris in our hearts And having past these four in the positive part we shall descend to the comparative as God commanded light out of darkness so he hath shin'd in our hearts 1. Lucet First then for Gods action his working in the Christian Church which is our Vocation we consider man to be all to be all Creatures Mar. 16.15 according to that expression of our Saviour's Go preach the Gospel to every Creature and agreeable to that largeness in which he receiv'd it Colos 1.23 the Apostle delivers it The Gospel is preached to every Creature under heaven The properties the qualities of every Creature are in man the Essence the Existence of every Creature is for man so man is every Creature And therefore the Philosopher draws man into too narrow a table when he says he is Microcosmos an Abridgement of the world in little Nazianzen gives him but his due when he calls him Mundum Magnum a world to which all the rest of the world is but subordinate For all the world besides is but Gods Foot-stool Man sits down upon his right hand and howsoever God be in all the world yet how did God dwell in man in the assumption of that nature and what care did GOD take of that dwelling that when that house was demolished would yet dwell in the ruines thereof for the Godhead did not depart from the dead body of Christ Jesus in the Grave And then how much more gloriously then before did he re-edifie that house in raising it again to Glory Man therefore is Cura Divini ingenii Tertul. a creature upon whom not onely the greatness and the goodness but even the study and diligence of God is employed And being thus a greater world then the other he must be greater in all his parts and so in his lights and so he is for instead of this light which the world had at first Man hath a nobler light an immortal a discerning soul the light of reason Instead of the many stars which this world hath man hath had the light of the Law and the succession of the Prophets And instead of that Sun which
my Manners but occasionally and upon Emergencies this is a sickly complexion of the soul a dangerous impotencie and a shrewd and ill-presaging Crisis If Joshua had suspended his assent of serving the Lord till all his Neighbours and their Families all the Kings and Kingdoms about him had declar'd theirs the same way when would Joshua have come to that protestation I and my house will serve the Lord If Esther had forborn to press for an audience to the King in the behalf and for the life of her Nation till nothing could have been said against it when would Esther have come to that protestation I will go and if I perish I perish If one Milstone fell from the North-Pole and another from the South they would meet and they would rest in the Centre Nature would con-centre them Not to be able to con-centre those doubts which arise in my self in a resolution at last whether in Moral or in Religious Actions is rather a vertiginous giddiness then a wise circumspection or wariness When God prepar'd great Armies 1 Sam. 11.7 it is expressed always so Tanquam unus vir Israel went out as one man When God established his beloved David to be King 1 Chro. 12.38 it is expressed so Uno Corde He sent them out with one heart to make David king When God accelerated the propagation of his Church Act. 4.32 it is expressed so Una Anima The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul Since God makes Nations and Armies and Churches One heart let not us make one heart two in our selves a divided a distracted a perplexed an irresolved heart but in all cases let us be able to say to our selves This we should do God asks the heart a single heart an intire heart for whilst it is so God may have some hope of it But when it is a heart and a heart a heart for God and a Heart for Mammon howsoever it may seem to be even the odds will be on Mammons side against God because he presents Possessions and God but Reversions he the present and possessory things of this world God but the future and speratory things of the next So then the Cor nullum no heart Thoughtlesness Incogitancie Inconsideration and the Cor duplex the perplexed and irresolved and inconclusive heart do equally oppose this firmness and fixation of the heart which God loves and which we consider in this stem and stalk of Pythagoras his Symbolical Letter And so does that which we propos'd for the Third The Cor Vagum The Wandering the Wayfaring the Inconstant Heart Many times in our private Actions Cor Vagum and in the cribration and sifting of our Consciences for that 's the Sphere I move in and no higher we do overcome the first difficulty Inconsideration we consider seriously and sometimes the second Irresolution we resolve confidently but never the third Inconstancie if so far as to bring holy Resolutions into Actions yet never so far as to bring holy Actions into Habits That word which we read Deceitful The heart is deceitful above all things who can know it Jer. 17.9 is in the Original Gnacob and that is not onely Fraudulentum but Versipelle deceitful because it varies it self into divers forms so that it does not onely deceive others others finde not our heart the same towards them to day that it was yesterday but it deceives our selves we know not what nor where our heart will be hereafter Upon those words of Isaiah Redite prevaricatores ad Cor Return O sinner to thy heart Longe eos mittit says S. Gregory 46.8 God knows whither that sinner is sent that is sent to his own heart for Where is thy heart Thou mayst remember where it was yesterday at such an Office at such a Chamber But yesterdays affections are chang'd to day as to days will be to morrow They have despised my judgements so God complaines in Ezekiel 20.16 that is They are not mov'd with my punishments they call all natural accidents and then it follows They have polluted my sabbaths they are come to a more faint and dilute and indifferent way in their Religion Now what hath occasion'd this neglecting of Gods judgements and this diluteness and indifferency in the ways of Religion That that follows there Their hearts went after their Idols Went Whither Every whither for Hierom. Quot vitia tot recentes deos so many habitual Sins so many Idols And so every man hath some Idol some such Sin and then that Idol sends him to a further Idol that Sin to another for every Sin needs the assistance and countenance of another sin for disguise and palliation We are not constant in our Sins much less in our more holy Purposes We complain and justly of the Church of Rome that she would not have us receive in utraque in both kinds But alas who amongst us does receive in utraque so as that when he receives Bread and Wine he receives with a true sorrow for former and a true resolution against future sins Except the Lord of heaven create new hearts in us of our selves we have Cor nullum no heart all vanishes into Incogitancy Except the Lord of heaven con-centre our affections of our selves we have Cor Cor a cloven a divided heart a heart of Irresolution Except the Lord of heaven fix our Resolutions of our selves we have Cor vagum a various a wandering heart all smoaks into Inconstancie And all these three are Enemies to that firmness and fixation of the heart which God loves and we seek after But yet how variously soever the heart do wander and how little a while soever it stay upon one Object yet that that thy heart does stay upon Christ in this place calls thy Treasure for the words admit well that inversion Where your Treasure is there will your heart be also implies this Where your Heart is that is your Treasure And so we pass from this stem and stalk of Pythagoras his Symbolical Letter The firmness and fixation of the Heart to the Horns and Beams thereof A broader but on the left hand and in that the corruptible treasures of this world and a narrower but on the right hand and in that the everlasting Treasures of the next On both sides that that you fix your Heart upon is your Treasure For where your Heart is there is your Treasure also Thesaurus Literally primarily radically Thesaurus Treasure is no more but Depositum in Crastinum Provision for to morrow to shew how little a proportion a regulated minde and a contented heart may make a Treasure But we have enlarged the signification of these words Provision and To morrow for Provision must signifie all that can any way be compass'd and To morrow must signifie as long as there shall be a to morrow till time shall be no more But waving these infinite Extensions and Perpetuities is there any
be King it is expressed so Uno corde 1 Cor. 12.3 8. He sent them out with one heart to make David King when God accelerated the propagation of his Church it is expressed so Una anima The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul Act. 4.32 Since God makes Nations and Armies and Churches one heart let not us make one heart two in our selves a divided a distracted a perplexed an irresolved heart but in all cases let us be able to say to our selves this we should doe God asks the heart a single heart an intire heart for whilst it is so God may have some hope of it but when it is a heart and a heart a heart for God and a heart for Mammon howsoever it may seem to be even the odds will seem to be on Mammons side against God because he presents possessions and God but reversions he the present and possessory things of this world God but the future and speratory things of the next so then the Cornullum no heart thoughtlesness incogitancy inconsideration and the Cor duplex the perplexed and irresolv'd and inconclusive heart do equally oppose this firmness and fixation of the heart which God loves which we consider in this stem stalk of Pithagoras his Symbolical letter and so doth that which we proposed for the third the Cor vagum the wandring the way faring the inconstant heart Many times in our private actions Cor vagum and in the cribration and sifting of our Consciences for thas's the Sphere I move in and no higher we doe overcome the first difficulty in consideration wee consider seriously And somtimes the second irresolution we resolve confidently But never the Third In constancy if so far as to bring holy resolutions into actions yet never so far as to bring holy actions into Habits Jer. 17.9 That word which we read Deceitfull The heart is deceitfull above all things who can know it is in the Originall Gnacob and that is not only fraudulentum but versipelle deceitfull because it varies it selfe into divers forms so that it does not only deceive others others finde not our heart the same towards them to day that it was yesterday but it deceives our selves we know not what nor where our heart will be hereafter Upon those words of Esai Redite praevaricatores ad Cor 46.8 Return O sinner to thy heart Longe eos mittit sayes Saint Gregory God knowes whether that sinner is sent that is sent to his own heart for where is thy heart Thou maist remember where it was yesterday at such an office at such a Chamber but yesterdaies affections are chang'd to day as to daies will be to morrow They have despised my Judgements so God complains in Ezechiel 20.16 that is They are not mov'd with my punishments they call all naturall accidents And then it followeth They have polluted my Sabaths they are come to a more faint and dilute and indifferent way in their Religion now what hath occasioned this neglecting of God's Judgements and this diluteness and indifferency in the wayes of Religion That that followes there Their hearts went after their Idols Went Whether every whither for Quot vitia tot recentes Deos Hier. so many habituall sinnes so many Idols and so every man hath some Idoll some such sinne and then that Idoll sends him to a further Idoll that sinne to another for every sinne needs the assistance and countenance of another sinne for disguise and palliation We are not constant in our sinnes much lesse in our more holy purposes we complain and justly of the Church of Rome that she would not have us receive in utraque in both kinds but alas who amongst us doth receive in utraque so as that when he receives bread wine he receives with a tru sorrow for former a tru resolution against future sins Except the Lord of heaven create new hearts in us of our selves we have Cor nullum no heart all vanishes into incogitancies except the Lord of heaven can center our affections of our selves we have Cor Cor a cloven a divided heart a heart of irresolution except the Lord of heaven fix our Resolutions of our selves we have Cor vagum a various a wandring heart all smoaks into inconstancy and all these three are enemies to that firmness and fixation of the heart which God loves and wee seeke after but yet how variously soever the heart doth wander and how little a while soever it stay upon one object yet that that thy heart doth stay upon Christ in this place calls thy Treasure for the words admit well that inversion Where your Treasure is there will your heart be also implies this where your heart is that is your Treasure And so we passe from this Stem and Stalke of Pythagoras his Symbolicall letter the firmness and fixation of the heart to the hornes and beames thereof a broader but on the left hand and in that the corruptible Treasures of this world and a narrower but on the right hand and in that the everlasting Treasures of the next On both sides that that you fix your heart upon is your Treasure for where your heart is there is your Treasure also Literally primarily radically Thesaurus treasure is no more Thesaurus but Depositum in Crastinum provision for to morrow to show how little a proportion a regulated minde and a contented heart may make a Treasure but we have enlarged the signification of these words Provision and to Morrow for provision must signifie all that can any way be compassed and to morrow must signifie as long as there shall be a to morrow till Time shall be no more but waiving these infinite extensions and perpetuities is there any thing of that nature as taking the word Treasure in the narrowest signification to be but provision for to morrow we are sure shall last till to morrow Sits any man here in an assurance that he shall be the same to morrow that he is now you have your Honors your Offices your Possessions perchance under Seal a Seal of Wax Wax that hath a tenacity an adhering a cleaving nature to shew the royall constancy of his heart that gives them and would have them continue with you and stick to you but then Wax if it be heat hath a melting a fluid a running nature to so have these Honors and Offices and Possessions to them that grow too hot too confident in them or too imperious by them for these Honors and Offices and Possessions you have a Seal a fair and just evidence of assurance but have they any Seal upon you any assurance of you till to morrow Did our blessed Saviour give day or any hope of a to morrow to that man to whom he said Fool this night they fetch away thy soul or is there any of us that can say Christ said not that to him But yet a Treasure every
is not sure of any thing to morrow Nay the treasure of the godly man is not so in this world he is not sure that this dayes grace and peace and faith shall be his to morrow when I have joy glory in heaven I shall be sure of that to morrow And that 's a term long enough for before to morrow there must be a night and shall there ever be night in heaven no more then day in hell there shall be no Sun in heaven Apoc 21.23 therefore no danger of Sun-set And for the treasure it self when the holy Ghost hath told us that the wals streets of that City are pure gold that the foundations thereof are all pretious stones and every gate of an intire pearl what hath the Holy Ghost himself left to denote unto us what the treasure it self within is the treasure it self is the Holy Ghost himself and joy in him As the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Sonne but I know not how so there shall something proceed from Father Sonne and Holy Ghost and fall upon me but I know not what nay not fall upon me neither but enwrap me embrace me for I shall be below them so as that I shall not be upon the same seat with the Son at the right hand of the Father in the union of the holy Ghost rectified by the power of the Father and feel no weakness enlightned by the wisdom of the Son and feel no scruple established by the joy of the holy Ghost and feel no jealousie Where I shall find the Fathers of the first ages dead 5000 years before me and they shall not be able to say they were there a minute before me Where I shall find the blessed and glorious Martyrs who went not Per viam lacteam but per viam sanguineam not by the milky way of an innocent life but by the bloody way of a violent death and they shall not contend with me for precedency in their own right or say we came in by Purchase and you but by pardon Where I shall find the Virgins and not be despised by them for not being so but hear that redintegration which I shall receive in Jesus Christ call'd Virginity and Intireness Where all tears shall be wip'd from my eyes not only tears of compunction for my self and tears of compassion for others but even tears of joy too for there shall be no sudden joy no joy unexperienced there there I shall have all joyes altogether alwaies There Abraham shall not be gladder of his own salvation then of mine nor I surer of the everlastingness of my God then of my everlastingness in him This is that treasure of which the God of this treasure gives us those spangles and that single money which this minute can coin this world can receive that is Prosperity and a good use thereof in worldly things and grace and peace and faith in spiritual and then reserve for us the exaltation of this treasure in the joy and glory of heaven in the mediation of his Son Christ Jesus and by the operation of his blessed Spirit Amen A SERMON Serm. 17. SERMON XVII James 2.12 So speak ye and so doe as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty THis is one of those seaven Epistles which Athanasius and Origen called Catholique that is universall perchance because they are not directed to any one Church as some others are but to all the Christian World and Saint Hierome called them Canonical perchance because all Rules all Canons of holy conversation are comprised in these Epistles and Epiphanius and Oecumenius called them circular perchance because as in a circle you cannot discern which was the first point nor in which the compass began the circle so neither can we discern in these Epistles whom the Holy Ghost begins withall whom he means principally King or Subject Priest or People single or married Husband or Wife Fathers or Children Masters or Servants but universally promiscuously indifferently they give all rules for all actions to all persons at all times and in all places as in this Text in particular which is not by any precedent or subsequent relation by any connexion or coherence directed upon any company or any degree of men for the Apostle does not say ye Princes nor ye People but ye ye in generall to all So speak ye and so doe as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty so these Epistles are Catholique so they are canonicall and they are circular too But yet though in a circle we know not where the compass began we know not which was the first point yet we know that the last point of the circle returns to the first and so becomes all one and as much as we know the last we know the first point Since then the last point of that circle in which God hath created us to move is a Kingdome for it is the Kingdome of Heaven and it is a Court for it is that glorious Court which is the presence of God in the Communion of his Saints it is a fair and a pious conception for this congregation here present now in this place to believe that the first point of this circle of our Apostle here is a Court too and that the Holy Ghost in proposing these duties in his general ye does principally intend ye that live in Court ye whom God brings so near to the sight of himself and of his Court in heaven as that you have alwayes the picture of himself and the portracture of his Court in your eyes for a religious King is the Image of God and a religious Court is a copy of the Communion of Saints And therefore be you content to think that to you especially our Apostle saies here ye ye who have a neerer propinquity to God and more assiduous conversation with God by having better helps then other inferior stations do afford for though God be seen in a weed in a worm yet he is seen more clearly in the Sun so speak ye and so do as they that shall be Judged by the law of liberty Divisio Now as the first Divels were in heaven for it was not the punishment which they feel in hel but the sin which they committed in heaven which made them devils yet the falt was not in God nor in the place so if the greatest sins be committed in Courts as even in Rome where thy will needs have an innocent Church yet they cause a guilty Court the faults are personal theirs that do them and there is no higher Author of their sin The Apostle does not bid us say that it is so in Courts but least it should come to be so he bids us give these rules to Courts so speak ye and so do as they that shall be Judged by the law of liberty First then here is no express precept given no direct commandment to speak the holy Ghost saw
to us sincerely shall certainly have the heavier condemnation for having had that which they wanted Our multiplicity of Preachers and their assiduity in preaching our true interpretation of their labours when we doe heare and our diligent coming that we may hear shall leave us in worse state then they found us si non fecerimus If we doe not doe that which we heare And to doe the Gospel is to doe what we can for the preservation of the Gospel I know what I can do as a Minister of the Gospel and of Gods Word out of his Word I can preach against Linsey-woolsey garments out of his Word I can preach against plowing with an Oxe and with an Asse against mingling of Religions I know what I can do as a Father as a Master I can preserve my Family from attempts of Jesuits Those that are of higher place Magistrates know what they can do too They know they can execute lawes if not to the taking of Life yet to the restraining of Liberty Serm. 2. And it is no seditious saying it is no saucinesse it is no bitternesse it is no boldnesse to say that the spirituall death of those soules who perish by the practise of those seducers whom they might have stopp'd lies upon them And how knowes he who lets a Jesuit scape whether he let go but a Fox that will deceive some simple soule in matter of Religion or a Wolfe who but the protection of the Almighty would adventure upon the person of the highest of all Non facient quae dixeris is as far as the Text goes they will not do that we say but Quae dixerint is more they will not do that which themselves have said But Quae juraverint is most of all If they will not do that which for the preservation of the Gospel they have taken an Oath to do The Increpation the Malediction intended by God in this Text that all our preaching and all our hearing shall aggravate our condemnation will fall upon us And therefore this being the season in which especially God affords you the performance of that part of this Prophecy assiduous and laborious and acceptable and usefull preaching where all you of all sorts are likely to hear the Duties of Administration towards others and of Mortification in your selves powerfully represented unto you this may have been somewhat necessarily said by me now for the removing of some stones out of their way and the chafing of that wax in which they may thereby make the deeper and clearer impressions that so we may not onely be to you as a lovely song sung to an Instrument nor you onely heare our words but doe them AMEN A Lent-SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL Serm. 3. February 20. 1628. SERMON III. James 2.12 So speak ye and so Do as they that shall be Judged by the law of Liberty THis is one of those seven Epistles which Athanasius and Origen call'd Catholick that is universal perchance because they are not directed to any one Church as some others are but to all the Christian world And S. Hierom call'd them Canonical perchance because all Rules all Canons of holy Conversation are compriz'd in these Epistles And Epiphanius and Oecumenius call'd them Circular perchance because as in a Circle you cannot discern which was the first point nor in which the compass begun the Circle so neither can we discern in these Epistles whom the Holy Ghost begins withall whom he means principally King or Subject Priest or People Single or Married Husband or Wife Father or Children Masters or Servants but Universally promiscuously indifferently they give All rules for All actions to All persons at All times and in all places As in this Text in particular which is not by any precedent or subsequent relation by any connexion or coherence directed upon any company or any Degree of Men for the Apostle does not say Ye Princes nor ye people but ye ye in general to all So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty So these Epistles are Catholick so they are Canonical and they Circular so But yet though in a Circle we know not where the compass began we know not which was the first point yet we know that the last point of the Circle returns to the first and so becomes all one and as much as we know the last we know the first point Since then the last point of that Circle in which God hath created us to move is a kingdome for it is the kingdom of heaven and it is a Court for it is that glorious Court which is the presence of God in the communion of his Saints it is a fair and a pious conception for this Congregation here present now in this place to believe that the first point of this Circle of our Apostle here is a Court too and that the Holy Ghost in proposing these duties in his general Ye does principally intend ye that live in Court ye whom God brings so neer to the sight of himself and of his Court in heaven as that you have always the picture of himself and the pourtraiture of his Court in your eyes for a Religious King is the Image of God and a Religious Court is a Copy of the Communion of Saints And therefore be you content to think that to you especially our Apostle says here Ye ye who have a nearer propinquity to God a more assiduous conversation with God by having better helps then other inferior stations do afford for though God be seen in a weed in a worm yet he is seen more clearly in the sum So speak ye and so Do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty Now Divisio as the first Divels were in heaven for it was not the punishment which they feel in Hell but the sin which they committed in heaven which made them Divels and yet the fault was not in God nor in the place so if the greatest sins be committed in Courts as even in Rome where they will needs have an Innocent Church yet they confess a guilty Court the faults are personal theirs that do them and there is no higher author of their sin The Apostle does not bid us say that it is so in Courts but lest it should come to be so he bids us give these rules to Courts So speak ye and so Do as they that shall be judged by a law of liberty First then here is no express precept given no direct commandment to speak The Holy Ghost saw there would be speaking enough in Courts for though there may be a great sin in silence a great prevarication in not speaking in a good cause or for an oppressed person yet the lowest voice in a Court whispering it self speaks a loud and reaches far and therefore here is onely a rule to regulate our speech Sic loquimini So speak ye And then as here is no express precept for
Glorification Manna putrified if it were kept by any man but a day but in the Ark it never putrified That treasure which is as Manna from Heaven Grace and Peace yet here hath a brackish taste when Grace and Peace shall become Joy and Glory in Heaven there it will be sincere Sordescit quod inferiori miscetur naturae August etsi in suo genere non sordidetur Though in the nature thereof that with which a purer Metal is mix'd be not base yet it abases the purer Metal He puts his Example in Silver and Gold Though Silver be a precious Metal yet it abases Gold Grace and Peace and Faith are precious parts of our Treasure here yet if we mingle them that is compare them with the Joys and Glory of Heaven if we come to think That our Grace and Peace and Faith here can no more be lost then our Joy and Glory there we abase and over-allay those Joys and that Glory The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a Treasure says our Saviour Matth. 13.44 But is that all Is any Treasure like unto it None For to end where we begun Treasure is Depositum in Crastinum Provision for to morrow The treasure of the worldly man is not so He is not sure of any thing to morrow Nay the treasure of the Godly man is not so in this world He is not sure that this dayes Grace and Peace and Faith shall be his to morrow When I have Joy and Glory in Heaven I shall be sure of that to morrow And that 's a term long enough for before a to morrow there must be a night And shall there ever be a night in Heaven No more then day in Hell Apoc. 21.23 There shall be no Sun in Heaven therefore no danger of a Sun-set And for the treasure it self when the Holy Ghost hath told us 18. That the Walls and Streets of the City are pure Gold That the Foundations thereof are all precious Stones and every Gate of an intire Pearl what hath the Holy Ghost himself left to denote unto us what the treasure it self within is The Treasure it self is the Holy Ghost himself and Joy in him As the Holy Ghost proceeds from Father and Son but I know not how so there shall something proceed from Father Son and Holy Ghost and fall upon me but I know not what Nay not fall upon me neither but enwrap me embrace me for I shall not be below them so as that I shall not to be upon the same seat with the Son at the right hand of the Father in the Union of the Holy Ghost Rectified by the Power of the Father and feel no weakness Enlightned by the Wisdom of the Son and feel no scruple Established by the Joy of the Holy Ghost and feel no jealousie Where I shall finde the Fathers of the first Age dead five thousand years before me Serm. 6. and they shall not be able to say they were there a minute before me Where I shall finde the blessed and glorious Martyrs who went not per viam lacteam but per viam sanguineam not by the milky way of an Innocent Life but by the bloody way of a Violent Death and they shall not contend with me for precedency in their own Right or say VVe came in by Purchase and you but by Pardon VVhere I shall finde the Virgins and not be despised by them for not being so but hear that Redintegration which I shall receive in Christ Jesus call'd Virginity and Intireness VVhere all tears shall be wip'd from mine Eyes not onely tears of Compunction for my self and tears of Compassion for others but even tears of Joy too for there shall be no sudden joy no joy unexperienced there There I shall have all joys altogether always There Abraham shall not be gladder of his own Salvation then of mine nor I surer of the Everlastingness of my God then of my Everlastingness in Him This is that Treasure of which the God of this Treasure give us those Spangles and that single Money which this Mint can coin this VVorld can receive that is Prosperity and a good use thereof in worldly things and Grace and Peace and Faith in spiritual And then reserve for us the Exaltation of this Treasure in the Joy and Glory of Heaven in the Mediation of his Son Christ Jesus and by the Operation of his Blessed Spirit AMEN A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL April 21. 1616. SERMON VI. ECCLES 8.11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily Therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evil WE cannot take into our Meditation a better Rule then that of the Stoick Nihil infaelicius faelicitate peccantium Seneca There is no such unhappiness to a sinner as to be happy no such cross as to have no crosses nor can we take a better Example of that Rule then Constantius the Arrian Emperour in whose time first of all the Crosse of Christ suffer'd that profanation as to be an Ensign of War between Christian and Christian When Magnentius by being an usurping Tyrant and Constantius by being an Arrian Heretick had forfeited their interest in the Cross of Christ which is the Ensign of the universal Peace of this world and the means of the eternal Peace of the next both brought the Cross to cross the Cross to be an Ensign of War and of Hostility both made that Cross when the Father accepted for all mankinde the blood of Christ Jesus to be an instrument for the sinful effusion of the blood of Christians But when this Heretical Emperour had a Victory over this usurping Tyrant this unhappy happiness transported him to a greater sin a greater insolence to approach so near to God himself as to call himself Eternum principem The eternal Emperour and to take into his stile and Rescripts this addition Eternitatem nostram Thus and thus it hath pleased our Eternity to proceed Yea and to bring his Arrian followers who would never acknowledge an eternity in Christ nor confess him to be the eternal Son of God to salute himself by that name Eternum Caesarem The eternal Emperour so venimous so deadly is the prosperity of the wicked to their own souls that even from the mercy of God they take occasion of sinning not onely Thereby but even Therefore They do not only make that their excuse when they do sin but their Reason why they may sin as we see in these words Because sentence against an evil work is not excuted speedily c. Divisio In which words we shall consider first The general perversness of a natural man who by custom in sin comes to assign a Reason why he may sin intimated in the first word Because And secondly The particular perversness of the men in this Text who assign the patience of God to be the Reason of their continuance in sin Because sentence is not executed speedily And
by saying by speaking the making of Man was in in sermone in a consultation In this first Creation thus presented there is a shadow a representation of our second Creation our Regeneration in Christ and of the saving knowledge of God for first there is in Man a knowledge of God sine sermone without his word in the book of Creatures Non sunt loquelae sayes David Psal 19. They have no language they have no speech and yet they declare the glory of God The correspondence and relation of all parts of Nature to one Author the consinuity and dependance of every piece and joynt of this frame of the world the admirable order the immutable succession the lively and certain generation and birth of effects from their Parents the causes in all these though there be no sound no voice yet we may even see that it is an excellent song an admirable piece of musick and harmony and that God does as it were play upon this Organ in his administration and providence by naturall means and instruments and so there is some kind of creation in us some knowledge of God imprinted sine sermone without any relation to his word But this is a Creation as of heaven and earth which were dark and empty and without form till the Spirit of God moved and till God spoke Till there came the Spirit the breath of Gods mouth the word of God it is but a faint twilight it is but an uncertain glimmering which we have of God in the Creature But in sermone in his word when we come to him in his Scriptures we finde better and nobler Creatures produced in us clearer notions of God and more evident manifestations of his power and of his goodness towards us for if we consider him in his first word sicut locutus ab initio as he spoke from the beginning in the Old Testament from thence we cannot only see but feel and apply a Dixit fiat lux that God hath said let there be light and that there is a light produced in us by which we see that this world was not made by chance for then it could not consist in this order and regularity and we see that it was not eternall for if it were eternall as God and so no Creature then it must be God too we see it had a beginning a beginning of nothing and all from God So we find in our self a fiat lux that there is such a light produced And there we may find a fiat firmamentum that there is a kind of firmament produced in us a knowledge of a difference between Heaven and Earth and that there is in our constitutions an earthly part a body and a heavenly part a soul and an understanding as a firmament to separate distinguish and discern between these So also may we find a congregenter aquae that God hath said Let there be a sea a gathering a confluence of all such means as are necessary for the attaining of salvation that is that God from the beginning settled and established a Church in which he was alwayes carefull to minister to man means of eternall happiness The Church is that Sea and into that Sea we launched the water of Baptism To contract this sine sermone till God spake in his Creatures only we have but a faint and uncertain and generall knowledge of God in sermone when God comes to speak at first in the Old Testament though he come to more particulars yet it was in dark speeches and in vails and to them who understood best and saw clearest into Gods word still it was but de futuro by way of promise and of a future thing But when God comes to his last work to make Man to make up Man that is to make Man a Christian by the Gospel when he comes not to a fiat homo Let there be a Man as he proceeded in the rest but to a faciamus hominem Let us make Man Then he calls his Sonne to him and sends him into the world to suffer death the death of the Crosse for our salvation And he calls the Holy Ghost to him and sends him to teach us all truth and apply that which Christ suffered for our souls to our souls God leaves the Nations the Gentiles under the non locutus est he speaks not at all to them but in the speechless creatures He leaves the Jewes under the locutus est under the killing letter of the Law and their stubborn perverting thereof And he comes to us sicut locutus est in manifesting to us that our Messias Christ Jesus is come and come according to the promise of God and the foretelling of all his Prophets for that is our safe anchorage in all storms that our Gospel is in sermone that all things are done so as God had foretold they should be done that we have infallible marks given us before by which we may try all that is done after All the word of God then conduces to the Gospel the Old Testament is a preparation and a poedagogie to the New All the word belongs to the Gospell and all the Gospell is in the word nothing is to be obtruded to our faith as necessary to salvation except it be rooted in the Word And as the locutus est that is the promises that God hath made to us in the Old Testament and the sicut locutus est that is the accomplishing of those promises to us in the New-Testament are thus applyable to us so is this especially Quod adhuc loquitur that God continues his speech and speaks to us every day still we must hear Evangelium in sermone the Gospel in the Word in the Word so as we may hear it that is the Word preached for howsoever it be Gospel in it self it is not Gospel to us if it be not preached in the Congregation neither though it be preached to the Congregation is it Gospel to me except I find it work upon my understanding and my faith and my conscience A man may believe that there shall be a Redeemer and he may give an Historicall assent that there hath been a Redeemer that that Redeemer is come he may have heard utrumque sermonem both Gods wayes of speaking both his voices both his languages his promises in the Old Testament his performances in the New Testament and yet not hear him speak to his own soul Ferme Apostoli plus laborarunt says S. Chrys It cost the Apostles and their Successors the preachers of the Gospell more paines and more labour ut persuaderent hominibus dona Dei iis indulta To perswade men that this mercy of God and these merits of Christ Jesus were intended to them and directed upon them in particular then to perswade them that such things were done they can beleeve the promise and the performance in the generall but they cannot finde the application thereof in particular the voice that is neerest us we least
his people purposely to be afflicted yet himself complains in their behalf That the persecutor laid the very heaviest yoke upon the ancient Esa 47.6 It is a lamentable thing to fall under a necessity of suffering in our age Basil Labore fracta instrumenta ad Deum ducis quorum nullus usus wouldest thou consecrate a Chalice to God that is broken no man would present a lame horse a disordered clock a torn book to the King Caro jumentum thy body is thy beast Aug. and wilt thou present that to God when it is lam'd and tir'd with excesse of wantonness when thy clock the whole course of thy time is disordered with passions and perturbations when thy book the history of thy life is torn 1000. sins of thine own torn out of thy memory wilt thou then present thy self thus defac'd and mangled to almighty God Basil Temperantia non est temperantia in senectute sed impotentia incontinentiae chastity is not chastity in an old man but a desability to be unchast and therefore thou dost not give God that which thou pretendest to give for thou hast no chastity to give him Senex bis puer but it is not bis juvenis an old man comes to the infirmities of childhood again but he comes not to the strength of youth again Do this then In diebus juventutis in thy best strength Electionum and when thy natural facuties are best able to concur with grace but do it In diebus electionum in the dayes when thou hast thy hearts desire for if thou have worn out this word in one sense that it be too late now to remember him in the dayes of youth that 's spent forgetfully yet as long as thou art able to make a new choise to chuse a new sin that when thy heats of youth are not overcome but burnt out then thy middle age chooses ambition and thy old age chooses covetousness as long as thou art able to make thy choice thou art able to make a better than this God testifies that power that he hath given thee I call heaven and earth to record this day Deut. 30.19 that I have set before you life and death choose life If this choice like you not Jos 24.15 If it seem evil unto you to serve the the Lord saith Josuah then choose ye this day whom ye will serve Here 's the election day bring that which ye would have Serm. 18. into comparison with that which ye should have that is all that this world keeps from you with that which God offers to you and what will ye choose to prefer before him for honor and favor and health and riches perchance you cannot have them though you choose them but can you have more of them than they have had to whom those very things have been occasions of ruin The Market is open till the bell ring till thy last bell ring the Church is open grace is to be had there but trust not upon that rule that men buy cheapest at the end of the market that heaven may be had for a breath at last when they that hear it cannot tel whether it be a sigh or a gasp a religious breathing and anhelation after the next life or natural breathing out and exhalation of this but find a spiritual good husbandry in that other rule that the prime of the market is to be had at first for howsoever in thine age there may be by Gods strong working Dies juventutis A day of youth in making thee then a new creature for as God is antiquissimus dierum so in his school no man is super-annated yet when age hath made a man impotent to sin this is not Dies electionum it is not a day of choice but remember God now when thou hast a choice that is a power to advance thy self or to oppress others by evil means now in die electionum in those thy happy and sun-shine dayes remember him Creatorem This is then the faculty that is excited the memory and this is the time now now whilest we have power of election The object is the Creator Remember the Creator First because the memory can go no farther then the creation and therefore we have no means to conceive or apprehend any thing of God before that When men therefore speak of decrees of reprobation decrees of condemnation before decrees of creation this is beyond the counsail of the holy Ghost here Memento creatoris Remember the Creator for this is to remember God a condemner before he was a creator This is to put a preface to Moses his Genesis not to be content with his in principio to know that in the beginning God created heaven and earth but we must remember what he did ante principium before any such beginning was Moses his in principio that beginning the creation we can remember but St. Johns in principio that beginning eternity we cannot we can remember Gods fiat in Moses but not Gods erat in St. John what God hath done for us is the object of our memory not what he did before we were and thou hast a good and perfect memory if it remember all that the holy Ghost proposes in the Bible and it determines in the memento Creatoris There begins the Bible and there begins the Creed I believe in God the Father maker of Heaven and Earth Jâ— 7.39 for when it is said The holy Ghost was not given because Jesus was not glorified it is not truly Non erat datus but non erat for non erat nobis antequam operaretur It is not said there the holy Ghost was not given but it is the holy Ghost was not for he is not that is he hath no being to us ward till he works in us which was first in the creation Remember the Creator then Serm. 19. because thou canst remember nothing backward beyond him and remember him so too that thou maist stick upon nothing on this side of him That so neither height Ro. 8. ult nor depth nor any other creature may separate thee from God not only not separate thee finally but not separate so as to stop upon the creature but to make the best of them thy way to the Creator We see ships in the river but all their use is gone if they go not to sea we see men fraighted with honor and riches but all their use is gone if their respect be not upon the honor and glory of the Creator and therefore sayes the Apostle Let them that suffer 1 Peâ— 4. ult commit their souls to God as to a faithful Creator that is He made them and therefore will have care of them This is the true contracting and the true extending of the memory to Remember the Creator and stay there because there is no prospect farther and to Remember the Creator and get thither because there is no safe footing upon the
God and live in his fear to be mercinarij per laborem to be the workmen of God and labour in his Vineyard to be filij per lavacrum to be the sons of God and preserve that Inheritance which was sealed to us at first in Baptism and last of all Amici per virtutem by the good use of his gifts the King of Kings shall be our friend That which he said to his Apostles his Spirit shall say to our spirit here and seal it to us for a Covenant of Salt an everlasting John 15.14 an irrevocable Covenant Henceforth call I you not servants but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father have I made known unto you And the fruition of this friendship which neither slackens in all our life nor ends at our death the Lord of Life for the death of his most innocent Son afford to us all Amen A Serm. 25. SERMON Preached at the SPITTLE Vpon Easter-Munday 1662. SERMON XXV 2 Cor. 4.6 For God who commanded light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ THe first Book of the Bible begins with the beginning In principio says Moses in Genesis In the beginning God created heaven and earth and can there be any thing prius principio before the beginning Before this beginning there is The last Book of the Bible in the order as they were written the Gospel of St. John begins with the same word too In principio says St. John In the beginning was the Word and here Novissimum primum the last beginning is the first St. John's beginning before Moses Moses speaking but of the Creature and St. John of the Creator and of the Creator before he took that name before he came to the act of Creation as the Word was with God and was God from all Eternity Our present Text is an Epitome of both those beginnings of the first beginning the Creation when God commanded light to shine out of darkness and of the other beginning which is indeed the first of Him in whose face we shall have the knowledge of the glory of God Christ Jesus The first Book of the Bible is a Revelation and so is the last in the order as they stand a Revelation too To declare a production of all things out of nothing which is Moses his work that when I do not know and care not whether I know or no what so contemptible a Creature as an Ant is made of but yet would fain know what so vast and so considerable a thing as an Elephant is made of I care not for a mustard seed but I would fain know what a Cedar is made of I can leave out the consideration of the whole Earth but would be glad to know what the Heavens and the glorious bodies in the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars are made of I shall have but one answer from Moses for all that all my Elephants and Cedars and the Heavens that I consider were made of nothing that a Cloud is as nobly born as the Sun in the Heavens and a begger as nobly as the King upon Earth if we consider the great Grand-father of them all to be nothing to produce light of darkness thus is a Revelation a Manifestation of that which till then was not this Moses does St. John's is a Revelation too a Manifestation of that state which shall be and be for ever after all those which were produced of nothing shall be return'd and ressolv'd to nothing again the glorious state of the everlasting Jerusalem the Kingdom of Heaven Now this Text is a Revelation of both these Revelations the first state that which Moses reveals was too dark for man to see for it was nothing The other that which St. John reveals is too bright too dazling for man to look upon for it is no one limited determined Object but all at once glory and the seat and fountain of all glory the face of Christ Jesus The Holy Ghost hath shewed us both these severally in Moses and in St. John and both together in St. Paul in this Text where as the Sun stands in the midst of the Heavens and shews us both the Creatures that are below it upon Earth and the Creatures that are above it the Stars in Heaven so St. Paul as he is made an Apostle of the Gentiles stands in the midst of this Text God hath shin'd in our hearts Ours as we are Apostolical Ministers of the Gospel and he shows us the greatness of God in the Creation which was before when God commanded light out of darkness and the goodness of God which shall be hereafter when he shall give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus So that this Text giving light by which we see light commanded by God out of darkness and the Object which we are to see the knowledge of the glory of God and this Object being brought within a convenient distance to be seen in the face of Jesus Christ And a fit and well-disposed Medium being illumin'd through which we may see it God having shin'd in our hearts established a Ministry of the Gospel for that purpose if you bring but eyes to that which this Text brings Light and Object and Distance and Means then as St. Basil said of the Book of Psalms upon an impossible supposition If all the other Books of Scripture could perish there were enough in that one for the catechising of all that did believe and for the convincing of all that did not so if all the other Writings of St. Paul could perish this Text were enough to carry us through the body of Divinity from the Cradle of the world in the Creation when God commanded light out of darkness to the Grave and beyond the Grave of the world to the last Dissolution and beyond it when we shall have fully the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus Now whilst I am to speak of all this this which is Omne scibile all and more then can fall within the comprehension of a natural man for it is the beginning of this world and it is the way to the next and it is the next world it self I comfort my self at my first setting out with that of St. Gregory Purgatas aures hominum gratiam nancisci nonne Dei donum est I take it for one of Gods great blessings to me if he have given me now an Auditory Purgatae auris of such spiritual and circumcised Ears as come not to hear that Wisdom of Words which may make the Cross of Christ of none effect much less such itching Ears as come to hear popular and seditious Calumnies and Scandals and Reproaches cast upon the present State and Government For a man may make a Sermon a Satyr he
so heavy nor so discomfortable a curse in the first as in the latter shutting not in the shutting of barrenness as in the shutting of weakness Esa 37 3. when Children are come to the birth and there is not strength to bring forth It is the exaltation of misery to fall from a near hope of happiness And in that vehement imprecation the Prophet expresses the highth of Gods anger Give them O Lord what wilt thou give them Osc 9 14. give them a mis-carrying womb Therefore as soon as we are men that is inanimated quickned in the womb though we cannot our selves our Parents have reason to say in our behalves Wretched man that he is who shall deliver him from this body of death for Ro. 7.24 even the womb is the body of death if there be no deliverer It must be he that said to Jeremy 1. 5. Before I formed thee I knew thee and before thou camest out of the womb I sanctified thee We are not sure that there was no kind of ship nor boat to fish in nor to pass by till God prescribed Noah that absolute forme of the Ark that word which the holy Ghost by Moses uses for the Ark is common to all kinds of boats Thebah and is the same word that Moses uses for the boat that he was exposed in that his mother laid him in an Ark of bullrushes Exo 2.3 But we are sure that Eve had no Midwife when she was delivered of Cain therefore she might well say Possedi virum a Domino Gen. 4.1 I have gotten a man from the Lord wholly intirely from the Lord it is the Lord that hath enabled me to conceive the Lord hath infus'd a quickning soul into that conception the Lord hath brought into the world that which himself had quickned without all this might Eve say my body had been but the house of death and Domini Domini sunt exitus mortis To God the Lord belong the issues of death But then this Exitus a morte is but Introitus in mortem this issue Exitus a moribus mundi this deliverance from that death the death of the womb is an entrance a delivering over to another death the manifold deaths of this world We have a winding sheet in our Mothers womb that grows with us from our conception and we come into the world wound up in that winding sheet for we come to seek a grave And as prisoners discharged of actions may lie for fees so when the womb hath discharged us yet we are bound to it by cords of flesh by such a string as that we cannot go thence nor stay there We celebrate our own funeral with cries even at our birth as though our threescore and ten years of life were spent in our Mothers labor and our Circle made up in the first point thereof We beg one Baptism with another a sacrament of tears and we come into a world that lasts many ages but we last not In domo patris saies our blessed Saviour speaking of heaven multae mansiones Jo. 14.2 there are many and mansions divers and durable so that if a man cannot possess a martyrs house he hath shed no blood for Christ yet he may have a confessors he hath been ready to glorifie God in the shedding of his blood And if a woman cannot possess a virgins house she hath embrac'd the holy state of marriage yet she may have a matrons house she hath brought forth and brought up children in the fear of God In domo patris In my Fathers house in heaven there are many mansions but here upon earth Mat. 8 20. The Son of man hath not where to lay his head saies he himself No terram dedit filiis hominum How then hath God given this earth to the Sons of men He hath given them earth for their materials to be made of earth and he hath given them earth for their grave and sepulture to return and resolve to earth but not for their possession Heb. 13.14 Here we havh no continuing City nay no Cottage that continues nay no we no persons no bodies that continue Whatsoever moved St. Hierome to call the journies of the Israelites in the wilderness Exo. 17.1 Mansions the word the word is nasang signifies but a journie but a peregrination even the Israel of God hath no mansions Gen. 47 9. but journies pilgrimages in this life By that measure did Jacob measure his life to Pharaoh The daies of the years of my pilgrimage And though the Apostle would not say morimer that whilst we are in the body we are dead yet he saies peregrinamur 2 Cor. 5 6. whilst we are in the body we are but in a pilgrimage and we are absent from the Lord. He might have said dead for this whole world is but an universal Church-yard but one common grave and the life and motion that the greatest persons have in it is but as the shaking of buried bodies in their graves by an earthquake That which we call life is but Hebdomada mortium a week of deaths seaven daies seaven periods of our life spent in dying a dying seaven times over and ther 's an end Our birth dies in Infancy and our infancy dies in youth and youth and the rest die in age and age also dies and determines all Nor do all these youth out of infancy or age out of youth arise so as a Phenix out of the ashes of another Phenix formerly dead but as a wasp or a serpent out of carrion or as a snake out of dung our youth is worse then our infancy and our age worse then our youth our youth is hungry and thirsty after those sins which our infancy knew not and our age is sorry and angry that it cannot pursue those sins which our youth did And besides all the way so many deaths that is so many deadly calamities accompany every condition and every period of this life as that death it self would be an ease to them that suffer them Upon this sense does Job wish 10. 18. that God had not given him an issue from the first death from the womb Wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the womb O that I had given up the Ghost and no eye had seen me I should have been as though I had not been And not only the impatient Israelites in their murmuring would to God we had died by the hands of the Lord Ex. 16.3 in the land of Egypt but Eliah himself when he fled from Jezabel and went for his life as that Text saies under the juniper tree requested that he might die and said It is enough now O Lord take away my life 1 Reg. 19.4 So Jonah justifies his impatience nay his anger towards God himself Now O Lord take I beseech thee my life from me for it is better for me to die then to live And when God ask'd him dost thou well