reuniting of body and soule in a blessed Resurrection Ite Surgite depart so as you may desire to rise Depart with an In manus tuas and with a Veni Domiâ—e Iesu with a willing surrendring of your soules and a cheerfull meeting of the Lord Jesus For else all hope of profit and permanent Rest is lost for as Saint Hierome interprets these very words Here we are taught that there is no rest in this life Sed quasiâ—â—â— mortuis resurgentes ad sublime tendere ambulare post Daminum Iesum we depart when we depart from sin and we rise when we raise our selves to a conformity with Christ And not onely after his example but after his person that is to hasten thither whither he is gone to prepare us a Room For this Rest in the Text though it may be understood of the Land of Promise and of the Church and of the Arke and of the Sabbath for if we had time to pursue them we might make good use of all these acceptations yet we accept Chrysostâ—me's acceptation best Requies est ipse Christus our rest is Christ himselfe Not onely that rest that is in Christ peace of conscience in him but that Rest that Christ is in eternall rest in his kingdome There remaineth a Rest to the people of God besides that inchoation of Rest which the godly have here there remains a fuller Rest. Iesus is entred into his Rest sayes the Apostle there his Rest was not here in this world and Let us study to enter into thatâ— Rest sayes he for no other can accomplish our peace It is righteousnesse with God is recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you which are troubled Rest but when in this world no when the Lord Iesus shall sheâ— himselfe from heaven with his mighty Angels then comes your Rest for for the grave the body lies still but it is not a Rest because it is not sensible of that lying still In heaven the body shall rest rest in the sense of that glory This Rest then is not here Not onely not Here at this Here was taken in the first interpretation Here in the Earth but not Here in the second interpretation not in Repentance it selfe for all the Rest of this life even the spirituall Rest is rather a Truce then a peace rather a Cessation then an end of the war For when these words I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians Every one shall fight against his brother and every one against his neighbour City against City and Kingdome against Kingdome may be interpreted and are so interpreted of the time of the Gospell of Christ Jesus when Christ himselfe says Nolite putare quod venerim mittere pacem in terrâ Never think that I came to settle peace or Rest in this world Nay when Christ sayes None of them that were bidden shall come to his supper and that may be verified of any Congregation none of us that are call'd now shall come to that Rest a Man may be at a security in an opinion of Rest and be far from it A man may be neerer Rest in a troubled Conscience then in a secure Here we have often Resurrections that is purposes to depart from sin but they are such Resurrections as were at the time of Christs Resurrection when as the strongest opinion is Resurrexerunt iterum morituri Many of the dead rose but they died again we rise from our sins here but here we fall again Monumenta aperta sunt it is Saint Hierome's note The graves were opened presently upon Christs death but yet the bodies did not arise till Christs Resurrection The godly have an opening of their graves they see some light some of their weight some of their Earth is taken from them but a Resurrection to enter into the City to follow the Lamb to come into an established security that they have not till they be united to Christ in heaven Here we are still subject to relapses and to looking back Memento uxoris Lâ—t Ipsa in loco manet transeuntes monet Shee is fixed to a place that she might settle those that are not fix'd Vt quid in statuam salis conversa si non homines ut sapiant condiat to teach us the danger of looking back till we be fix'd she is fix'd When the Prophetâ— Eliahâ— was at the dore of Desperation an Angell touch'd him and said Vp and eat and there was bread and water provided and he did eat but he slept again and we have some of these excitations and we come and eat and drink even the body and bloud of Christ but we sleep again we doe not perfect the work Our Rest Here then is never without a fear of losing it This is our best state To fear leâ—t at any time by forsaking the promise of entring into his rest we should seem to be depriv'd The Apostle disputes not neither doe I whether we can be depriv'd or no but he assures us that we may fall back so far as that to the Church and to our own Consciences we may seem to be depriv'd and that 's argument enough that here is no Rest. To end all though there be no Rest in all this world no not in our sanctification here yet this being a Consolation there must be rest some where And it is In superna Civitate unde amicus non exit quâ inimicus non intrat In that City in that Hierusalem where there shall never enter any man whom we doe not love nor any goe from us whom we doe love Which though we have not yet yet we shall have for upon those words because I live ye shall live also Saint Augustine sayes that because his Resurrection was to follow so soon Christ takes the present word because I doe live But because their life was not to be had here he says Vivetis you shall live in heaven not Vivitis for here we doe not live So as in Adam we all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive says the Apostle All our deaths are here present now now we dy our quickning is reserv'd for heaven that 's future And therefore let us attend that Rest as patiently as we doe the things of this world and not doubt of it therefore because we see it not yet even in this world we consider invisible things more then visible Vidimus pelagus non autem mercedem The Merchant sees the tempestuous Sea when he does not see the commodities which he goes for Videmus terram non autem messem The Husbandman sees the Earth and his labour when he sees no harvest and for these hopes that there will be a gain to the Merchant and a harvest to the Labourer Naturae fidimus we rely upon Creatures for our Resurrection fide usâ—orem habemus Coranatum Not Nature not Sea
the people what a temporall dominion in the possessions of the world had the Virgin Mary Queen of heaven and Queen of earth too She was made joint purchaser of the Church with her Sonne and had as much of the worship thereof as he though she paid her fine in milke and he in bloud And till a new Sect came in her Sonnes name and in his name the name of Jesus tooke the regency so farre out of that Queen Mothers hands and sued out her Sonnes Livery so farre as that though her name be used the Virgin Mary is but a feoffee in trust for them all was hers And if God oppose not these new usurpers of the world posterity will soon see Saint Ignatius worth all the Trinity in possessions and endowments as that sumptuous and splendid foundation of his first Temple at Rome may well create a conjecture and suspicion Travaile no farther Survay but this City And of their not one hundred Churches the Virgin Mary hath a dozen The Trinity hath but one Christ hath but one The holy Ghost hath none But not to goe into the City nor out of our selves which of us doth truly and considerately ascribe the comforts that he receives in dangers or in distresses to that God of all comfort the comforter the holy Ghost We know who procured us our Presentation and our dispensation you know who procured you your offices and your honours Shall I ever forget who gave me my comfort in sicknesse Who gave me my comfort in the troubles and perplexities and diffidencies of my conscience The holy Ghost brought you hither The holy Ghost opens your eares and your hearts here Till in all your distresses you can say Veni Creator Spiritus come holy Ghost and that you feel a comfort in his comming you can never say Veni Domine Iesu come Lord Jesus come to Judgement Never to consider the day of Judgement is a fearfull thing But to consider the day of Judgement without the comfort of the holy Ghost is a thousand times more fearfull This Seale then this impression this notion of the Trinity being set upon us in the first Creation in this first plurall word of our text Faciamus Let us for Father Sonne and holy Ghost made man and this seale being re-imprinted upon us in our second Creation our Regeneration in Baptisme Man is Baptized In the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost This notion of the Trinity being our distinctive Character from Iew and Gentile This being our specifique forme why does not this our forme this soule of our Religion denominate us why are we not called Trinitarians a name that would embrace the profession of all the Persons but onely Christians which limits and determines us upon one The first Christians amongst whose manifold Persecutions scorne and contempt was not the least in contempt and scorne were called Nazarai Nazarites in the mouth of the Vulgar and Galilâ—i Galilaeans in the mouth of Iulian and Iudaei Iews in the mouth of Nero when he imputed the burning of Rome his owne act to them and Christiani as Tertullian says that they could accuse Christians of nothing but the name of Christians and yet they could not call them by their right name but Chrestians which was gentle quiet easie patient men made to be troden upon They gave them divers names in scorne yet never called them Trinitarians Christians themselves amongst themselves were called by divers names in the Primitive Church for distinction Fideles the faithfull and Fratres the Brethren and Discipuli Disciples And after by common custome at Antioch Christians And after that they say by a councell which the Apostles held at the same city at Antioch there passed an expresse Canon of the Church that they should be called so Christians And before they had this name at Antioch first by common usage after by a determinate Canon to be called Christians from Christ at Alexandria they were called most likely from the name of Jesus Iesseans And so Philo Iudaeus in that book which he writes De Iessenis intends by his Iessenis Christians and in divers parts of the world into which Christians travell now they find some elements some fragments some reliques of the Christian Religion in the practice of some religious Men whom those Countreys call Iesseans doubtlesly derived and continued from the name of Jesus So that the Christians took many names to themselves for distinction Brethren Disciples faithfull And they had many names put upon them in scorne Nazarites Galilaeans Iews Chrestians and yet they were never never by Custome amongst themselves never by commandement from the Church never in contempt from others called Trinitarians the profession of the Trinity being their specifique forme and distinctive Character why so Beloved the name of Christ involv'd all not onely because it is a name that hath a dignity in it more then the rest for Christ is an anointed person a King a Messiah and so the profession of that Name conferrs an Unction a regall and a holy Unction upon us for we are thereby a royall Priesthood but because in the profession of Christ the whole Trinity is professed How often doth the Sonne say that the Father sent him And how often that the Father will and that he will send the Holy Ghost This is life eternall says he to know thee the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent And sent with all power in heaven and in earth This must be professed Father and Sonne And then no man can professe this no man can call Jesus the Lord but by the holy Ghost So that as in the persecutions in the primitive Church the Martyrs which were hurried to tumultuary executions and could not be heard for noise in excusing themselves of Treason and sedition and crimes imputed to them to make their cause odious did use in the sight of the people who might see a gesture though they could not heare a protestation to signe themselves with the signe of the Crosse to let them know for what profession they died so that the signe of the Crosse in that use thereof in that time was an abridgement and a Catechisme of the whole Christian Religion so is the professing of the name of Christ the professing of the whole Trinity As he that confesses one God is got beyond the meer naturall man And he that confesses a Sonne of God beyond him So is neither got to the full truth till he confesse the holy Ghost too The foole sayes in his heart there is no God The foole says David The emphaticall foole in the highest degree of folly But though he get beyond that folly he is a foole still if he say there is no Christ For Christ is the wisdome of the Father And a foole still if he deny the holy Ghost for who shall apply Christ to him but the holy Ghost Etiam Christiani Nomen superficies est
is his word in his servants mouth come to that Conscience now nor make him mis-interpret that which he does hear or call that passion in the Preacher in which the Preacher is but sagittarius Dei the deliverer of Gods arrows for Gods arrows are sagitta Compunctionis arrows that draw bloud from the eyes Tears of repentance from Mary Magdalen and from Peter And when from thee There is a probatum est in S. Aug. Sagittaveras cor meum Thou hast shot at my heart and how wrought that To the withdrawing of his tongue à nundinis loquacitatis from that market in which I sold my self for S. Aug. at that time taught Rhetorique to turn the stream of his eloquence and all his other good parts upon the service of God in his Church You may have read or heard that answer of a Generall who was threatned with that danger that his enemies arrows were so many as that they would cover the Sun from him In umbra pugnabimus All the better says he for then we shall fight in the shadow Consider all the arrows of tribulation even of tentation to be directed by the hand of God and never doubt to fight it out with God to lay violent hands upon heaven to wrastle with God for a blessing to charge and presse God upon his contracts and promises for in umbra pugnabis though the clouds of these arrows may hide all suns of worldly comforts from thee yet thou art still under the shadow of his wings Nay thou art still for all this shadow in the light of his countenance To which purpose there is an excellent use of this Metaphor of arrows Hâ—bak 3. 11. where it is said that Gods servants shall have the light of his arrows and the â—â—ining of his glittering spear that is the light of his presence in all the instruments and actions of his corrections To end all and to dismisse you with such a re-collection as you may carry away with you literally primarily this text concerns David He by tentations to sin by tribulations for sin by comminations and increpations upon sin was bodily and ghostly become a quiver of arrows of all sorts they stook and stook fast and stook full in him in all him The Psalm hath a retrospect too it looks back to Adam and to every particular man in his loines and so Davids case is our case and all these arrowes stick in all us But the Psalm and the text hath also a prospect and hath a propheticall relation from David to our Saviour Christ Jesus And of him and of the multiplicity of these arrows upon him in the exinanition and evacuation of himself in this world for us have many of the Ancients interpreted these words literally and as in their first and primary signification Turne we therefore to him before we goe and he shall return home with us How our first part of this text is applyable to him that our prayers to God for ease in afflictions may be grounded upon reasons out of the sense of those afflictions Saint Basil tels us that Christ therefore prays to his Father now in heaven to spare mankinde because man had suffered so much and drunk so deep of the bitter cup of his anger in his person and passion before It is an avoidable plea from Christ in heaven for us Spare them O Lord in themselves since thou didst not spare them in me And how far he was from sparing thee we see in all those severall weights which have aggravated his hand and these arrowes upon us If they be heavy upon us much more was their weight upon thee every dram upon us was a Talent upon thee Non delâ—r sicut dolor tuus take Rachel weeping for her children Mary weeping for her brother Lazarus Hezekiah for his health Peter for his sins Non est delor sicut dolor â—uus The arrows that were shot at thee were Alienae Afflictions that belonged to others and did not onely come from others as ours doe but they were alienae so as that they should have fallen upon others And all that should have fallen upon all others were shot at thee and lighted upon thee Lord though we be not capable of sustaining that part this passion for others give us that which we may receive Compassion with others They were veloces these arrows met swiftly upon thee from the sin of Adam that induced death to the sin of the last man that shall not sleep but be changed when thy hour came they came all upon thee in that hour Lord put this swiftnesse into our fins that in this one minute in which our eyes are open towards thee and thine eares towards us our sins all our sins even from the impertinent frowardnesse of our childhood to the unsufferable frowardnesse of our age may meet in our present confessions and repentances and never appear more They were as ours are too Invisibiles Those arrows which fell upon thee were so invisible so undiscernible as that to this day thy Church thy School cannot see what kinde of arrow thou tookest into thy soul what kinde of affliction it was that made thy soul heavy unto death or dissolved thee into a gelly of blood in thine agony Be thou O Lord a Father of Lights unto us in all our ways and works of darkenes manifest unto us whatsoever is necessary for us to know be a light of understanding and grace before and a light of comfort and mercy after any â—in hath benighted us These arrows were as ours are also plures plurall many infinite they were the sins of some that shall never thank thee never know that thou borest their sins never know that they had any such sins to bee horn Lord teach us to number thy corrections upon us so as still to see thy torments suffered for us and our own sins to be infinitely more that occasioned those torments then those corrections that thou layst upon us Thine arrows stook and stook fast in thee the weight of thy torments thou wouldest not cast off nor lessen when at thy execution they offered thee that stupesying drink which was the civil charity of those times to condemned persons to give them an easier passage in the agonies of death thou wouldest not tast of that cup of ease Deliver us O Lord in all our tribulations from turning to the miserable comforters of this world or from wishing or accepting any other deliverance then may improve and make better our Resurrection These arrows were in thee in all thee from thy Head torn with thorns to thy feet pierced with nayls and in thy soul so as we know not how so as to extorta Si possibile If it be possible let this cup passe and an Vt quid dereliquisti My God my God why half thou forsaken me Lord whilest we remain entire here in body and soul make us and receive us an entire sacrifice to
midnight not to see where we all see him in the Congregation and to see him with terror in the Suburbs of despaire in the solitary chamber Man may sayes Scotus man must he cannot chuse sayes Thomas man hath seen God sayes the holy Ghost Man that is every man and that 's our last branch in this first part The inexcusablenesse goes over man over all men Because they would not see invisible things in visible they are inexcusable all Death passed upon all men for all have sinned All sinners all dead Is Gods right hand shorter then his left his mercy shrunk and his justice stretched no certainly certainly every man may see him Man cannot hide himselfe from God God does not hide himselfe from man not from any man Col-Adam Omnis home even in that low name that lowest acceptation of man as he is but derived from earth as he is but earth he may see God We have divers names for man in Hebrew at least foure This that makes him but earth Adam is the meanest and yet Col-Adam Every man may see God David cals us to the contemplation of the heavens Coeli enarrant and Iob to the contemplation of the firmament of the Pleiades and Orion and Arcturus and the ordinances of heaven but it is not onely the Mathematician that sees God Demini terra the earth is the Lords and all that dwell therein all in all corners of the earth may see him David tels us They that go down to the sea in ships they see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep but it is not onely the Mariner the discoverer that discovers God but he that puts his hand to the plough and looks not back may see God there Let him be filius terra the sonne of the earth without noble extraction without knowne place of uncertaine parents even Melchisedeck was so Let him be filius percussionis the sonne of affliction a man that hath inward heavy sentences and heavy executions of the law Let him be filius mortis the sonne of death as Saul said to Ionathan of David a man designed to dye nay let him be filius Belial the sonne of iniquity and of everlasting perdition there is no lownesse no naturall no spirituall dejection so low but that that low man may see God Let him be filius terrae the sonne of the earth and of no body else let him be Dominus terrae Lord of the earth busied upon the earth and nothing else let him be hospes terrae a guest a tenant an inmate of the earth halfe of him in the earth and the rest no where else this poore man this worldly man this dying man may see God To end this you can place the spheare in no position in no station in which the earth can eclipse the Sun you can place this clod of earth man in no ignorance in no melancholy in no oppression in no sinne but that he may but that he does see God The Marrigold opens to the Sunne though it have no tongue to say so the Atheist does see God though he have not grace to confesse it We have past through our first part and the three branches of that The object God in his works and the faculty that apprehends seeing that is knowing and the person indued with the faculty every man even Adam In our second part which is a tacite answer to a likely objection Is not God in the highest heaven afar off yes but man may see afar off we have the same three branches too and yet not the same the same object God but in another manifestation then in his worke in glory the same faculty seeing but with other manner of eyes glorified eyes the same person man but not man as he is Adam a meere naturall and earthly man but man as he is Enosh who by having tasted Gods corrections or by having considered the miseries of this world is prepared for the joy and glory of the next And in this part we will begin with the person man Man may behold it afar off How different are the wayes of God from the ways of man the eyes of God from the eyes of man and the wayes and eyes of a godly man from the eyes and wayes of a man of this world We looke still upon high persons and after high places and from those heights we thinke we see far but he that will see this object must lye low it is best discerned in the dark in a heavy and a calamitous fortune The naturall way is upward I can better know a man upon the top of a steeple then if he were halfe that depth in a well but yet for higher objects I can better see the stars of heaven in the bottome of a well then if I stood upon the highest steeple upon earth If I twist a cable of infinite fadomes in length if there be no ship to ride by it nor anchor to hold by it what use is there of it If Mannor thrust Mannor and title flow into title and bags powre out into chests if I have no anchor faith in Christ if I have not a ship to carry to a haven a soule to save what 's my long cable to me If I adde number to number a span a mile long if at the end of all that long line of numbers there be nothing that notes pounds or crownes or shillings what 's that long number but so many millions of millions of nothing If my span of life become a mile of life my penny a pound my pint a gallon my acre a sheere yet if there be nothing of the next world at the end so much peace of conscience so much joy so much glory still all is but nothing multiplied and that is still nothing at all 'T is the end that qualifies all and what kinde of man I shall be at my end upon my death-bed what trembling hands and what lost legs what deafe eares and what gummy eyes I shall have then I know and the nearer I come to that disposition in my life the more mortified I am the better I am disposed to see this object future glory God made the Sun and Moon and Stars glorious lights for man to see by but mans infirmity requires spectacles and affliction does that office Gods meaning was that by the sun-shine of prosperity and by the beames of honour and temporall blessings a man should see farre into him but I know not how he is come to need spectacles scarse any man sees much in this matter till affliction shew it him God made the ballance even riches may show God and poverty may show God let the two Testaments the old and the new be the ballance and so they are even the blessednesse of the old Testament runs all upon temporall blessings and worldly riches Blessed in the city and in the field blessed in the fruit of thy cattell and
her selfe had no Crown but that which he gave her The Crown that she gave him was that substance that he received from her our flesh our nature our humanity and this Athanasius and this Saint Ambrose calls the Crown wherewith his Mother crowned him in this text his infirm his humane nature Or the Corwn wherewith his Mother corwned him was that Crown to which that infirme nature which he tooke from her submitted him which was his passion his Crown of thornes for so Tertullian and divers others take this Crown of his from her to be his Crown of thorns Woe to the Crown of pride whose beauty is a fading flower says the Prophet But blessed be this Crown of Humiliation whose flower cannot fade Then was there truly a Rose amongst Thorns when through his Crown of Thorns you might see his title Iesus Nazarenus for in that very name Nazarenus is involved the signification of a flower the very word signifies a flower Esay's flower in the Crown of pride fades and is removed This flower in the Crown of Thornes fades not nor could be removed for for all the importunity of the Jews Pilate would not suffer that title to be removed or to be changed still Nazarenus remained and still a rose amongst thorns You know the curse of the earth Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee It did so to our Solomon here it brought forth thornes to Christ and he made a Crown of those thorns not onely for himself but for us too Omnes aculei mortis in Dominici Corporis tolerantia â—btusi sunt All the thorns of life and death are broken or blunted upon the head of our Solomon and now even our thorns make up our Crown our tribulation in life our dissolution in death conduce to our glory Behold him crowned with his Mothers Crown for even that brought him to his Fathers Crown his humiliation to exaltation his passion to glory Behold your Solomon your Saviour again and you shall see another beam of Comfort in your tribulations from his for even this Humiliation of his is called his Espousals his marriage Behold him crowned in the day of his Espousals His Spouse is the Church His marriage is the uniting of himselfe to this Spouse in his becomming Head of the Church The great City the heavenly Jerusalem is called The Bride and The Lambs wife in the Revelation And he is the Head of this body the Bridegroom of this Bride the Head of this Church as he is The first-borne of the Dead Death that dissolves all ours made up this marriage His Death is his Marriage and upon his Death flowed out from his side those two Elements of the Church water and bloud The Sacraments of Baptisme and of the Communion of himself Behold then this Solomon crowned and married both words of Exaltation and Exultation and both by Death and trust him for working the same effects upon thee That thou though by Death shalt be crowned with a Crown of Glory and married to him in whose right and merit thou shalt have that Crown And Behold him once again and you shall see not a beam but a stream of comfort for this day which is the day of his death he calls here The day of the gladnesse of his heart Behold him crowned in the day of the gladnesse of his heart The fulnesse the compasse the two Hemispheres of Heaven are often designed to us in these two names Ioy and Glory If the Crosse of Christ the Death of Christ present us both these how neare doth it bring how fully doth it deliver Heaven it self to us in this life And then we heare the Apostle say We see Iesus for the suffering of Death crowned with Honour and Glory There is half Heaven got by Death Glory And then for the joy that was set before him he indured the Crosse There is the other half Ioy All Heaven purchased by Death And therefore if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed saith the Apostle but let him glorifie God In isto Nomine as the vulgate read it In that behalfe as we translate it But In isto Nomine saith S. August Let us glorifie God in that Name Non solum in nomine Christiani sed Chriani patientis not onely because he is a Christian in his Baptisme but a Christian in a second Baptisme a Baptisme of bloud not onely as he hath received Christ in accepting his Institution but because he hath conformed himself to Christ in fulfilling his sufferings And therefore though we admit naturall and humane sorrow in the calamities which overtake us and surround us in this life for as all glasses will gather drops and tears from externall causes so this very glasse which we looke upon now our Solomon in the Text our Saviour had those sadnesses of heart toward his Passion and Agonies in his passion yet count it all Ioy when you fall into tentations saith the Apostle All Ioy that is both the interest and the principall hath the earnest and the bargain for if you can conceive joy in your tribulations in this world how shall that joy be multiplied unto you when no tribulation shall be mingled with it There is not a better evidence nor a more binding earnest of everlasting Joy in the next world then to find Ioy of heart in the tribulations of this fixe thy self therefore upon this first glasse this Solomon thy Saviour Behold King Solomon crownd c. and by conforming thy self to his holy sadnesse and humiliation thou shalt also become like him in his Joy and Glory But then the hand of God hath not set up but laid down another Glasse wherein thou maist see thy self a glasse that reflects thy self and nothing but thy selfe Christ who was the other glasse is like thee in every thing but not absolutely for sinne is excepted but in this glasse presented now The Body of our Royall but dead Master and Soveraigne we cannot we doe not except sinne Not onely the greatest man is subject to naturall infirmities Christ himself was so but the holiest man is subject to Originall and Actuall sinne as thou art and so a â—it glasse for thee to see thy self in Ieat showes a man his face as well as Crystall nay a Crystall glasse will not show a man his face except it be steeled except it be darkned on the backside Christ as he was a pure Crystall glasse as he was God had not been a glasse for us to have seen our selves in except he had been steeled darkened with our humane nature Neither was he ever so throughly darkened as that he could present us wholly to our selves because he had no sinne without seeing of which we do not see our selves Those therefore that are like thee in all things subject to humane infirmities subject to sinnes and yet are translated and translated by Death to everlasting Ioy and Glory
and I who have opened my mouth and poured out imprecations and curses upon men and execrations and blasphemies against God upon every occasion That Lamb who was slain from the beginning and was slain by him who was a murderer from the beginning That Lamb which took away the sins of the world and I who brought more sins into the world then any sacrifice but the blood of this Lamb could take away This Lamb and I these are the Persons shall meet and mary there is the Action This is not a clandestine mariage not the private seal of Christ in the obsignation of his Spirit and yet such a clandestine mariage is a good mariage Nor it is not such a Parish mariage as when Christ maried me to himself at my Baptisme in a Church here â— and yet that mariage of a Christian soul to Christ in that Sacrament is a blessed mariage But this is a mariage in that great and glorious Congregation where all my fins shall be laid open to the eys of all the world where all the blessed Virgins shall see all my uncleannesse and all the Martyrs see all my tergiversations and all the Consessors see all my double dealings in Gods cause where Abraham shall see my faithlesnesse in Gods promises and Iob my impatience in Gods corrections and Lazarus my hardness of heart in distributing Gods blessings to the poore and those Virgins and Martyrs and Confessors and Abraham and Iob and Lazarus and all that Congregation shall look upon the Lamb and upon me and upon one another as though they would all forbid those banes and say to one another Will this Lamb have any thing to doe with this soule and yet there and then this Lamb shall mary me In aeternum for ever which is our last circumstance It is not well done to call it a circumstance for the eternity is a great part of the essence of that mariage Consider then how poore and needy a thing all the riches of this world how flat and tastlesse a thing all the pleasures of this world how pallid and faint and dilute a thing all the honours of this world are when the very Treasure and Joy and glory of heaven it self were unperfect if it were not eternall and my mariage shall be too In aeternum for ever The Angels were not maried so they incurr'd an irreparable Divorce from God and are separated for ever and I shall be maried to him in aeternum for ever The Angels fell in love when there was no object presented before any thing was created when there was nothing but God and themselves they fell in love with themselves and neglected God and so fell in aeternum for ever I shall see all the beauty and all the glory of all the Saints of God and love them all and know that the Lamb loves them too without jealousie on his part or theirs or mine and so be maried in aeternum for ever without interruption or diminution or change of affections I shall see the Sunne black as sackcloth of hair and the Moon become as blood and the Starres fall as a Figge-tree casts her untimely Figges and the heavens roll'd up together as a Scroll I shall see a divorce between Princes and their Prerogatives between nature and all her elements between the spheres and all their intelligences between matter it self and all her forms and my mariage shall be in aeternum for ever I shall see an end of faith nothing to be beleeved that I doe not know and an end of hope nothing to be wisht that I doe not enjoy but no end of that love in which I am maried to the Lamb for ever Yea I shall see an end of some of the offices of the Lamb himself Christ himself shall be no longer a Mediator an Intercessor an Advocate and yet shall continue a Husband to my soul for ever Where I shall be rich enough without Joynture for my Husband cannot die and wise enough without experience for no new thing can happen there and healthy enough without Physick for no sicknesse can enter and which is by much the highest of all safe enough without grace for no tentation that need particular grace can attempt me There where the Angels which cannot die could not live this very body which cannot choose but die shall live and live as long as that God of life that made it Lighten our darkness we beseech thee ô Lord that in thy light we may see light Illustrate our understandings kindle our affections pour oyle to our zeale that we may come to the mariage of this Lamb and that this Lamb may come quickly to this mariage And in the mean time bless these thy servants with making this secular mariage a type of the spirituall and the spirituall an earnest of that eternall which they and we by thy mercy shall have in the Kingdome which thy Son our Saviour hath purchased with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood To whom c. SERMON IV. Preached at a Christning REVEL 7. 17. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throns shalâ— gâ—vern them and shall leade them unto the lively furnteins of maters and God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes IF our conversation be in heaven as the Apostle says his was and if that conversation be as Testullian reads that place Municipatus noster our City our dwelling the place from whence onely we receive our Laws to which onely we direct our services in which onely we are capable of honours and offices where even the office of a doore-keeper was the subject of a great Kings ambition if our conversation be there even there there cannot be better company met then we may see and converse withall in this Chapter Upon those words doth the Eagle mount up at the Cominandement or make his nest on high S. Gregory says Videamus aquilam nidum sibi in arduis construentem Then we say an Eagle make his nest on high when we heard S. Petter say so Our conversation is in heaven and then doth an Eagle mount up at our commandement when our soul our devotion by such a conversation in heaven associates itself with all this blessed company that are met in this Chapter that our fellow ship may be with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ and with all the Court and Quire of the Triumphant Church If you go to feasts if you goe to Comedies fometimes onely to meet company nay if you come to Church sometimes onely upon that errand to meet company as though the House of God were but as the presence of an earthly Prince which upon solemne Festivall days must be fill'd and furnished though they that come come to doe no service there command year Eagle to mount up and to build his nest on high command your souls to have their conversation in heaven by meditation of this Scripture and you shall meet
company which no stranger shall interrupt for they are all of a knot and such a knot as nothing shall unty as inseparably united to one another as that God with whom they are made one Spirit is inseparable in himself Here you shall see the Angell that comes from the East yea that Angel which is the East from whence all beams of grace and glory arise for so the Prophet calls Christ Iesus himself as S. Hierome reads that place Eccevir Oriens nomen ejus Behold him whose name is the East you shall see him come with the seal of the living God and hold back those Angels which had power given them to hurt the Sea and the Earth and you shall her him say Hurt not the earth nor the sea nor the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God in the forecheads And as you shall see him forward so you shall see him large and bountifull in imprinting that Seal you shall see an hundred and forty four thousand of the Tribes of the Children of Israel and you shall see a great multitude which no man can number of al Nations and kindreds and people and tongues stand before the Throne and before the Lamb and cry out and say Salvation commeth of our God that sitteth upon the Throne and of the Lamb and you shall see all the Angels stand round about the Throne and about the Elders and the four Beasts all falling upon their faces and worshipping God saying Amen praise and glory and wisdome and thanks and honour and power and might be unto our God for evermore Amen And this is good company and good Musique And lest you should lose any of the Joy of this conversation of this society by ignorance what they were one of the Elders prevents you and as the Text says answers you saying what are these that are araid in white he answers by a question which is some what strange but he answers before any question which is more strange but God fees questions in our hearts before he hears them from our lips and as soon as our hearts conceive a desire to be informed he gives a full and a present satisfaction he answers before we ask but yet he answers by a question that thereby he may give us occasion of farther discourse of farther questioning with him There this Elder shall tell thee that those are they which are come out of the Tribulations of this world and have made their Robes white in the blood of the Lamb that therefore they are in the presence of the Throne of God that they serve him day and night in the Temple that they shall hunger no more thrist no more nor be offended with heat or Sun That is as many as are appointed to receive this Seal of the living God upon their foreheads though they be not actually delivered from all the incommodities of this life yet nothing in this life shall deprive them of the next For as you see the Seal given in this Chapter and the promise of all these blessings annexed to it so you see in this Text the reason of all this for the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall govern them and shall leade them unto the lively fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes In which words we shall consider for order and distincton first the matter and then the form by the matter we mean the purpose and intention of the Holy Ghost in these words and by the form the declaring the proving the illustrating and the heightning of that purpose of his For the matter we take this imprinting or the Seal of the living God in the forehead of the Elect and this washing in the blood of the Lamb to be intended of the Sacrament of Baptisme In that which we call the form which is the illustrating of this we shall first look upon the great benefits and blessings which these servants of God so sealed and so washed are made partakers of for those blessings which are mentioned in the verses before are rooted and enwrapped in this particular of this Text Quoniam for they are blessed for the Lamb shall dòe this and this for them And then we shall consider what that is which this Lamb will doe for them first Reget illos He shall govern them take them into his care make them heirs of the Covenant breed them in a visible Church secondly Deducet eos He shall lead them to the lively fountains of waters give them outward and visible means of Sanctification thirdly Absterget omnem lachtymam He shall wipe away all tears from their eyes even in this life he shall settle and establish a heavenly joy in the faithfull appreliension of the joyes of heaven here First then to speak of the matter that is of the purpose and intention of these words it is true they are diversly understood They have been understood of the state of the Martyrs which are now come to the possesion of their Crown in heaven because they are said to have made their long Robes white in the blood of the Lamb And so S. August and S. Gregory when by occasion of the subject which they were then in hand with they were full of the contemplation of Martyrdome and encouragements to that doe seem to understand these words of Martyrs But since it is not said that they washed their robes in their own blood which is proper to Martyrs but in the blood of the Lamb which is communicated to all that participate of the merit of Christ the words seem larger then so and not to be restrained onely to Martyrs Others have enlarged them farther then so beyond Martyrs but yet limit them to the Triumphant Church that because it is said that they are come out of great tribulation and that they are in the presence of the Throne of God and that they shall hunger no more they see no way of admitting these perfections in this life But S. Paul saw a way when he said of the Elect even in this life God which is rich in mercy Convivificavit conresuscitavit considere fecit he hath quickned us he hath raised us he hath made us fit together in the heavenly places in Christ Iesus That is as he is our Head and is there himself and we with Christ Jesus as we are his Members we are with him there too In the same place where the Apostle says That we look for our Saviour from heaven there is our future our expectation he says also our conversation is in heaven there is our present our actuall possession That is it which S. Augustine intends Dilexisti me Domine plusquam te Lord thou hast loved me more then thou hast loved thy self Not onely that thou gavest thy self for me that thou didst neglect thy self to consider me but whereas thou hadst a
speake for him After that first and heavy curse of Almighty God upon Man Morte morieris If thou eate thou shalt die and die twice thou shall die a bodily thou shalt die a spirituall death a punishment which no sentence of any law or law-maker could ever equall to deterre Men from offending by threatning to take away their lives twice and by inflicting a spirituall death eternally upon the Soule after we have all incurred that malediction Morte moriemur we shall die both death we cannot thinke to scape any lesse malediction of any law and therefore we are all Intestabiles we are all intestable in all these senses and apprehensions which we have touched upon We can make no testament of our owne we have no good thing in us to dispose we have no good inclination no good disposition in our Will we can make no use of anothers testament not of the double testaments of Almighty God for in the Old testament he gives promises of a Messias but we bring into the world no Faith to apprehend those promises and in the New testament he gives a performance the Messias is come but he is communicable to us no way but by baptisme and we cannot baptize our selves we can profit no body else by our testimony we are not able to endure persecution for the testimony of Christ to the edification of others we are not able to doe such workes as may shine before Men to the glorifying of our God Neither doth the testimony of others doe us any good for neither the Martyrdome of so many Millions in the primitive Church nor the execution of so many judgments of God in our owne times doe restifie any thing to our Consciences neither at the last day when those Saints of God whom we have accompanied in the outward worship of God here in the visible Church shall be called to the right hand and we detruded to the left shall they dare to open their mouthes for us or to testifie of us or to say Why Lord these Men when they were in the world did as we did appeared and served thee in thy house as we did they seem'd to goe the same way that we did upon Earth why goe they a sinister way now in heaven We are utterly intestable we can give nothing we can take nothing nothing will be beleeved from us who are all falshood it selfe nor can we be releeved by any thing that any other will say for us As long as we are considered under the penalty of that law this is our case Interdicti intestabiles we are accursed and so as that we are intestable Now as this great malediction Morte marieris in volves all other punishments upon whom that falls all fall so when our Saviour Christ Jesus hath a purpose to take away that or the most dangerous part of that the spirituall death when he will reverse that judgment Aqua igni interdicitur to make us capable of his water and his fire when he will reverse the intestabiles the inteâ—â—ability and make us able to receive his graces by faith and declare them by works then as he that will reedifie a demolished house begins not at the top but at the bottome so Christ Jesus when he will make this great preparation this great reedification of mankind he beginnes at the lowest step which is that we may have use of the testimony of others in our behalfe and he proceeds strongly and effectually he produces three witnesses from heaven so powerfull that they will be heard they will be beleeved and three witnesses on earth so neare us so familiar so domestique as that they will not be denied they will not be discredited Three are three that beare Record in heaven and three that beare record in earth Since then Christ Jesus makes us all our owne Iury able to conceive and judge upon the Evidence and testimony of these three heavenly and three earthly witnesses let us draw neare and hearken to the evidence and consider three things Testimonium esse Quid sit and Qui testes That God descends to meanes proportionable to Man he affords him witnesse and secondly the matter of the proofe what all these six witnesses testifie what they establish Thirdly the quality and value of the witnesses and whether the matter be to be beleeved for their sakes and for their reasons God requires nothing of us but Testimony for Martyrdome is but that A Martyr is but a witnesse God offers us nothing without testimony for his Testament is but a witnesse Teste ipso is shrewd evidence when God says I will speake and I will testifie against thee I am God even thy God when the voice of God testifies against me in mine owne conscience It is more pregnant evidence then this when his voice testifies against me in his word in his Scriptures The Lord testified against Israel by all the Prophets and by all the Seers When I can never be alone but that God speakes in me but speakes against me when I can never open his booke but the first sentence mine eye is upon is a witnesse against me this is fearfull evidence But in this text we are not in that storme for he hath made us Testabiles that is ready to testifie for him to the effusion of our bloud and Testabiles that is fit to take benefit by the testament that hee hath made for us The effusion of his bloud which is our second branch what is testified for us what these witnesses establish First then that which a sinner must be brought to understand and beleeve by the strength of these witnesses is Integritas Christi not the Integrity as it signifies the Innocency of Christ but integrity as it signifies Intireness not as it is Integer vitae but Integra vita not as he kept an integrity in his life but as he onely is intirely our life That Christ was a person composed of those two Natures divine and humane whereby he was a fit and a full satisfaction for all our sinnes and by death could be our life for when the Apostle writ this Epistle it seemes there had been a schisme not about the Mysticall body of Christ the Church but even about the Naturall that is to say in the person of Christ there had been a schisme a separation of his two natures for as we see certainly before the death of this Apostle that the Heresie of Ebion and of Cerinthus which denied the divine nature of Christ was set on foot for against them purposely was the Gospell of Saint Iohn written so by Epiphanius his ranking of the Heresies as they arose where he makes Basilides his Heresie which denied that Christ had any naturall body to be the fourth herefie and Ebions to be the tenth it seemes that they denied his humanity before they denied his Divinity And therefore it is well collected that this Epistle of Saint Iohn being written long
was come and gone for so much as belonged to the accomplishing of the types of the old law then Christ came againe to us by water and bloud in that wound which he received upon his side from which there flowed out miraculously true water true bloud This wound Saint Augustine calls Ianuam utriusque Sacramenti the doore of both sacraments where we see he acknowledges but two and both presented in this water and bloud and so certainely doe most of the fathers make this wound if not the foundation yet at least a sacrament of both the sacraments And to this water and bloud doth the Apostle here without doubt aime principally which he onely of all the Evangelists hath recorded and with so great asseveration and assurednesse in the recording thereof He that saw it bare record and his record is true and he knoweth that he saith truth that yee might beleeve it Here then is the matter which these six witnesses must be beleeved in here is Integritas Iesu quae non solvenda the intirenesse of Christ Jesus which must not be broken That a Saviour which is Iesus appointed to that office that is Christ figured in the law by ablutions of water and sacrifices of bloud is come and hath perfected all those figures in water and bloud too and then that he remaines still with us in water and bloud by meanes instituted in his Church to wash away our uncleannesses and to purge away our iniquities and to apply his worke unto our Soules this is Integritas Iesu Iesus the sonne of God in heaven Jesus the Redeemer of man upon earth Jesus the head of a Church to apply that to the end this is Integritas Iesu all that is to be beleeved of him Take thus much more that when thou comest to hearken what these witnesses shall say to this purpose thou must finde something in their testimony to prove him to be come not onely into the world but into thee He is a mighty prince and hath a great traine millions of ministring spirits attend him and the whole army of Martyrs follow the Lambe wheresoever he goes Though the whole world be his Court thy soule is his bedchamber there thou maist contract him there thou maist lodge and entertaine Integrum Iesum thy whole Saviour And never trouble thy selfe how another shall have him if thou have him all leave him and his Church to that make thou sure thine owne salvation When he comes to thee he comes by water and by bloud If thy heart and bowels have not yet melted in compassion of his passion for thy soule if thine eyes have not yet melted in tears of repentancâ— and contrition he is not yet come by water into thee If thou have suffered nothing for sinne nor found in thy selfe a chearfull disposition to suffer if thou have found no wresting in thy selfe no resistance of Concupiscences he that comes not to set peace but to kindle this war is not yet come into thee by bloud Christ can come by land by purchases by Revenues by temporall blessings for so he did still convey himselfe to the Jewes by the blessing of the land of promise but here he comes by water by his owne passion by his sacraments by thy tears Christ can come in a mariage and in Musique for so he delivers himselfe to the spouse in the Canticles but here he comes in bloud which comming in water and bloud that is in meanes for the salvation of our soules here in the militant Church is the comming that he stands upon and which includes all the Christian Religion and therefore he proves that comming to them by these three great witnesses in heaven and three in earth For there are three which beare record in heaven The Father the word and the holy Ghost and these three are one And there are three which bear record in the earth The spirit and the water and the bloud and these three agree in one By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be confirmed says Christ out of the law That 's as much as can be required in any Civill or Criminall businesse and yet Christ gives more testimony of himselfe for here he produces not Duos testes but Duas Classes two rankes of witnesses and the fullest number of each not two but three in heaven and three in earth And such witnesses upon earth as are omni exceptione majores without all exception It is not the testimony of earthly men for when Saint Paul produces them in abundance The Patriarch the Iudges the Prophets the elders of the old times of whom he exhibits an exact Catalogue yet he calls all them but Nubes testium cloudes of witnesses for though they be cloudes in Saint Chrysostomes sense that they invest us and enwrap us and so defend us from all diffidence in God we have their witnesse what God did for them why should we doubt of the like though they be cloudes in Athanasius sense they being in heaven showre downe by their prayers the dew of Gods grace upon the Church Though they be cloudes they are but cloudes some darkenesse mingled in them some controversies arising from them but his witnesses here are Lux inaccessibilis that light that no eye can attaine to and Pater Luminum the father of lights from whom all these testimonies are derived When God imployed a man to be the witnesse of Christ because men might doubt of his testimony God was content to assigne him his Compurgators when Iohn Baptist must preach that the kingdome of God was at hand God fortifies the testimony of his witnesse then Hic enim est for this is he of whom that is spoken by the prophet Esay and lest one were not enough he multiplies them as it is written in the prophets Iohn Baptist might be thought to testifie as a man and therefore men must testifie for him but these witnesses are of a higher nature these of heaven are the Trinity and those of earth are the sacraments and seales of the Church The prophets were full of favor with God Abraham full of faith Stephen full of the Holy Ghost many full of grace and Iohn Baptist a prophet and more then a prophet yet never any prophet never any man how much soever interessed in the favor of Almighty God was such an instrument of grace as a sacrament or as Gods seales and institutions in his Church and the least of these six witnesses is of that nature and therefore might be beleeved without more witnesses To speake then first of the three first the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost it was but a poore plot of the devill to goe about to rob us of their testimony for as long as we have the three last the spirit the water and bloud we have testimony enough of Christ because God is involved in his ordinance and though he be not tyed to the worke of the
Sacrament yet he is always present in it Yet this plot the devill had upon the Church And whereas this first Epistle of Saint Iohn was never doubted to be Canonicall whereas both the other have been called into some question yet in this first Epistle the first verse of this text was for a long time removed or expung'd whether by malice of Heretiques or negligence of transcribers The first Translation of the new testament which was into Syriaque hath not this verse That which was first called Vulgata editio had it not neither hath Luther it in his Germane translation very many of the Latine Fathers have it not and some very ancient Greeke Fathers want it though more ancient then they have it for Athanasius in the Councell of Nice cites it and makes use of it and Cyprian beheaded before that Councell hath it too But now he that is one of the witnesses himselfe the Holy Ghost hath assured the Church that this verse belongs to the Scripture and therefore it becomes us to consider thankfully and reverently this first ranke of witnesses the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost The Father then hath testified De integritate Christi of this intirenesse that Christ should be all this and doe all this which we have spoken of abundantly he begunne before Christ was borne in giving his name Thou shalt call his name Iesus for he shall save his people from sin Well how shall this person be capable to doe this office of saving his people from sinne Why in him say God the father in the representation of an Angell shall be fulfilled that prophecy A virgin shall beare a Sonne and they shall call his name Emanuel which is by interpretation God with us This seemes somewhat an incertaine testimony of a Man with an Alià s dictus with two names God says he shall be called Iesus that the prophecy may be fulfilled which says he shall be called Emanuel but therein consists Integritas Christi this intirenesse he could not be Jesus not a Saviour except he were Emanuel God with us God in our nature Here then is Jesus a Saviour a Saviour that is God and Man but where is the Testimony De Christo that he was anointed and prepared for this sacrifice that this worke of his was contracted between the Father and him and acceptable to him It is twice testified by the Father both in Christs act of humiliation when he would be Baptized by Iohn when he would accept an ablution who had no uncleannesse then God says This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased he was well pleased in his person and he was well pleased in his act in his office And he testifies it againe in his first act of glory in his transfiguration where the Father repeates the same words with an addition Heare him God is pleased in him and would have Men pleased in him too He testified first onely for Iosephs sak that had entertained and lodged some scrupulous suspition against his wife the Blessed Virgine His second testimony at the baptisme had a farther extent for that was for the confirmation of Iohn Baptist of the preacher himselfe who was to convey his doctrine to many others His third testimony in the transfiguration was larger then the Baptisme for that satisfied three and three such as were to carry it farre Peter and Iames and Iohn All which no doubt made the same use of his testimony as we see Peter did who preached out of the strength of his manifestation we followed not deceivable fables but with our owne eyes we saw his Majesty for he received of God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the Excellent glory This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased But yet the Father gave a more free a more liberall testimony of him then this at his Conception or Baptisme or Transfiguration when upon Christs prayer Father glorifie thy Name there came a voice from heaven I have both glorified it and will glorifie it againe For this all the people apprehended some imputed it to Thunder some to an Angel but all heard it and all heard Christs comment upon it That that voice came not for him but for their sakes so that when the Father had testified of a Iesus a Saviour and a Christ a Saviour sent to that purpose and a Sonne in whom he is pleased and whom we must heare when it is said of him moreover Gratificavit â—â—s in Dilectâ— he hath made us accepted in his beloved this is his way of comming in water and bloud that is in the sacraments of the Church by which we have assurance of being accepted by him and this is this Integritas Christi the intirenesse of Christ testified by our first witnesse that bears record in heaven The father The second witnesse in heaven is verâ—um The Word and that is a welcome message for it is Christ himselfe It is not so when the Lord sends a word The Lord sent a word unto Iacob and it lighted upon Israelâ— there the word is a judgement and an execution of the Judgement for that word that signifies 2 word there in the same letters exactly signifies a pestilence a Calamity It is a word and a blow but the word here is verbum cara that Word which for our sakes was made our selves The word then in this place is the second person in the Trinity Christ Iesus who in this Court of heaven where there is no corruption no falsification no passion but fair and just proceeding is admitted to be a witnesse in his owne cause It is Iesus that testifies for Iesus now when he was upon earth and said If I should beare witnesse of my selfe my witnesse were not true whether we take those words to be spoken per Coâ—nlventiam by an allowance and concession It is not true that is I am content that you should not beleeve my witnesse of my selfe to be true as Saint Cyrill understand them or whether we take them Humana mare that Christ as a man acknowledged truely and as he thought that inlegall proceeding a mans owne testimony ought not to be beleeved in his owne behalfe as Athanâ—â—ius and Saint Ambrose understand them yet Christ might safely say as he did Though I beare a record of my selfe yet my record is true why because I know whence I come and whither I goe Christ could not be Singularis â—â—stis a single witnesseâ— He was alwayes more then one witnesse because he had alwayes more then 〈◊〉 God and man and therefore Christ instructing Nicodemus speakes plurally we speake that 〈◊〉 know we testifie that we have seene and you receive not Testimoniâ—â— nâ—strum our witnesseâ— he does not say my witnesse but ours because although a singular yet he was a plurall person too His testimony then was credible but how did he testifie Integritatem this intirenesse
all that belonged to our faithâ— All consists in this that he was Iesus capable in his nature to be a Saviour that he was Christus ordained and sent for that office and then Quod venit that be was come and come in aqus sanguine in water and bloud in sacraments which might apply him to us That he was Iesus a person capable his miracles testified aloud and frequently that he was Christ anointed and sent for that his reference of all his actions to his Father testified both these were enwrapped in that that he was the Sonne of God and that he professed himselfe upon the earth to be so for so it appeares plainely that he had plainely done We have a law say the Jews to Pilate and by our law he ought to die because he made himselfe the Sonne of God And for the last part that he came In aqua sanguine in water and bloud in such meanes as were to continue in the Church for our spirituall reparation and sustentation he testified that in preaching so piercing Sermons in instituting so powerfull Sacraments in assuring us that the love of God expressed to mankind in him extended to all persons and all times God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Sonne that whoseever beleeveth in him should not perish but have life everlasting And so the words beare record De Integritate of this Intirenesse of the whole worke of our Redemption and therefore Christ is not onely truely called a Martyr in that sense as Martyr signifies a witnesse but he is truly called a Martyr in that sense as we use the word ordinarily for he testified this truth and suffered for the testimony of it and therefore he is called Jesus Christ Martyr a faithfull witnesse And there is Martyrium a Martyrdome attributed to him where it is said Jesus Christ under Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession so he was a speaking and a doing and a suffering witnesse Now for the third witnesse in heaven which is the holy Ghost we may contract our selves in that for the whole work was his Before Ioseph and Mary came together she was found with Child of the holy Ghost which if we take it as Saint Basil and divers others of the Fathers doe that Ioseph found it by the holy Ghost that is the holy Ghost informed him of it then here the holy Ghost was a witnesse to Ioseph of this Conception but we rather take it as it is most ordinarily taken that the Angell intimated this to Ioseph That that which was conceived in her was of the holy Ghost and then the holy Ghost did so primarily testifie this decree of God to send a Iesus and a Christ for our Redemption that himselfe was a blessed and bountifull actor in that Conception he was conceived by him by his overshadowing So that the holy Ghost did not onely testifie his comming but he brought him And then for his comming in Aqua sanguine in water and bloud that is in Sacraments in meanes by which he might be able to make his comming usefull and appliable to us first the holy Ghost was a pregnant witnesse of that at his Baptisme for the holy Ghost had told Iohn Baptist before-hand That upon whomsoever he should descend and tarry still that should be he that should baptize with the holy Ghost and then according to those Markes he did descend and tarry still upon Christ Iesus in his baptisme And after this falling upon him and tarrying upon him which testified his power in all his life expressed in his doctrine and in his Sermons after his death and Resurrection and Ascension the holy Ghost gave a new testimony when he fell upon the Apostles in Cloventongues and made them spirituall channells in which this water and bloud the meanes of applying Christ to us should be convey'd to all Nations and thus also the third witnesse in heaven testified De integritate of this intirenesse of Iesus Of these three witnesses then which are of heaven we shall need to adde no more but that which the text addes that is That these three are one that is not onely one in Consent they all testifie of one point they all speake to one Intergatory Ad integritatem Christi to prove this intirenesse of Christ but they are Vnum Essentia The Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost are all one Godhead and so meant and intended to be in this place And therefore as Saint Hierome complained when some Copies were without this seventh verse that thereby we had lost a good argument for the unity of the three Persons because this verse said plainely that the three witnesses were all one so I am sorry when I see any of our later expositors deny that in this place there is any proofe of such an unity but that this Vnum sunt They are one is onely an unity of consent and not of essence It is an unthrifty prodigality howsoever we be abundantly provided with arguments from other places of Scriptures to prove this Vnity in Trinity to cast away so strong an argument against Iew and Turke as is in these words for that and for the consubstantiality of Christ which was the Tempest and the Earthquake of the Primitive Church raised by Arius and his followers then and God knowes not extinguished yet Thus much I adde of these three witnesses that though they be in heaven their testimony is upon the earth for they need not to testifie to one another this matter of Jesus The Father heares of it every day by the continuall intercession of Christ Jesus The Sonne feeles it every day in his new crucifying by our sinnes and in the perfecution of his Mysticall body here The holy Ghost hath a bitter sense of it in our sinnes against the holy Ghost and he hath a loving sense of it in those abundant seas of graces which flow continually from him upon us They need no witnesses in heaven but these three witnesses testifie all this to our Consciences And therefore the first author that is observed to have read and made use of this seventh verse which was one of the first Bishops of Rome he reads the words thus Tres in nobis there are three in us which beare witnesse in heaven they testifie for our sakes and to establish our assurance De Integritate Iesu that Jesus is come and come with meanes to save the world and to save us And therefore upon these words Saint Bernard collects thus much more that there are other witnesses in heaven which restifie this worke of our Redemption Angels and Saints all the Court all the Quire of heaven testifie it but catera nobis occults says he what all they doe we know not but according to the best dispositions here in this world we acquaint our selves and we choose to keep company with the best and so not onely the poore Church s the earth
but every poore soule in the Church may heare all these three witnesses testifying to him Integrum Iesum suum that all which Christ Jesus hath done and suffered appertaines to him but yet to bring it nearer him in visible and sensible things There are tres de terra three upon earth too The first of these three upon earth is the Spirit which Saint Augustine understands of the spirit the soule of Christ for when Christ commended his spirit into the hands of his Father this was a testimony that he was Verus hemo that he had a soule and in that he laid downe his spirit his soule for no Man could take it from him and tooke it againe at his pleasure in his resurrection this was a testimony that he was Verus Deus true God And so says Saint Augustine Spiritus The spirit that is anima Christi the soule of Christ did testifie De integritate Iesu all that belonged to Jesus as he was God and as he was Man But this makes the witnesses in heaven and the witnesses in earth all one for the personall testimony of Christs preaching and living and dying the testimony which was given by these three Persons of the Trinity was all involv'd in the first rank of witnesses Those three which are in heaven Other later Men understand by the Spirit here the Spirit of every Regenerate Man and that in the other heavenly witnesses the spirit is Spiritus sanctus the spirit that is holy in it selfe the holy Ghost and here it is Spiritus sanctificatus that spirit of Man which is made holy by the holy Ghost according to that The same spirit beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God But in this sense it is too particular a witnesse too singular to be intended here for that speakes but to one Man at once The spirit therefore here is Spiritus oris the word of God the Gospell and the preaching and ministration thereof We are made Ministers of the New testament of the spirit that giveth life And if the ministration of death were glorious how shall not the ministration of the spirit be more glorious It is not therefore the Gospell meerly but the preaching of the Gospell that is this spirit Spiritus sacerdotis vehioulum Spiritus Dei The spirit of the Minister is not so pure as the spirit of God but it is the chariot the meanes by which God will enter into you The Gospell is the Gospell at home at your house and there you doe well to read it and reverence it as the Gospell but yet it is not Spiritus it is not this Spirit this first witnesse upon earth but onely there where God hath blessed it with his institution and ordinance that is in the preaching thereof The stewardship and the dispensation of the graces of God the directing of his threatnings against refractary and wilfull sinners the directing of his promises to simple and supple and conâ—rite penitents the breaking of the bread the applying of the Gospell according to their particular indigences in the preaching thereof this is the first witnesse The second witnesse here is The water and I know there are some Men which will not have this to be understood of the water of Baptisme but onely of the naturall effect of water that as the abtutions of the old law by water did purge us so we have an inward testimony that Christ doth likewise wash us cleane so the water here must not be so much as water but a metaphoricall and figurative water These men will not allow water in this place to have any relation to the sacrament and Saint Ambrose was so far from doubting that water in this place belonged to the sacrament that he applies all these three witnesses to the Sacrament of Baptisme Spiritus mentem renovat All this is done in Baptisme says he The Spirit renewes and disposes the mind Aqua perficit ad Lavacrum The water is applied to cleanse the body Sanguis Spectat ad preâ—lium and the bloud intimates the price and ransome which gives force and virtue to this sacrament And so also says he in another place In sanguine mors in the bloud there is a representation of death in the water of our buriall and in the spirit of our owne life Some will have none of these witnesses on earth to belong to baptisme not the water and Ambrose will have all spirit and water and bloud to belong to it Now both Saint Ambrose who applies all the three witnesses to Baptisme and those later men which deny any of the witnesses to belong to baptisme doe both depart from the generall acceptation of these words that water here and onely that signifies the Sacrament of baptisme For as in the first creation the first thing that the spirit of God is noted to have moved upon was the waters so the first creature that is sanctified by Christs institution to our Salvation is this element of water The first thing that produced any living sensible creature was the water Primus liquor qnod viveret edidit ne mirum sit quod in Baptismo aquae aâ—nimare noverunt water brought forth the first creatures says Tertullian That we should not wonder that water should bring forth Christians The first of Gods afficting miracles in Egypt was the changing of water into bloud and the first miracle of grace in the new Testament was the changing of water into wine at the mariage So that water hath still been a subject and instrument of Gods conversation with man So then Aqua janua ecclesiae we cannot come into the Church but by water by baptisme for though the Church have taken knowledge of other Baptismes Baptisma sanguinis which is Martyrdome and Baptisma Flaminis which is a religious desire to be baptized when no meanes can be got yet there is no other sacrament of Baptisme but Baptisma Fluminis the Baptisme of water for the rest Conveniunt in causando sed non in significando says the Schoole that is God doth afford a plentifull retribution to the other baptismes Flaminis and Sanguinis but God hath not ordained them to be outward seales and significations of his grace and to be witnesses of Iesus his comming upon earth as this water is And therefore they that provide not duly to bring their children to this water of life not to speake of the essentiall necessity thereof they take from them one of the witnesses that Iesus is come into them and as much as they can they shut the Church dore against them they leave them out of the Arke and for want of this water cast them into that generall water which overflowes all the rest of the world which are not brought within the Covenant by this water of baptisme For though in the first Translation of the new Testament into Syriaque that be said in the sixth verse that Jesus is come per manus
aquarum by the power of waters many waters and in this verse this witnesse is delivered in the plurall spirit and waters and so waters in that signification which signification they have often in the Scriptures that is affliction and tribulation be good testimonies that our Lord Jesus doth visit us though the waters of Coâ—trition and repentant teares be another good testimony of that too yet that water which testifies the presence of Jesus so as that it doth always infallibly bring Jesus with it for the Sacraments are never without Grace whether it be accepted or no there it is â— That water which is made equall with the preaching of the Word so farre as to be a fellow-witnesse with the Spirit that is onely the Sacrament of baptisme without which in the ordinary dispensation of God no soule can be surer that Jesus is come to him then if he had never heard the Word preached he mistakes the spirit the first witnesse if he refuse the water the second The third witnesse upon earth is bloud and that is briefly the Communion of the body and bloud of Iesus in the Lords Supper But how is that bloud upon earth I am not ashamed to confesse that I know not how but the bloud of Christ is a witnesse upon earth in the Sacrament and therefore upon the earth it is Now this Witnesse being made equall with the other two with preaching and with baptisme it is as necessary that he that will have an assuranceâ— that Iesus is come into him doe receive this Sacrament as that he doe heare Sermâ—nâ— and that he be baptized An over vehement urging of this necessity brought in an erroneous custome in the Primitive Church That they would give the Sacrament of the body of Christ to Children as soon as they were baptized yea and to dead man too But because this Sacrament is accompanied with precepts which can belong onely to Men of understanding for they must doe it in Remembrance and they must discerne the Lords body therefore the necessity lies onely upon such as are come to those graces and to that understanding For they that take it and doe not discerne it not know what they do they take it dangerously But else for them to whom this Sacrament belongs if they take it not their hearing of Sermons and their baptisme doth them no good for what good can they have done them if they have not prepared themselves for it And therefore as the Religion of the Church holds a stubborne Recusant at the table at the Communion bord as farre from her as a Recusant at the Pew that is a Non-communicant as ill as a not commer or a not hearer so I doubt not but the wisdome of the state weighs them in the same balance For these three agree in one says the text that is first they meet in one Man and then they testifie the same thing that is Integritatem Iesu that Iesus is come to him in outward Meanes to save his soule If his conscience find not this testimony all these availe him nothing If we remaine vessells of anger and of dishonour still we are under the Vae vâ—bis Hypocritis woe unto you Hypocrites that make cleane onely the outside of your cuppes and Platters That baptize and wash your owne and your childrens bodies but not their mindes with instructions When we shall come to say Docuisti in plateis we have heard thee preach in our streets we have continued our hearing of thy Word when we say Manducavimus coram te we have eate in thy presence at thy table yea Manducavimus tâ— we have eaten thee thy selfe yet for all this outward show of these three witnesses of Spirit and Water and bloud Preaching and Baptisme and Communion we shall heare that fearfull disclaiming from Christ Jesus Nescio vos I know not whence you are But these witnesses he will always heare if they testifie for us that Jesus is come unto us for the Gospell and the preaching thereof is as the deed that conveys Iesus unto us the water the baptisme is as the Seale that assures it and the bloud the Sacrament is the delivery of Christ into us and this is Integritas Iesu the entire and full possession of him To this purpose therefore as we have found a Trinity in heaven and a Trinity in earth so we must make it up a Trinity of Trinities and finde a third Trinity in our selves God created one Trinity in us the observation and the enumeration is Saint Bernards which are those three faculties of our soule the reason the memory the will That Trinity in us by another Trinity too by suggestion towards sin by delight in sinne by consent to sinne is fallen into a third Trinity The memory into a weaknesse that that comprehends not God it glorifies him not for benefits received The reasen to a blindnesse that that discernes not what is true and the will to a perversnesse that that wishes not what 's good But the goodnesse of God by these three witnesses on earth regenerates and reestablishes a new Trinity in us faith and hope and charity Thus farre that devout Man carries it And if this new Trinity faith and hope and charity witnesse to us Integritatem Christi all the worke of Christ If my faith testifie to me that Christ is sealed to my soule and my hope testifie that at the Resurection I shall have a perfect fruition in soule and body of that glory which he purchased for every beleever and my charity testifies to the world that I labour to make sure that salvation by a good life then there 's a Trinity of Trinities and the six are made nine witnesses There are three in heaven that testifie that this is done for all Mankinde Three in the Church that testifie this may be done for me and three in my soule that testifie that all this is applied to me and then the verdict and the Judgement must necessarily goe for me And beloved this Judgement will be grounded upon this intirenesse of Jesus and therefore let me dismisse you with this note That Integritas is in continuitate not in contignitate It is not the touching upon a thing nor the comming neare to a thing that makes it intire a fagot where the sticks touch a peece of cloth where the threds touch is not intire To come as neare Christ as we can conveniently to trie how neare we can bring two Religions together this is not to preserve Integritatem Iesu In a word Intirenesse excludes deficiency and redundancy and discontinuance we preserve not intirenesse if we preserve not the dignity of Christ in his Church and in his discipline and that excludes the defective Separatist we doe not preserve that entirenesse if we admit traditions and additions of Men in an equality to the word of God and that excludes the redundant Papist neither doe we preserve the entirenesse if we admit a discontinuance
can cover it and say He that knew that I bought my office will be content to let me be a saver by it If our hands be foule with shedding of innocent bloud as Saint Hierome sayes that Adam eate the Apple Ne contristaretur Delicias suas left he should over grieve his wife by refusing it Ne contristaremur Delicias nostras either because we would not displease another or because our beloved sinne to which we had maried our selves did sollicite us to it Particular excuses cover our particular defects from the sight of men but to put on Christ covers us all over even from the sight of God himselfe So that how narrowly so ever he search into us he sees nothing but the whitenesse of his Sonnes innocency and the rednesse of his Sonnes bloud When the prodigall child returned to his father his father clothed him intirely and all at once he put a robe upon him to cover all his defects which Robe when God puts upon us in clothing us with Christ that robe is not onely Dignitaes quam perdidit Adam as Augustine says but it is Amictus sapientiae as Ambrase enlarges it It does not onely make us aswell as we were in Adam but it enables us better to preserve that state It does not onely cover us that is make us excusable for our past and present sinnes but it indues us with grace and wisdome to keep that robe still and never to returne to our former foulnesses and deformities Our first parents Adam and Eve were naked all over but they were not sensible of all their nakednesse but onely of those parts whereof they were ashamed Nothing but the shame of the world makes us discerne our deformities And onely for those faults which shame makes us take knowledge of we goe about to provide And we provide nothing but short Aprons as that word signified and those but of fig-leaves That which comes first to hand and that which is withered before it is made that doe we take for an excuse for an aversion of our owne conscience when she begins to cast an eye or to examine the nakednesse and deformities of our soules But when God came to cloath them their short aprons were extended to coates that covered them all over and their fig-leaves to strong skins for God saw that not onely those parts of which they were already ashamed needed covering but that in all their other parts if they continued naked and still exposed to the Injurie and violence of the weather they would contract diseases and infirmities and therefore God covers them so throughly as he doth not onely provide for reparation of former inconveniences but prepare against future And so perfect effects doth this garment Christ Iesus work upon us if we put him on He doth not onely cover Originall sinnes which is the effect of those disobedient Members which derive sinne upon us in the sinfull generation of our parents but he covers all our actuall sinnes which we multiplie every day and not onely those which the world makes us ashamed of but which we hide from the world yea which we hide from our selfes that is sinnes which by a long custome of practise we commit so habitually and so indifferently as that we have forgot that they are sinnes But as it was in Adams Clothing there so must it be in our spirituall putting on of Christ. The word used there Labash doth not signifie that God cloathed Adam nor that Adam cloathed himselfe but as the Grammarians call it it is in Hiphil and it signified Induere fecit eos God caused them to be cloathed or God caused them to cloath themselves which is also intimated nay evidently expressed in the words of this text we are our selves poore and impotent creatures we cannot make our selves ready we are poore and beggerly creatures we have nothing to put on Christ is that garment and then Christ is the very life by which we stretch out our armes and our legs to put on that garment yea he puts it on upon us he doth the whole worke but yet he doth not thrust it on He makes us Able to put it on but if we be not willing then he puts no necessity upon our will but we remaine naked still Induere then to put on is an extension a dilatation over all And sometimes it signifies an abundant and overflowing and overwhelming measure of Gods judgements upon us Princeps Induetur desolatione The prince shal be 〈◊〉 with desolation and with astonishment But most commonly the rich and all-sufficient proportion of his mercies and spirituall benefits as he expressed it to his Apostles at his ascension Stay you in the Citty quousque Induamini virtute ex alto till ye be indued so we translate it that is cloathed with power from on high And this was per fidem ei innitends and per opera cum declar ando says Saint Augustine He onely hath pat on Christ which hath Christ in himselfe by faith and shewes him to others by his works which is Lucernâ— ardens as Christ said of Iohn Baptist a burning lamp and a shining lamp profitable to others as well as to himselfe There is a degree of vanity and pride whereby some Men delight to weare their richest clothes innermost and most out of sight But in this double garment of a Christian it is necessarily so for faith is the richest and most precious part of this garment an this which is our Holy-day garment is worne innermost for that our faith is onely seen by God but our outward garment of workes which is our worky-day garment that is our sanctification is seen of all the world And that also must be put on or else we have not put on Christ and it must cover us all over that is our sanctification must goe through our whole life in a constant and an even perseverance we must not onely be Hospitale and feed the poore at Christmas be sober and abstinent the day that we receive repent and thinke of amendment of life in the day of visitation and sicknesse but as the garment which Christ wore was seamlesse and intire so this garment which is Christ Iesus that is our sanctification should be intire and uninterrupted in the whole course of our lives we must remember that at the Mariage which figured the kingdome of heaven the master of the feast reprehended and punished him that was come in not expresly because he had not a wedding garment but Quâ—modo intrasti says he how camest thou in not having on thy wedding garment So that if it could be possible though we had put on the inside of this garment which is Christ that is if we had faith yet if we have not the outside too that is sanctification we have not put on Christ as we should for this is Indui virtute ex alto to have both inside faith and outside sanctification and to put it on so that it may
of his word or in scantler measure not to be always a Christian but then when thou hast use of being one or in a different fashion to be singular and Schisâ—aticall in thy opinion for this is one but an ill manner of putting on of Christ as a garment The second and the good way is to put on his righteousnesse and his innocency by imitation and conforming our selves to him Now when we goe about earnestly to make our selves Temples and Altars and to dedicate our selves to God we must change our clothes As when God bad Iacob to goe up to Bethel to make an Altar he commanded all his family to change their clothes In which work we have two things to doe first we must put off those clothes which we had and appeare naked before God without presenting any thing of our owne for when the Spirit of God came upon Saul and that he prophecyed his first act was to strip himselfe naked And then sâ—condly we come to our transfiguration and to have those garments of Christ communicated to us which were as white as the light and we shall be admitted into that little number of which it is said Thou hast a few Namees in Sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall walke with â—e in white And from this which is Induere vestem from this putting on Christ as a garment we shall grow up to that perfection as that we shall Inâ—â—ere personam put on hiâ— his person That is we shall so appeare before the Father as that he shall take us for his owne Christ we shall beare his name and person and we shall every one be so accepted as if every one of us were all Mankind yea as if we were he himselfe He shall find in all our bodies his woundes in all our mindes his 〈◊〉 in all our hearts and actions his obedience And as he shall doe this by impâ—tation so really in all our Agonies he shall send his Angels to minister unto us as he did to Eliâ—s In all our tentations he shall furnish us with his Scriptures to confoâ—â—d the Tempter as be in person did in his tentation and in our heaviest tribulation which may exâ—â—â—â— from us the voice of diffidence My God My God why hast 〈◊〉 forsaken me He shall give us the assurance to say In manus tuas câ— Into thy â—ands O Lord have I coâ—â—â—â—nded my spirit and there I am safe He shall use us in all things as his sonne and we shall find restored in us the Image of the whole Trinity imprinted at our creation for by this Regeneration we are adopted by the Father in the bloud of the Sonne by the sanctification of the holy Ghost Now this putting on of Christ whereby we stand in his place at Gods Tribunall implies as I said both our Election and our sanctification both the eternall purpose of God upon us and his execution of that purpose in us And because by the first by our Election we are members of Christ in Gods purpose before baptisme and the second which is sanctification is expressed after baptisme in our lives and conversation therefore Baptisme intervenes and comes between both as a seale of the first of Election and as an instrument and conduit of the second Sanctification Now Abscendita Dominâ— Dea nostro quae manifesta suâ—s nobis let no Man be too curiously busie to search what God does in his hedchamber we have all enough to answer for that which we have done in our bedchamber For Gods eternall decree himselfe is master of those Rolls but out of those Rolls he doth exemplifie those decrees in the Sacrament of baptisme by which Copy and exemplification of his invisible and unsearchable decree we plead to the Church that we are Gods children we plead to our owne consciences that we have the Spirit of adoption and we plead to God himselfe the obligation of his own promise that we have a right to this garment Christ Iesus and to those graces which must sanctifie us for from thence comes the reason of this text for all yeâ— that are baptized into Christ have put on Christ. As we cannot see the Essence of God but must see him in his glasses in his Images in his Creatures so we cannot see the decrees of God but must see them in their duplicats in their exemplification in the sacraments As it would doe him no good that were condemned of treason that a Bedchamber man should come to the Judge and swear he saw the king signe the prisoners pardon except he had it to pleade so what assurance soever what priâ—y marke soever those men which pretend to be so well acquainted and so familiar with the decrees of God to give thee to know that thou art elect to eternall salvation yea if an Angel from heaven comedowne and tell thee that he saw thy name in the booke of life if thou have not this Exemplification of the decree this seale this Sacrament if thou beest not baptized never delude thy selfe with those imaginary assurances This Baptisme then is so necessary that first as Baptisme in a large acceptation signifies our dying and buriall with Christ and all the acts of our regeneration so in that large sense our whole life is a baptisme But the very sacrament of Baptismeâ— the actuall administration and receiving thereof was held so necessary that even for legall and Civill uses as in the law that child that dyed without circumcision had no interest in the family no participation of the honor nor name thereof So that we see in the reckning of the Genealogy and pedegree of David that first sonne of his which he had by Bathshebae which dyed without circumcision is never mentioned nor toucht upon So also since the time of Mâ—ses law in the Imperiall law by which law a posthume child borne after the fathers death is equall with the rest in division of the state yet if that child dye before he be baptized no person which should derive a right from him as the mother might if he dyed can have any title by him because he is not considered to have been at all if he dye unbaptized And if the State will not beleeve him to be a full Man shall the Church beleeve him to be a full Christian before baptisme Yea the apprehension of the necessity of this Sacrament was so common and so generall even in the beginning of the Christian Church that out of an excessive advancing of that trnth they came also to a falshoodâ— to an error That even they that dyed without baptisme might have the benefit of baptisme if another were baptized in their name after their deathâ— And so out of a mistaking of those words Else what shall they doe Qui baptizantur pro mortuis which is that are ready to dye when they are baptized the Marcionites induc'd a custome to lay one under the dead bodyes
shall grace grow with this infant to the lifes end And both we and it shall not onely put on Christ as a garment but we shall put on his person and we shall stand before his Father with the confidence and assurance of bearing his person and the dignity of his innocence SERMON VIII Preached at Essex house at the Churching of the Lady Doncaster CANT 5. 3. I have washed my feet how shall I defile them ALL things desire to goe to their owne place and that 's but the effect of Nature But if Man desires to goe the right way that 's an effect of grace and of Religion A stone will fall to the bottome naturally and a flame will goe upwards naturally but a stone cares not whether it fall through cleane water or through Mud a flame cares not whether it passe through pure aire or cloudy but a Christian whose end is heaven will put himselfe into a faire way towards it and according to this measure be pure as his father in heaven is pure That which is our end salvation we use to expresse in Schooles by these two termes we call it visionem Dei the sight of God and we call it unionem an union with God we shall see God and we shall be united to God for our seeing we shall see him Sicuti est as he is which we cannot expresse till we see him Cognoscam ut cognitus I shall know as I am known which is a knowledge reserved for that Schoole and a degree for that Commencement and not to be had before Moses obtained a sight of God here that he might see Posterior a Gods hinder parts and if we consider God in posterioribus in his later works in the fulfilling of all his Prophecies concerning our Redemption how he hath accomplished in novissimis in the later times all that which he spake ab initio by the mouth of his Prophets which have been since the world began if we see God in them it is a great beame of that visio beatifica that beautificall sight of God in heaven for herein we see the whole way of our salvation to be in Christ Iesus all promise all performance all prophecy all history concern us in and by him And then for that union with God which is also our salvation as this vision is when we shall be so united as that we shall follow the Lambe whither soever he goes though that union be unexpressible here yet here there is an union with God which represents that too Such an union as that the Church of which we are parts is his spouse and that 's Eadem care the same body with him and such an union as that the obedient children of the Church are Idem spiritus cum Dominâ— we are the same body and the same spirit So united as that by being sowed in the visible Church we are Semen Dei the seed of God and by growing up there in godlinesse and holinesse we are participes Divinae naturae partakers of the divine Nature it selfe Now these two unions which represent our eternall union with God that is the union of the Church to him and the union of every good soule in the Church to him is the subject of this Song of songs this heavenly Poeme of Solomons and our baptisme at our entrance into this world is a Seale of this union our mariage in the passage of this world is a Sacrament of this union and that which seems to be our dissolution our death is the strongest â—and of this union when we are so united as nothing can disunite us more Now for uniting things in this world we are always put to imploy baser and courser stuffe to unite them together then they themselves If we lay Marble upon Marble how well soever we polish the Marble yet we must unite them with morter If we unite riches to riches we temper a morter for the most part of our owne covetouâ—nesse and the losse and opressing of some other Men if we unite honours to honours titles to titles we temper a morter for the most part of our owne Ambition and the supplanting or excluding of some other Men But in the uniting of a Christian soule to Christ Jesus here is no morter all of one Nature Nothing but spirit and spirit and spirit the soule of Man to the Lord Jesus by the holy Ghost Worldly unions have some corrupt foulnesses in them but for this spirituall union Lavi pedes I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Which words though in the rigor of the coherence and connexion of this Scripture they imply a delay in the spouse of Christ and so in every soule too that when Christ called here the soule was not ready to come forth to him but made her excuses that she had put off her coate and was loath to rise to put it on that she had washed her feet and was loath to rise and foule them againe yet because the excuse it selfe if it were an excuse hath a piety and a Religious care in it the Fathers for the most part pretermit that weaknesse that produced an excuse and consider in their expositions the care that the soule had not to defile her selfe againe being once washed Saint Gregory says that the soule had laid off Omnia externa quae non tam ornant quà m â—nerant all outward ornaments which are rather encumbrances then ornaments And Saint Ambrose says Pedes lavi dum egrederer de corporis contubernio when I departed from the confederation of my body and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I wash'd my feet Quomodâ— in tenebrâ—sum carcerem reverterer And 〈◊〉 I returne into that darke and durty prison againe the love of mine owne body◠〈◊〉 suing therefore their pious acceptation of these words we have in them two festivalls of the soule a Resurrection and an ascension of it This soule hath raised it selfe from the durt and Mud of this world Lavit pedes she hath washed her feet and then she hath ascended to a resolution of keeping herselfe in that state Quomâ—do inquinabâ—eos how shall I defile them Call these two parts a Gratulation of the soule and an Indignation first she congratulates with her good and gratious God that she is cleansed from worldly corruptions Lavi pedes I have washed my feetâ— and then she conceives a Religious scorne and indignation of setting her foot in the same foule way againe Quomâ—do how how is it possible that I should descend to so low a disposition as to foule them againe This Resurrection then of the soule and gratâ—lation this Ascension of the soul Indignation will be our two parts And in the first we shal stop a little upon every one of these five branches There is ablutiâ— necessaria There is a washing that is necessary to all for we enter in foulenesse and corruption into this world and that we have in Baptisme for Originall sinne Secondly
over the pursuite of it till you overtake it Persquere follow it but first Inquire says David seek after it find where it is for here is not your rest Vnaquâ—que res in sua patria fortior If a Starre were upon the Earth it would give no light If a tree were in the Sea it would give no fruit every tree is fastest rooted and produces the best fruit in the soile that is proper for it Now here we have no continuing City but we seek one when we finde that we shall finde rest Here how shall we hope for it for our selves Intus pugnae foris timores we feel a warre of concupiscencies within aand we feare a battery of tentations without Si dissentiunt in domo uxor maritus periculâ—sa molestia says Saint Augustine If the Husband and wife agree not at home it is a troublesome danger and that 's every mans case for Care conjux our flesh is the wife and the spirit is the husband and they two will never agree But si dominetur uxor perversa pax says he and that 's a more ordinary case then we are aware of that the wife hath got the Mastery that the weaker vessell the flesh hath got the victory and then there is a show of peace but it is a stupidity a security it is not peace Let us depart out of our selves and looke upon that in which most ordinarily we place an opinion of rest upon worldly riches They that will be rich fall into tentations and snares and into many foolish and noysome lusts which drowne Men in perdition and in destruction for the desire of money is the root of evill Not the having of Money but the desire of it for it is Theophylacts observation that the Apostle does not say this of them that are rich but of them that will be made rich that set their heart upon the desire of riches and will be rich what way soever As the Partridge gathereth the young which she hath not brought forth so he that gathereth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his dayes and at his end shall be a foole he shall not make a wise will But shall his folly end at his end or the punishment of his folly We see what a restlesse fool he is all the way first because he wants roome he says he will pull downe his barnes and build new thus farre there 's no rest in the Diruit and adificat in pulling downe and building up Then he says to his soule live at ease he says it but he gives no ease he says it as he shall say to the Hills fall downe and cover usâ— but they shall stand still and his soule shall heare God say whilest he promises himselfe this case O foole this night they shall fetch away thy soule God does not onely not tell him who shall have his riches but he does not tell him who shall have his soule He leaves him no affurance no ease no peace no rest Here. This rest is not then in these things not in their use for they are got with labor and held with feare and these labour and feare admit no rest not in their nature for they are fluid and transitory and moveable and these are not attributes of rest If that word doe not reach to Land the land is not movable yet it reaches to thee when thou makest thine Inventory put thy selfe amongst the moveables for thou must remove from it though it remove not from thee So that what rest foever may be imagined in these things it is not your rest for howsoever the things may seem to rest yet you doe not It is not here at all not in that Here which is intimated in this Text not in the falling that is Here for sinne is a stupidity it is not a rest not in the rising that is Here for this remorse this repentance is but as a surveying of a convenient ground or an emptying of an inconvenient ground to erect a building upon not in the departing that is here for in that is intimated a building of new habits upon the ground so prepared and so a continuall and laborious travaile no rest falling and rising and departing and surveying and building are no words of rest for give these words their spirituall sense that this sense of our fall which is remorse after sinne this rising from it which is repentance after sinne this departing into a safer station which is the building of habits contrary to the former doe bring an ease to the conscience as it doth that powerfully and plentifully yet as when we journey by Coach we have an ease in the way but yet our rest is at home so in the ways of a regenerate Man there is an unexpressible ease and consolation here but yet even this is not your rest for as the Apostle says If I be not an Apostle unto others yet doubtlesse I am unto you so what rest soever others may propose unto themseleves for you whose conver sation is in heaven for this world to the righteous is Atrium templi and heaven is that Temple it selfe the Militant Church is the porch the Triumphant is the Sanctum Sanctorum this Church and that Church are all under one roofe Christ Jesus for you who appertaine to this Church your rests is in heaven And that consideration brings us to the last of the three interpretations of these words The first was a Commination a departing without any Rest propos'd to the Jewes The second was a Commonition a departing into the way towards Rest proposed to repentant sinners And this third is a Consolation a departing into Rest it selfe propos'd to us that beleeve a Resurrection It is a consolation and yet it is a funerall for to present this eternall Rest we must a little invert the words to the departing out of this world by death and so to arise to Judgement Depart and arise for c. This departing then is our last Exodus our last passeover our last transmigration our departing out of this life And then the Consolation is placed in this that we are willing and ready for this departing Qua gratia breve nobis tempus praescripsit Deus How mercifully hath God proceeded with Man in making his life short for by that means he murmurs the lesse at the miseries of this life and he is the lesse transported upon the pleasures of this life because the end of both is short It is a weaknesse sayes Saint Ambrose to complain De immaturitate mortis of dying before our time for we were ripe for death at our birth we were born mellow Secundum aliquem modum immortalis dici posset homo si esset tempus intra quod mori non posset is excellently said by the same Father If there were any one minute in a mans life in which he were safe
nor Land is our surety but our surety is one who is already crown'd with that Resurrection Num in hominibus terrae legeneraâ— quae omnia regenerat sayes Saint Ambrose will the earth that gives a new life to all Creatures faile in us and hold us in an everlasting winter without a spring and a Resurrection Certainly no but if we be content so to depart into the wombe of the Earth our grave as that we know that to be but the Entry into glory as we depart contentedly so we shall arise gloriously to that place where our eternall Rest shall be though here there be not our Rest for he that shoots an arrow at a mark yet means to put that arrow into his Quiver again and God that glorifies himselfe in laying down our bodies in the grave means also to glorifie them in reaffirming them to himselfe at the last day SERMON XI Preached at Lincolns Inne preparing them to build their Chappell Gâ—N 28. 16 17. Then Iacob awâ—ke out of his sleep and said Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware And he was afraid and said Now fearfull us this place This is none other but the House of God and this is the gate of Heaven IN these verses Iacob is a Surveyor he considers a fit place for the house of God and in the very next verse he is a Builder he erects Bethel the house of God it selfe All was but a drowsinesse but a sleep till he came to this Consideration as soon as he awoke he took knowledge of a fit place as soon as he found the place he went about the work But to that we shall not come yet But this Text being a preparation for the building of a house to God though such a house as Iacob built then require no contribution yet because such Churches as we build now doe we shall first say a little of that great vertue of Charity and then somewhat of that vertue as it is exercis'd by advancing the house of God and his outward worship And thirdly we shall consider Iacob's steps and proceedings in this action of his This vertue then Charity is it that conducts its in this life and accompanies us in the next In heaven where we shall know God there may be no use of faith In heaven where we shall see God there may be no use of hope but in heaven where God the Father and the Son love one another in the Holy Ghost the bond of charity shall everlastingly unite us together But Charitas in patria and Charitas in via differ m this That there we shall love one another because we shall not need one another for we shall all be fullâ— Here the exercise of our charity is because we doe stand in need of one another Dives pauper duo sunt sibi contraria sed iterum duo sunt sibi necessaria Rich and poor are contrary to one another but yet both necessary to one another They are both necessary to one another but the poor man is the more necessary because though one man might be rich though no man were poor yet he could have no exercise of his charity he could send none of his riches to heaven to help him there except there were some poor here He that is too fat would fain devest some of that though he could give that to no other man that lack'd it And shall not he that is wantonly pampered nay who is heavily laden and encombred with temporall abundances be content to discharge himself of some of that wherewith he is over-straighted upon those poor souls whom God hath not made poor for any sin of theirs or of their fathers but onely to present rich men exercise of their charity and occasions of testifying their love to Christ who having given himselfe to convey salvation upon thee if that conveyance may be sealed to thee by giving a little of thine own is it not an easie purchase When a poore wretch beggs of thee and thou givest thou dost but justice it is his But when he begs of God for thee and God gives thee this is mercy this was none of thine When we shall come to our Redde rationem villicationis to give an accompt of our Stewardship when we shall not measure our inheritance by Acres but all heaven shall be ours and we shall follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes when our estate and term shall not be limited by years and lives but as we shall be in the presence of the Ancient of dayes so our dayes shall be so far equall to his as that they shall be without end Then will our great Merchants great practisers great purchasers great Contracters find another language another style then they have been accustom'd to here There no man shall be call'd a prodigall but onely the Covetous man Onely he that hath been too diligent a keeper shall appear to have been an unthrift and to have wasted his best treasure the price of the bloud of Christ Iesue his own soule There no man shall be call'd good security but he that hath made sure his salvation No man shall be call'd a Subsidy man but he that hath relieved Christ Jesus in his sick and hungry Members No man shall be call'd a wise Steward but he that hath made friends of the wicked Mammon Nor provident Merchant but he that sold all to buy the pearle Nor a great officer but he that desires to be a dore-keeper in the kingdome of Heaven Now every man hath a key to this dore of heaven Every man hath some means to open it every man hath an oyle to anoint this key and make it turn easily he may goe with more case to Heaven then he doth to Hell Every man hath some means to pour this oile of gladnesse and comfort into anothers heart No man can say Quid retribuam tibi Domine Lord what have I to give thee for every man hath something to give God Money or labor or counsail or prayers Every man can give and he gives to God who gives to them that need it for his sake Come not to that expostulation When did we see thee hungry or sick or imprisoned and did not minister Nor to that Quid retribuam What can I give that lack my selfe lest God come also to that silence and wearinesse of asking at thy hands to say as he sayes in the Psalme If I be hungry I will not tell thee That though he have given thee abundance though he lack himselfe in his children yet he will not tell thee he will not ask at thy hands he will not enlighten thine understanding he will not awaken thy charity he will not give thee any occasion of doing good with that which he hath given thee But God hath given thee a key yea as he sayes to the Church of Philadelphia Behold I set before thee an open dore and no man can shut it Thou hast a
He was afraid and then he spoke againe that he might have an increase of grace The earth stands still and earthly Men may be content to doe so but he whose conversation is in heaven is as the heavens are in continuall progresse For Inter profectum defectum defectum medium in hac vita non datur A Christian is always in a proficiency or deficiency If he goe not forward he goes backward Nemo dicat satis est sic manere volâ— Let no man say I have done enough I have made my profession already I have been catechiz'd I have been thought fit to receive the Communion sufficit mihi esse sicut heri nudiustertius though he be in the way in the Church yet he sleeps in the way he is got no farther in the way then his godfathers carried him in their armes to engraffe him in the Church by Baptisme for this man says he In via residet in scala subsistit quod nemo angelorum fecit he stands still upon the ladder and so did none of the Angels Christ himself increased in wildome and in stature and in favour with God and Man so must a Christian also labour to grow and to encrease by speaking and speaking again by asking more and more questions and by farther and farther informing his understanding and enlightening his faith per transiit benefaciendo sanavit omnes says Saint Peter of Christ He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devill and it was prophesied of him Exultavit ut Gigas ad currendam vim He went forth as a Gyant to run a race If it be Christs pace it must be a Christians pace too Currentem non apprehendit nisi qui pariter currit There is no overtaking of him that runnes without running too Quid prodest Christum sequi si non consequamur and to what purpose do we follow Christ if not to overtake him and lay hold upon him Sic currite ut comprehendatis fige Christiane cursus profectus metam ubi Christus suum runne so as ye may obtain and if thou beest a Christian propose the same end of thy course as Christ did factus est obediens usque ad mortem and the end of his course was to be obedient unto death Speak then and talke continually of the name and the goodnesse of God speak again and again It is no tautology no babling to speak and â—terate his prayses Who accuses Saint Paul for repeating the sweet name of Jesus so very many times in his Epistles Who accuses David for repeating the same phrase the same sentence for his mercy endureth for ever so many times as he doth in his Psalms nay the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm is scarce any thing else then an often repetition of the same thing Thou spokest assoon as thou wast awake as soon as thou wast born thou spokest in Baptism So proceed to the farther knowledge of Religion and the mysteries of Gods service in his house and conceive a fearfull reverence of them in their institution and speak again enquire what they mean what they signify what they exhibit to thee Conceive a reverence of them first out of the authority that hath instituted them and then speak and inform thy self of them God spent a whole week in speaking for thy good Dixit Deus God spake that there might be light Dixit Deus God spâ—ke that there might be a firmament for immediately upon Gods speaking the work follow'd Dixit factum he spake the word and the world was created As God did a godly man shall do If he delight to talk of God to mention often upon all occasions the greatnesse and goodnesse of God to prefer that discourse before obscene and scurrile and licentious and profane and defamatory and ridiculous and frivolous talke If he delight in professing God with his tongue out of the abundance of his heart his works shall follow his words he will do as he says If God had given over when he had spake of Light and a Firmament and Earth and Sea and had not continued speaking till the last day when he made thee what hadst thou got by all that what hadst thou been at all for all that If thou canst speak when thou awakest when thou beginnest to have an apprehension of Gods presence in a remorse if then that presence and Majesty of God make thee afraid with the horrour and greatnesse of thy sinnes if thou canst not speak again then not goe forward with thy repentance thy former speech is forgotten by God and unprofitable to thee Iacob at first speaking confessed God to be in that place but so he might be every where but he conceived a reverentiall fear at his presence and then he came to speak the second time to professe that that was none other but the house of God and the gate of heaven that there was an entrance for him in particular a fit place for him to testifie and exercise his Devotion he came to see what it was fit for him to doe towards the advancing of Gods house Now whensoever a man is proceeded so far with Iacob first to sleep to be at peace with God and then to wake to doe something for the good of others and then to speak to make profession to publish his sense of Gods presence and then to attribute all this onely to the Light of God himself by which light he grows from faith to faith and from grace to grace whosoever is in this disposition he may say in all places and in all his actions This is none other but the house of God and this is the gate of heaven He shall see heaven open and dwell with him in all his undertakings and particularly and principally in his expressing of a care and respect both to Christs Mysticall and to his materiall body both to the sustentation of the poor and to the building up of Gods house In both which kinds of Piety and Devotion non nobis Domine non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name be given the glory As to the confusion of those shamelesse slanderers who place their salvation in works and accuse us to avert men from good works there have been in this Kingdome since the blessed reformation of Religion more publick charitable works perform'd more Hospitals and Celleges erected and endowed in threescore then in some hundreds of years of superstition before so may God be pleased to adde one example more amongst us that here in this place we may have some occasion to say of a house erected and dedicated to his service This is none other but the house of God and this is the gate of heaven and may he vouchsafe to accept at our hands in our intention and in our endevour to consummate that purpose of ours that thanksgiving that
of rising as some exaltation of his power that he is to Judge And that place in the beginning of that Psalme many of the antients read in the future Dijudicabit God shall judge the Gods because the frame of the Psalme seems to referre it to the last Judgment Turtullian reads it Dijudicavit as a thing past God hath judged in all times and the letter of the text requires it to be in the present Dijudicat Collect all and Judgment is so essentiall to God as that it is coeternall with him he hath he doth and he will judge the world and the Judges of the world other Judges die likemen weakely and they fall that 's worse ignominiously and they fall like Princes that 's worst fearfully and yet scornfully and when they are dead and faln they rise no more to execute Judgment but have Judgment executed upon them the Lord dyes not nor he falls not and if he seem to slumber the Martyrs under the Altar awake him with their Vsque quo Domine how long O Lord before thou execute Iudgment And he will arise and Judge the world for Judgment is his God putteth downe one and setteth up another says David where hath he that power Why God is the Judge not a Judge but the Judge and in that right he putteth downe one and setteth up another Now for this Judgment which we place in God we must consider in God three notions three apprehensions three kinds of Judgment First God hath Iudicium detestationis God doth naturally know and therefore naturally detest evill for no man in the extreamest corruption of nature is yet fallen so far as to love or approve evill at the same time that he knows and acknowledges it to be evill But we are so blind in the knowledge of evill that we needed that great supplement and assistance of the law it self to make us know what was evill Moses magnifies and justly the law Non appropinquâ—vit says Moses God came not so neare to any nation as to the Iews Non taliter fecit God dealt not so well with any nation as with the Iews and wherein because he had given them a law and yet we see the greatest dignity of this law to be That by the law is the knowledge of sinne for though by the law of nature written in our hearts there be some condemnation of some sinnes yet to know that every sinne was Treason against God to know that every sinne hath the reward of death and eternall death annexed to it this knowledge we have onely by the law Now if man will pretend to be a Judge what an exact knowledge of the law is required at his hand for some things are sinne to one nation which are not to another as where the just authority of the lawfull Magistrate changes the nature of the thing and makes a thing naturally indifferent necessary to them who are under his obedience some things are sinnes at one time which are not at another as all the ceremoniall law created new sinnes which were not sinnes before the law was given nor since it expir'd some things are sinnes in a man now which will not be sinnes in the same man to morrow as when a man hath contracted a just scruple against any particular action it is a sinne to doe it during the scruple and it may be sinne in him to omit it when he hath devested the scruple onely God hath Iudicium detestationis he knows and therefore detests evill and therefore flatter not thy self with a Tush God sees it not or Tush God cares not Doth it disquiet him or trouble his rest in heaven that I breake his Sabbath here Doth it wound his body or draw his bloud there that I swear by his body and bloud here Doth it corrupt any of his virgins there that I sollicit the chastity of a woman here Are his Martyrs withdrawn from their Allegeance or retarded in their service to him there because I dare not defend his cause nor speake for him nor fight for him here Beloved it is a degree of superstition and an effect of an undiscreet zeale perchance to be too forward in making indifferent things necessary and so to imprint the nature and sting of sin where naturally it is not so certainly it a more slippery and irreligious thing to be too apt to call things meerely indifferent and to forget that even in eating and drinking waking and sleeping the glory of God is intermingled as if we knew exactly the prescience and foreknowledge of God there could be nothing contingent or casuall for though there be a contingency in the nature of the thing yet it is certain to God so if we considered duly wherein the glory of God might be promov'd in every action of ours there could scarce by any action so indifferent but that the glory of God would turne the scale and make it necessary to me at that time but then private interests and private respects create a new indifferency to my apprehension and calls me to consider that thing as it is in nature and not as it is considered with that circumstance of the glory of God and so I lose that Iudicium detestationis which onely God hath absolutely and perfectly to know and therefore to detest evill and so he is a Judge And as he is a Judge so Iudicat rem he judges the nature of the thing he is so too as he hath Iudicium discretionis and so Iudicat personam he knows what is evill and he discernes when thou committest that evill Here you are fain to supply defects of laws that things done in one County may be tryed in another And that in offences of high nature transmarine offences may be inquir'd and tryed here But as the Prophet says Who measured the waters in the hollow of his hand or meted 〈◊〉 the heavens with a span who comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure or weighed the mountains in a scale So I say who hath divided heaven into shires or parishes or limited the territories and Jurisdictions there that God should not have Iudicium discretionis the power of discerning all actions in all places When there was no more to be seen or considered upon the whole earth but the garden of Paradise for from the beginning Deliciae ejus esse cum filiis hominum Gods delight was to be with the sons of men and man was only there shal we not deminish God nor speak too vulgarly of him to say that he hovered like a Falcon over Paradise and that from that height of heaven the piercing eye of God saw so little a thing as the forbidden fruit and what became of that and the reaching â—are of God heard the hissing of the Serpent and the whispering of the woman and what was concluded upon that Shall we think it little to have seen to have things done in Paradise when there was nothing else to divert
that thou hast not received he asks that question of a man that which is received is received as man For as Bellarmine in a place where he disposes himself to quarrell at some few words of Calvins though he confesse the matter to be true and as he cals it there Catholique says Essentiam genitam negamus we confesse that Christ hath not his essence from his Father by generation the relation the filiation he hath from his Father he hath the name of Son but he hath not this execution of this judgement by that relation by that filiation still as the Son of God he hath the capacity as the Sonne of man he hath the execution And therefore Prosper that follows S. Augustine limits perchance too narrowly to the very flesh to the humanity Ipsa not Ipsae â—rit Iudex quae sub Iudice stetit and ipsa judicabit quae judicatae est where he places not this Judgement upon the mixt person which is the safest way of God and man but upon man alone God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousnesse But by whom By that man whom he hath ordained God will judge still but still in Christ and therefore says S. Augustine upon those words Arise O Lord and judge the earth Cui Deo dicitur surge nisi ei qui dormivit What God doth David call upon to arise but that God who lay down to sleep in the grave as though he should say says August Dormivisti judicatus à terra surge judâ—ca terram So that to collect all though judgement be such a character of God as he cannot devest yet the Father hath committed such a Judgement to the Sonne as none but he can execute And what is that Omne judicium all judgement that is omne imperium omnem potestatem It is presented in the name of Judgement but it involves all It is literally and particularly Judgement in S. Iohn The Father hath given him authority to execute judgement It is extended unto power in Saint Matthew All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth And it is enlarg'd as far farther as can be expressed or conceived in another place of Saint Matthew All things are deliver'd to me of my Father Now all things our Saviour Christ Jesus exercises either per carnem or at least in carne whatsoever the Father does the Sonne does too In carne because now there is an unseparable union betwixt God and the humane nature The Father creates new souls every day in the inanimation of Children and the Sonne creates them with him The Father concurs with all second causes as the first moving cause of all naturall things and all this the Sonne does too but all this in carne Though he be in our humane flesh he is not the lesse able to doe the acts belonging to the Godhead but per carnem by the flesh instrumentally visibly he executes judgement because he is the Son of man God hath been so indulgent to man as that there should be no judgement given upon man but man should give it Christ then having all Judgment we refresh to your memory those three Judgements which we toucht upon before first the Judgement of our Election severing of vessels of honour and dishonor next the Judgement of our Justification here severing of friends from enemies and then the Judgment of our Glorification severing sheep from goats and for the first of our Election As if I were under the condemnation of the Law for some capitall offence and going to execution and the Kings mercy expressed in a sealed pardon were presented me I should not stand to enquire what mov'd the King to doe it what hee said to any body else what any body else said to him what hee saw in mee or what hee look't for at my hands but embrace that mercy cheerfully and thankfully and attribute it onely to his abundant goodnesse So when I consider my selfe to have been let fall into this world in massa Damnata under the generall condemnation of mankind and yet by the working of Gods Spirit I find at first a desire and after a modest assurance that I am delivered from that condemnation I enquire not what God did in his bed-chamber in his cabinet counsell in his eternall decree I know that hee hath made Iudicium electionis in Christ Jesus And therefore that I may know whether I doe not deceive my selfe in presuming my self to be of that number I come down and examine my selfe whether I can truly tell my conscience that Christ Jesus dyed for mee which I cannot doe if I have not a desire and an endevour to conform my self to him And if I do that there I finde my Predestination I am a Christian and I will not offer to goe before my Master Christ Jesus I cannot be sav'd before there was a Saviour In Christ Jesus is Omne judicium all judgement and therefore the judgment of Election the first separation of vessels of honour and dishonour in Election and Reprobation was in Christ Jesus Much more evidently is the second judgement of our Justification by means ordain'd in the Christian Church the Judgement of Christ it is the Gospel of Christ which is preacht to you there There is no name given under heaven whereby you should be saved there are no other means wherby salvation should be applyed in his name given but those which he hath instituted in his Church So that when I come to the second â—udgement to try whether I stand justifyed in the sight of Christ or no I come for that Judgement to Christ in his Church Doe I remember what I contracted with Christ Jesus when I took the name of a Christian at my entrance into his Church by Baptism Doe I find I have endevoured to perform those Conditions Doe I find a remorse when I have not performed them Doe I feele the remission of those sinnes applyed to me when I hear the gracious promises of the Gospel shed upon repentant sinners by the mouth of his Minister Have I a true and solid consolation without shift or disguise or flattering of my conscience when I receive the seal of his pardon in the Sacrament Beloved not in any morall integrity not in keeping the conscience of an honest man in generall but in using well the meanes ordain'd by Christ in the Christian Church am I justified And therefore this Judgement of Justification is his too And then the third and last judgement which is the judgment of Glorification that 's easily agreed by all to appertain unto Christ Idem Iesus The same Iesus that ascended shall come to judgement Videbunt quem pupugerant Every eye shall see him and they also which pierc't him Then the Son of man shall come in glory and he as man shall give the judgement for things done or omitted towards him as man for not feeding for not clothing for
not harbouring for not visiting The sum of all is that this is the overflowing goodnesse of God that he deales with man by the sonne of man and that hee hath so given all judgement to the Sonne as that if you would be tryed by the first judgement are you elected or no The issue is doe you believe in Christ Jesus or no If you would be tryed by the second judgement are you justified or no The issue is doe you find comfort in the application of the Word and Sacraments of Christ Jesus or no If you would be tryed by the third Judgement do you expect a Glorification or no The issue is Are you so reconcil'd to Christ Jesus now by hearty repentance for sinnes past and by detestation of occasion of future sin that you durst welcome that Angel which should come at this time and sweare that time should be no more that your transmigration out of this world should be this minute and that this minute you might say unfeignedly and effectually Veni Domine Iesu come quickly come now if this be your state then are you partakers of all that blessednesse which the Father intended to you when for your sake he committed all Judgment to the Son SERMON XIII Preached at Lincolns Inne JOHN 8. 15. I judge no man THe Rivers of Paradise did not all run one way and yet they flow'd from one head the sentences of the Scripture flow all from one head from the holy Ghost and yet they seem to present divers senses and to admit divers interpretations In such an appearance doth this Text differ from that which I handled in the forenoon and as heretofore I found it a usefull and acceptable labour to employ our Evening exercises upon the vindicating of some such places of Scripture as our adversaries of the Roman Church had detorted in some point of controversie between them and us and restoring those places to their true sense which course I held constantly for one whole year so I think it a usefull and acceptable labour now to employ for a time those Evening exercises to reconcile some such places of Scripture as may at first sight seem to differ from one another In the morning we saw how Christ judged all now we are to see how he judges none I judge no man To come then to these present words here we have the same person Christ Jesus and hath not he the same Office Is not he Judge certainly though he retain'd all his other Offices though he be the Redeemer and have shed his blood in value satisfactory for all our sins though he be our Advocate and plead for us in heaven and present our evidence to that Kingdome written in his blood seal'd in his wounds yet if hee bee not our Judge wee cannot stand in judgement shall hee bee our Judge and is hee not our Judge yet Long before wee were hee was our Judge at the separation of the Elect and Reprobate in Gods eternall Decree Was he our Judge then and is hee not so still still he is present in his Church and cleares us in all scruples rectifies us in all errors erects us in all dejections of spirit pronounces peace and reconciliation in all apprehensions of his Judgements by his Word and by his Sacraments was hee and is he and shall he not be our Judge still I am sure my Redeemer liveth and he shall stand the last on earth So that Christ Jesus is the same to day and yesterday and for ever before the world begun and world without end Sicut erat in principio as he was in the beginning he is and shall be ever our Judge So that then these words are not De tempâ—re but De modo there was never any time when Christ was not Judge but there were some manner of Judgements which Christ did never exercise and Christ had no commission which he did not execute for hee did all his Fathers will 1. In secularibus in civill or criminall businesses which belong meerly to the Judicatures and cognisance of this world Iudicat neminem Christ judges no man 2. Secundum carnem so as they to whom Christ spake this who judged as himself says here according to fleshly affections Iudicat neminem he judges no man and 3. Ad internecionem so as that upon that Judgement a man should despair of any reconciliation any redintegration with God again and be without hope of pardon and remission of sins in this world Iudicat neminem he judges no man 1. Christ usurps upon no mans Jurisdiction that were against justice 2. Christ imputes no false things to any man that were against charity 3. Christ induces no man to desperation that were against faith and against Justice against charity against faith Iudicat neminem First then Christ judgeth not in secular judgements and we note his abstinence therein first in civill matters when one of the company said to him Master bid my brother divide the inheritance with me as Saint Augustine says the Plaintiffe thought his cause to be just and hee thought Christ to bee a competent Judge in the cause and yet Christ declines the judgement disavows the authority and he answers Homo quis me constituit Iudicem Man who made me a Judge between you To that Generall which we had in the morning Omne judicium the Son hath all judgement here is an exception of the same Judges own making for in secular judgements Nemo constituit he had no commission and therefore Iudicat neminem he judges no man he forbore in criminall matters too for when the woman taken in adultery was brought before him he condemned her not It is true he absolv'd her not the evidence was pregnant against her but he condemned her not he undertook no office of a Judge but of a sweet and spirituall Counsellor Go and sinne no more for this was his Element his Tribunall When then Christ says of himself with such a pregnant negative Quis me constituit Iudicem may not we say so too to his pretended Vicar the Bishop of Rome Quiâ—te Who made you Judge of Kings that you should depose them in criminall causes Or who made you proprietary of Kingdomes that you should dispose of them as of civill inheritances when to countenance such a pretence they detort places of Scripture not onely perversly but senselesly blasphemously ridiculously as ridicolously as in their pasquils wheÌ„ in an undiscreet shamlesnes to make their power greater then it is they make their fault greater then it is too fil their histories with examples of Kings deposed by Popes which in truth were not depos'd by them for in that they are more innocent then they will confesse themselves to be when some of their Authors say that the Primitive Church abstain'd from deposing Emperors onely because she was not strong enough to do it when some of them say That all Christian Kingdomes of the earth may fall into
death But upon that part of the sentence In pulverem reverteris To dust thou shalt return there is no Non obstante though thou turn to God thou must turn into the grave for hee that redeem'd thee from the other death redeem'd not himself from this Carry this consideration to the last minute of the world when we that remain shall bee caught up in the clouds yet even that last fire may be our fever those clouds our winding sheets that rapture our dissolution and so with Saint Augustine most of the ancients most of the latter men think that there shall be a sudden dissolution of body and soul which is death and a sudden re-uniting of both which is resurrection in that instant Quis Homeo is Davids question What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Let us adde Quis Deoram What god is he amongst the Gentiles that hath not seen death Which of their three hundred Iupiters which of their thousands of other gods have not seen death Mortibus morjuntur we may adde to that double death in Gods mouth another death The gods of the Gentiles have dyed thrice In body in soul and in fame for though they have been glorified with a Deification nor one of all those old gods is at this day worshipt in any part of the world but all those temporary and transitory Gods are worn out and dead in all senses Those gods who were but men fall under Davids question Quis Home And that man who was truly God fals under it too Christ Jesus He saw death though he saw not the death of this text Corruption And if we consider the effusion of his precious blood the contusion of his sacred flesh the extention of those sinews and ligaments which tyed heaven and earth together in a reconciliation the departing of that Intelligence from that sphear of that high Priest from that Temple of that Dove from that Arke of that soul from that body that dissolution which as an ordinary man he should have had in the grave but that the decree of God declar'd in the infallibility of the manifold prophesies preserv'd him from it had been but a slumber in respect of these tortures which he did suffer The Godhead staid with him in the grave and so he did not corrupt but though our souls be gone up to God our bodies shall Corruption in the skin says Iob In the outward beauty These be the Records of velim these be the parchmins the endictments and the evidences that shall condemn many of us at the last day our own skins we have the book of God the Law written in our own hearts we have the image of God imprinted in our own souls wee have the character and seal of God stamped in us in our baptism and all this is bound up in this velim in this parchmin in this skin of ours and we neglect book and image and character and feal and all for the covering It is not a clear case if we consider the originall words properly That Iesabel did paint and yet all translators and expositors have taken a just occasion out of the ambiguity of those words to cry down that abomination of painting It is not a clear case if we consider the propriety of the words That Absolon was hanged by the hair of the head and yet the Fathers and others have made use of that indifferency and verisimilitude to explode that abomination of cherishing and curling haire to the enveagling and ensnaring and entangling of others Iudicium patietur aeternum says Saint Hierome Thou art guilty of a murder though no body die Quia vinum attulisti si faisset qui bibisset Thou hast poyson'd a cup if any would drink thou hast prepar'd a tentation if any would swallow it Tertullian thought he had done enough when he had writ his book De Habitu muliâ—bri against the excesse of women in clothes but he was fain to adde another with more vehemence De cultu foeminarum that went beyond their clothes to their skin And he concludes Illud ambitionis crimen there 's vain-glory in their excesse of clothes but Hoc prostitutionis there 's prostitution in drawing the eye to the skin Pliny says that when their thin silke stuffes were first invented at Rome Excogitatum ad faeminas denudandas It was but an invention that women might go naked in clothes for their skins might bee seen through those clothes those thinne stuffes Our women are not so carefull but they expose their nakednesse professedly and paint it to cast bird-lime for the passengers eye Beloved good dyet makes the best Complexion and a good Conscience is a continuall feast A cheerfull heart makes the best blood and peace with God is the true cheerfulnesse of heart Thy Saviour neglected his skin so much as that at last hee scarse had any all was torn with the whips and scourges and thy skin shall come to that absolute corruption as that though a hundred years after thou art buryed one may find thy bones and say this was a tall man this was a strong man yet we shall soon be past saying upon any relique of thy skinne This was a fair man Corruption seises the skinne all outward beauty quickly and so it does the body the whole frame and constitution which is another consideration After my skinne my Body If the whole body were an eye or an ear where were the body says Saint Paul but when of the whole body there is neither eye nor ear nor any member left where is the body And what should an eye do there where there is nothing to be seen but loathsomnesse or a nose there where there is nothing to be smelt but putrefaction or an ear where in the grave they doe not praise God Doth not that body that boasted but yesterday of that priviledge above all creatures that it onely could goe upright lie to day as flat upon the earth as the body of a horse or of a dogge And doth it not to morrow lose his other priviledge of looking up to heaven Is it not farther remov'd from the eye of heaven the Sunne then any dogge or horse by being cover'd with the earth which they are not Painters have presented to us with some horrour the sâ—cleton the frame of the bones of a mans body but the state of a body in the dissolution of the grave no pencil can present to us Between that excrementall jelly that thy body is made of at first and that jelly which thy body dissolves to at last there is not so noysome so putrid a thing in nature This skinne this outward beauty this body this whole constitution must be destroy'd says Iobâ— in the next place The word is well chosen by which all this is expressed in this text Nakaph which is a word of as heavy a signification to expresse an utter abolition and annihilation as perchance can be
one person in him My flesh shall no more be none of mine then Christ shall not be man as well as God SERMON XV. Preached at Lincolns Inne 1 COR. 15. 50. Now this I say Brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God SAint Gregory hath delivered this story That Eutychius who was Bishop of Constantinople having written a book of the Resurrection and therein maintained that errour That the body of Christ had not that our bodies in the Resurrection should not have any of the qualities of a naturall body but that those bodies were in subtilitatem redacta so rarifyed so refined so attenâ—ated and reduced to a thinnesse and subtlenesse that they were aery bodies and not bodies of flesh and blood This error made a great noise and raised a great dust till the Emperour to avoid scandall which for the most part arises out of publick conferences was pleased to hear Eutychius and Gregory dispute this point privately before himself and a small company And that upon conference the Emperour was so well satisfyed that hee commanded Eutychius his books to bee burnt That after this both Gregory and Eutychius fell sicke but Eutychius dyed and dyed with this protestation In hâc carne in this flesh taking up the flesh of his hand in the presence of them that were there in this flesh I acknowledge that I and all men shall arise at the day of Judgement Now the principall place of Scripture which in his book and in that conference Eutychius stood upon was this Text these words of Saint Paul This I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God And the directest answer that Gregory gave to it was Caro secundum culpam non regnabit sed Caro secundum naturam sinfull flesh shall not but naturall flesh that is flesh indued with all qualities of flesh all such qualities as imply no defect no corruption for there was flesh before there was sin such flesh and such blood shall inherit the Kingdome of God As there have been more Heresies about the Humanity of Christ then about his Divinity so there have been more heresies about the Resurrection of his body and consequently of ours then about any other particular article that concerns his Humiliation or Exaltation Simon Magus strook deepest at first to the root That there was no Resurrection at all The Gnosticks who took their name from knowledge as though they knew all and no body else any thing which is a pride transferr'd through all Heretickes for as that sect in the Roman Church which call themselves Ignorantes and seem to pretend to no knowledge doe yet believe that they know a better way to heaven then all other men doe so that sect amongst them which called themselves Nullanos Nothings thought themselves greater in the Kingdome of God then either of the other two sects of diminution the Minorits or the Minims did These Gnosticks acknowledged a Resurrection but they said it was of the soul onely and not of the body for they thought that the soul lay dead at least in a dead sleep till the Resurrection Those Heretickes that are called the Arabians did as the Gnosticks did affirm a temporary death of the soul as well as of the body but then they allowed a Resurrection to both soul and body after that death which the Gnostickes did not but to the soul onely Hymeneus and Philetus of whom Saint Paul speakes they restrained the Resurrection to the soule but then they restrained this Resurrection of the soule to this life and that in those who were baptized the Resurrection was accomplished already Eutychius whom wee mentioned before enlarged the Resurrection to the body as well as to the soul but enlarged the qualities of the body so far as that it was scarce a body The Armenian hereticks said that it was not onely Corpus humâ—num but Corpus masculinum That all should rise in the perfecter sex and none as women Origen allowed a Resurrection and allowed the Body to be a naturall body but the contracted the time he said that when we rose we should enjoy the benefits of the resurrection even in bodily pleasures for a thousand years and then be annihilated or absorpted and swallowed up into the nature and essence of God himselfe for it will be hard to state Origens opinion in this point Origen was not herein well understood in his owne time not doe we understand him now for the most part but by his accusers and those that have written against him Divers of these Heretiques for the maintenance of their severall heresies perverted this Scripture Flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdome of God and that occasioned those Fathers who opposed those heresies so diverse from one another to interpret these words diversly according to the heresie they opposed All agree that they are an argument for the resurrection though they seem at first to oppose it For this Chapter hath three generall parts first Resurrectionem esse that there shall be a Resurrection which the Apostle proves by many and various arguments to the thirty fifth verse And then Quati corpore the body shall rise but some will say How are the dead raised and with what body doe they come in that thirty fifth verse And lastly Quid de superstitibus what shall become of them who shall be found alive at the day We shall all be changed verse fifty one Now this text is the knot and corollary or all the second part concerning the qualities of the bodies in the resurrection Now says the Apostle now that I have said enough to prove that a resurrection there is now now that I have said enough what kind of bodies shall arise now I show you as much in the Negative as I have done in the Affirmative now I teach you what to avoid as well as I have done what to affect now this I say brethren that flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdome of God Now though those words be primarily principally intended of the last Resurrection yet in a secondary respect they are appliable in themselves and very often applied by the ancients to the first Resurrection our resurrection in this life Tertullian hath intimated and presented both together elegantly when he says of God Nobis arrhabonem spiritus reliquit arrhabonem à nobis accepit God hath given us his earnest and a pawn from him upon earth in giving us the holy Ghost and he hath received our earnest and a pawn from us into heaven by receiving our nature in the body of Christ Jesus there Flesh and bloud when it is conformed to the flesh and bloud of Christ now glorified and made like his by our resurrectien may inherite the kingdome of God in heaven Yea flesh and bloud being conformed to Christ by the sanctification of the holy Ghost here in this world may inherit the kingdome of God here upon earth for God hath a
kingdome here and there is a Communion in Armes as well as a communion in Triumph Leaving then that acceptation of flesh and bloud which many thinke to be intended in this text that is Animalis caro flesh and bloud that must be maintained by eating and drinking and preserved by propagation and generation that flesh and that bloud cannot inherit heaven where there is no marying nor giving in mariage but Erimus sicut Angeli we shall be as the Angels though such a heaven in part Mahomet hath proposed to his followers a heaven that should abound with worldly delights and such a heaven the Disciples of Origen and the Millenarians that look for one thousand years of all temporall felicity proposed to themselves And though amongst our latter men Cajetan doe thinke that the Apostle in this text bent himselfe upon that doctrine non caro non Animalis caro flesh and bloud that is no carnall no worldly delights are to be looked for in heaven leaving that sense as too narrow and too shallow for the holy Ghost in this place in which he hath a higher reach we shall determine our selves at this time in these too acceptations of this phrase of speech first non caro that is non caro corrupta flesh and bloud cannot sinfull flesh corrupt flesh flesh not discharged of sinfull corruption here by repentance and Sanctification and the operation of Gods spirit such flesh cannot inherit the kingdome of God here Secondly noncar◠is non car◠corruptibilis flesh and bloud cannot that is flesh that is yet subject to corruption and dissolution and naturall passions and impressions tending to defectivenesse flesh that is still subject to any punishment that God lays upon flesh for sinne such flesh cannot inherit the kingdome of God hereafter for our present possession of the kingdome of God here our corrupt flesh must be purged by Sanctification here for the future kingdome our naturall Corruptiblenesse must be purged by glorification there We will make the last part first as this flesh and this bloud by devesting the corruptiblenesse it suffers here by that glorification shall inherit that kingdome and not stay long upon it neither For of that we have spoken conveniently before of the resurrection it selfe Now we shall looke a little into the qualities of bodies in the resurrection and that not in the intricacies and subtilties of the Schoole but onely in that one patterne which hath been given us of that glory upon earth which is the Transfiguration of Christ for that Transfiguration of his was a representation of a glorified body in a glorified state And then in the second place we shall come to our first part what that flesh and bloud is that is denied to be capable of the inheritance of that kingdome here that is that earnest of heaven and that inchoation of heaven which may be had in this world and in that part we shall see what this inheritance what this title to heaven here and what this kingdome of God that heaven which is proposed to us here is First then for the first acceptation which is of the later resurrection no man denies that which Melancthon hath collected and established to be the summe of this text Statuit resurrectionem in corpore sed non quale jam corpus est The Apostle establishes a resurrection of the body but yet not such a body as this is It is the same body and yet not such a body which is a mysterious consideration that it is the same body and yet not such as it selfe nor like any other body of the same substance But what kind of body then We content ourselves with that Transfiguratio specimen appositissimum Resurrectionis the Transfiguration of Christ is the best glasse to see this resurrection and state of glory in But how was that transfiguration wrought We content our selves with Saint Hieromes expressing of it non pristinam amisit veritatem vel formam corporis Christ had still the same ture and reall body and he had the same forme and proportion and lineaments and dimensions of his body in it selfe Transfiguratio non faciem subtraxit sed splendorem ad didit sayes he It gave him not another face but it super-immitted such a light such an illustration upon him as by that irradiation that coruscation the beames of their eys were scattered and disgregated dissipated so as that they could not collect them as at other times nor constantly and confidently discerne him Moses had a measure a proportion of this but yet when Moses came down with his shining face though they were not able to looke long upon him they knew him to be Moses When Christ was transfigured in the presence of Peter Iames and Iohn yet they knew him to be Christ. Transfiguration did not so change him nor shall glorification so change us as that we shall not be known There is nothing to convince a man of error nothing in nature nothing in Scriptures if he beleeve that he shall know those persons in heaven whom he knew upon earth and if he conceive soberly that it were a lesse degree of blessednesse not to know them then to know them he is bound to beleeve that he shall know them for he is bound to beleeve that all that conduces to blessednes shall be given him The School resolves that at the Judgement all the sins of all shall be manifested to all even those secret sinfull thoughts that never came out of the heart And when any in the School differs or departs from this cōmon opinion they say onely that those sins which have been in particular repented shall not be manifested all others shall And therefore it is a deep uncharitablenes to reproach any man of sins formerly repented and a deep uncharitablenesse not to beleeve that he whom thou seest at the Communion hath repented his former sins Reproach no man after thou hast seen him receive with last years sins except thou have good evidence of his Hypocrisie then or of his Relapsing after For in those two cases a man remaines or becomes againe guilty of his former sinnes Now if in heaven they shall know the hearts of one another whose faces they never knew before there is lesse difficulty in knowing them whom we did know before From this transfiguration of Christ in which the mortall eye of the Apostles did see that representation of the glory of Christ the Schooles make a good argument that in heaven we shall doe it much more And though in this case of the Transfiguration in which the eyes of mortall men could have no proportion with that glory of heaven this may bee well said to have been done either Moderando lumen that God abated that light of glory or Confortando visum that God exalted their sense of seeing supernaturally no such distinctions or modifications will bee needfull in heaven because how highly soever the body of my
Father or of my friend shall bee glorifyed there mine eyes shall be glorifyed as much and we are both kept in the same proportion there as wee had towards one another here here my naturall eye could see his naturall face and there mine eye is as much mended as his body is and my sense as much exalted as mine object And as well as I may know that I am I I may know that He is He for I shall not know my selfe nor that state of glory which I am then in by any light of Nature which I brought thither but by that light of Glory which I shall receive there When therefore a man finds that this consideration does him good in his conversation and retards him towards some sinnes how shall I stand then when all the world shall see that my solicitation hath brought such a woman to the stews to the Hospitall to hell who had scap'd all this if I had not corrupted her at first which no man in the world knew before and all shall know then Or that my whispering and my calumny hath overthrown such a man in his place in his reputation in his fortune which he himself knew not before and all shall know then Or that my counsell or my example hath been a furtherance to any mans spirituall edification here He that in rectified reason and a rectified conscience finds this in Gods name let him beleeve yea for Gods sake let him take heed of not beleeving that we shall know one another Actions and Persons in the Resurrection as the Apostles did know Christ at the Transfiguration which was a Type of it This Transfiguration then upon earth was the same glory which Christ had after in heaven Qualis venturus talis apparuit such as all eyes shall see him to be when he comes in glory at last those Apostles saw him then but of the particular circumstances even of this transfiguration upon earth there is but little said to us Let us modestly take that which is expressed in it and not search over-curiously farther into that which is signifyed and represented by it which is the state of glory in the Resurrection First his face shin'd as the Sunne says that Gospell he could not take a higher comparison for our Information and for our admiration in this world then the Sunne And then the Saints of God in their glorifyed state are admitted to the same comparison The righteous shall shine out as the Sunne in the Kingdome of the Father the Sunne of the firmament which should be their comparison will be gone But the Sun of grace and of glory the Son of God shall remain and they shall shine as he that is in his righteousnesse In this transfiguration his clothes were white says the text but how white the holy Ghost does not tell us at once as white as snow says Saint Mark as white as light says Saint Matthew Let the garments of the glorifyed Saints of God be their bodies and then their bodies are as white as snow as snow that fall's from heaven and hath touâ—ht no pollution of the earth For though our bodies have been upon earth and have touched pitch and have been defiled yet that will not lye in proof not be given in evidence Though he that drew me and I that was drawen too know in what unclean places and what unclean actions this body of mine hath been yet it lyes not in proof it shall not be given in evidence for Accusator fratrum The accuser of the brethren is cast down the Devill shall find nothing against me And if I had spontaneum Daemonem as Saint Chrysostome speaks a bosome Devill and could tempt my self though there had been no other tempter in this world so I have spontanâ—um Demonem a bosome accuser a conscience that would accuse me there if I accuse my self there I reproach the mercy of God who hath seal'd my pardon and made even my body what sins soever had discoloured it as white as snow As white as snow and as white as light says that Gospel Light implies an active power Light is operative and works upon others The bodies of the Saints of God shall receive all impressions of glory in themselves and they shall doe all that is to bee done for the glory of God there There they shall stand in his service and they shall kneel in his worship and they shall fall in his reverence and they shall sing in his glory they shall glorifie him in all positions of the body They shall be glorified in themselves passively and they shall glorifie God actively sicut Nix sicut Lux their beeing their doing shall be all for him Thus they shall shine as the Sun Thus their garments shall be white white as snow in being glorified in their own bodies white as light in glorifying God in all the actions of those bodies Now there is thus much more considerable and applyable to our present purpose in this tranfiguration of Christ that there was company with them Be not apt to think heaven in an Ermitage or a Monastery or the way to heaven a sullen melancholy Heaven and the way to it is a Communion of Saints in a holy cheerfulnesse Get thou thither make sure thine own salvation but be not too hasty to think that no body gets thither except he go thy way in all opinions and all actions There was company in the transfiguration but no other company then Moses and Elias and Christ and the Apostles none but they to whom God had manifested himself otherwise then to a meer naturall man otherwise then as a generall God For in the Law and in the Padagogie and Schoolmastership and instruction thereof God had manifested himself particularly by Moses In Elias and the Prophets whom God sent in a continuall succession to refresh that manifestation which he had given of himself in the Law before in the example of these rules in him who was the consummation of the Law and the Prophets Christ Iesus And then in the Application of all this by the Apostles and by the Church established by them God had more particularly manifested himself then to naturall men Moses Elias Christ and the Apostles make up the houshold of the faithfull and none have interest in the Resurrection but in and by these These to whom and by whom God hath exhibited himself to his Church by other notions then as one universall God For nothing will save a man but to believe in God so as God hath proposed himself in his Son in his Scriptures in his Christ. These were with him in the transfiguration and they talked with him says that text As there is a Communion of Saints so there is a Communication of Saints Think not heaven a Charter-house where men who onely of all creatures are enabled by God to speak must not speak to one another The Lord of heaven is
conversation and is received in our conformity and imitation So have you seen what the Inheritance of this Kingdome is it is a Having and Holding of the Gospel a present and a permanent possession a holding fast lest another another Nation another Church take our Crown There remains onely that you see upon whom the exclusion fals and for the clearing of that This I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God It is fully express'd by Saint Paul The carnall mind is enmity against God It is not a coldnesse a slacknesse an omission a preterition of some duties towards God but it is Enmity and that 's an exclusion out of the Kingdome for says the Apostle there it is not subject to the Law of God and no subjection no Kingdome it is not says hee neither can it be It is not that excludes the present It cannot be that excludes the future so that it is onely this incorrigible this desperate state that constitutes this flesh and blood that cannot inherit the Kingdome of God for this implies impenitablenesse which is the sin against the holy Ghost Take the word flesh so literally as that it be either the adorning of my flesh in pride or the polluting of my flesh in wantonnes whether it be a pampering of my flesh with voluptuous provocations or a withering a shriveling of my flesh with superstitious and meritorious fastings or other macerations and lacerations by inhumane violence upon my body Take the word Bloud so literally as that it be either an admiring and adoring of honourable blood in a servile flattering of great persons or an insinuating of false and adulterous blood in a bastardizing a race by supposititious children whether it bee the inflaming the blood of young persons by lascivious discourse or shedding the blood of another in a murderous quarrell whether it be in blaspheming the blood of my Saviour in execrable oathes or the prophaning of his blood in an unworthy receiving thereof all these ways and all such doth this flesh and blood exclude from the Kingdome of God It is summarily all those works which proceed meerly out of the nature of man without the regeneration of the Spirit of God all that is flesh and blood and enmity against God says the Apostle in that place But in another place that Apostle leads us into other considerations to the Galatians he says The works of the flesh are manifest And amongst those manifest works of the flesh he reckons not onely sins of wantonnesse and sins of anger not onely sins in concupiscibili and in irascibili but in intelligibili sins and errours in the understanding particularly Heresie and Idolatry are works of the flesh in Saint Pauls inventory in that place Heresie and Idolatry are that flesh and blood which shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Bring wee this consideration home to our selves The Church of Rome does not charge us with affirming any Heresie nor does she charge us with any Idolatry in our practise So far we are discharged from the works of the flesh If they charge us with Doctrine of flesh and blood because we prefer Mariage before Chastity it is a charge ill laid for Mariage and Chastity consist well together The bed undefiled is chastity If they charge us that wee prefer Mariage before Continency they charge us unjustly for we do not so Let them contain that can and blesse God for that heavenly gift of Continency and let them that cannot mary and serve God and blesse him for affording them that Physick for that infirmity As Mariage was ordained at first for those two uses Procreation of children and mutuall assistance of man and wife so Continency was not preferr'd before Mariage As there was a third use of Mariage added after the fall by way of Remedy so Mariage may well be said to be inferiour to continency as physick is in respect of health If they charge us with it because our Priests mary they doe it frivolously and impertinently because they deny that wee are Priests We charge them with Heresie in the whole new Creed of the Councell of Trent for if all the particular doctrines be not Hereticall yet the doctrine of inducing new Articles of faith is Hereticall and that doctrine runs through all the Articles for else they could not be Articles And we charge them with Idolatry in the peoples practise and that practise is never controld by them in the greatest mystery of all their Religion in the Adoration of the Sacrament And Heresie and Idolatry are manifest works of the flesh Our Kingdome is the Gospel our Inheritance is our holding that our exclusion is flesh and blood Heresie and Idolatry And therefore let us be able to say with the Apostle when God had called us and separated us immediately we conferred not with flesh and blood Since God hath brought us into a fair prospect let us have no retrospect back In Canaan let us not look towards Aegypt nor towards Sodom being got to the Mountain since God hath setled us in a true Church let us have no kind of byas and declination towards a false for that is one of Saint Pauls manifest works of the flesh and I shall lose all the benefit of the flesh and bloud of Christ Jesus if I doe so for flesh and bloud cannot inherite the kingdome of God We have done Adde we but this by way of recollecting this which hath been said now upon these words and that which hath been formerly said upon those words of Iob which may seem to differ from these In my flesh I shall see God Omne verum omni vero consentiens whatsoever is true in it selfe agrees with every other truth Because that which Iob says and that which Saint Paul says agree with the truth they agree with one another For as Saint Paul says Non omniâ— caro eadem caro there is one flesh of man another of beasts so there is one flesh of Iob another of Saint Paul And Iobs flesh can see God and Pauls cannot because the flesh that Iob speakes of hath overcome the destruction of skin and body by wormes in the grave and so is mellowed and prepared for the sight of God in heaven And Pauls flesh is overcome by the world Iobs flesh triumphes over Satan and hath made a victorious use of Gods corrections Pauls flesh is still subject to tentations and carnalities Iobs argument is but this some flesh shall see God Mortified men here Glorified men there shall Pauls argument is this All flesh shall not see God Carnall men here Impenitent men there shall not And therefore that as our texts answer one another so your resurrections may answer one another too as at the last resurrection all that heare the sound of the Trumpet shall rise in one instant though they have passed thousands of years between their burialls so doe all ye who are now called by a lower and
when Epaphras had declrared unto him their love and when upon so good testimony of their disposition he had a desire that they might be fulfilled with knowledge of Gods will in all wisdome and spirituall understanding as he says verse 9. when he knew how farre they had proceeded in mysteries of the Christian Religion and that they had a spirituall hunger of more then it was seasonable to present to them this great point that Christ had suffered throughly sufficiently aboundantly for the reconciliation of the whole world and yet that there remained some sufferings and those of Christ too to be fulfilled by us That all was done and yet there remained more to be done that after Christs consummatum est which was all the text there should be an Adimplendum est interlined that after Christ had fulfilled the Law and the Prophets by his sufferings Saint Paul must fulfill the residue of Christs sufferings was a doctrin unseasonably taught till they had learnt much and shewed a desire to learn more In the Primitive Church men of ripe understandings were content to think two or three yeares well spent in learning of Catechisms and rudiments of Christian Religion and the greatest Bishops were content to think that they discharged their duties well if they caâ—echized ignorant men in such rudiments for we know from Gennaâ—dius an Ecclesiasticall author that the Bishops of Greece and of the Eastern Church did use to con S. Cyrils sermons made at Easter and some other Festivals without book and preached over those Sermons of his making to Congregations of strong understanding and so had more time for their Caâ—echizing of others Optatus thinks that when Saint Paul says Ego plantavi Apollos rigavit I planted the faith and Apollos watered he intended in those words Ego de pagano feci catechumenum ille de catechumeno Christianum That Saint Paul took ignorant persons into his charge to catechize them at first and when they were instructed by him Apollos watered them with the water of Baptism Tertullian thought hee did young beginners in Christianity no wrong when he called them catulos infantiae reâ—entis nec perfectis luminibus reptantes Young whelps which are not yet come to a perfect use of their eyes in the mysteries of Religion Now God hath delivered us in a great measure from this weaknesse in seeing because we are catechized from our craâ—â—â—s and from this penury in preaching we need not preach others Sermons nor feed upon cold meat in Homilies but wee are fallen upon such times too as that men doe not thinke themselves Christians except they can tell what God meant to doe with them before he meant they should bee Christians for we can be intended to be Christians but from Christ and wee must needs seek a Predestination without any relation to Christ a decree in God for salvation and damnation before any decree for the reparation of mankind by Christ every Common-placer will adventure to â—each and every artificer will pretend to understand the purpose yea and the order too and method of Gods eternall and unrevealed decree Saint Paul required a great deal more knowledge then these men use to bring before he presented to them a great deal a lesse point of Doctrin then these men use to aske This was then the Nunc illis their season when they had humbly received so much of the knowledge of the fundamentall points of Religion Saint Paul was willing to communicate more and more stronger and stronger meat unto them That which he presents here is that which may seem least to appertain to a Christian that is loy because a Christian is a person that hath surrendred himself over to a sad and serious and a severe examination of all his actions that all bee done to the glory of God but for all this this joy true joy is truly properly onely belonging to a Christian because this joy is the Testimony of a good conscience that wee have received God so as God hath manifested himself in Christ and worshipt God so God hath ordained In a true Church there are many tesserae externae outward badges and marks by which others may judge and pronounce mee to bee a true Christian But the tessera internaâ— the inward badge and marke by which I know this in my selfe is joy The blessednesse of heaven it selfe Salvation and the fruits of Paradise that Paradise which cannot be expressed cannot be comprehended have yet got no other name in the subtilty of the Schools nor in the fulnesse of the Scriptures but to be called the joys of heaven Essentiall blessednesse is called so Enter into thy Masters joy that is into the Kingdome of heaven and accidentall happinesse added to that essentiall happinesse is called so too There is joy in heaven at the conversion of a sinner and so in the Revelaâ—ion Rejoyce ye heavens and yee that dwell in them for the aâ—câ—ser of our brethren is cast downâ— There is now joy even in heaven which was not there before Certainly as that man shall never see the Father of Lights after this to whom the day never breaks in this life As that man must never look to walk with the Lamb wheresoever he goes in heaven that ranne away from the Lamb whensoever he came towards him in this life so he shall never possesse the joyes of heaven hereafter that feels no joy here There must be joy here which Tanquam Cellulae mellis as Saint Bernard says in his mellifluous language as the honey-comb walles in and prepares and preserves the honey and is as a shell to that kernell so there must bee a joy here which must prepare and preserve the joys of heaven it self and be as a shell of those joys For heaven and salvation is not a Creation but a Multiplication it begins not when wee dye but it increases and dilates it self infinitely then Christ himself when he was pleased to feed all that people in the wildernesse he asks first Quot panes habetis how many loafes have you and then multiplyed them abundantly as conduced most to his glory but some there was before When thou goest to eat that bread of which whosoever eates shall never dye the bread of life in the Land of life Christ shall consider what joy thou broughtest with thee out of this world and he shall extend and multiply that joy unexpressibly but if thou carry none from hence thou shalt find none there Hee that were to travell into a far country would study before somewhat the map and the manners and the language of the Country Hee that looks for the fulnesse of the joyes of heaven hereafter will have a taste an insight in them before he goe And as it is not enough for him that would travail to study any language indifferently were it not an impertinent thing for him that went to lye in France to study Dutch So if wee pretend to make the joys
to interpret it so for can a mans own hand or foot or eye be said to injure him And yet in this place they are often said to scandalize him to offend him The interpretation that Maldonat departs from himselfe acknowledges to be the interpretation of Saint Chrysostome of Euthymius of Theophylact of others of the Fathers and by the councell of Trent he is bound to interpret Scriptures according to the Fathers and he is angry with us if at any time we doe not so and here he departs from them where not onely his reverence to them but the frame and the evidence of the place should have kept them to him for here Christ utters his vae as it is vae Dolentis as he laments their miseries and as it is vae Minantis as he threatens his judgements not onely upon them that offend and scandalize others but upon them also that are easily scandalized by others and put from their religion and Christian constancy with every rumour Parâ—m distat scandalizare scandalizari It is almost as great a sin to be shaked by a scandall given as to give it Christ intends both in this Text the Active and the Passive scandall but the latter meliùs quadrat says a later Divine worthy to be compared to the Ancients for the exposition of Scriptures it fits the scope and purpose of Christ best to accept and interpret this vae Woe be unto the world of the Pasâ—ive scandall the scandall taken In that we consider the working of this Vae three ways first vae quia illusiones fortes woe unto the world because these scandals and offences tentations and tribulations are so strong in their nature and then vae quia infirmi vas woe because you are so weak in your nature and again vae quia Pravaricatores woe because wee prevaricate in our own case and make our selves weaker then we are and are scandalized with things which are not in their nature scandalous nor were scandalously intended The two first are woe because we shall be scandalized for scandals are truly strong and you are truly weak The other is woe because ye will bee scandalized when and where you might easily unentangle the snare and devest the â—scruple First for the vehemence the violence the unavoydablenesse and impetuousnesse of these scandals tentations and tribulations under which wee all suffer in this world it may bee enough to consider that one saying of our Saviours They shall seduce Si possibile even the elect where by the way it is not meerly not altogether as we have translated it If it were possible for that sounds as if Christ had positively and dogmatically determined that it is not possible for the elect to be seduced but Christ says onely Si possibile if it be possible as being willing to leave it in doubt and in suspense how farre in so great scandals so very great tentations even the elect might bee seduced Ista Dominici sermonis dubitatto trepidationem mentis in electis relinquit this doubtfulnesse in Christs speech makes the very elect stand in fear of falling in the midst of such tentations for howsoever the elect shall rise again the elect may fall by these scandals and though they may be reduced they may be seduced We are to consider men as they are delivered in the approbation and testimony of the Church that judges sâ—cundum allegata probata according to the evidence that she sees and heares and not as they are wrapped up in the infallible knowledge of God and so our election admits an outward tryall that is Sanctification so S. Peter writes to the strangers elect through sanctification They were strangers strangers to the Covenant and yet Elect for as all of the houshold all within the Covenant all children of the faithfull are not elect for to be born of Christian parents within the Covenant gives us a title to the Sacrament of Baptism so as that we may claim it and the Church cannot deny it us but this birth doth not give us that title to heaven which Baptisin it self does so all strangers all that are without the Covenant are not excluded in the election S. Peter admits stragers to election but yet no otherwise then through sanctification when we are come to that hill to sanctification we have a fair prospect to see our election in so God hath elected you to salvation says S. Paul to the Thes. but how To salvation through sanctification that 's your hill there opens your prospect Agreeably to these two great Astles says the beloved Apostle the Elder unto the elect Lady and her children but still how elect as he tels you elect if she walk in the Commandements of God elect if she lose not her former good works that she may receive a full reward elect if she abide in the doctrine of Christ. Always from that mount of sanctification arises our prospect to election and sanctification were glorification if it were impossible to fall from it If a tentation of mony made Iudas an Apostle fall from his Master how easily will such a tentation make men fall with their Master that is run into dangerous and ruinous actions with them How easily will our children our servants our tenants fall form the truth of God if they have both the example of their superiors to countenance them and their purse to reward them for it That scandal that tentation is a Giant and an armed Gyant a Goliah and a Goliah with a speare like a weavers beame that marches upon those two leggs Example to doe it and Preferment for doing it This is the vae in the consideration of the passive scandal as it arises out of the vehemence of the scandal and tentation Quia illusiones fortes because they are so strong in themselves It arises also out of our weaknesse Quia infirmi nos because we are so weak even the strongest of us And for this it may also be enough to consider those words of our Saviour That a man may receive the word and receive it with joy and yet Temporalis est says Christ it may bee but for a while hee may be but a time-server for assoon as persecution comes Illico continuò scandalizatur by and by instantly forthwith hee is scandalized and shaked Hee stays not to give God his leasure whether God will succour his cause to morrow though not to day Hee stays not to give men their Law to give Princes and States time to consider whether it may not be fit for them to come to leagues and alliances and declarations for the assistance of the Cause of Religion next year though not this But continuò scandalizatur as soon as a Catholique army hath given a blow and got a victory of any of our forces or friends or as soon as a crafty Iesuit hath forged a Relation that that Army hath given such a blow or that such
not that the just shall feel no worldly misery but that that misery shall not make them miserable how evill so ever it be in it self it shall not be evill to them but Omnia in bonum All things work together for good to them that love God Who is he that will harme you if you be followers of God says Saint Peter The wicked will not follow you in that strange Country their conversation is not in heaven if yours be they will not follow you thither They will doe as he whose instruments they are do the Devill and Resist the Devill and he will flee from you A religious constancy blunts the edge of any sword dampes the spirits of any counsel benums the strength of any arme opens the corners of any Labyrinth and brings the subtilest plots against God and his servants not onely to an invalidnesse an ineffectualnesse but to a derision not onely to a Dimicatum de coelis that the world shall see that the Lord fights for his servants from heaven but to an Irridebit in coelis that he that sits in heaven shall laugh them to scorn he shall ruine them and ruine them in contempt That prayer that David makes Libera me Domine ab homine malo deliver me O Lord from the evill man is a large an extensive an indefinite prayer for there is an evill man occasion of tentation in every man in every woman in every action there is Coluber in via a snake in every path danger in every calling But Saint Augustine contracts that prayer and fixes it Liberet te Deus à temes noli tibi esse malius God blesse me from my selfe that I be not that evill man to my selfe that I lead not my selfe into tentation and nothing shall scandalize me To which purpose it concerns us to devest that naturall but corrupt easinesse of uncharitable mis-construing that which other men doe especially those whom God hath placed in his own place for government over us that we doe not come to think that there is nothing done if all bee not done that no abuses are corrected if all be not removed that there 's an end of all Protestants if any Papists bee left in the world Upon those words of our Saviour speaking of the last day of Judgement The son of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdome Omnia scandala All things that might offend Calvin says learnedly and wisely Qui ad extirpandum quicquid displicet praepostere festinant They that make too much haste to mend all at once antevertunt Christi judicium ereptum Angelis officium sibi temereusurpant They prevent Christs judgment and rashly and sacrilegiously they usurp the Angels office Christ hath reserved the cleansing and removing of all scandals all offences to the last day the Angels of the Church the Minister the Angels of the State the Magistrate cannot doe it not the Angels of heaven themselves till the day of judgement All scandals cannot be removed in this life but a great many more might be then are if men were not so apt to suspect and mis-constru and imprint the name of scandall upon every action of which they see not the end nor the way for from this jealousie and suspicion and misconstruction of the Angels of Church and State our Superiours in those sphears wee shall become jealous and suspicious of God himselfe that he hath neglected us abandoned us if he do not deliver us and establish us at those times and by those means which we prescribe him we shall come to argue thus against God himselfe Surely if God meant any good to us he would not put us into their hands who doe us no good Reduce all to the precious mediocrity To be unsensible of any declination of any diminution of the glory of God or his true worship and religion is an irreligious stupidity But to bee so ombragious so startling so apprehensive so suspicious as to think every thing that is done is done to that end this is a seditious jealousie a Satyr in the heart and an unwritten Libell and God hath a Star-chamber to punish unwritten Libels before they are published Libels against that Law Curse not or speak not ill of the King no not in thy thought Not to mourn under the sense of evils that may fall upon us is a stony disposition Nay the hardest stone marble will weep towards foul weather But to make all Possible things Necessary this may fall upon us therefore it must fall upon us and to make contingent and accidentall things to be the effects of counsels this is fallen upon us therefore it is fallen by their practise that have the government in their hands this is a vexation of spirit in our selves and a defacing a casting of durt in the face of Gods image of that representation and resemblance of God which he hath imprinted in them of whom hee hath sayd They are Gods In divine matters there is principally exercise of our faith That which we understand not we beleeve In civill affairs that are above us matters of State there is exercise of our Hope Those ways which we see not wee hope are directed to good ends In Civill actions amongst our selves there is exercise of our Charity Those hearts which we see not let us charitably beleeve to bee disposed to Gods service That when as Christ hath shut up his wâ—e onely in those two Va quia fâ—rtes illusiones Wâ—e because scandals and offences are so strong in their nature and Va quia infirmivos wâ—e because you are so weak in yours we doe not create a third Woe Va quia praevaricatores in an uncharitable jealousie and mis-interpretation of him that we are not in his care nor of his Ministers that they doe not execute his purposes nor of one another that when as God hath placed us in a Land where there are no wâ—lfes we doe not think Hominem homini Lupum imagine every man to be a wolf to us or to intend our destruction But as in the Arke there were Lions but the Lion shut his mouth and clincht his paw the Lion hurt nothing in the Arke and in the Arke there were Vipers and Scorpions but the Viper shewed no teeth nor the Scorpion no taile the Viper bit none the Scorpion stung none in the Arke for if they had occasioned any disorder there their escape could have been but into the Sea into irreparable ruine so in every State though that State be an Arke of peace and preservation there will be some kind of oppression in some Lions some that will abuse their power but Vae si scandalizemur woe unto us if we be scandalized with that and seditiously lay aspersions upon the State and Government because there are some such in every Church though that Church bee an Arke for integrity and sincerity there will bee some Vipers Vipers that will gnaw at their Mothers
they had torne skin and flesh with their former scourges and had left nothing but bones to wound But it is not onely that the repeating of the same sin often but it is the multiplicity of divers kinds of sins that is here lamented in all our behalfes It is not when the conscience is tender and afraid of every sin and every appearance of sin When Naaman desired pardon of God by the Prophet for sustaining the King upon his knees in the house of Rimmon the Idol and the Prophet bad him goe in peace it is not that he allows him any peace under the conscience and guiltinesse of a sin That was indispensable Neither is their any dispensation in Naamans case but onely a rectifying of a tender and timoruos conscience that thought that to be a sin which was not if it went no further but to the exhibiting of a Civill duty to his Master in what place soever Religious or prophane that service of kneeling were to be done Naamans service was truely no sin but it had been a sin in him to have done it when he thought it to be a sin And therefore the Prophets phrase Goe in peace may well be interpreted so set thy minde at rest◠for all that that thou requirest may be done without sin Now that tendernesse of conscience is not in our case in the Text. He that proceeds so to examine all his actions may meet scruples all the way that may give him some anxiety and vexation but he shall never come to that overflowing of sin intended in this plurality and multiplicity here For this plurality this multiplicity of sin hath found first a spunginesse in the soul an aptnesse to receive any liquor to embrace any sin that is offered to it and after a while a hunger and thirst in the soul to hunt and pant and draw after a tentation and not to be able to endure any vacuum any discontinuance or intermission of sinne and hee will come to think it a melancholique thing still to stand in fear of Hell a sordid a yeomanly thing still to be plowing and weeding and worming a conscience mechanicall thing still to be removing logs or filing iron still to be busied in removing occasions of tentation or filing and clearing particular actions and at last he will come to that case which S. Augustine out of an abundant ingenuity and tendernesse and compunction confesses of himself Ne vituperarer vitiosior fiebam I was fain to sin left I should lose my credit and be under-valued Et ubi non suberat quo admisso aquarer perditis when I had no means to doe some sins whereby I might be equall to my fellow Fingebam me fecisse quod non feceram ne viderer abjectior quo innocentior I would bely my self and say I had done that which I never did lest I should be under-valued for not having done it Audiebam eos exaltantes flagitia sayes that tender blessed Father I saw it was thought wit to make Sonnets of their own sinnes Et libebat facere non libidine facti sed libidine laudis I sinn'd not for the pleasure I had in the sin but for the pride that I had to write feelingly of it O what a Leviathan is sin how vast how immense a body And then what a spawner how numerous Between these two the denying of sins which we have done and the bragging of sins which we have not done what a space what a compasse is there for millions of millions of sins And so have you the nature of sin which was our first The propriety of sin which was our second and the plurality the multiplicity of sin which was our third branch And follows next the exaltation thereof supergressae sunt My sins are gone over my head They are that is they are already got above us for in that case we consider this plurall this manifold sinner that he hath slipt his time of preventing or resisting his sins His habits of sins are got already got above him Elisha bids his man look towards the Sea and he saw nothing He bids him look again and again to a seventh time and he saw nothing After all he sees but a little cloud like a mans hand and yet upon that little appearance the Prophet warns the King to get him into his Chariot and make good hast away lest the rain stopp'd his passage for instantly the heaven was black with clouds and rain The sinner will see nothing till he can see nothing and when he sees any thing as to the blindest conscience something will appear he thinks it but a little cloud but a melancholique fit and in an instant for 7 years make but an instant to that man that thinks of himself but once in 7 years Supergresae sunt his sins are got above him and his way out is stopp'd The Sun is got over us now though we saw none of his motions and so are our sins though we saw not their steps You know how confident our adversaries are in that argument Why doe ye oppugne our doctrine of prayer for the dead or of Invocation of Saints or of the fire of Purgatory since you cannot assigne us a time when these doctrines came into the Church or that they were opposed or contradicted when they entred When a conscience comes to that inquisition to an iniquitates supergressae to consider that our sins are gone over our head in any of those ways w ch we have spoken of if we offer to awaken that conscience farther it startles it answers us drowsily or frowardly like a new wak'd man Can you remember when you sin'd this sin first or did you resist it then or since whence comes this troublesome singularity now pray let me sleep still says this startled conscience Beloved if we fear not the wetting of our foot in sin it will be too late when we are over head and ears Gods deliverance of his children was sicco pede hee made the sea dry land and they wet not their foot At first in the creation subjecit omnia sub pedibus God put all things under their feet In mans wayes in this world his Angels beare us up in their hands why Ne impingamus pedem that we should not hurt our foot against a stone but have a care of every step we make If thou have defiled thy feet strayed into any unclean ways wash them again and stop there and that will bring thee to the consideration of the Spouse I have washed my feet how shall I then defile thē again I have found mercy for my former sins how shal I dare to provoke God w th more stil God appoints us a permanēt means to tread sin under our feet here in this life The woman that is the Church hath the Moon that is all transitory things so all tentatiōs under her feet As Christ himself expressed his care of Peter to consist in
every poor soul or inferiour person whom he met in the street and then bid his man give him so much money as the Law would for damages And this oppressing with scorne this proceeding without any respect of fame we note for hast but in two things in the Italian Babylon Rome first in that Book their Taxa Camerae and then in that doctrine their Reservatio Casuum that they durst compose and divulge such a book as their Taxa Camerae which is an Index a Repertory for all sinnes and in which every man may see beforehand how much money an Adultery an Incest a Murder a Parricide or any other sinne whose name he would never have thought of but by that Remembrancer that book will cost him that so he may sinne and not undoe himself sinne according to his means and within his compasse that they durst let the world see such a book was argument enough that they were fear'd up and scorned all that all men could think or say or doe in opposition So also is their Reservation of Cases that though all Priests have an equall power of remitting all sins yet are some sinnes reserved onely to Prelates some onely to the Popes Legats some onely to the Pope himselfe Is not this a scornfull spurning and kicking of the world a plain telling them that all is done for money and shall be so say all the world what it can They have a nationall custome in civill curtesies in that place in Italy to offer entertainments and lendings of money and the like but it must not be accepted It is a discurtesie to take their courteous offers in earnest Will they play so with the great Seale of heaven the remission and absolution of sins and send out their Priests with that commission whose sinnes yee forgive are forgiven but see you forgive none upon which we have set a higher price and reserved to our selves They had such a fashion in old Rome whilest the Republique stood He that was admitted to Triumph must invite the Consuls to the feast and the Consuls must promise to come but they must forbeare lest their presence should diminish the glory of the Triumpher So the Priest must professe that he hath as he hath indeed power to remit all sinnes but there are a great many that he must not meddle withall They practise this reservation upon higher persons then their ordinary Priests upon Cardinals A Cardinall is created and by that creation he hath a voice in all the great affairs of the world but at his creation Os clauditur à Papa he that made him makes him dumbe and he that out of the nature of his place is duly to be heard over all the world must not be heard in the Consistory the Pope gives him an universall voice and then shuts his mouth He makes him first a Giant and then a dwarfe in an houre He makes him thunder and speechlesse all at once fearfull to the Kings of the earth if he might speak but he must not They were not content to make Merchandize of our souls but they make plays jests scornes of matter of salvation and play fast and loose with that soveraign Balsamum of our souls the absolution and remission of sins Though no doubt many of them confess in their own bosomes that which one of them professes ingenuously and publiquely Diffiteri non possumus abusum Reservationum stragem animarum in iis we cannot deny the abuse of reservations even to the butchery of those poor souls who by reason of these reservations want their absolution Dolendum deflendum pecuniâ numeratâ omnia dispensare This deserves all our teares all our sighs that for money and not without it all sinnes are dispensed withall but there are fixed seasons for salvation some remissions and pardons are reserved to certain times of the year and there are fixt shops of salvation some remissions and pardons are appropriated to certain Fairs and Markets and cannot be given that is sold at any other time or place And farther we cannot we need not extend this accommodation of the words of our text literally intended of the condition of Gods Children in Babylon but pregnantly appliable to the condition of our Fathers in the Italian Babylon Rome But having at this time seen the oppressions that those shepheards inflicted there for the rest which are many and important considerations as first that they staid that they eate that grasse that yet they remained Gods sheep and remained his flock his Church though a Church under a greater Church And then the behaviour of the sheep whilst they staid there their obedience to Gods call in comming from them when he called them and made them way And lastly the little ground that our Separatists can have for their departing from us either by Israels departing from Babylon or our Fathers departing from Rome must be the exercise of your devotion another day SERMON XXV Preached at White-Hall The second Sermon on EZEK 34. 19. And as for my flock they eate that which yee have troden with your feet and they drink that which yee have fouled with your feet AS by way of accommodation we have considered these words as they concern the iniquity and oppression of the shepheards that is the chief rulers amongst the Iews in the Chaldean Babylon and as they are appliable to the condition of our Fathers in the Italian Babylon Rome so now in this exercise are we to consider the behaviour of the sheep their nature and their demeanour under all these pressures in which we have many steps to goe All these first Manebant that for all this ill usage there they did stay they did not breake out not scatter themselves manebant And then Edebant though their grasse were troden and their water troubled yet they did eat that grasse and they did drink that water Edebant And doing so Manebant Oves they continued sheep they lost not the nature nor property of sheep Manebant Oves and Oves Dei they continued Gods sheep for the Devill hath his sheep too my sheep says God not those which bad been mine when they eat fresh grasse and drunke pure water but then when they eat troden grasse and drunke troubled water they were Gods sheep And more then that they were Grex Dei Gods flock for those whom our former translation calls my sheep the latter calls my flock God hath single sheep in many corners of the heathen but these though thus fed were his flock his Church But then though they staid Gods leasure and lived long upon this ill diet yet when God was pleased to call them out of Babylon out of Babylon they went when God was pleased to lead our Fathers out of Rome they left it And justly howsoever our Adversaries load us with contumelious names for that departure in which branch we shall see the vanity of their criminations and imputations to us for that secession from them
the strength of that Grace which God gave me heretofore But as God infuseth a Soul into every man and that Soul elicites a new Act in it self before that man produce any action so God infuses a particular Grace into every good work of mine and so prevents me before I co-operate with him For as Nature in her highest exaltation in the best Morall man that is cannot flow into Grace Nature cannot become Grace so neither doth former Grace flow into future Grace but I need a distinct influence of God a particular Grace for every good work I do for every good word I speak for every good thought I conceive When God gives me accesse into his Library leave to consider his proceedings with man I find the first book of Gods making to be the Book of Life The Book where all their names are written that are elect to Glory But I find no such Book of Death All that are not written in the Book of Life are certainly the sonnes of Death To be pretermitted there there to be left out wraps them up at least leaves them wrapt up in death But God hath not wrought so positively nor in so primary a consideration in a book of Death as in the Book of Life As the aftertimes made a Book of Wisdome out of the Proverbs of Salomon and out of his Ecclesiastes but yet it is not the same Book nor of the same certainty so there is a Book of Life â—ere but that is not the same book that is in Heaven nor of the same certainty For in this Book of Life which is the Declaration and Testimony which the Church gives of our Election by those marks of the Elect which she seeth in the Scriptures and believeth that she seeth in us a man may be Blotted out of the Book of the living as David speaketh and as it is added there Not written with the Righteous Intimating that in some cases and in some Book of Life a man may have been written in and blotted out and written in again The Book of Life in the Church The Testimony of our Election here admits such expunctions and such redintegrations but Gods first Book his Book of Mercy for this Book in the Church is but his Book of Evidence is inviolable in it self and all the names of that Book indelible In Gods first Book the Book of Life Mercy hath so much a precedency and primogeniture as that there is nothing in it but Mercy In Gods other Book his Book of Scripture in which he is put often to denounce judgements as well as to exhibite mercies still the Tide sets that way still the Biass leads on that hand still his method directs us ad Primogenitum to his first-born to his Mercy So he began in that Book He made man to his Image and then he blest him Here is no malediction no intermination mingled in Gods first Act in Gods first purpose upon man In Paradise there is That if he eat the forbidden fruit if he will not forbear that that one Tree He shall die But God begins not there before that he had said of every tree in the Garden thou maist freely eat neither is there more vehemency in the punishment then in the libertie For as in the punishment there is an ingemination Morte morieris Dying thou shalt die that is thou shalt surely die so in the liberty there was an ingemination too Comedendo comedes Eating thou shalt eat that is thou maist freely eat In Deut. we have a fearfull Chapter of Maledictions but all the former parts of that Chapter are blessings in the same kind And he that reads that Chapter will beginne at the beginning and meet Gods first-born his Mercy first And in those very many places of that Book where God divides the condition If you obey you shall live if you rebell you shall die still the better Act and the better condition and the better reward is placed in the first place that God might give us possession In jure Primogeniti in the right of his first-born his mercy And where God pursues the same method and first dilates himself and expatiates in the way of mercy I will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him when after that he is brought to say If his children forsake my Law I will visit their transgression with the rod where first he puts it off for one Generation from himself to his Children which was one Mercy And then he puts it upon a forsaking an Apostasie and not upon every sinne of infirmity which was another Mercy when it comes to a correction it is but a milde correction with the râ—d And in that he promises to visite them to manifest himself and his purpose to them in the correction all which are higher and higher degrees of Mercy yet because there is a spark of anger a tincture of judgement mingled in it God remembers his first-born his Mercy and returns where he begun Neverthelesse my Covenant will I not break nor alter the things that is gone out of my lips once have I sworn by my Holinesse that I will not lie unto David There are elder pictures in the world of Water then there are any of oyl but those of oyl have got above them and shall outlive them Water is a frequent embleme of Affliction in the Scriptures and so is oyl of Mercy If at any time in any place of Scripture God seemed to begin with water with a judgement yet the oyl will get to the top in that very judgement you may see that God had first a mercifull purpose in inflicting that medicinall judgement for his mercy is his first-born His Mercy is new every morning saith the Prophet not onely every day but as soon as it is day Trace God in thy self and thou shalt find it so If thou beest drowzie now and unattentive curious or contentious or quarrelsome now now God leaves thee in that indisposition and that is a judgement But it was his Mercy that brought thee hither before In every sinne thou hast some remorse some reluctation before thou do that sinne and that pre-reluctation and pre-remorse was Mercy If thou hadst no such remorse in thy last sinne before the sinne and hast it now this is the effect of Gods former mercy and former good purpose upon thee to let thee see that thou needest the assistance of his Minister and of his Ordinance to enable thee to lay hold on Mercy when it is offered thee Can any calamity fall upon thee in which thou shalt not be bound to say I have had blessings in a greater measure then this If thou have had losses yet thou hast more out of which God took that If all be lost perchance thou art but where thou begunst at first at nothing If thou begunst upon a good heighth and beest fallen from that and fallen low yet as God
is but a Conscience a guiltinesse of needing a continuall supply and succession of more and more grace And we are all red red so even from the beginning and in our best state Adam had the Angells had thus much of this infirmity that though they had a great measure of grace they needed more The prodigall child grew poore enough after he had received his portion and he may be wicked enough that trusts upon former or present grace and seeks not more This rednesse a blushing that is an acknowledgement that we could not subsist with any measure of faith except we pray for more faith nor of grace except we seek more grace we have from the hand of God And another rednesse from his hand too the bloud of his Sonne so that bloud was effused by Christ in the value of the ransome for All and accepted by God in the value thereof for All and this redness is in the nature thereof as extensive as the redness derived from Adam is Both reach to all So we were red earth in the hands of God as redness denotes our generall infirmities and as redness denotes the bloud of his Sonne our Saviour all have both But that redness which we have contracted from bloud shed by our selves the bloud of our own soules by sinne was not upon us when we were in the hands of God That redness is not his tincture not his complexion No decree of his is writ in any such red inke Our sinnes are our owne and our destruction is from ourselves We are not as accessaries and God as principall in this soule-murder God forbid we are not as executioners of Gods sentence and God the Malefactor in this soule-damnation God forbid Cain came not red in his brothers bloud out of Gods hands nor David red with Vriahs bloud nor Achitophel with his own nor Iudas with Christs or his owne That that Pilat did illusorily God can doe truely wash his hands from the bloud of any of these men It were a weake Plea to say I killed not that man but 't is true I commanded one who was under my command to kill him It is rather a prevarication then a justification of God to say God is not the author of sinne in any man but t is true God makes that man sinne that sinne God is Innocency and the beames that flow from him are of the same nature and colour Christ when he appeared in heaven was not red but white His head and haires were white as white wooll and as snow not head onely but haires too He and that that growes from him he and we as we come from his hands are white too His Angels that provoke us to the Imitation of that pattern are so in white Two men two Angels stood by the Apostles in white apparell The imitation is laid upon us by precept too At all times let thy garments be white Those actions in which thou appearest to the world innocent It is true that Christ is both My beloved is white and ruddy says the Spouse But the white was his owne his rednesse is from us That which Zipporah said to her husband Moses in anger the Church may say to Christ in thankfulnesse Verè sponsus Sanguinum thou art truly a bloudy husband to me Damim sanguinum of blouds blouds in the plurall for all our blouds are upon him This was a mercy to the Militant Church that even the Triumphant Church wondred at it They knew not Christ when he came up to heaven in red Who is this that commeth in red garments Wherefore is thy apparell red like him that treadeth in the winepresse They knew he went down in white in intire innocency and they wondred to see him returne in red But he satisfies them Calcavi you thinke I have troden the winepresse and you mistake it not I have troden the winepresse and Calcavi solus I have troden it alone all the redness all the bloud of the whole world is upon me And as he adds Non vir de gentibus of all people there was none with me with me so as to have any part in the Merit So of all people there was none without me without me so as to be excluded by me without their own fault from the benefit of my merit This redness he carried up to heaven for by the bloud of his Crosse came peace both to the things in earth and the things in heaven For that peccability that possibility of sinning which is in the Nature of the Angels of heaven would breake out into sinne but for that confirmation which those Angels have received in the bloud of Christ. This rednesse he carried to heaven and this rednesse he hath left upon earth that all we miserable clods of earth might be tempered with his bloud that in his bloud exhibited in his holy and blessed Sacrament our long robes might be made white in the bloud of the Lambe that though our sinnes be robes habits of sinne though long robes habits of long continuance in sinne yet through that rednesse which our sinnes have cast upon him we might come to participate of that whitenesse that righteousnesse which is his owne We that is all we for as to take us in who are of low condition and obscure station a cloud is made white by his sitting upon it He sate upon a great white cloud so to let the highest see that they have no whitenesse but from him he makes the Throne white by sitting upon it He sate upon a great white Throne It had not been great if it had not been white White is the colour of dilatation goodnesse onely enlarges the Throne It had not been white if he had not sate upon it That goodness onley which consists in glorifying God and God in Christ and Christ in the sincerity of his truth is true whitenesse God hath no rednesse in himselfe no anger towards us till he considers us as sinners God cast no rednesse upon us inflicts no necessity no constraint of sinning upon us We have dyed ourselves in sinnes as red as Scarlet we have drowned our selves in such a red Sea But as a garment that were washed in the red Sea would come out white so wonderfull works hath God done at the red Sea says David so doth his whitenesse worke through our red and makes this Adam this red earth Calculum candidum that white stone that receives a new name not Ish not Enosh not Gheber no name that tasts of misery or of vanity but that name renewed and manifested which was imprinted upon us in our elections the Sonnes of God the irremoveable the undisinheritable Sonnes of God Be pleased to receive this note at parting that there is Macula Alba a spot and yet white as well as a red spot a whitenesse that is an indication of a Leprosie as well as a rednesse Whole-pelagianisme to thinke nature alone sufficient
no Image no pattern to thy selfe to imitate and yet propose thy selfe for a pattern for an Image to be adored Thou wilt have singular opinions and singular ways differing from all other men and yet all that are not of thy opinion must be heretiques and all reprobates that goe not thy wayes Propose good patterns to thy selfe and thereby become a fit pattern for others God we see was the first that made Images and he was the first that forbad them He made them for imitation he forbad them in danger of adoration For Qualis dementiae est id colere quod melius est What a drowzinesse what a lazinesse what a cowardlinesse of the soule is it to worship that which does but represent a better thing then it selfe Worship belongs to the best know thou thy distance and thy period how far to goe and where to stop Dishonor not God by an Image in worshiping it and yet benefit thy selfe by it in following it There is no more danger out of a picture then out of a history if thou intend no more in either then example Though thou have a West a darke and a sad condition that thou art but earth a man of infirmities and ill counsailed in thy selfe yet thou hast herein a North that scatters and dispells these clouds that God proposes to thee in his Scriptures and otherwise Images patterns of good and holy men to goe by But beyond this North this assistance of good examples of men thou hast a South a Meridionall heighth by which thou seest thine Image they pattern to be no copy no other man but the originall it selfe God himselfe Faciamus ad nostram Let us make man in our Image after our likenesse Here we consider first where this Image is and then what it does first in what part of man God hath imprinted this his Image And then what this Image confers and derives upon man what it works in man And as when we seek God in his essence we are advised to proceed by negatives God is not mortall not passible so when we seek the Image of God in man we beginne with a negative This Image is not in his body Teriullian declined to thinke it was nay Tertullian inclined others to thinke so For he is the first that is noted to have been the author of that opinion that God had a body Yet Saint Augustine excuses Tertullian from heresie because says he Tertullian might meance that it was so sure that there is a God and that that God was a certaine though not a finite Essence that God was so far from being nothing as that he had rather a body Because it was possible to give a good interpretation of Tertullian that charitable Father Saint Augastine would excuse him of heresie I would Saint Augustines charity might prevaile with them that pretend to be Augustinianissimi and to adore him so much in the Roman Church not to cast the name of Heresie upon every probleme nor the name of Heretique upon every inquirer of Truth Saint Augustine would deliver Tertullian from heresie in a point concerning God and they will condemne us of heresie in every point that may be drawne to concerne not the Church but the Court of Rome not their doctrine but their profit Malo de Misericordia Deo rationem reddere quà m de crudelitate I shall better answer God for my mildenesse then for my severity And though anger towards a brother or a Raca or a foole will beare an action yet he shall recover lesse against me at that bar whom I have called weake or mislead as I must necessary call many in the Roman Church then he whom I have passionately and peremptorily called heretique For I dare call an opinion heresie for the matter a great while before I dare call the man that holds it an heretique For that consists much in the manner It must be matter of faith before the matter be heresie But there must be pertinacy after convenient instruction before that man be an heretique But how excusable so ever Tertullian be herein in Saint Augustines charity there was a whole sect of heretiques one hundred years after Tertullian the Audiani who over literally taking those places of Scripture where God is said to have hands and feet and eyes and eares beleeved God to have a body like ours and accordingly interpreted this text that in that Image and that likenesse a bodily likenesse consisted this Image of God in man And yet even these men these Audians Epiphanius who first takes knowledge of them calls but Schismatiques not Heretiques so loth is charity to say the worst of any Yet we must remember them of the Roman perswasion that they come too neare giving God a body in their pictures of God the Father And they bring the body of God that body which God the Sonne hath assumed the body of Christ too neare in their Transubstantiation not too near our faith for so it cannot be brought too near so it is as really there as we are there too neare to our sense not too neare in the Vbi for so it is there There that is in that place to which the Sacrament extends it selfe For the Sacrament extends as well to heaven from whence it fetches grace as to the table from whence it delivers Bread and Wine but too neare in modo For it comes not thither that way We must necessarily complaine that they make Religion too bodily a thing Our Saviour Christ corrected Mary Magdalens zeale where she flew to him in a personall devotion and he said Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father Fix your meditations upon Christ Jesus so as he is now at the right hand of his Father in heaven and entangle not your selves so with controversies about his body as to lose reall charity for imaginary zeale nor enlarge your selves so far in the pictures and Images of his body as to worship them more then him As Damdscen says of God that he is Super-principale principium a beginning before any beginning we can conceive and prae-aeterna aeternitas an eternity infinitely elder then any eternity we can imagine so he is Super-spiritualis Spiritus such a Super-spirit as that the soule of man and the substance of Angels is but a body compared to this Spirit God hath no body though Tertullian disputed it though the Audians preached it though the Papists paint it And therefore this Image of God is not in the body of man that way Nor that way neither which some others have assigned that God who hath no body as God yet in the creation did assume that forme which man hath now and so made man in his Image that is in that forme which he had then assumed Some of the Ancients thought so and some other men of great estimation in the Roman Church have thought so too In particular Oleaster a great officer in the
against us but yet with our ten thousand we may meet their twenty thousand if we have put on Christ and be armed with him and his holy patience and constancy but from whom may we derive an assurance that we shall have that armor that patience that constancy First a Christian must purpose to Doe and then in cases of necessity to suffer And give me leave to make this short note by the way no man shall suffer like a Christian that hath done nothing like a Christian God shall thanke no man for dying for him and his glory that contributed nothing to his glory in the actions of his life very hardly shall that man be a Martyr in a persecution that did not what he could to keep off persecution Thus then Iob comes first to the Si occiderit If he should kill me If Gods anger should proceed so far as so far it may proceed Let no man say in a sicknesse or in any temporall calamity this is the worst for a worse thing then that may fall five and thirty years sicknesse may fall upon thee and as it is in that Gospell a worse thing then that Distraction and desperation may fall upon thee let no Church no State in any distress say this is the worst for onely God knowes what is the worst that God can doe to us Iob does not deny here but that this Si occiderit if it come to a matter of life it were another manner of triall then either the si irruerent Sabaei if the Sabaeans should come and drive his Cattell and slay his servants more then the si ignis caderet if the fire of God should fall from heaven and devoute all more then the si ventus concuteret if the winde of the wildernesse should shake downe his house and kill and all his children The Devill in his malice saw that if it came to matter of life Iob was like enough to be shaked in his faith Skin for skin and all that ever a man hath will he give for his life God foresaw that in his gracious providence too and therefore he took that clause out of Satans Commission and inserted his veruntamen animam ejus servae medle not with his life The love of this life which is naturall to us and imprinted by God in us is not sinfull Few and evill have the days of my pilgrimage been says lacob to Pharaeoh though they had been evill which makes our days seem long and though he were no young man when he said so yet the days which he had past he thought few and desired more When Eliah was fled into the wildernesse and that in passion and vehemence he said to God Sufficit Domine tolle animam meam It is enough O Lord now take away my life if he had been heartily thoroughly weary of his life he needed not to have fled from Iesabel for he fled but to save his life The Apostle had a Cupie dissolvi a desire to be dissolved but yet a love to his brethren corrected that desire and made him finde that it was far better for him to live Our Saviour himselfe when it came to the pinch and to the agony had a Transeat Calix a naturall declining of death The naturall love of our naturall life is not ill It is ill in many cases not to love this life to expose it to unnecessary dangers is alwayes ill and there are overtures to as great sinnes in hating this life as in loving it and therefore Iobs first consideration is si occideret if he should kill me if I thought he would kill me this were enough to put me from trusting in any But Iobs consideration went farther then to the si occideret Though he should kill me for it comes to an absolute assurance that God will kill him for so it is in the Originall Ecce occidet Behold I see he will kill me I have I can have no hope of life at his hands T is all our cases Adam might have liv'd if he would but I cannot God hath placed an Ecce a marke of my death upon every thing living that I can set mine eye upon every thing is a remembrancer every thing is a Judge upon me and pronounces I must dye The whole frame of the world is mortall Heaven and Earth passe away and upon us all there is an irrecoverable Decree past statutum est It is appointed to all men that they shall once dye But when quickly If thou looke up into the aire remember that thy life is but a winde If thou see a cloud in the aire aske St. Iames his question what is your life and give St. Iames his answer It is a vapour that appeareth and vanisheth away If thou behold a Tree then Iob gives thee a comparison of thy selfe A Tree is an embleme of thy selfe nay a Tree is the originall thou art but the copy thou art not so good as it for There is hope of a tree as you reade there if the roote wax old if the stock be dead if it be cut down yet by the sent of the waters it will bud but man is sick and dyeth and where is he he shall not wake againe till heaven be no more Looke upon the water and we are as that and as that spilt upon the ground Looke to the earth and we are not like that but we are earth it self At our Tables we feed upon the dead and in the Temple we tread upon the dead and when we meet in a Church God hath made many echoes many testimonies of our death in the walls and in the windowes and he onely knowes whether he will not make another testimony of our mortality of the youngest amongst us before we part and make the very place of our buriall our deathbed Iobs contemplation went so far not onely to a Si occideret to a possibility that he might dye but to an Ecce occidet to an assurance that he must dye I know there is an infalliblenesse in the Decree an inevitablenesse in nature an inexorablenesse in God I must dye And the word beares a third interpretation beyond this for si occiderit is not onely if he should kill me as he maâ— if he will and it may be he will nor onely that I am sure he will kill me I know I must dye but the word may very well be also though he have killed me So that Iobs resolution that he will trust in God is grounded upon all these considerations That there is exercise of our hope in God before death in the agony of death and after death First in our good dayes and in the time of health Memorare novissima sayes the wise man we must remember our end our death But that we cannot forget every thing presents that to us But his counsell there is in omnibus operibus In all thine undertakings in all thine actions remember thine end when thou art in any worldly
of nature to behold him so as to fixe upon him in meditation God benights us or eclipses us or casts a cloud of medicinall afflictions and wholsome corrections upon us Naturally we dwell longer upon the consideration of God when we see the Sun eclipsed then when we see it rise we passe by that as an ordinary thing and so in our afflictions we stand and looke upon God and we behold him A man may see God and forget that ever he saw him When saw we thee hungry or naked or sick or in prison say those mercilesse men they forgot but Christ remembers that they did see him but not behold him see him and looke off see him so as aggravated their sin more then if they had never seene him But that man who through his owne red glasse can see Christ in that colour too through his own miseries can see Christ Jesus in his blood that through the calumnies that have been put upon himselfe can see the revilings that were multiplyed upon Christ that in his own imprisonment can see Christ in the grave and in his owne enlargement Christ in his resurrection this man this Enosh beholds God and he beholds him é longinquo which is another step in this branch he sees him afar off Now this seeing afar off is not a phrase of diminution a circumstance of extenuation as though it were lesse to see God afar off and more to see him neerer This far off is far from that it is a power of seeing him so as wheresoever I am or wheresoever God is I can see him at any distance Being established in my foundation upon God being built up by faith in that notion of God in which he hath manifested himselfe to me in his Sonne being mounted and raised by dwelling in his Church being made like unto him in suffering as he suffered I can see round about me even to the Horizon and beyond it I can see both Hemispheres at once God in this and God in the next world too I can see him in the Zenith in the highest point and see how he works upon Pharaoh on the Throne and I can see him in the Nadir in the lowest dejection and see how he workes upon Ioseph in the prison I can see him in the East see how mercifully he brought the Christian Religion amongst us and see him in the West see how justly he might remove that againe and leave us to our own inventions I can see him in the South in a warme and in the North in a frosty fortune I can see him in all angles in all postures Abraham saw God coming to him as he fate at the doore of his Tent and though as the Text sayes there God stood by him yet sayes the Text too Abraham ran to meet God I can see God in the visitation of his Spirit come to me and when he is so he is already in me but I must run out to meet him that is labour to hold him there and to advance that manifestation of himselfe in me Abraham saw God comming Moses saw God going his glory passing by he saw posteriora his hinder parts so I can see God in the memory of his blessings formerly conferred upon me And Moses saw him too in a burning bush in thornes and fire And had I no other light but the fire of a pile of faggots in that light I could see his light I could see himselfe Let me be the man of this Text this Enosh to say with Ieremy I am the man that hath seene affliction by the rod of his wrath Let me have had this third concoction that as I am Adam a man of earth wrought upon that wheele and as I am a Christian a vessell in his house a member of his Church wrought upon that wheele so let me be vir dolorum a man of affliction a vessell baked in that furnace fitted by Gods proportion and dosis of his corrections to make a right use of his corrections and I can see God E longinquo afar off I can see him writing downe my name in the booke of life before I was borne and I can see him giving his Angels The Angell of the great Counsell Christ Jesus himselfe and his spirit charge of my preservation all the way and of my transmigration upon my death-bed and that is E longinquo from before I was to after I shall be no more There remaines a word more 'T is scarce well said for there remaines not a word more There is not another word and yet there is another branch in the Text. This man not every man as before this Enosh not every Adam as before he sees not onely as before but he beholds afarre off and so farre we are gone but what beholds he afarre off That the Text tels us not Before there was an illud Every man may see that aske what is that and I can tell you I have told you out of the coherence of the Text It is Gods workes manifesting himselfe even to the naturall man But this man this Enosh raised by his dejection rectified by humiliation may behold what here is no illud no such word as that no object limited and therefore it is that which no eye hath seene nor eare heard nor heart of man conceived it is God in the glory and assembly of his immortall Saints in heaven How many times go we to Comedies to Masques to places of great and noble resort nay even to Church onely to see the company If I had no other errand to heaven but the communion of Saints the fellowship of the faithfull Lo see that flock of Lambs Innocent unbaptized children recompensed with the twice-baptized Martyrs baptized in water and baptized in their owne blood and that middle sort the children baptized in blood and not in the water that rescued Christ Jesus by their death under Herod to see the Prophets and the Evangelists and not know one from the other by their writings for they all write the same things for prophecy is but antidated Gospell and Gospell but postdated prophecy to see holy Matrons saved by the bearing and bringing up of children and holy Virgins saved by restoring their bodies in the integrity that they received them sit all upon one seate to see Princes and Subjects crowned all with one crowne and rich and poore inherit one portion to see this scene this Court this Church this Catholique Church not onely Easterne and Westerne but Militant and Triumphant Church all in one roome together to see this Communion of Saints this fellowship of the faithfull is worth all the paynes that that sight costs us in this world But then to see the head of this Church the Sunne that shed all these beames the God of glory face to face to see him sicuti est as he is to know him at cognitus as I am knowne what darke and inglorious fortune would I not passe thorow
to come to that light and that glory How then hath God doubled his mercies upon those persons to whom he hath afforded two great lights a Sunne to rule their day honour and prosperity and a Moone to rule their night humiliation and adversity to whom he hath given both Types in themselves to see this future glory by that is Titles and places of honour in this world and spectacles in themselves to see this glory by afflictions and crosses in this world And therefore since God gives both these no where so plentifully as in Courts the place of Honour and the place of Crosses too the place of rising and the place of falling too you you especially who by having your station there in the Court it selfe are in the Court exemplified and copied in your owne noble house you that have seen God characterized in his Types in titles of greatnesse you that have beheld God presented in his spectacle of Crosses and afflictions the daily bread of Courts Blesse ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever and declare the wondrous workes that he hath done for the Sonnes of men for certainly many woes and invincible darknesse attend those to whom neither the hand of God in his works nor the hand of God upon themselves neither the greatnesse of this world nor the crâ—sses of this world can manifest God for what picture of God would they have that will neither have him in great nor litle SERMON XXXII Preached to the Earl of Exeter and his company in his Chappell at Saint Iohns 13. Iun. 1624. APOC. 7. 9. After this I beheld and loe a great Multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lambe clothed with white robes and Palmes in their hands WE shall have occasion by and by to say something of the danger of Curiosity and something of the danger of the broad way in which too many walk we will not therefore fall into either of these faults at first we will not be over curious nor we will not stray nor cast our selves into that broad and boundlesse way by entring into those various and manifold senses which Expositors have multiplyed in the handling of this place and this part of this book but we take the plainest way and that in which the best meet and concur that these words are spoken of the Ioyes and Glory reserved for them who overcome the fraud and the fury the allurements and the violences of Antichrist in whom in that name and person of Antichrist we consider all supplanters and all seducers all opposers of the kingdome of Christ in us for as every man hath spontaneum daemonem as S. Chrysostome speakes a devill of his own making which is some customary and habituall sin in him so every man hath spontaneuÌ„ Antichristum an Antichrist of his own making some objections in the weakness of his faith some oppositions in the perverseness of his manners against the kingdom of Christ in himself as if God would suspend the devill or slumber the devill a day I am afraid we should be as ill that day as if the devill were awake and in action so if those disputed problematical Antichrists Eastern Western Antichrist Antichrist of Rome and Antichrist of Constantinople Turk and Pope were removed out of the world we should not for all that be delivered of Antichrist that is of that opposition to the kingdome of Christ which is in our selvs This part of the book of the Revelation is literally and primarily the glorious victory of them who in the later end of the world having stood out the persecutions of the Antichrist enter into the triumph of heaven And it extends it self to all by way of fair accommodation who after a battel with their own Antichrists and victory over their owne enemies are also made partakers of those triumphs those joyes those glories of which S. Iohn in this propheticall glasse in this perspective of visions saw A great multitude which no man could number of all nations c. We are then upon the contemplation of the joyes of heaven which are everlasting must we wring them into the discourse of an houre of the glory of heaven which is intire and must we divide it into parts we must we will we doe into two parts first the number the great number of those that shall be saved And then the glorious qualities which shall be imprinted on them who are saved first that salvation is a more extensive thing more communicable then sullen cloystrall that have walled salvation in a monastery or in an ermitage take it to be or then the over-valuers of their own purity and righteousnesse which have determined salvation in themselves take it to be for It is a great multitude which no man can number of all nations c. And then in the second place salvation is the possession of such endowments as naturally invite all to the prosecution of that which is exposed and offered to all that we all labour here that we may all stand hereafter before the Throne and before the Lambe clothed in white robes c. In the first of these we shall passe by these steps first we shall consider the sociablenesse the communicablenesse of God himself who gives us the earth and offers us heaven and desires to have his kingdome well peopled he would have many he would have all he would have every one of them have all And then the first word of the text After this will carry us to the consideration of that which was done before which was first that they which were of this number were sealed and then they which were so sealed before were a great number one hundred forty four thousand but they who were made partakers of all this after were innumerable After this I beheld a great multitude which no man could number And therefore we shall shut up that first part with this consideration what sense what interpretation may belong unto those places where Christ says that the way to heaven is narrow and the gate straight of these peeces we shall make up our first part And for the particulars belonging to the second we shall fitliest open them then when we come to the handling of them Our first step then in this first part is the sociablenesse the communicablenesse of God He loves holy meetings he loves the communion of Saints the houshold of the faithfull Deliciae ejus says Solomon his delight is to be with the Sons of men and that the Sons of men should be with him Religion is not a melancholy the spirit of God is not a dampe the Church is not a grave it is a fold it is an Arke it is a net it is a city it is a kingdome not onely a house but a house that hath many mansions in it still it is a plurall thing consisting of
wardrobe not to make an Inventory of it but to finde in it something fit for thy wearing Iohn Baptist was not the light he was not Christ but he bore witnesse of him The light of faith in the highest exaltation that can be had in the Elect here is not that very beatificall vision which we shall have in heaven but it beares witnesse of that light The light of nature in the highest exaltation is not faith but it beares witnesse of it The lights of faith and of nature are subordinate Iohn Baptists faith beares me witnesse that I have Christ and the light of nature that is the exalting of my naturall faculties towards religious uses beares me witnesse that I have faith Onely that man whose conscience testifies to himself and whose actions testifie to the world that he does what he can can beleeve himself or be beleeved by others that he hath the true light of faith And therefore as the Apostle saith Quench not the Spirit I say too Quench not the light of Nature suffer not that light to goe out study your naturall faculties husband and improve them and love the outward acts of Religion though an Hypocrite and though a naturall man may doe them Certainly he that loves not the Militant Church hath but a faint faith in his interest in the Triumphant He that cares not though the materiall Church fall I am afraid is falling from the spirituall For can a man be sure to have his money or his plate if his house be burnt or to preserve his faith if the outward exercises of Religion faile He that undervalues outward things in the religious service of God though he begin at ceremoniall and rituall things will come quickly to call Sacraments but outward things and Sermons and publique prayers but outward things in contempt As some Platonique Philosophers did so over-refine Religion and devotion as to say that nothing but the first thoughts and ebullitions of a devout heart were fit to serve God in If it came to any outward action of the body kneeling or lifting up of hands if it came to be but invested in our words and so made a Prayer nay if it passed but a revolving a turning in our inward thoughts and thereby were mingled with our affections though pious affections yet say they it is not pure enough for a service to God nothing but the first motions of the heart is for him Beloved outward things apparell God and since God was content to take a body let not us leave him naked nor ragged but as you will bestow not onely some cost but some thoughts some study how you will clothe your children and how you will clothe your servants so bestow both cost and thoughts thinke seriously execute cheerfully in outward declarations that which becomes the dignity of him who evacuated himselfe for you The zeale of his house needs not eat you up no nor eat you out of house and home God asks not that at your hands But if you eat one dish the lesse at your feasts for his house sake if you spare somewhat for his reliefe and his glory you will not be the leaner nor the weaker for that abstinence Iohn Baptist bore witnesse of the light outward things beare witnesse of your faith the exalting of our naturall faculties beare witnesse of the supernaturall We do not compare the master and the servant and yet we thank that servant that brings us to his master We make a great difference between the treasure in the chest and the key that opens it yet we are glad to have that key in our hands The bell that cals me to Church does not catechise me nor preach to me yet I observe the sound of that bell because it brings me to him that does those offices to me The light of nature is far from being enough but as a candle may kindle a torch so into the faculties of nature well imployed God infuses faith And this is our second couple of lights the subordination of the light of nature and the light of faith And a third payre of lights of attestation that beare witnesse to the light of our Text is Lux aeternorum Corporum that light which the Sunne and Moone and those glorious bodies give from heaven and lux incensionum that light which those things that are naturally combustible and apt to take fire doe give upon earth both these beare witnesse of this light that is admit an application to it For in the first of these the glorious lights of heaven we must take nothing for stars that are not stars nor make Astrological and fixed conclusions out of meteors that are but transitory they may be Comets and blazing starres and so portend much mischiefe but they are none of those aeterna corpora they are not fixed stars not stars of heaven So is it also in the Christian Church which is the proper spheare in which the light of our text That light the essentiall light Christ Jesus moves by that supernaturall light of faith and grace which is truly the Intelligence of that spheare the Christian Chruch As in the heavens the stars were created at once with one Fiat and then being so made stars doe not beget new stars so the Christian doctrine necessary to salvation was delivered at once that is intirely in one spheare in the body of the Scriptures And then as stars doe not beget stars Articles of faith doe not beget Articles of faith so as that the Councell of Trent should be brought to bed of a new Creed not conceived before by the holy Ghost in the Scriptures and which is a monstrous birth the child greater then the Father as soon as it is borne the new Creed of the Councell of Trent to containe more Articles then the old Creed of the Apostles did Saint Iude writing of the common salvation as he calls it for Saint Iude it seems knew no such particular salvation as that it was impossible for any man to have salvation is common salvation exhorts them to contend earnestly for that faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Semel once that is at once semel simul once altogether For this is also Tertullians note that the rule of faith is that it be una immobilis irreformabilis it must not be deformed it cannot be Reformed it must not be mard it cannot be mended whatsoever needs mending and reformation cannot be the rule of faith says Tertullian Other foundation can no man lay then Christ not onely no better but no other what other things soever are added by men enter not into the nature and condition of a foundation The additions and traditions and superedifications of the Roman Church they are not lux aeternorum corporum they are not fixed bodies they are not stars to direct us they may be meteors and so exercise our discourse and Argumentation they may raise controversies And they may be Comets and so
what ground he sayes or does or suffers that which he suffers and does and sayes Howsoever he pretend the honour of God in his testimony yet if the thing be materially false false in it self though true in his opinion or formally false true in it self but not known to be so to him that testifies it both ways he is an incompetent witnesse And this takes away the honour of having been witnesses for Christ and the consolation and style of Martyrs both from them who upon such evidence as can give no assurance that is traedi tions of men have grounded their faith in God and from them who take their light in corners and conventicles and not from the City set upon the top of a hill the Church of God Those Roman Priests who have given their lives those Separatists which have taken a voluntary banishment are not competent witnesses for the glory of God for a witnesse must know and qui testatur de scientia testetur de modo scientiae sayes the Law He that will prove any thing by his knowledge must prove how he came by that knowledge The Papist hath not the knowledge of his Doctrine from any Scripture the Separatist hath not the knowledge of his Discipline from any precedent any example in the primitive Church How farre then is that wretched and sinfull man from giving any testimony or glory to Christ in his life who never comes to the knowledge and consideration why he was sent into this life who is so farre from doing his errand that he knowes not what his errand was not whether he received any errand or no. But as though that God who for infinite millions of ages delighted himself in himself and was sufficient in himself and yet at last did bestow six dayes labour for the creation and provision of man as though that God who when man was sowr'd in the lumpe poysoned in the fountaine withered in the roote in the loins of Adam would then ingage his Sonne his beloved Sonne his onely Sonne to be man by a temporary life and to be no man by a violent and a shamefull death as though that God who when he was pleased to come to a creation might have left out thee amongst privations amongst nothings or might have shut thee up in the close prison of a bare being and no more as he hath done earth and stones or if he would have given thee life might have left thee a Toad or if he would have given thee a humane soule might have left thee a heathen without any knowledge of God or if he had afforded thee a Religion might have left thee a Iew or though he had made thee a Christian might have left thee a Papist as though that God that hath done so much more in breeding thee in his true Church had done all this for nothing thou passest thorough this world like a flash like a lightning whose beginning or end no body knowes like an Ignis fatuus in the aire which does not onely not give light for any use but not so much as portend or signifie any thing and thou passest out of the world as thy hand passes out of a basin of water which may bee somewhat the fouler for thy washing in it but retaines no other impression of thy having been there and so does the world for thy life in it When God placed Adam in the world he bad him fill it and subdue it and rule it and when he placed him in paradise he bad him dresse and keepe paradise and when he sent his children into the over-flowing Laud of promise he bad them fight and destroy the Idolaters to every body some task some errand for his glory And thou comest from him into this world as though he had said nothing unto thee but Go and do as you see cause Go and do as you see other men do Thou knowest not that is considerest not what thou wast sent to doe what thou shouldest have done but thou knowest much lesse what thou hast done The light of nature hath taught thee to hide thy sinnes from other men and thou hast been so diligent in that as that thou hast hid them from thy self and canst not finde them in thine owne conscience if at any time the Spirit of God would burne them up or the blood of Christ Jesus wash them out thou canst not finde them out so as that a Sermon or Sacrament can work upon them Perchance thou canst tell when was the first time or where was the first place that thou didst commit such or such a sinne but as a man can remember when he began to spell but not when he began to reade perfectly when he began to joyne his letters but not when he began to write perfectly so thou remembrest when thou wentest timorously and bashfully about sinne at first and now perchance art ashamed of that shamefastnesse and sorry thou beganst no sooner Poore bankrupt that hast sinned out thy soule so profusely so lavishly that thou darest not cast up thine accounts thou darest not aske thy selfe whether thou have any soule left how farre art thou from giving any testimony to Christ that darest not testifie to thy selfe nor heare thy conscience take knowledge of thy transgressions but haddest rather sleepe out thy daies or drinke out thy daies then leave one minute for compunction to lay hold on and doest not sinne alwaies for the love of that sinne but for feare of a holy sorrow if thou shouldest not fill up thy time with that sinne God cannot be mocked saith the Apostle nor God cannot be blinded He seeth all the way and at thy last gaspe he will make thee see too through the multiplying Glasse the Spectacle of Desperation Canst thou hope that that God that seeth this darke Earth through all the vaults and arches of the severall spheares of Heaven that seeth thy body through all thy stone walls and seeth thy soul through that which is darker then all those thy corrupt flesh canst thou hope that that God can be blinded with drawing a curtain between thy sinne and him when he is all eye canst thou hope to put out that eye with putting out a candle when he hath planted legions of Angels about thee canst thou hope that thou hast taken away all Intelligence if thou have corrupted or silenced or sent away a servant O bestow as much labour as thou hast done to finde corners for sin to finde out those sinnes in those corners where thou hast hid them As Princes giveâ— pardons by their own hands but send Judges to execute Justice come to him for mercy in the acknowledgement of thy sinnes and stay not till his Justice come to thee when he makes inquisition for blood and doe not think that if thou feel now at this presentâ— a little tendernesse in thy heart a little melting in thy bowels a little dew in thine eyes that if thou beest come to know that thou art a
the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise This citation is not served by a bell that tolls to bring you hither not by a man that speaks to instruct you here not by a law that compells you to live orderly in the world not by a bell that rings out to lay thee in thy grave but by the great shout of the Lord descending from heaven with the voyce of the Archangel and with the Trump of God to raise the dead in Christ. It is not the Apeperire fores That the Levites have charge to open these doores every day to you that you may come in that is your first citation hither it is not the Domine labia mea aperies That God opens our mouth the mouth of the Preacher to worke upon you that is your second citation here it is not that aperuimus saccos The opening of your sack of Corne and finding that and your money too that is your trading in this world in a calling that is your third citation from hence nor it is not the Aperuit terra os situm That the earth opens her mouth and swallowes all in the grave that is your fourth citation from thence it is none of these Apertions these openings but it is the Aperta monumenta The grave it self shall be open againe and Aperti coeli The heavens shall be open and I shall see the Sonne of man the Sonne of God and not see him at that distance that Stephen saw him there but see him and sit down with him I shall rise from the dead from the darke station from the prostration from the prosternation of death and never misse the sunne which shall then be put out for I shall see the Sonne of God the Sunne of glory and shine my self as that sunne shines I shall rise from the grave and never misse this City which shall be no where for I shall see the City of God the new Ierusalem I shall looke up and never wonder when it will be day for the Angell will tell me that time shall be no more and I shall see and see cheerefully that last day the day of judgement which shall have no night never end and be united to the Antient of dayes to God himselfe who had no morning never began There I shall beare witnesse for Christ in ascribing the salvation of the whole world to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb and Christ shall bear witnesse for me in ascribing his righteousnesse unto me and in delivering me into his Fathers hands with the same tendernesse as he delivered up his owne soule and in making me who am a greater sinner then they who crucified him on earth for me as innocent and as righteous as his glorious selfe in the Kingdome of heaven And these occasions of advancing your devotion and edification from these two branches of this part first the fitnesse of Iohn Baptist to be sent and then his actuall sending by so divers callings and citations in him appliable as you have seene to us More will be ministred in due time out of the last part and the two branches of that first why this light required any witnesse and then what witnesse Iohn Baptist gave to this light But those because they leade us not to the celebration of any particular Festivall as these two former parts have done to Christmas and Midsommer I may have leave to present to you at any other time At this time let us onely beg of God a blessing upon this that hath been said c. SERMON XXXVIII Preached at Saint Pauls 13. Octob. 1622. JOHN 1. 8. He was not that light but was sent to beare witnesse of that light THis is the third time that I have entertained you in a businesse of this nature intended for Gods service and your edification I must not say troubled you with this Text. I begun it at Christmas and in that darke time of the yeer told you who and what was this light which Iohn Baptist is denied to be I pursued it at Midsommer and upon his owne day insisted upon the person of Iohn Baptist who though he were not this light was sent to beare witnesse of this light And the third consideration which as I told you then was not tied nor affected to any particular Festivall you shall by Gods grace have now the office of Iohn Baptist his testimony and in that these two parts first a problematicall part why so evident a thing as light and such a light that light required testimony of man and then a dogmaticall part what testimony this man gives of this light And in the first of these we shall make these two steps first why any testimony at all then why after so many others this of Iohn First then God made light first ut innotescerent omnia that man might glorifie God in seeing the creature and him in it for frustra fecisset says the same Father it had been to no purpose to have a world and no light But though light discover and manifest every thing else to us and it selfe too if all be well disposed yet in the fifth verse of this chapter there is reason enough given why this light in our text requires testimony that is the light shines in darknesse and the darknesse comprehends it not and therefore Propter non intelligentes propter incredulos propter inâ—rmos Sol lucernas quaerit for their sakes that are weak in their understanding and not enlightned in that faculty the Gentiles for their sakes who are weake in their faith that come and heare and receive light but beleeve not for their sakes that are perverse in their manners and course of life that heare and beleeve but practise not sol lucernas quaerit this light requires testimony There may be light then and we not know it because we are asleep and asleep so as Iairus daughter was of whom Christ says the maid is not dead but asleep The maide was absolutely dead but because he meant forthwith to raise her he calls it a sleep The Gentiles in their ignorance are dead we in our corrupt nature dead as dead as they we cannot heare the voice we cannot see the light without Gods subsequent grace the Christian can no more proceed then the Gentile can beginne without his preventing grace But because amongst us he hath established the Gospell and in the ministery and dispensation thereof ordinary meanes for the conveyance of his farther grace we noware but asleep and may wake A sodain light brought into a room doth awaken some men but yet a noise does it better and a shaking and a pinching The exalting of naturall faculties and good morall life inward inspirations and private meditations conferences reading and the life doe awaken some but the testimony of the messenger of God the preacher crying according to Gods ordinance shaking the soule troubling the
then the valley till the light invest it Si montem esse lucem putas in monte naufragium facies If you take the hill because it shines to be the light it self you shipwrack upon the top of a hill If we rest in the person or in the gifts of any man to what heighth soever this hill be raised in opinion or in the Church still we mistake Iohn Baptist men of the greatest endowments and goodnesse too are but instruments they are not the workman himself And therefore as they are most inexcusable that put an infallibility in the breast of one man our adversaries of Rome so do they transgresse too farre that way that runne and pant and thrust after strange preachers and leave their owne Church deserted and their owne Pastour discouraged for some one family by the greatnesse thereof or by the estimation thereof may induce both those inconveniences Truly though it may seeme boldly said it may be said safely that we were better heare some weaknesses from our owne Pastour then some excellencies from another go farther some mistakings from our own then some truths from another for all truths are not necessary nor all mistakings pernicious but obedience to order is necessary and all disorder pernicious Now what a way had Iohn Baptist open to him if he had been popularly disposed Amongst a people that at that time expected their Messias for all the Prophecies preceding his comming were then fulfilled and such a Messias as should be a Temporall King and had invested an opinion that he Iohn Baptist was that Christ what rebellions what earth-quakes what inundations of people might he have drawne after him if he would have countenanced and cherished their error to his advantage They would have lacked no Scriptures to authorize their actions They would have found particular places of the Prophets to have justified any act of theirs in advancing their Messias then expected Therein he is our patterne not to preach our selves but Christ Iesus not to preach for admiration but for edification not to preach to advance civill ends without spirituall ends to promote all the way the peace of all Christian Kingdomes but to refer all principally to the Kingdome of peace and the King of peace the God of heaven He confessed and denied not and said plainly I am not the Christ That was his Testimony we confesse and deny not and say plainly That our own parts our owne passions the purpose of great persons the purpose of any State is not Christ we preach Christ Iesus and him crucified and whosoever preaches any other Gospell or any other thing for Gospell let him be accursed I am not the man sayes Iohn Baptist for that man is God too but yet that man that God that Messias consisting of both is come though I be not he There is one amongst you whom you know not whose shooe-latchet I am not worthy to loose In which he says all this There is one among you you need seek no farther all the promises and Prophecies the Semen mulieris That the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpents head the appropriation to Abraham In semine tuo In thy seed shall all Nations be blessed the fixation upon David Donec Shiloh till Shiloh come Esay's Virgo concipiet Behold a Virgin shall conceive Micah's tu Bethlem that Bethlem should be the place Daniels seventy Hebdomades that that should be the time all promises all prophecies all computations are at an end the Messias is come Is he come and amongst you and do you not know him what will make you know him You beleeve you need a Messias you cannot restore your selfe You beleeve this Messias must come at a certaine time specified by certaine marks were all these marks upon any other or lacks there any of these in him Do you thus magnifie me and neglect a person whose shooe-latchet I am not worthy to loose Iohn Baptist was a Prophet more then a Prophet The greatest of the sonnes of women Who could be so much greater then he and not the Messias we must necessarily enwrap all these three in one another and into one another they do easily and naturally fall He testifies that he was not the man he preaches not himself he testifies that that man is come future expectations are frivolous and he testifies that the characters and marks of the expected Messias can fall upon none but this man and therefore he delivers him over to them with that confidence Ecce Agnus Dei Behold the Lambe of God there you may see him and this is his Testimony These three we we to whom Iohn Baptists Commission is continued testifie too First we tell you what is not Christ austerity of life and outward sanctity is not hee Iohn Baptist had them abundantly but yet permitted not that they should have that opinion of him But yet much lesse is chambring and wantonnesse and persevering in sinne that Christ or the way to him We tell you stetit in medio he hath been amongst you you have heard him preached in your ears yea yee have heard him knock at your hearts and for all that we tell you that you have not known him Which though it be the discomfortablest thing in the world not to have known Christ in those approches yet we tell it you somewhat to your comfort and to your excuse for had you knownâ— it you would not have crucified the Lord of glory as we doe all by our daily sinnes And though God have winked at these times of ignorance pretermitted your former inconsiderations now he commandeth all men every where to repent And therefore that thou maist know even thou as Christ iterates it at least in this thy day the things which belong to thy Peace we tell you who he is and where he is Ecce agnus Dei Behold the lambe of God Here here in this his ordinance he supplicates you when the Minister how meane soever prays you in his stead be yee reconciled to God Here he proclaims and cries to you Venite omnes come all that are weary and heavy laden Here he bleeds in the Sacrament here he takes away the sinnes of the world in deriving a jurisdiction upon us to binde and loose upon earth that which he will binde and loose in heaven This we testifie to you Doe you but receive this testimony Till you hear that voice of consummation in heaven Venite benedicti come yee blessed you shall never heare a more comfortable Gospell then this which was preached by Christ himselfe the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the Gospell to the poore to heale the broken hearted to preach deliverance to the captives and the acceptable yeare of the Lord for this was not a deliverance from their brick-making in Egypt nor from their scornes and contempts in Babylon but a deliverance from that unexpressible that unconceivable bondage of sinne and
burden of the day there had been much more cause of complaint because there had passed a contract between them So hath there passed a contract between God and us Beleeve and thou shalt live Do this and thou shalt live And in this especially hath God expressed his love to us and his lothenesse to lose us that he hath passed such a contract with us and manifested to us a way to come to him We say every day in his owne prayer Fiat voluntas tua thy will be done that is done by us as well as done upon us But this petition presumes another the Fiat suposes a Patefiat voluntas if it must be done it must be known If man were put into this world under an obligation of doing the will of God upon damnation and had no meanes to know that will which he was bound to doe of all creatures he were the most miserable That which we read Lord what is man that thou takest knowledge of him the Vulgat edition and the Fathers following the Septuagint read thus Quia innotuisti ei Lord what is man that he should have any knowledge of thee that thou shouldest make thy selfe known to him This is the heighth of the mercy of God this innotescence this manifestation of himselfe to us Now what is this innotescence this manifestation of God to us It is say our old Expositors the law That 's that which is so often called the face of God and the light of his Countenance for facies Dei est qua nobis innotescit that 's Gods face by which God is known to us and that 's his law the declaration of his will to me and my way to him When Christ reproaches those hard-hearted men that had not fed him when he was hungry nor clothed him when he was naked and that they say Lord when did we see thee naked or see thee hungry inconsiderate men or men loth to give the penurious and narrow soule shall not see an occasion of charity when it is presented which is a heavy blindnesse and obcaecation not to see occasions of doing good yet those men doe not say when did we see thee at all as though they had never seen him The blindest man that is hath the face of God so turned towards him as that he may be seen by him even the naturall man hath so for therefore does the Apostle make him inexcusable if in the visible worke he doe not see the invisible God But all sight of God is by the benefit of a law the naturall man sees him by a law written in his heart the Iew by a law given by Moses the Christian in a clearer glasse for his law is the Gospell But there is more mercy that is more manifestation in this text then all this For besides the naturall mans seeing God in a law in the faculties of his owne nature which we consider to be the work of the whole Trinity in that Faciamus hominē Let us make man in our own Image let us shine out in him so as that he may be a glasse in which he may see us in himselfe and besides the Iews seeing of God in the law written in the stone tables which we consider to be the worke of the Father And besides the Christians seeing of God in the law written in bloud in which we consider especially the Sonne there is in this text an operation a manifestation of God proper to the holy Ghost and wrought by his holy suggestions and inspirations That God does not onely speake to us but call upon us not onely give us a Law but Proclamations upon that law that he refreshes to our memories generall duties by such particular warnings and excitations and commonefactions as in this text Videte Beware which is the last branch of this part though it be the first word of our text Videte Beware Nothing exalts Gods goodnesse towards us more then this that he multiplies the meanes of his mercy to us so as that no man can say once I remember I might have been saved once God called unto mee once hee opened mee a doore a passage into heaven but I neglected that went not in then and God never came more No doubt God hath come often to that doore since and knocked and staid at that doore And if I knew who it were that said this I should not doubt to make that suspitious soule see that God is at that doore now God hath spoken once and twice have I heard him for the foundation of all God hath spoken but once in his Scriptures Therefore doth Saint Iude call that fidem semel traditam the faith once delivered to the Saints once that is at once not at once so all at one time or in one mans age the Scriptures were not delivered so for God spoke by the mouth of the Prophets that have been since the world beganne But at once that is by one way by writing by Scriptures so as that after that was done after God had declared his whole will in the Law and the Prophets and the Gospell there was no more to bee added God hath spoken once in his Scriptures and wee have heard him twice at home in our owne readings and againe and againe here in his Ordinances This is the heighth of Gods goodnesse that he gives us his Law and a Comment upon that Law Proclamations declarations upon that Law For without these subsequent helpes even the law it selfe might be mistaken as you see it was when Christ was put to rectifie them with his Audiistis and Audiistis this you have heard and this hath been told you Ego autem dico but this I say ab initio from the beginning it was not so the foundations were not thus laid and upon the foundations laid by God in the Scriptures and not upon the superedifications of men in traditionall additions must wee build In stormes and tempests at sea men come sometimes to cut down Galleries and teare up Cabins and cast them over-board to ease the ship and sometimes to hew downe the Mast it selfe though without that Mast the ship can make no way but no soule weather can make them teare out the keele of the ship upon which the ship is built In cases of necessity the Church may forbeare her Galleries and Cabinets meanes of ease and conveniency yea and her Mast too meanes of her growth and propagation and enlarging of her selfe and be content to hull it out and consist in her present or a worse state during the storme But to the keele of the ship to the fundamentall articles of Religion may no violence in any case be offered God multiplies his mercies to us in his divers ways of speaking to us Caeli enarrant says David The heavens declare the glory of God and not onely by showing but by saying there is a language in the heavens for it is enarrant a verball
shall feare the Lord and his goodnesse in the later dayes And beyond this land there is no more Sea beyond this mercy no more Judgement for with this mercy the Chapter ends Consider our text then as a whole Globe as an intire Spheare and then our two Hemispheares of this Globe our two parts of this text will bee First that no perversnesse of ours no rebellion no disobedience puts God beyond his mercy nor extinguishes his love still hee calls Israel rebellious Israel his Children nay his owne anger his owne Judgements then when hee is in the exercise thereof in the execution thereof puts him not beyond his mercy extinguishes not his love hee hides not his face from them then hee leaves them not then in the darke hee accompanies their calamity with a light hee makes that time though cloudy though overcast yet a day unto them the Children of Israel shall abide many days in this case But then as no disobedience removes God from himself for he is love and mercy so no interest of ours in God doth so priviledge us but that hee will execute his Judgements upon his Children too even the Children of Israel shall fall into these Calamities And from this first part wee shall passe to the second from these generall considerations That no punishments should make us desperate that no favours should make us secure we shall passe to the particular commination and judgements upon the children of Israel in this text without King without Prince c. In our first part we stop first upon this declaration of his mercy in this fatherly appellation Children the children of Israel He does not call them children of Israel as though hee disavowed them and put them off to another Father but therefore because they are the Children of Israel they are his Children for hee had maried Israel and maried her to himselfe for ever Many of us are Fathers and from God here may learne tendernesse towards children All of us are children of some parents and therefore should hearken after the name of Father which is nomen pietatis potestatis a name that argues their power over us and our piety towards them and so concernes many of us in a double capacity as we are children and parents too but all of us in one capacity as we are children derived from other parents God is the Father of man otherwise then he is of other creatures He is the Father of all Creatures so Philo calls all Creatures sorâ—res suas his sisters but then all those sisters of man all those daughters of God are not alike maried God hath placed his Creatures in divers rankes and in divers conditions neither must any man thinke that he hath not done the duty of a Father if he have not placed all his Sonnes or not matched all his daughters in a condition equall to himselfe or not equall to one another God hath placed creatures in the heavens and creatures in the earth and creatures in the sea and yet all these creatures are his children and when he looked upon them all in their divers stations he saw omnia valde bora that all was very well And that Father that imploies one Sonne in learning another to husbandry another to Merchandise pursues Gods example in disposing his children his creatures diversly and all well Such creatures as the Raine though it may seem but an imperfect and ignoble creature fallen from the wombe of a cloud have God for their Father God is the Father of the Raine And such creatures as light have but God for their Father God is Pater lâ—minum the Father of lights Whether we take lights there to be the Angels created with the light some take it so or to be the severall lights set up in the heavens Sun and Moon and Stars some take it so or to be the light of Grace in infusion by the Spirit or the light of the Church in manifestation by the word for all these acceptations have convenient Authors and worthy to be followed God is the Father of lights of all lights but so he is of raine and clouds too And God is the Father of glory as Saint Paul styles him of all glory whether of those beames of glory which he sheds upon us here in the blessings and preferments of this life or that waight of glory which he reserves for us in the life to come From that inglorious drop of raine that falls into the dust and rises no more to those glorious Saints who shall rise from the dust and fall no more but as they arise at once to the fulnesse of Essentiall joy so arise daily in accidentiall joyes all are the children of God and all alike of kin to us And therefore let us not measure our avowing or our countenancing of our kindred by their measure of honour or place or riches in the world but let us looke how fast they grow in the root that is in the same worship of the same God who is ours and their Father too He is nearest of kin to me that is of the same religion with me as they are creatures they are of kin to me by the Father but as they are of the same Church and religion by Father and mother too Philo calls all creatures his sisters but all men are his brothers God is the Father of man in a stronger and more peculiar and more masculine sense then of other Creatures Filius particeps con-dominus cum patre as the law calls the Sonne the partner of the Father and fellow-Lord joint-Lord with the Father of all the possession that is to descend so God hath made man his partner and fellow-Lord of all his other creatures in Moses his Dominamini when he gives man a power to rule over them and in Davids Omnia subjecisti when he imprints there a naturall disposition in the creature to the obedience of man So high so very high a filiation hath God given man as that having another Sonne by another filiation a higher filiation then this by an eternall generation yet he was content that that Sonne should become this Sonne that the Sonne of God should become the Sonne of Man God is the Father of all of man otherwise then of all the rest but then of the children of Israel otherwise then of all other men For he bought them and is not be thy Father that hath bought thee says God by Moses Not to speake of that purchase which he made by the death of his Sonne for that belongs to all the world he bought the Jews in particular at such a price such silver and such gold such temporall and such spirituall benefits such a Land and such a Church such a Law and such a Religion as certainly he might have had all the world at that price If God would have manifested himselfe poured out himselfe to the Nations as hee did to
properly Protestant And though the Injunctions of our Church declare the sense of those times concerning Images yet they are wisely and godly conceived for the second is That they shall not extoll Images which is not that they shall not set them up but as it followeth They shall declare the abuse thereof And when in the 23 Injunction it is said That they shall utterly extinct and destroy amongst other things pictures yet it is limited to such things and such pictures as are monuments of feigned miracles and that Injuction reaches as well to pictures in private houses as in Churches and forbids nothing in the Church that might be retained in the house For those pernicious Errors which the Romane Church hath multiplied in this point not onely to make Images of men which never were but to make those Images of men very men to make their Images speak and move and weep and bleed to make Images of God who was never seen and to make those Images of God very gods to make their Images doe daily miracles to transferre the honour due to God to the Image and then to encumber themselves with such ridiculous riddles and scornfull distinctions as they doe for justifying unjustifiable unexcusable uncolourable enormities Va Idololatris woe to such advancers of Images as would throw down Christ rather then his Image But Vae Iconeclastis too woe to such peremptory abhorrers of Pictures and to such uncharitable condemners of all those who admit any use of them as had rather throw down a Church then let a Picture stand Laying hold upon S. Hieromes exposition that fals within the Vae the Commination of this Text to be without those Sacrifices those Ephods those Images as they are outward helps of devotion And laying hold not upon S. Hierome but upon Christ himselfe who is the God of love and peace and unity yet fals under a heavy and insupportable Vae to violate the peace of the Church for things which concern it not fundamentally Problematicall things are our silver but fundamentall our gold problematicall out sweat but fundamentall our blood If our Adversaries would be bought in with our silver with our sweat we should not be difficult in meeting them halfe way in things in their nature indifferent But if we must pay our Gold our Blood our fundamentall points of Religion for their friendship A Fortune a Liberty a Wife a Childe a Father a Friend a Master a Neighbour a Benefactor a Kingdome a Church a World is not worth a dramme of this Gold a drop of this Blood Neither will that man who is truly rooted in this foundation redeeme an Empoverishing an Emprisoning a Dis-inheriting a Confining an Excommunicating a Deposing with a dramme of this Gold with a drop of this Blood the fundamentall Articles of our Religion Blessed be that God who as he is without change or colour of change hath kept us without change or colour of change in all our foundations And he in his time bring our Adversaries to such a moderation as becomes them who doe truly desire that the Church may bee truly Catholique one stock in one fold under one Shepherd though not all of one colour of one practise in all outward and disciplinarian points Amen SERMON XLII A Sermon Preached in Saint Pauls in the Evening November 23. 1628. PROV 14. 31. He that oppresseth the poore reprocheth his Maker but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poore Part of the first Lesson for that Evening Prayer THese are such words as if we were to consider the words onely might make a Grammar Lecture and a Logick Lecture and a Rhetorick and Ethick a Philosophy Lecture too And of these foure Elements might a better Sermon then you are like to heare now be well made Indeed they are words of a large of an extensive comprehension And because all the words of the Word of God are in a great measure so that invites me to stop a little as upon a short first part before the rest or as upon a long entrie into the rest to consider not onely the powerfulnesse of the matter but the sweetnesse and elegancy of the words of the Word of God in generall before I descend to the particular words of this Text He that oppresseth the poore c. We may justly accommodate those words of Moses to God the Father What God is there in Heaven or in Earth that can doe according to thy workes And those words of Ieremie to God the Sonne Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow And those to the Holy Ghost which are in Esay Loquimini ad Cor speake to the heart speake comfortably to my People And those of Saint Iohn too A voyce of Thunder and after A voyce of seaven Thunders talking with me for who can doe like the Father who can suffer like the Sonne who can speake like the Holy Ghost Eloquia Domini eloquia casta saith David The words of the Lord are chaste words sincere pure words no drosse no profanenesse no such allay mingled with them for as it followeth there They are as silver tried and purified seaven times in the fire They are as that silver that is so tried and they are as that fire that trieth it It is Castum a Pure Word in it self and then it is powerfull upon the Hearer too Ignitum Eloquium tuum vehementer saith he Thy word hath the vehement operation of fire and therefore thy servant loveth it well as it followeth there Therefore because it pierces But therefore especially because it carrieth a sweetnesse with it For the sting of the Serpent pierces and the toothe of the Viper pierces but they carry venenosam salivam a venimous and mischievous liquour with them But Dulcia faucibus super Mel Thy words are sweeter to my mouth then Hony then Hony it selfe For verba composita saith Solomon chosen words studied premeditated words pleasing words so we translate it are as a Hony-combe Now in the Hony combe the Hony is collected and gathered and dispensed and distributed from the Hony-combe And of this Hony-combe is wax wax apt for sealing derived too The distribution of this Hony to the Congregation The sealing of this Hony to the Conscience is in the outward Ordinance of God and in the labour of the Minister and his conscionable fitting of himselfe for so great a service But the Hony-Combe is not the Hony The gifts of the man is not the Holy Ghost Iacob laid this blessing upon his sonne Naphtali Dabit Eloquia pulchritudinis That he should be a well-spoken and a perswasive man For of a defect in this kinde Moses complained and so did Esay and Ieremie did so too when they were to be imployed in Gods service Moses that he was of uncircumcised Esay that he was of unclean lips and Ieremie that he was a Childe and could not speak and therefore this was a Blessing upon
Oppresse not that soule by violence by Fraud nor by Scorne which was the other signification of this word Oppression Hoc nos perdit quod divina quoque eloquia in facetias in dicteria vertamus Damnation is a serious thing and this aggravates it that we slight and make jests at that which should save us the Scriptures and the Ordinances of God For by this oppression of thy poore soule by this Violence this Fraud this Scorne thou wilt come to Reproach thy Maker to impute that losse of thy soule which thou hast incurred by often breach of Lawes evidently manifested to thee to his secret purpose and un-revealed will then which thou canst not put a greater Reproach a greater Contumely a greater Blasphemy upon God For God cannot bee God if hee bee not innocent nor innocent if hee draw bloud of mee for his owne Act. But if thou show mercy to this soule mercy in that signification of the word as it denotes an actuall performance of those things that are necessary for the making sure of thy salvation or if thou canst not yet attaine to those degrees of Sanctification mercy in that signification of the word as the word denotes hearty and earnest Prayer that thou couldest Lord I beleeve Lord help mine unbeliefe Lord I stand yet yet Lord raise mee when I fall Honorabis Deum thou shalt honour God in the sense of the word in this Text thou shalt enlarge God amplifie dilate God that is the Body of God the Church both here and hereafter For thou shalt adde a figure to the number of his Saints and there shall bee a Saint the more for thee Thou shalt adde a Theme of Joy to the Exultation of the Angels They shall have one occasion of rejoycing the more from thee Thou shalt adde a pause a stop to that Vsquequo of the Martyrs under the Altar who solicite God for the Resurrection for Thou shalt adde a step to the Resurrection it selfe by having brought it so much nearer as to have done thy part for the filling up of the number of the Saints upon which fulnesse the Resurrection shall follow And thou shalt adde a Voyce to that Old and ever-new Song that Catholique Hymne in which both Churches Militant and Triumphant shall joyne Blessing Honour Glory and Power bee unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lambe for ever and ever Amen SERMON XLIII A Sermon upon the fist of Novemb. 1622. being the Anniversary celebration of our Deliverance from the Powder Treason Intended for Pauls Crosse but by reason of the weather Preached in the Church LAMENT 4. 20. The breath of our nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits The Prayer before the Sermon O LORD open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise for thou O Lord didst make haste to help us Thou O Lord didst make speed to save us Thou that sittest in heaven didst not onely looke down to see what was done upon the Earth but what was done in the Earth and when the bowels of the Earth were with a key of fire ready to open and swallow us the bowels of thy compassion were with a key of love opened to succour us This is the day and these are the houres wherein that should have been acted In this our Day and in these houres We praise thee O God we acknowledge thee to bee the Lord All our Earth doth worship thee The holy Church throughout all this Land doth knowledge thee with commemorations of that great mercy now in these houres Now in these houres it is thus commemorated in the Kings House where the Head and Members praise thee Thus in that place where it should have been perpetrated where the Reverend Judges of the Land doe now praise thee Thus in the Universities where the tender youth of this Land is brought up to praise thee in a detestation of their Doctrines that plotted this Thus it is commemorated in many severall Societies in many severall Parishes and thus here in this Mother Church in this great Congregation of thy Children where all of all sorts from the Lievtenant of thy Lievtenant to the meanest sonne of thy sonne in this Assembly come with hearts and lippes full of thankesgiving Thou Lord openest their lippes that their mouth may shew forth thy prayse for Thou O Lord diddest make haste to helpe them Thou diddest make speede to save them Accept O Lord this Sacrifice to which thy Spirit giveth fire This of Praise for thy great Mercies already afforded to us and this of Prayer for the continuance and enlargement of them upon the Catholick Church by them who pretend themselves the onely sonnes thereof dishonoured this Day upon these Churches of England Scotland and Ireland shaked and threatned dangerously this Day upon thy servant our Soveraigne for his Defence of the true Faith designed to ruine this day upon the Prince and others derived from the same roote some but Infants some not yet Infants enwrapped in dust and annihilation this day upon all the deliberations of the Counsell That in all their Consultations they may have before their eyes the Record and Registers of this Day upon all the Clergie That all their Preaching and their Governement may preclude in their severall Iurisdictions all re-entrances of that Religion which by the Confession of the Actours themselves was the onely ground of the Treason of this day upon the whole Nobilitie and Commons all involved in one Common Destruction this Day upon both our Universities which though they lacke no Arguments out of thy Word against the Enemies of thy Truth shall never leave out this Argument out of thy Works The Historie of this Day And upon all those who are any wayes afflicted That our afflictions bee not multiplyed upon us by seeing them multiplyed amongst us who would have diminished thee and annihilated us this Day And lastly upon this Auditory assembled here That till they turne to ashes in the Grave they may remember that thou tookest them as fire-brands out of the fire this Day Heare us O Lord and hearken to us Receive our Prayers and returne them with Effect for his sake in whose Name and words wee make them Our Father which art c. The SERMON OF the Authour of this Booke I thinke there was never doubt made but yet that is scarce safely done which the Councell of Trent doth in that Canon which numbers the Books of Canonicall Scriptures to leave out this Book of Lamentations For though I make no doubt but that they had a purpose to comprehend and involve it in the name of Ieremy yet that was not enough for so they might have comprehended and involved Genesis and Deuteronomie and all between those two in one name of Moses and so they might have comprehended and involved the Apocalypse and some Epistles in the name of Iohn and have left out the Book it selfe in the number But one of their
God would give or at other times then God would give them is displeasing to him Use his meanes and stay his leisure But yet though God were displeased with them he executed his own purpose he was angry with their manner of asking a King but yet he gave them a King Howsoever God be displeased with them who prevaricate in his cause who should sustaine it and doe not Gods cause shall be sustained though they doe it not We may distinguish the period of the Jewish State well enough thus that they had Infantiam or pueritiam their infancy their minority in Adam and the first Patriarchs till the flood that they had Adolescentiam A growing time from Noah through the other Patriarchs till Moses and that they had Iuventuâ—em a youth and strength from Moses through the Judges to Saul but then they had Virilitatom virilem atatem their established vigor under their Kings and after them they fell in sâ—nectutem into a wretched and miserable decay of old age and decrepitnesse their kingdome was their best State and so much God in the Prophet intimates pregnantly when refreshing to their memories in a particular Inventory and Catalogue all his former benefits to them how he clothed Ierusalem how he fed her how he adorned her he summed up all in this one profecisti in regnum I have advanced thee to be a kingdome there was the Tropique there was the Solstice farther then that in this world we know not how God could goe a kingdome was really the best State upon Earth and Symbolically the best figure and Type of Heaven And therefore when the Prophet Ieremy historically beheld the declination of this kingdome in the death of Iâ—osiah and prophetically foresaw the ruines thereof in the transportition of Zedekiah or if he had seen that historically too yet prophetically he foresaw the utter devastation and depopulation and extermination which scattered that nation soon after Christ to this day and God and no man knows for how long when they who were a kingdome are now no where a village and they who had such Kings have now no where a Constable of their owne historically prophetically Ieremy had just cause of lamentation for the danger of that kingdome We had so also for this our kingdome this day God hath given us a kingdome not as other kingdomes made up of divers Cities but of divers kingdomes and all those kingdomes were destined to desolation in one minute It was not onely the destruction of the persons present but of the kingdomâ— for to submit the kingdome to the government of a forein Prelate was to destroy the Monarchy to annihilate the Supremacy to ruine the very forme of a kingdome a kingdome under another head besides the King is not a kingdome as ours is The oath that the Emperour takes to the Pope is by their authours called Iuramentum Sidelitatis an oath of Allegiance and if they had brought our Kings to take an oath of Allegiance so this were no kingdome Pope Nicolas the second went about to create two kingdomes that of Tuscan and that of Lombardy his successors have gone about to destroy more for to make it depend upon him were to destroy our kingdome That they have attempted historically and as long as these Axiomes and Aphorismes remaine in their Authors that one shall say that De jurs by right all Christian kingdomes doe hold of the Pope and De facto are forfeited to the Hope and another shall say that Christendome would be better governed if the Pope would take the forfeiture and so bring all these Royall farmes into his owne demesne we see also their propheticall desire their propheticall intention against this kingdome what they would doe In their Actions we have their history in their Axioms we have their prophecy Ieremy lamented the desolation of the kingdome but that expressed in the death and destruction of the King Hee did not divide the King and the kingdome as if the kingdome could do well and the King in distresse Umnipotentia Dei Asylum haeresicâ—rum it is well said by more then one of the ancients that the Omnipotence of God is the Sanctuary of Heretiques when they would establish any heresie they flye to Gods Almightinesse God can doe All therefore he can doe this So in the Roman Church they establish their heresie of Transubstantiation And so their deliverance of soules not from Purgatory onely but from Hell it selfe They think to stop all mouths with that God can do it no man dares deny that when as if that were granted which in such things as naturally imply contradiction in themselves or contradiction to Gods word cannot be granted for God cannot do that God cannot lye yet though God can do it concludes not that God will do it or hath done it Omnipotentiâ— Dei Asylum haereticorum The omnipotency of God is the Sanctuary of Heretiques and so Salus Regni is Asylum proditorum Greater Treasons and Seditions and Rebellions have never been set on foote then upon colour and pretence of a care of the State and of the good of the Kingdome Every where the King is Sponsus Regni the husband of the Kingdome and to make love to the Kings wife and undervalue him must necessarily make any King jealous The King is Anima Regni The soule of the Kingdome and to provide for the health of the body with the detriment of the soule is perverse physick The King is Caput Regni The head of the Kingdome and to cure a Member by cutting off the head is ill surgery Man and wife soule and body head and members God hath joyned and those whom God hath joyned let no man sever Salus Regni Asylum Proditorum To pretend to uphold the Kingdome and overthrow the King hath ever been the tentation before and the excuse after in the greatest Treasons In that action of the Iews which we insisted upon before in their pressing for a King The Elders of Israel were gathered together and so far they were in their way for this was no popular no seditious Assembly of light and turbulent men but The Elders And then they came to Samuel And so farre they were in their right way too for they held no counsels apart but came to the right place for redresse of grievances to their then highest Governour to Samuel When they were thus lawfully met they forbeare not to lay open unto him the injustice of his greatest Officers though it concerned the very Sonnes of Samuel and thus farre they kept within their convenient limits But when they would presse Samuel to a new way of remedy to an inconvenient way to a present way to their own way and referre nothing to him what care soever they pretended of the good of the State it is evident that they had no good opinion of Samuel himself and even that displeased God That they were ill affected to that person whom he had set over
delivers himselfe to us here in the administration of his Sacraments he seals ratifies confirmes all unto us And to rest in these his seals and means of reconciliation to him this is not to be scandalised not to be offended in him and not to be offended in him not to suspect him or these meanes which he hath ordained this is our viatory our preparatory our initiatory and inchoative Blessednesse beyond which nothing can be proposed in this life And therefore as the Needle of a Sea-compasse though it shake long yet will rest at last and though it do not look directly exactly to the North Pole but have some variation yet for all that variation will rest so though thy heart have some variations some deviations some aberrations from that direct point upon which it should be bent which is an absolute conformity of thy will to the will of God yet though thou lack something of that afford thy soule rest settle thy soule in such an infallibility as this present condition can admit and beleeve that God receives glory as well in thy Repentance as in thine Innocence and that the mercy of God in Christ is as good a pillow to rest thy soule upon after a sinne as the grace of God in Christ is a shield and protection for thy soule before In a word this is our viatory our preparatory our initiatory and inchoative blessedness beyond which there can bee no blessedness proposed here first to receive a satisfaction an acquiescence that there are certaine and constant meanes ordained by Christ for our reconciliation to God in him in all cases in which a Christian soule can bee distressed that such a treasure there is deposited by him in the Church And then the testimony of a rectified Conscience that thou hast sincerely applied those generall helpes to thy particular soule Come so farre and then as the Suburbs touch the City and the Porch the Church and deliver thee into it so shall this Viatory this preparatory this initiatory and inchoative blessednesse deliver thee over to the everlasting blessednesse of the Kingdome of heaven Of which everlasting blessednesse I would ask leave not so much of you yet of you too for with you I would not be over-bold but I would aske leave of the Angels of heaven leave of the holy Ghost himself to venture to say a little of this everlasting blessednesse The tongues of Angels cannot the tongues of the holy Ghost the Authors of the books of Scripture have not told us what this blessednesse is And what then shall we say but this Blessednesse it self is God himselfe our blessednesse is our possession our union with God In what consists this A great limbe of the Schoole with their Thomas place this blessednesse this union with God In visione in this That in heaven I shall see God see God essentially God face to face God as he is We do not see one another so in this world In this world we see but outsides In heaven I shall see God and God essentially But then another great branch of the Schoole with their Scotus place this blessednesse this union with God in Amore in this that in heaven I shall love God Now love presumes knowledge for Amari nisi nota new possunt we can love nothing but that which we do or think we do understand There in heaven I shall know God so as that I shall be admitted not onely to an Adoration of God to an admiration of God to a prosternation and reverence before God but to an affection to an office of more familiarity towards God of more equality with God I shall love God But even love it selfe as noble a passion as it is is but a paine except we enjoy that we love and therefore another branch of the Schoole with their Aureolus place this blessednesse this union of our souls with God in Gaudio in our joy that is in our enjoying of God In this world we enjoy nothing enjoying presumes perpetuity and here all things are fluid transitory There I shall enjoy and possesse for ever God himself But yet every one of these to see God or to love God or to enjoy God have seemed to some too narrow to comprehend this blessednesse beyond which nothing can be proposed and therefore another limbe of the Schoole with their Bonaventure place this blessednesse in all these together And truly if any of those did exclude any of these so as that I might see God and not love him or love God and not enjoy him it could not well be called blessednesse but he that hath any one of these hath every one all And therefore the greatest part concurre and safely In visione That vision is beatification to see God as he is is that blessednesse There then in heaven I shall have continuitatem Intuendi It is not onely vision but Intuition not onely a seeing but a beholding a contemplating of God and that in Continuitate I shall have an un-interrupted an un-intermitted an un-discontinued sight of God I shall looke and never looke off not looke and looke againe as here but looke and looke still for that is Continuitas intuendi There my soule shall have Inconcussam quâ—etem we need owe Plato nothing but we may thank Plato for this expression if he meant so much by this Inconcussa quies That in heaven my soule shall sleep not onely without trouble and startling but without rocking without any other help then that peace which is in it selfe My soule shall be thoroughly awake and thoroughly asleep too still busie active diligent and yet still at rest But the Apostle will exceed the Philosopher St. Paul will exceed Plato as he does when he sayes I shall be unus spiritus cum Deo I shall be still but the servant of my God and yet I shall be the same spirit with that God When Dies quem tanquam supremum reformidas aterni natalis est sayes the Morall mans Oracle Seneca Our last day is our first day our Saturday is our Sunday our Eve is our Holyday our sun-setting is our morning the day of our death is the first day of our eternall life The next day after that which is the day of judgement Veniet dies quae me mihi revelabit comes that day that shall show me to my selfe here I never saw my selfe but in disguises There Then I shall see my selfe and see God too Totam lucem Totus lux aspiciam I shall see the whole light Here I see some parts of the ayre enlightned by the Sunne but I do not see the whole light of the Sunne There I shal see God intirely all God totam lutem and totus lax I my self shal be al light to see that light by Here I have one faculty enlightned and another left in darknesse mine uuderstanding sometimes cleared my will at the same time perverted There I shall be all light no shadow upon me my soule
invested in the light of joy and my body in the light of glory How glorious is God as he looks down upon us through the Sunne How glorious in that glasse of his How glorious is God as he looks out amongst us through the king How glorious in that Image of his How glorious is God as he calls up our eyes to him in the beauty and splendor and service of the Church How glorious in that spoufe of his But how glorious shall I conceive this light to be cum sub loco viderim when I shall see it in his owne place In that Spheare which though a Spheare is a Center too In that place which though a place is all and every where I shall see it in the face of that God who is all face all manifestration all all Innotescence to me for facies Deiest qua Deus nobis innotescit that 's Gods face to us by which God manifests himselfe to us I shall see this light in his face who is all face and yet all hand all application and communication and delivery of all himselfe to all his Saints This is Beatitudo in Auge blessednesse in the Meridionall height blessednesse in the South point in a perpetuall Sommer solstice beyond which nothing can be proposed to see God so Then There And yet the farmers of heaven and hell the merchants of soules the Romane Church make this blessednesse but an under degree but a kinde of apprentiship after they have beatified declared a man to be blessed in the fruition of God in heaven if that man in that inferiour state doe good service to that Church that they see much profit will rise by the devotion and concurrence of men to the worship of that person then they will proceed to a Canonization and so he that in his Novitiat and years of probation was but blessed Ignatius and blessed Xavier is lately become Saint Xavier aud Saint Ignatius And so they pervert the right order and method which is first to come to Sanctification and then to Beatification first to holinesse and then to blessednesse And in this method our blessed God bee pleased to proceed with us by the operation of his holy Spirit to bring us to Sanctification here and by the merits and intercession of his glorious Sonne to Beatification hereafter That so not being offended in him but resting in those meanes and seales of reconciliation which thou hast instituted in thy Church wee may have life and life more abundantly life of grace here and life of glory there in that kingdome which thy Sonne our Saviour Christ Jesus hath purchased for us with the inestimable price of his incorruptible bloud Amen SERMON XLV Preached at Saint Dunstans Aprill 11. 1624. The first sermon in that Church as Vicar thereof DEUT. 25. 5. If brethren dwell together and one of them die and have no Childe the Wife of the dead shall not mary without unto a stranger her husbands brother shall goe in unto her and take her to him to wife and performe the duty of an husbands brother unto her FRom the beginning God intimated a detestation a dislike of singularity of beeing Alone The first time that God himselfe is named in the Bible in the first verse of Genesis hee is named plurally Creavit Dit Gods Gods in the plurall Created Heaven and Earth God which is but one would not appeare nor bee presented so alone but that hee would also manifest more persons As the Creator was not Singular so neither were the creatures First he created heaven and earth both together which were to be the generall parents and out of which were to bee produced all other creatures and then he made all those other creatures plurally too Male and female created hee them And when he came to make him for whose sake next to his own glory he made the whole world Adam he left not Adam alone but joyned an Eve to him Now when they were maried we know but wee know not when they were divorced we heare when Eve was made but not when shee dyed The husbands death is recorded at last the wives is not at all So much detestation hath God himselfe and so little memory would hee have kept of any singularity of being alone The union of Christ to the whole Church is not expressed by any metaphore by any figure so oft in the Scripture as by this of Mariageâ— and there is in that union with Christ to the whole Church neither husband nor wife can ever die Christ is immortall as hee is himselfe and immortall as hee is the head of the Church the Husband of that wife for that wife the Church is immortall too for as a Prince is the same Prince when he fights a battaile and when hee triumphs after the victory so the militant and the triumphant Church is the same Church There can bee no widower There can bee no Dowager in that case Hee cannot shee cannot die But then this Metaphore this spirituall Mariage holds not onely betweene Christ and the whole Church in which case thee can be no Widow but in the union between Christs particular Ministers and particular Churches and there in that case the husband of that wife may die The present Minister may die and so that Church be a Widow And in that case and for provision of such Widows wee consider the accommodation of this Law If brethren dwell together and one of them die and have no childe the wife of the dead shall not mary without unto a stranger c. This law was but a permissive law rather a dispensation then a law as the permitting of usury to bee taken of strangers and the permitting of divorces in so many cases were At most it was but a Iudiciall law and therefore layes no obligation upon any other nation then them to whom it was given the Iews And therefore wee enquire not the reasons of that law the reasons were determined in that people wee examine not the conveniences of the law the conveniences were determined in those times wee lay hold onely upon the Typique signification and appliablenesse of the law as that secular Mariage there spoken of may be appliable to this spirituall Mariage the Mariage of the Minister to the Church If brethren dwell together c. From these words then wee shall make our approaches and application to the present occasion by these steps First there is a mariage in the case The taking and leaving of a Church is not an indifferent an arbitrary thing It is a Mariage and Mariage implies Honour It is an honourable estate and that implies charge it is a burdensome state There is Honos and Onus Honour and labour in Mariage You must bee content to afford the honour wee must bee content to endure the labour And so in that point as our Incumbencie upon a Church is our Mariage to that Church wee shall as farre as the occasion admits see
enough of it self but that the Prince of the world the Devill is anima mundi the soul of this lower world he inanimates he actuates he exalts the malignity of the world against us and he is our second enemy It was not the Apple but the Serpent that tempted Eve no doubt had looked upon the fruit before and yet did not long But even this enemy is not so dangerous as he is conceived In the life of St. Basil we have a story that the Devil appeared to a penitent sinner at his praiers and told him If you will let me alone I will let you alone meddle not with me and I will not meddle with you He found that by this good souls prayers to God God had weakned his power not onely upon that man the prayed but upon others too and therefore he was content to come to a cessation of armes with him that he might turn his forces another way Truely he might say to many of us in a worse sense Let me alone and I will let you alone tempt not me I will not tempt you Our idlenes our high diet our wanton discours our exposing our selves to occasion of sin provoke and call in the Devill when he seeks not us The Devill possesses the world and we possesse the Devill But then if the fear of the Lord possesse us our owne Concupiscencies though they be indeed our greatest enemies because the warre that they maintain is a civill warre shall doe us no harm for as the Septuagins in their Translation diminish the power of the Devill in that name â—wordsâ— a disproportioned Creature made up of a Lion and an Ant because as St. Gregory saith upon that place formicis â—eoest volatilibus formica The Devill is a Lion to Ants dasheth whole hills of them with his paw that creep under him but he is but an Ant to birds they prey upon him that flie above him If wee feare the Lord our concupiscencies our carnall affections our selves may prove our best friends because as the fire in the furnace did not burn the men but it burnt off those bands that fettered and manacled them for they were loose and walked in the furnace so our concupiscencies if we resist them shall burn off themselves and file off their own rust and our salvation shall be surer by occasion of temptations We may prevent mortem mortificatione everlasting death by a disciplinary life Mori ne moriamur is his rule too To die to the fires of lust here lest wee die in unquenchable fires hereafter to die daily as S. Paul speaks of himself lest we die at the last day To end this this is the working of the fear of the Lord it devours all other fears God will have no half-affections God will have no partners He that fears God fears nothing else This then is the operation of the feare of the Lord this is his working remaines onely to consider what this feare of the Lord is And beloved in him be not afraid of it for this fear of God is the love of God And howsoever there may be some amongst us whom the heighth of birth or of place or of spirit hath kept from fear They never feared any thing yet I think there is none that never loved any thing Obligations of Matrimony or of friendship or of blood or of alliance or of conversation hath given every one of us no doubt some sense in our selves what it is to love and to enjoy that which we doe love And the fear of God is the love of God The love of the Lord passeth all things saith the Wise man The love what is that to fear It follows The fear of the Lord is the beginning of his love As they that build Arches place centers under the Arch to beare up the work till it bee dried and setled but after all is Arch and there is no more center no more support so to lie at the Lords feet a while delivers us into his arms to accustome our selves to his fear establishes us in his love Be content to stop a little even at the lowest fear the fear of hell When Saul was upon an expedition and did not finde himself well followed he took a yoke of Oxen and hewed them in pieces and proclaimed that whosoever came not to the supply all his Oxen should be so served and upon this says the Text there The fear of the Lord fell upon all the people and they came out as one man three hundred and thirty thousand If Sauls threatning of their worldly goods wrought so let Gods threatning of thy selfe thine inwardest self thy soul with hell make thee to stop even upon thy fear of the Lord the fear of Torment Stop upon the second fear too the fear of privation and losse of the sight of God in heaven That when all wee have disputed with a modest boldnesse and wondred with a holy wonder what kinde of sight of God we shall have in heaven then when thou shouldst come to an end and to an answer of all these doubts in an experimentall triall how he shall be seen seen thus thou shalt see then that thou shalt never see him After thou hast used to hear all thy life blessednesse summed up into that one act We shall see God thou shalt never come nearer to that knowledge thou shalt never see him fear the Lord therefore in this second fear fear of privation And fear him in a third fear the fear of the losse of his grace here in this world though thou have it now S. Chrysostome serves himself and us with an ordinary comparison A Tyler is upon the top of the house but he looks to his footing he is afraid of falling A righteous man is in a high place in Gods favour but hee may lose that place Who is higher then Adam higher then the Angels and whither fell they Make not thou then thy assurance of standing our of their arguments that say it is impossible for the righteous to fall The sins of the righteous are no sins in the sight of God but built thy assurance upon the testimony of a good conscience that thou usest all diligence and holy industry that thou maist continue in Gods favour and fearest to lose it for hee that hath no fear of losing hath no care of keeping Accustome thy self to these fears and these fears will flow into a love As love and jealousie may bee the same thing so the feare and love of God will be all one for jealousie is but a fear of losing Brevissima differentia Testamentorum Timor Amor This distinguishes the two Testaments The Old is a Testament of fear the New of love yet in this they grow all one That we determine the Old Testament in the New and that we prove the New Testament by the Old for but by the Old we should not know that there was to bee a New nor but
about striking the rock and wouldst not thou be glad to change sinnes with either of them Are not thy sinnes greater heavier sinnes And yet wouldest thou not be sorry to undergoe their punishments are not thy punishments lesse Hast thou found hony says the holy Ghost in Solomon and he says it promiscuously and universally to every body eate as much as is sufficient Every man may And then Ionathan found that hony and knew not that it was forbidden by Sauls proclamation and did but taste it and that in a case of extreme necessity and Ionathan must die Any man might eate enough He did but taste and he must die If the Angels if Adam if Balaam if Moses if Ionathan did if the Serpent in the text could consider this how much cheaper God hath made sinne to thee then to them might they not have colour in the eye of a naturall man to expostulate with God Might not Ananias and Saphira who onely withheld a little of that which but a little before was all their own and now must die for that have been excusable if they had said at the last gaspe How many direct Sacrileges hath God forborne in such and such and we must die Mighty not Eâ— and Onan after their uncleane act upon themselves onely for which they died have been excusable if they had said at the last gaspe How many direct adulteries how many unnaturall incests hath God forborne in such and such and we must die How many loads of miserable wretches maist thou have seen suffer at ordinary executions when thou mightest have said with David Lord I have done wickedly but these sheep what have they done What had this Serpent done The Serpent was more subtile then any other beast It is a dangerous thing to have a capacity to doe evill to be fit to be wrought upon is a dangerous thing How many men have been drawn into danger because they were too rich How many women into solicatation and tentation because they were too beautifull Content thy selfe with such a mediocrity in these things as may make thee fit to serve God and to assist thy neighbour in a calling and be not ambitious of extraordinary excellency in any kinde It is a dangerous thing to have a capacity to do evill God would do a great work and he used the simplicity of the Asse he made Balaams Asse speak But the Devill makes use of the subtilty of the craft of the Serpent The Serpent is his Instrument no more but so but so much he is his instrument And then says S. Chrysostome Pater noster execuratur gladium as a naturall father would so our heavenly father does hate that which was the instrument of the ruine of his children Wherein hath he expressed that hate not to binde our selves to Iosephus his opinion though some of the ancients in the Christian Church have seconded that opinion too that at that time the Serpent could goe upright and speak and understand and knew what he did and so concurred actually and willingly to the temptation and destruction of man though he were but anothers instrument he became odious to God Our bodies of themselves if they had no souls have no disposition to any evill yet these bodies which are but instruments must burn in hell The earth was accursed for mans sin though the earth had not been so much as an instrument of his sin Onely because it was after to conduce to the punishment of his children it was accursed God withdrew his love from it And in the law those beasts with which men committed bestiality were to be stoned as well as the men How poor a plea will it be to say at the last day I got nothing by such an extortion to mine own purse it was for my master I made no use of that woman whom I had corrupted it was for a friend Miserable instrument of sin that hadst not the profit nor the pleasure and must have the damnation As the Prophet cals them that help us towards heaven Saviours Saviours shall come up on Mount Sion so are all that concurre instrumentally to the damnation of others Devils And at the last day we shall see many sinners saved and their instruments perish Adam and Eve both God interrogated and gave them time to meditate and to deprecate To Adam he says Where art thou and who told thee that thou wast naked And to Eve What is this that thou hast done But to the Serpent no such breathing The first words is Quia fecisti no calling for evidence whether he had done it or no but Because thou hast done it thou art accursed Sin is Treason against God and in Treason there is no Accessory The instrument is the Principall We passe from that first Part the consideration of heavy Judgements upon faults in appearance but small derived from the punishment of the Serpent though but an Instrument Let no man set a low value upon any sin let no man think it a little matter to sin some one sin and no more or that one sin but once and no oftner or that once but a little way in that sin and no father or all this to do another a pleasure though he take none in it himself as though there were charity in the society of sin and that it were an Alms to help a man to the means of sinning The least sin cost the blood of the Son of God and the least sinner may lose the benefit of it if he presume of it No man may cast himself from a Pinnacle because an Angel may support him no man may kill himself because there is a Resurrection of the body nor wound his soul to death by sin because there may be a resurrection of that by grace Here is no roome for presumption upon God but as little for desperation in God for in the punishment of the Serpent we shall see that his Mercy and Justice are inseparable that as all the Attributes of God make up but one God Goodnesse and Wisdome and Power are but one God so Mercy and Justice make up but one act they doe not onely duly suceed and second one another they doe not onely accompany one another they are not onely together but they are all one As Manna though it tasted to one man like one thing to another like another for it tasted to every man like that that that man liked best yet still was the same Manna so for Gods corrections they have a different taste in different persons and howsoever the Serpent found nothing but Judgement yet we find mercy even in that Judgement The evening and the morning make up the day says Moses as soon as he had named evening comes in morning no interposing of the mention of a dark and sad night between As soon as I hear of a Judgement I apprehend Mercy no interposing of any dark or sad suspition or diffidence