sinful and diseased parts of the Soul for as in Original sin there is the seed plot of all evil so in Regeneration there is the Root of all actual Graces Therefore who ever will have the comfort of Sanctification must look that they have not only illumination in their minds but also renovation of their hearts It s no advantage with the Toad to have a Pearl in the Head and poyson all over the body Gods children are called Temples of God and of the Holy Ghost now as the Temple consisted of three parts viz. Sanctuarium sanctum and sanctum sanctorum so doth man the body is as the outer Court the Soul as the holy place and the Spirit as the most holy and Sanctification as a golden vein must run thorow all these When we fall into Sin we are like unto a man which falls upon a heap of stones and into the mire such a one may be quickly washed but not so soon healed even so Justification is at once but Sanctification comes on gradually For it is with man as it was with the house wherein was the fretting and spreading Leprosie mentioned Levit. 14.41 c. For though that House might be scraped round about and much rubbish and corrupt materialls be removed yet the Leprosie did not cease till the house with the stones and timber and morter of it were all broken down So 't is with man Grace may do much and alter many things that were amiss in him and make him leave many sins to which he was formerly given but to have Sin wholly cast out and left that is not to be expected These reliquiâ—â— vetustatis as Austin calls them remain till this earthly Tabernacle of his body be by death pulled down and dissolved There is an outward and an inward Sanctification he is not a Jew which is one outwardly Judas seemed to be a Saint yet he was a Devil Let us intreat the Lord to sanctifie our hearts as well as our hands our Souls and Consciences as well as our tongues That is true Sanctification that begineth at the heart and from thence floweth to all the parts What should we do with a fair and beautiful Apple if the core be rotten A straw for an outward glorious Profession if there be no truth in the inward parts Libanius the Sophister reports that a Painter being one day desirous to paint Apollo upon a Laurel board the colours would not stick but were rejected out of which his Fancy found out this extraction that the chaste Daphne concerning whom the Poets feign that flying from Apollo En peragit cursus sarda Diana snos who attempted to ravish her she was turned into a Laurel Tree could not endure him even in painting and rejected him after the loss of her sensitive powers Indeed good Souls do even to death resent the least image and offer of impurity The very God of peace sanctifie you wholly 1 Thess 5.23 But ye are washed 1 Cor. 6.11 but ye are sanctified by the Spirit of our God To receive an inheritance among all them who are sanctified Act. 20 32. Adoption A child of God is two wayes By 1. Nature 2. Grace The child of God by nature Adoptio est gratuita assumptio personae non habentis jus in haereditate ad participationem hereditatis So the Civilians define it is Christ as he is the eternal Son of God A child by grace is three ways 1. By creation thus Adam before his fall and the good Angels are the children of God 2. By personal union thus Christ as he is man is the Child of God 3. By the grace of Adoption thus are all true believers In this grace of adoption there be two acts of God One is Acceptation whereby God accepts men for his children The other is Regeneration whereby men are born of God when the Image of God is restored in them in righteousness and true holiness The excellency of this benefit is great every way for Titulo redemptitionis adoptionis 1. He which is the child of God is heir and fellow-heir with Christ and that of the kingdom of heaven Rom. 8.17 And of all things in heaven and earth 1 Cor. 3.22 He hath title in this life and shall have possession in the life to come All Gods sons are heirs not so the sons of earthly Princes Gods children are all higher than the Kings of the earth 2. Again He who is Gods child hath the Angels of God to attend on him and to minister unto him for his good and salvation Heb. 1.14 If Jacob was at such pains and patience to become son-in-law to Laban if David held it so great a matter to be son-in-law to the King what is it then to be sons and daughters to the Lord Almighty As many as received him John 1.12 to them gave he priviledge to become the sons of God Behold 1 John 3.1 what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God Consolation The Devil is mans Accuser 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in full opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Spirit is his Comforter whose office it is to make intercession in our hearts to God for us and upon our true repentance to make our apology to comfort us by discovering our graces and pleading our evidences which they who refuse to read over and rest upon they do help Satan the accuser taking his part against themselves As it is not meet for a Judge to ride in his own circuit so nor for a doubting Christian to judge in his own case It 's storied that a Minister once could have no rest in his spirit until he went to visit a certain man to whose house coming late in the night and all being in bed except the man alone Truly said the Minister here I am but I know not to what end Yes said the other but God knoweth for I have made away so many childrens portions and here 's the rope in my pocket with which I was going to hang my self But how saith the Minister if I can tell you of one that made away more and yet was saved Who was that saith the man I pray Adam who being a publique person and intrusted with all for his posterity fell and so lost all Thus it is God that shines through the creature and comforteth by the means The soul is apt to seek the living amongst the dead to hang her comforts on every hedge But as air lights not without the sun and as fuel heats not without fire so neither can any thing soundly comfort us without God God who comforteth us in all our tribulation 2 Cor. 1.4 that we may be able to comfort them which be in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God Grace GRace is twofold 1. Active in God his free favour 2. Passive from God grace wrought in man
royal Diadem higher than the Kings of the earth greater than the four famous Monarchies c. And yet these worthies of whom the world is not worthy these precious sons of Zion comparable to fine gold these Jewels of Jesus Christ which are his very glory 2 Cor. 8.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Forti animo mala fer nec his miser esto dolore Are counted the off-scouring of all things esteemed as earthen Pitchers shamefully slighted and trampled upon with the feet of insolency and cruelty Howbeit as stars though we see them sometimes in a puddle though they reflect there yet have their scituation in Heaven so Gods Saints though in a low condition yet they are fixed in the Region of happinesse The Saints that are in the earth Psal 16.3 The excellent Foundation There is 1. Fundamentum fundatum Eph. 2.20 2. Fundamentum fundans 1 Cor. 3.11 The first is a scriptural foundation the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles the other is a personal foundation Christ himself Be sure to adde practice to these Mat. 7.24 Fundamentals are few in number Certa semper sunt in puâ—is Tertul. but many in vertue Small in sight but great in weight Every particle of truth is precious as the filings of gold neither may we alter or exchange a letter or syllable in Fundamentals Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Ephes 2.20 Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone Rome Rome hath left her seaven mountains to plant her self in Campo Martio Lips de Mag. Rom. lib. 3. Cap. 11. who lyes as it were entombed in her own ruines Lipsius cannot so much as trace the ancient tract of heâ— walls So in respect of her state Ecclesiastical that which was the garden of Eden is now over-grown with weeds and the Daughter of Zion is now become the Whore of Babylon Rome of Christs Spouse is become the strumpet of Sathan of the school of Simon Peter whose being there is yet questionable the school of Simon Magus of the Temple of the Holy Ghost a cage of impure spirits She calls her self Queen but Hierom the purple Whore Once the Church of Rome wrote her lawes in milk but now she writes them in Sunday letters Prayers and teares were once her weapons but now fire and sword And if in shew of peace she turn heâ— destructive instruments into mattocks it is but to play the Pioner and make way for death Roma radix omnium malorum It is the City that is mounted on seven hills and cannot be hid but is apparently discerned and described to be the great City Babylon the seat of Antichrist The sweetest wine turns into the sowrest vineger the whitest ivory burnt into the blackest coale So about the year 1414. Theodoricus Vrias in Germany Iohn Manâ— loâ— com 226. an Augustine Fryar complained not without cause Ecclesiam Romanam ex aureâ factam argenteam ex argenteâ ferream ex ferreâ terream superesse ut in stercus abiret Yea Diput de Rep. l. 1. c. â—â— Matchiavel observed that there was no where lesse piety than in those that dwelt neerest Rome If Franciscus de sanctâ clara and his faâ—tors were the wisest men under heaven and should live to the worlds end they would be brought to their wits end before they could accomplish this works end to make a reconciliation betwixt Christ and Antichrist betwixt Rome and us for what concord hath Christ with Belial They can never fall in or make musick in one Quire For grosse Idolatry or for fundamental errours onely must we seperate Corruption grew so great in the Church of Rome that it justly occasioned first the Seperation of the Greek Churches from the Latine and then of the Reformed Churches from the Roman And Bellarmine bewails it that ever since we cryed up the Pope for Antichrist his Kingdom hath not onely not increased but hath greatly decreased Dent. on Apoc. 9.11 Certainly the date of her reign is almost out and the time draweth on apace wherein both she and her King Abaddon shall be laid in the dust Esto procul Romà qui cupis esse pius Roma vale vidi satis est vidisse c. Rome hath fallen culpably and shall fall penally Sibylla long since foretold this Tota eris in Cineres quasinunquam Romà faisses in the eight book of her Oracles The ruine of Rome must be like the ruine of Jericho which can never be re-edefied There was something surely in that which we have read that when the warres began in Germany Anno 1619. A great brass image of the Apostle Peter that had Tu es petrus c. fairly embossed upon it standing in St Peters Church in Rome there was a great and massie stone fell down upon it and so shattered it to pieces that not a letter of all that sentence whereon Rome founds her claim was left whole so as to be read saving that one peece of the sentence Aedificabo Ecclesiam meam I will build my Church which was lest fair and entire True it is no easy thing to overturn the Kingdom of Antichrist which like an huge tree hath taken deep root in the earth for many ages and men need not marvel that it is so long a cutting down Especially if we consider that the Lord will still have his Church in combate here in this world to shake it from security Again the Lord for the sins of the Church and want of care of through Reformation in those to whom the Lord hath detected their abominations stayeth the good speed of this glorious deliverance Besides the Lord will have the destruction of Antichrist and his Kingdom wrought by leisure that so man may make due regard and consider of so great a work Yet let us cast our eyes upon Gods word and promise and firmly beleeve if Agag be to be slain God is raising up some Samuel to do it Yea let us cast our eyes on Gods work already and we shall see him gone a great way in the accomplishing of his word Whereby we may strengthen our saith in that which remaineth For how hath the word preached discovered him to be that man of sin detecting his fraudes and impostures with which for many ages he deluded the blind world How are his Bulls and Excommunications which in former ages seemed to shake the Kingdomes of the earth esteemed but as wind Moreover how have all the reformed Churches shaken off with detestation his Antichristian yoke and usurped power over the Scripture Church mens Consciences c. And how have many Princes already disclaimed and despised his clawes over them Keeping from him those summes which were wont to warm his holinesse kitchin c. I might also adde how weak all their endeavours and meanes are to prevent finall â—uine viz. Sophistry Knotty distinctions to hide and delude the plain sense of Scripture threatnings treacheries Machivilian contrivances warres treasons murders Massacres Powder-plots
true things themselves Neither do they fill and satisfie the minde of man Pleasure is like lightning simul oritur moritur sweet and short And dolor est etiam voluptas Men first itch then scratch then smart Learning the more we know the more we would know Honour contents not the poor labourer would be written Yeoman the Yeoman a Gentleman the Gentleman a Knight the Knight a Baron the Baron a Lord the Lord an Earl the Earle a Marquesse the Marquesse a Duke the Duke a Prince the Prince a King the King a Caesar Aut Caesar aut nullus Caesar an Alexander and Alexander would be a God Vnus Pellaeo juveni non sufficit orbis Aestuat infoelix augusto limine mundi All the worlds army consists of two wings 1. Prosperity on the right hand 2. Adversity on the left hand And prosperity assaults more dangerously than adversity for as Anstin Homo victus in Paradiso victorim stercore Job Gregor Mundum oomparat nuci cassae quae si cultro veritatis aperiatur nihil intus invenire quam vanitatem inanitatem Et D. Johannes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in quo non aliter atquae in Medeae sinu versamur Orbis hic nihil aliud est quà m scelerum officina Publica in quâ vel Lycurgum ad nequitiam commoveri posse videâ—tur The world is so full of evils as that to write them all would require another world as great as it self Nam quid longa dies nisi longa dolorum colluvies Initio vitae cecitas oblivio possidet Progressu labor dolor exitu error omnibus It may be said of an old man as one of a marriner Nec inter vivos nec inter mortuos Epictetus spake more like a Divine than a Philosopher Homo calamitatis fabula infelicitatis tabula Though a King should conquer all the world yet he gets but a needle-point a mote a mite a nit a nothing The world promiseth many things but performes nothing All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life That is pleasure profit preferment the worldlings Trinity To the same purpose the Christian Poet Ambitiosus honos opes foeda voluptas Haec tria pro trino numine mundus habet Every sin we commit in this world will be as a fury to torment us in the next It was a clear heart that gave so bold a forehead to that holy Bishop who durst on his death-bed professe I have so lived as I neither fear to die nor shame to live Love not the world neither the things that are in the world 1 John 2.15 Kingdoms Remotâ justitiá quid sunt Regna nisi magna latrocinia quia ipsa latrocinia quid sunt nisi parva regna It was the Pirates answer to the great Macedonian Alexander who had taken him the King asking him how he durst molest the seas so he replied with a free spirit how durst you molest the whole world But because I do it with a little skip onely I am called a thief thou doing it with a great Navy art called an Emperor It is reported that it was a custom among the learned Nations Clem. Alex. l. 7. that he who should be King must also be a Priest so much they adjudged Religion to import the felicity of Kingdomes Hence the Persians counted them most happy that were most godly 8 Paâ— as testifieth Xenophon We may well say with Cicero why should we be inamoured with our selves since we have neither overcome the Spaniards with numbers the French with strength the Carthaginians with craft nor the Greeks with art but onely with Piety and Religion The Poets all acknowledge that the gods all forsook to succour Troy Dii multa neglecti dâ—deâ—e Hisperiae mala lactuosae Plutarch lib. â—e Exilio for the adultery of Paris The neglect of God brings many sorrowful evils to mankinde The Lacedemonian Ambassador commended his countrey to Ptolomy because that with them there was no envy for all were equal nor covetousnesse for all were common nor idlenesse for all did labour Which three will or may be in time the wrack and ruinous down-fall of any land Kingdoms after the manner other things have but their time to flourish in and so again decay For no Kingdom or Empire upon earth were it never so flourishing or great was ever yet so assured but that in the revolution of time after the manner of other worldly things it hath as a sick body been subject to many strange innovations and changes and at length come to nothing Yea and all the States in the world have their critical days and Clymacterical years beginnings and dissolutions at Gods appointment Ruines of Kingdoms may be known before-hand Junius Quast Pol. 5. not by Apodictical and demonstrative necessity but by Topical probability A skilful Physician by the cause of the disease doth fore-judge of the death of a sick Patient what sort it shall be and why then should not a wise Governour of the republick foresee the Sun-setting of a Kingdom yea in every City there are certain pulses from whose faint and languishing motions Suâ—â—onius we may divine fearful fates to hang over them Sith Seneca himself saith that the luxury of banquets and garments are the tokens of a sick City It is reported that before the death and destruction of Domitian a crow cried in the Capitol 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are evil So also that vultures renting in pieces the young unfeathered Eagles portended death to Tarquinius superbus It is good for Kingdomes to have their eyes opened that they may see the day-break before the Sun-shine and dark night before the cock-crow The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord Rev. 11.15 and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever Not for a thousand years onely as the Millenaries Jews Upon their Nation is that fully verified Ingentia beneficia flagitia supplicia They were a people signally prosperous incorrigibly flagitious and God hath made them in publique judgements most notorious Abused mercy turns into fury Their dispersion for this sixteen thousand years and upwards is such as that one of their own Rabbines concludeth from thence that their Messias must needs be come and they must needs suffer so much for killing him O the severity of God! and O the obstinacy and misery of this hard-hearted people Such is their stubbornness that they curse us Christians in their daily prayers Maledic Domine Nazaraeis They stick not to say that rather than we should have any benefit by their Messiah they would crucifie him an hundred times over Yea they have been ever such bitter enemies to Christians and so they continue that among the Turks every Visier and Basha of State useth to keep a Jew of his private counsel Blunts Voyage p. 114. whose malice wit and experience
in our common speech we know when a promise is to any we use to say remember such a one Calv. And hence because the promise was made to David therefore as Calvin observes he is pleased in the midst of the verse in medio virtus here lyes the best part Gods promises But methinks I smell a Papist raising this doctrine out of these words That we are aided by the suffrages of the dead Saints Thedoret Remember David Dead Saints they are that raise it For we do not consider David here barely as Theodoret doth but as one to whom belong'd the promises as I said before I passe over this dead doctrine of the dead and turn back to the words of spirit and life Lord remember David The Kingly Prophet we see prayes to God he goes not to Angels or Saints for they are not as he well did know to be invocated Psal 73.25 Wherefore David saith whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee And again Ex profundis out of the deeps have I cried unto thee O Lord. I wonder that the Papists condemn him not of immodesty or presumption but albeit they are so full of modesty it is but Pythagorical that shameless modesty they rob God of his honour No wonder as Corvinus forgot his name they forget their manners But I say Give Caesar what is Caesars Angels are not to be invocated Mat. 4.10 but God alone The Papists distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is meer Sophistry Both services are due to God Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve Moreover Rom. 10. how shall they call on them on whom they have not believed If they call on Saints they must believe in Saints and what is this but to make Christ and his sufferings not to be the compleat object of justifying faith I onely name this Solomon learned otherwise from his father to make God the chief defender of his faith to whom he should pray Lord. Here also I observe a secret confession of Gods love in promising to David of Solomons hope in obtaining God is faithful and ready to promise and as faithfull and ready to perform Solomon both faithful and ready to receive A Looking-glasse for Kings and all others hoc facite vivite do the like and live Four divinity Lectures or Lectures of divine morality for Kings spring from Solomons Petitioning to the Lord in this manner drawn together from the contents of his Petition First that Church and Kingdom are in the hand of God to be disposed of as pleaseth him The most High ruleth in the Kingdom of men and giveth it to whom soever he will He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords By me Ksngs reign saith Wisdom Kings are Gods Vicegerents here on earth Dan. 4.32 Revel 19.16 who beare the stamp of the divine Majesty they are in his stead his servants Populum gubernando saith Thomas notwithstanding his other paradox Pro. 8.15 Therefore advisedly he runs not to man he seeks not to get a Kingdome by violence or by the strength of flesh and blood for there is no King saved by the multitude of an host Rom. 13. he trusteth not to the broken reedes of Egypt cursed is he that trusteth in man he learn'd this lesson from his father that vain is the help of man vain also the help of Princes Jerem. 17.5 Put not your trust in Princes but the name of the Lord is a strong tower Thus he acknowledgeth Gods supremacie Lord. Secondly as the first establishing of Church and Policie is in Gods power so is it he that causeth a flourishing Church and Policie As he gives the being so also the welbeing Except the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it Psal 127. Arena sine culce indeed it may well be called Labour in vain except the Lord keep the City the watchmen wake but in vain This was Davids song for his son Solomon That King therefore that will have a flourishing Church and Common-weal must pray to God for it with all humility and submission This is via regia a Kings high-way Solomon hath chalk't it out Here observe his voluntary allegiance to God Lord. Thirdly Kings sons are to have a special care of the charge that their fathers leave behind with them as Solomon had here of Davids Therefore they must pray and do all that can be done for the welfare of their subjects so that they must not be slack in matters of Religion but very zealous it is that unicum necessarium David hath lead him the way the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up and Solomon was not far behind him he follows the tract And good reason The Crown can never be kept without good subjects the subjects can never be good without true Religion Solomon prayes for both and that is the next way to get both And David Peace be within thy walls Psal 122. and prosperity within thy Palaces the effect of both Both these Care and Zeal jump together in one peacefull King to root out Idolatry and plant true Religion What follows Peace and Prosperity Fourthly here is an Emblem of his hope joyn'd with innocency this made him pray to the Lord with heart of grace He knew the Articles If thy children will keep my Covenant and my testimony then their children shall sit upon the throne for evermore He found himself yet to have a good conscience for God will not hear the prayer of the wicked Therefore his innocence confirmed his hope Yet afterward he fell away whether wholly or no we conclude not uncharitably of him with the Papists whereby the bond was forfeited 1 King 11. the promise disanull'd and yet God was more merciful than he sinful for the Lord would not take all the Kingdom from Solomon nor his seed for Davids sake Mat. 1. Neither was Davids seed being in captivity quite cut off for Christ descened from the line of David according to the flesh and hence is called the Son of David and now reigns for evermore according to Gods promise and so is Davids Lord. This I touch by the way It is requisite then that Kings should have care to serve God continually in the integrity and innocencie of their heart If they fall from God God falls from them and then he will either rend their Kingdoms as he did Solomons or pull down both King and throne and lay their honour in the dust If not but that they will keep Gods Commandments and maintain Religion as David did as David shall they prosper all the dayes of their life This Solomon intended and in this intent cried he Lord remember David In these words again do but observe Solomons Sampson-like faith he presseth God with his promise his faith works upon that Since God was so gracious to promise Solomon
fourfooted beasts and creeping things For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God Col. 2.8 for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Therefore beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ It is concluded then that to seek Divinity in Philosophy is to seek the living amongst the dead even as to seek Philosophy amongst Divinity is to seek the dead amongst the living For certainly it is not a natural knowledge either by the notions imprinted in mans mind whereby the conscience is convinced or by the consideration of the creatures that is sufficient unto salvation though enough to leave us without exuse But it must be the revealed knowledge that which is attained by the Word of God wherein God though he dwell in the light which none can attain unto yet hath revealed himself so far as he saw sit son us to understand We shall therefore make the written Word of God the man of our counsel in this present undertaking And seeing the Globe of Divinity parts it self into two hemispheres 1. Credenda 2. Agenda The things we are to know and believe Joh. 13.17 Objectum Theologia religio religion is Deus Armin. in disp theol Thes 1. parag 4. and the things we are to do and perform so said the Doctor of the Chair If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them We shall have respect unto both Seeing also that the prime and chief place of Divinity is concerning God I shall begin with him who is without either beginning of days or end of life Heb. 11.6 For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Joh. 17.3 And this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent De Deo THere is no Nation under Heaven so barbarous but yields that there is a God It is much ado for Atheism to find a perfect and continual assent in mans heart Some ruines of this truth do still remain in him since the fall And although he may deny all by day his conscience will make him startle by night Protagoras doubted whether there was a God therefore was banished by the Athenians And Diagoras denied flatly that there was a God But leave we such persons to the consure of the Scripture The fool hath said in his heart There is no God The Philosophers I except not the Epicures did with one consent affirm there is a God They called him Nomine Deum Naturâ Spiritum Psal 14.1 Ordine causam primam Perfectione ens divinissimum Motione motorem primum But knew him not Hence Atheniensium Altaris inscripto Deo ignoto Arguments to prove there is a God viz. 1. Consent of the Heathen and confession of all Nations 2. Instinct of nature and natural propensity to worship a God 3. Confession of Atheists themselves 4. Difference and conscience of good and evil received of all 5. The Creation of the World great and little 6. His Providence and the order of things 7. His judgements over some particular men Quid est totus mâ—ndus nisi Dèus explicatus Kingdoms and Common-wealths especially the four Monarchies Quiequid vides quicquid non vides Deus est Whatsoever thou seest and whatsoever thou seest not is God That is all things visible and invisible do express unto thee a Deity and lead thee as by the hand to contemplate heavenly spiritual and eternal things God is known Ex postico tergo lices non ex â—â—tieâ â—aâ—is By his effects adextra though not his Essence ad intra Seculum est speculum Ramus the creation of the world is a glass Rom. 1.20 wherein saith St. Paul we may behold his eternal power and Godhead Which the Divine Poet Paraphrastically Du Bart. The World 's a School where in a general Story God alway reads dumb Lectures of his Glory Every simple man that cannot read may notwithstanding spell that there is a God St. Austin having gone thorow all creatures Solilâ—quiis and seeing in them the Characters of the God-head imprinted and seriously inquiring of them for God Not one or two but all made him this answer with an audible voice Non sum ego sed per ipsum sum ego quem quaris in me I am not he but by him I am whom thou seekest in me It was a good Speech of him who being asked What God was answered Si scirem Deus essem If I knew that I should be a God It far exceedeth the reach of reason and is above created capacity we may stand at gaze and be agast and that is the nearest that we poor finite foolish creatures can approach towards the comprehension of so infinite a Being Dei nomen mirabile nomen Dionysius Omnium supremus altissimorum altissimus Isa 57.17 super omne nomen sed sine nomine Deus est circulus cujus centrum est ubique circumferentia verò nusquam As God is without quality so without quantity Altior est coelo profundior inferno latior terrâ mari diffusior Nusquam est ubique est Deus magnus est sed sine quantitate bonus sed sine qualitate at verò à nobis magnum sine quantitate bonum sine qualitate directe plenè concipi est impossibile Contineâ— omnia tamen non continetur ab aliquo Three ways the Schools mention of knowing of God or rather somthing of God Per viam 1. Causalitatis The prime supreme and universal cause of all good whatsoever 2. Eminentiae Attributing to God whatsoever perfection or worth is in any or all the creatures And that as being in him after a more eminent manner 3. Remotionis When denying of him whatever imperfection and defect is observable in the creature A taste of all these the Apostle giveth us 1 Joh. 1.5 This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you That God is light and in him is no darkness at all It is subtilly observed by Picus Mirandula That in the Creation of the world God gave the water to the fishes the earth to the beasts the air to the fowls heaven to the Angels And after all these were bestowed he made man according to his own likeness and image That he might say with the Prophet Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Aug. Tract in Johan Si esuris panis tibi est si sitis aqua tibi est si in tenebris es lumen est c. Habet omnia qui habet habentem omnia 1 Cor. 8.5 6. For though there be that are called whether in heaven or in earth as there be gods
3. q. 26. art 1. Simpliciter perfectivè yet the Angels and Saints also must be our Mediatours dispositive ministerialiter They are much beholden to this distinction of principal and ministerial Some unskilful Physicians give one drink or one medicine for all diseases so these men apply this distinction of Principal and Ministerial to salve up all soars among them Christ is the chief Head of the Church the Pope is a ministerial head under him So Christ is the Principal Mediatour Angels and Saints are Ministerial Yet if a woman should hear she had a chief husband and a ministerial husband she could hardly endure it They might as well say there is one principal God but many ministerial Gods under him as to say there is one chief Mediatour and many ministerial The Mediatour between God and man Confes l. 10. cap. saith Austin must be both God and man He must have Aliquid simile Deo aliquid simile hominibus that he may mediate between them both If he were only man he could not go to God if he were only God he could not go to man As for Angels they be neither God nor man therefore they cannot be our Mediatours As for the Saints in Heaven they be half-men they have souls but as yet they have no bodies and they are not God therefore they cannot be our Mediatours Nay properly to speak the Holy Ghost the third person in the glorious Trinity cannot be our Mediatour for though he be God yet he is not man much less can the Angels or Saints be our Mediatours Besides the Mediatour of the New Covenant hath established the Covenant with his blood It is Christ alone that by the blood of his cross hath set at peace all things in heaven and in earth And no Testament is of force without the death of the Testatour Let them prove that any died for us besides Christ and then we will acknowledge other Mediatours As he trode the Wine-press alone so he is Mediatour alone It is Sacriledge to adjoyn others to him Therefore as he took the pains alone so let him have the honour alone Moreover Christ is Mediatour not only of Redemption as the Papists grant but of Intercession also of which in due place He being so near us in the matter of his Incarnation will never be strange to us in the business of Intercession Christ then being the sole Mediatour Let us not cry with those Idolaters O Baal hear us But ask the Father in the Sons name and say O Christ hear us Who prevails more with the King than the Kings Son Let us not leave the Son and go to Servants For there is one God and one Mediatour between God and men 1 Tim. 2.5 the man Christ Jesus Of Christs Kingly Office THE name Christ doth belong to our Saviour by special excellency he being as none else ever was a King a Priest and a Prophet The works of Christs Mediation Dr. Reynolds were of two sorts 1. Opera Ministerij works of service and ministery for he took upon himself the form of a servant and was a Minister of the Circumcision 2. Opera potestatis works of Authority and Government in the world We must here again distinguish saith that reverend Author between Regnum naturale Christs natural Kingdom which belongs to him as God coessential and coeternal with the Father and Regnum Oecononicum his Dispensatory Kingdom as he is Christ the Mediatour which was his not by Nature but by Donation and Unction from his Father that he might be the Head of his Church a Prince of Peace and a King of Righteousness unto his People In which respect he had conferr'd upon him all such meet qualifications as might fit him for the dispensation of this Kingdom For God prepared him a Body Heb. 10 5. or a Humane nature Not an aëry or Phantastical body as some Hereticks dreamed but a body in all substantial things like to ours differing only in one accidental thing and that is sin And God ordained him a soul too The Deity did not supply that office as Apollinaris did imagine Col. 2.9 And besides by the grace of Personal Union caused the Godhead to dwell bodily in him He anointed him with a fulness of his Spirit Plenitudo vasis fontis Joh. 3.34 not with the fulness of a vessel such as the Saints had a fulness for themselves only But a fulness without measure which hath a sufficient sufficiency and redundancy for the whole Church He did by Solemn promulgation proclaim him King unto the Church This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him He hath given him a Scepter of righteousness Psa 45.6 Rev. 1.16 Psal 2.9 and hath put a sword in his mouth and a rod of Iron in his hand He hath honoured him with Embasladors to negotiate the affairs of the Kingdom 2 Cor. 5.20 Which shews that Ministers are Sacred persons not to be violated upon pain of Gods heavy displeasure Do my Prophets no harm He hath given him the souls and consciences of men Psal 2.8 Joh. 17.6 even to the uttermost parts of the earth for the territories of his Kingdom The Object of Christs Kingdom of Grace are all Nations He hath given him power concerning the Laws of his Church Rom. 3.27 A power to make Laws the law of faith To expound Laws as the Moral Law And to abrogate Laws as the Law of Ordinances He hath given him power of judging and condemning enemies Joh. 5.27 Luke 19. â—7 Lastly He hath given him a power of remitting sins and sealing pardons And all these royal Prerogatives belong unto him as he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well Man as God Mat. 9 6. Joh. 20.23 Whence we may note That Christs Kingdom belongs to him not by usurpation intrusion or violence but legally by order decree and investiture from his Father And as he came rightly by it so also his government is not with rigour but righteousness Therefore let us submit to his government and though we be within the Walls of the Church yet let us not flatter our selves in our sins thinking for all this that Christ will be merciful unto us for his Scepter is a Scepter of righteousness he must punish sin wheresoever he finds it Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Tell ye the daughter of Sion Psa 2.6 Mat. 21.4 Psal 2.12 Behold thy King cometh unto thee Kiss the Son Of Christs Priestly Office Sacerdos sacer dux docens orans offerens Q. habens sacram dotem Not a name of reproach and contempt but of exceeding great honour in the book of God There was a worthy and glorious Priest-hood in time of the Law there was an high-priest in goodly apparel clothed with a white linnen Ephod that had a Miter on his head a fair breast-plate on his breast on which was written the names of
faith were alone Tanquam sponsus cum sponsà in Thalamo howbeit it is such a faith as works by love 3. He that can rightly distinguish betwixt Law and Gospel let him praise God for his skill and know himself to be a good Divine For ever O Lord thy Word is setled in heaven Ideo moralis lex vocatur quia de moribusâ—est omni beminum generi semper communis Zanch. The Moral Law it is eternal and albeit some special duties of certain commandments shall cease when we come to heaven yet the substance of every one remaineth We live by the same Law in effect as the Saints above do and do Gods Will on earth as they in heaven The ministerials of this Law shall pass away together with this life the substantials shall pass into our glorified natures and shine therein as in a Mirrour for ever Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets Mat. 5.17 Ne minima quidem litera Luth. Rom. 3.31 I am not come to destroy but to fulfill For verily I say unto you It is easier for Heaven and earth to pass than one title of the Law to fail Do we then make void the Law through faith God forbid yea we establish the Law For the Law is holy and just Cap. 7.12 and good Lex Talionis Lex Talionis Aâ—â—st quandâ— quis idem patitur quod alteri fecit Vocatur à Graecis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi reciproâ—â— mutua passio à verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est vicissim patior A Latinis Talio jus talionis quia talia tribuuntur qualia quis fâ—cit Aulus Gâ—llius in Histor aut alteri praestitit Vnde apud Gellium dicitur retaliare quasi talia retribuere qualia alter secit De hoc jure etiam in sacris literis extat preceptum Moses exigit vitam pro animo oculum pro oculo Christus in Evangeliâ— inquit quâ— mensurâ— metieritis remetietur vebis Et Propheta Esaias vae tibi qui spolias alterum quoniam ipse spâ—liaberis What wouldest thou have done with me said Tamerlane to the fierce Bajazet Turk hist fol. 220. then his prisoner had it been my fortune to have fallen into thy hands as thou art now in mine I would said Bajazet have inclosed thee in a Cage of Iron and so in triumph have carried thee up and down my Kingdom Even so said Tamerlane shalt thou be served One Perillus gave to Phalaris King of Cicile Necenim â—ex justor â—lla est Quamnâ—cis artisicâ—s arte pâ—riâ—â— sâ—â— an hollow or brazen Bull wherein to scortch and torment men by fire praising the device with this commendation That the noise of the tormented would be like the bellowing of a Bull. But there was a due reward unto the inventour for the first trial was made of himself God usually retaliates and dealeth with men according to the manner and way of their wickedness The sin and suffering oft meet in some remarkable circumstance Babylon hath blood for blood Jacob cometh as the elder to Isaac and Leah cometh as the younger to Jacâ—b He that denied a crumb wanted a drop Asa that set the Prophet in the stocks had a disease in his seet Sodom sinned in fulness of bread and it is expresly noted that their victuals were taken from them by the four Kings Their eyes were full of uncleanness and they were smitten with blindness They burned with lust and were burned with fire They sinned against nature and against the course of nature fire descends and consumes them Sisera annoy's Gods People with his Iron Charets and is slain by a nail of Iron Jesabels braâ—s that devised mischief against the innocent are strew'd upon the stones By a Letter sent from Jezreel she shed the blood of Naboth and by a Letter from Jezreel the blood of her sons is shed Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomons Temple the seven years work of so many thousands therefore he is turned a grazing and seven seasons pass over him The blasphemers in the Revelations gnaw their tongues through pain and Dives was tormented in that part chiefly Cyprian yielding the reason of it Quia lingua plus peccaverat Thus God delights to give men their own to pay them home in their own coyn to remete them their own measure to beat them with their own weapons to over-shoot them in their own bows and to shape their estates according to their own patterns When it is thus know the sin by the judgement and silence murmuring Adonibezek an Heathen observed As I have done God hath done to me With what judgement ye judge Mat 7.2 ye shall be judged and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again The Gospel THE word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of to bâ—â—e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nuntius 〈◊〉 unutium Evangelium signifieth glad-tidings that is the proper notation of the Original word And the same may our English word Gospel admit for Spel in ancient signified speech Gespel then is a good speech Or quasi Gods-spell Gods power or charm to call us to be Christians as Romans 1.16 The Gospel is the Power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth It is sometimes taken for the Sacrifice which the Heathen offered to their gods It is so used in Xenophon Homer Odyss for joyful news And sometimes for the reward which is given to him who bringeth glad-ridings In Scripture it is taken for glad-tidings in general For the history of Christ But by an excellency it is restrained to signifie The most joyful message of salvation And sometimes for the publishing of the Doctrine of Christ Consider the Gospels 1. Antiquity 2. Excellency It is at least as old as Moses which was the first writer that we read of The Athenians thought it to be a new Doctrine Yet it is as ancient as Moses nay as Adam for the Doctrine of the Gospel was in Paradise The Law was before the Gospel yet the Gospel is more worthy than it darkness went before the light the night before the day yet the day is more glorious than the night All creatures were made before man yet man excelleth them all The Sword-bearer goes before the Major yet he is not greater than the Major All things are not to be esteemed by their precedency and priority in the world There cometh one after me said John yet in honour and dignity he is before me So the Gospel cometh after the Law yet it is more excellent than the Law In the Law there is nothing but matter of fear in the Gospel of love in the Law God is against us in the Gospel he is Emanuel God with us The Law curseth the Gospel blesseth The Law is a denunciation of wrath of a curse against us because of transgression only the Gospel is an annunciation of mercy and forgiveness That breatheth forth only a cold blast a North-wind of
pracipitur Aaroni Num 6 23. 2. Propheticâ seâ— Patriarchali ut fecit Noah 3. Ex charitate ut unusquisque proxinto fausta omnia precatur The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich Pro. 10.22 Rom. 12.14 and he addeth no sorrow with it Bless them which persecute you bless and curse not Cursing If the Prophets cursed their enemies at any time Gorran it was not livore vindictae sed zelo justitiae Not out of a vindictive spirit but by the instinct of Gods holy Spirit and out of a zeal for Gods glory Austin saith that David's Cursings are rather Prophecies shewing what shall come unto them than any wishes of his own as desiring that such things should come to pass Cursing men are cursed men Witness the Jews who to this day are still great Cursers of Christians they shut up their daily prayers with Maledic Domine Naâ—araeis And how it cometh home to them who knoweth not even wrath to the utmost Epiphamins and Chrysostom falling out about Origin's writings wished a curse to one another and it fell our accordingly The one died ere he came home and the other was unbishoped Polâ—nâ—s tells of one Thomas Linacle Pol. in cap. 53. an English-man who reading Mat. 5.44 Bless them that curse you cryed out O my friends either this is very absurd or we are no Christians We may not curse any saith Hierom no not the Devil Com. in cap. 3. Ep. ad Titum though he deserves to be cursed yet it must not go out of the Arch-angels mouth It may be some uncircumcised Goliah accustoms himself to such grievous things but the tongues of the children of God drop no such gall and poyson but honey and oil and much graciousness If thou sayest Thou art provoked this excuseth thee not but manifests thy cankered nature A 〈◊〉 hath fire in it but unless it be provoked by the Steel it is not seen As the Bird taking her flight from her nest fetcheth a compass and by and by returns thither again So Curses come in where they go out returning upon a mans self as do stones cast against a wall A man that takes up an Adder in his hand or Fire to throw against his enemy hurteth himself most so it is with them that curse their adversaries I have not suffered my mouth to sin Job 31.30 by wishing a curse to my enemies soul Imprecation Holy men of God have sometimes made use of Imprecations Diris se devovens thereby to clear themselves from false imputations The like may be done by us but sparingly and not without great necessity lest if we do it falsly or rashly God say Amen and set his Fiat to it as he hath done in sundry instances in several 〈◊〉 Mention is made in our Chronicles of two that rotted above ground Act. Mons according to their wish And of another hanged which he confessed was just upon him for that in Carding and Dicing he had often wished himself hanged if it were not so and so In Germany Anno 1551. Ioh. Man lot com p. 192. The Devil in a visible shape lifted up a Cursing woman into the air and there-hence threw her down in the view of many people and brake her neck Another brought her daughter to Luther intreating his prayers for her for that she was possessed by the Devil upon her cursing of her For when she said in a rage against her daughter Involet in te Diabolus The Devil take thee he took possession of her accordingly The same Author relateth a like sad story of a stubborn son cursed by his father who wished he might never stir alive from the place he stood in And he stirred not for three years The Jews saying of Christ His blood be on us and on our children God said Amen to this woful curse which cleaves close to them and their posterity As he loved cursing so let it come unto him As he delighted not in blessing so let it be far from him As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment Psal 109.17 18 19. so let it come into his bowels like water and like oil into his bones Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually Violence Robbing is a violent taking away from any 〈…〉 Hence violence and â—obbery are joined together Levit. 19.13 Aâ—oâ— 3.10 Wicked men are said to drink the wine of violence Pro. 4.17 that is They spoil others and what they get that way they live upon make merry with There are secret Robbers doing it by deceit and fraud â— robbing while they pretend to seek for right And so the Law may be made a shadow to many lawless actions He is a Robber that takes his neighbours right from him by pretence of Law as well as he that takes away his purse by the high-way Again others rob secretly while they seem to fell A man may rob with a pair of Ballances or Meâ—ewand in his hand as well as with a Sword or Pistol in his hand And there are also open and violent Robbers who waste â— spoil and destroy all that comes neer them and eare not who sees Such are Warlike robbers who bring power to do what they cannot do by justice Those boysterous sons of Mars 〈…〉 men of blood and violence who make their will their law and think they may do whatsoever they have power to do These have a will to destroy as much as they can but they cannot destroy as much as they will If they could the whole World must fall before them if it will not fall down unto them And truly the usual effect of War is waste and spoil 〈…〉 It is said of the Turkish wars that where the Grand Seignour's horse sets his foot no more grass will grow he makes havock of all Alexander the Great was told to his teeth by a Pyrate taken at Sea and condemned by him That he was the greatest Thief in the world I am condemned said he for robbing at Sea in a little Ship but thou robbest at Land all the world over and art applauded And what was Julius Caesar who said That for a Kingdoms sake Right might be violated 〈…〉 And who robbed his Country of Liberty for the satisfying of his unlawful desire of Greatness And certainly He that hath power hopes he may oppress and go unpunished Some durst not oppress but for the shelter of an high place More there are who steal by reason of their abundance than by reason of their want What they have gives them ability to rob for more These are Nimrods Gâ—n 10.9 mighty 〈◊〉 before the Lord not of beasts but of men whose estates and lives they sacrifice to their own lusts Yet there want not some to commend these Called 〈◊〉 as there were that applauded Cain for killing his brother and that extolled the Sodomites Core and his
manu Herculis extorqueas But when a man gives an alms being drawn to it with many and violent intreaties he loseth the grace of his gift both with God and man Nemo libentur debet quod non accepit sed expressit Among men he accounts not himself a debter who hath not freely received but wrung out a penny from a rich man That which is extorted from a man he properly giveth not Necessity in this kind and liberty cannot well stand together Pliny writeth that it was observed among the Romans Senec. Râ—nitentem trabentem se ab aris that never any good came to a man by offering a beast in sacrifice that violently drew back from the Altar and could not be brought to it but with much force And most certain it is that God esteemeth of no offering of ours which is not as free as liberal Give Alms of such things as you have Luke 11.41 Heb. 13.16 To do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased He that sheweth mercy Rom. 12.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with chearfulnesse Hospitality Nihil interest habere estium apertum vultum clausum Cicero It is nothing worth to admit man with an open door and to receive them with a shut and reserved countenance Saith the Oratour Hospitality is an excellent duty and we have many spurs to prick us to it 1. God requires it 2. We have many examples of it 3. We our selves may be strangers therefore do as we would be done to In it these things are required that it be done 1. Frequentur one swallow makes not a spring It was the continual practice of Lot and Abraham as may appear by their behaviour 2. â—eleriter we must not tarry till strangers offer themselves we must pull them in as Abraham and Lot we must constrain them as Lydia did Paul and Silas 3. Hilaritur without grudging we must not repine at it speak hardly of them when they be gone 4. Humiliter after a meek manner as if we were rather beholden to them than they to us 5. Abundantur according to that ability wherewith God hath blessed us 6. Perseverantur be not weary of well doing But alas most men are too much wedded to the world Where are our Abrahams to entertain Gods messengers Our Lots to compel his Ministers to come in but many a rich glutton to barr the door and deny the very fragments of his table The Prophet Elias lacketh his host of Sarepta the Prophet Elisha his hostess the Shunamite Paul cannot find the Purpurisse nor Peter the Tanner Job we find not Captain Cornelius is a black swan in this generation No Philip to feast the poor nor Martha to give the courteous entertainment nor Mary to pour oyntment on their heads Christ is a beggar in his membeâ—s Lazarus lyes still at the door and cannot by long craving and crying obtain some crummes his pillow is the Pavement stones the rich mans horses chew and spew upon gold and silver and his Mules go under rich velvet Dogges are deer and feed more daintily Foolish Nabal who like Sodom and Gomorrah was full of bread yet he denies distressed David of the superfluity of his house Yea they that make a great shew of Christianity are ready to say with that very churle shall I take my bread and my water and my flesh and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be Habet semper unde det Aug. cui plenum est pectus charitatis Coronat Deus voluntatem ubi non invenit facultatem Idem Given to hospitality 1 Tim. 3.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coaction It is a received Axiom Quod ex necessitate bonum est non est bonum that which is good of necessity is not good yet it is to be understood de necessitate coactâ of a coacted necessity not of a voluntary God is necessarily good yet willingly good Death comes necessarily upon all yet some dy willingly I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ But the good which is done upon a constrained necessity loseth the name of good Patience perforce is no patience A willing mind in a good action is all in all If Solomon had not willingly built the Temple it had not been pleasing to God If the Centurion had not willingly set up the Synagogue God would not have respected it If the woman of Shunem had not willingly entertained the Prophet it had been no good work in the sight of God If Dorcas had not made the coates willingly they had not been acceptable unto God Not by constraint 1 Pet. 5.2 but willingly Beginning or Original Dimidium facti qui benè Caepit habet First actions make deepest impressions either of fear or courage Great lakes are made from small rivers Great matters from small beginnings Small matters saith a Divine art not to be neglected Mr. Mâ—ntâ—n in nature Art Religion or Providence In nature matters of moment grow up from small beginnings Nature loveth to have her cause and seed of every thing small A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump Thin exhalations end in great showers Small breaches in a Sea bank let in great inundations We must therefore not consider matters in their beginning only but progress and ultimate issue A little sin doth a great deal of mischief and a little grace is of great efficacy Penes Râ—ges est inferre bellum penes antem Deum terminare Contention at first is but as a spark but afterward it being fomented and blown up by unsober spirits putteth whole Kingdomes into combustion Heresy at first is inconsiderable but it creepeth like a Gangrene from one place to another till it have destroyed the whole body Men begin to quarrel one with another about trifles and God inferreth great mutations and changes of States and Kingdoms Learn we then not to neglect evils that are small in their rise and original Resist sinnes betimes give no place to Sathan Principiis â—bsta we know not the issue of his tyranny and encroachment And learn we also not to despise the day of small things the low beginning of grace Providence and deliverance God useth to go on when he hath begun a good work Behold Jam. 3.5 how great a matter a little fire kindleth Progresse in Sanctification Non progredi est regredi The cessasion or sleep of grace makes such a confusion in the whole man as Christ sleeping in the ship did to it Christians like waters of the Sanctuary should rise higher and higher As the morning Sun they should shine more and more unto the perfect day The blessing on man in the first creation was increase and multiply in the second grow in grace A Christian how perfect soever hath still his Plùs ultra Runners in a race look not how much they have run but how much remaineth A Christian hath his degrees of growth and his several ages of
c. Loe these are the inseperable markes of Popery and the brands of their Divellish religion And these do but hasten their incurable destruction rendring them odious to all Christian States Princes and people yea to Turks and Infidels How is the faithful City become an harlot Isaâ— 1. â—1 22. it was full of judgment righteousnesse lodged in it but now murderers Thy silver is become drosse thy wine mixt with water Come hither Rev. 17.1 and I will shew thee the judgment of the great where c. Babylon the great is fallen is fallen c. Cap. 18.2 Come out her my people Vers 4. that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues Pope If the servant of servants be above the King of Kings and Lord of Lords then where is Christs Prerogative Ye take too much upon you O ye sons of Levi. St. Peter had a priority but not superiority or if a Primacy yet not a supremacy over the rest â—â—lv Inst l. 4. c. 6. he had as our Divines acknowledge a precedency in place named for the most part first as the foreman of the quest and aâ—preheminency in grace reputed for his excellent Knowledge and Zeal he was the first Confessour Mat. 16.16 The first preacher Act. 2. The first baptizer Act. 10. The first worker of miracles Act. 3. Austin saith Epist 28. Deus docuit Petrum per posteriorem Paulum yet another addes Etsi ille primus iste praecipuus It was Frederick the Emperor his saying In capite orbis Deus per imperium exaltavit Ecclesiam in capite orbis Ecclesia nunc demolitur imperium Cyprian speakes much against Pope Stephen Epist ad Pomp. assuring Pompeius upon the reading of the Epistle Pope Stephen sent to Cyprian he should Magis ac magis ejus errorem denctare qui causam hâ—reticorum contra Christianos contra Ecclesiam Dei asserâ—re conatâ—r He taxeth him also of impertinencies and contradictions to himself that he did imperitè improvidè scribere Liber erat Mant. Eccl. 2. servile jugum sibi condidit ipse Pondus idem legum vidi ipse volumina quas 〈◊〉 Antiqui potuere patres nec possumus ipsi Neâ— servare atas poterit ventura nepotum Thomas Holland of Exet. Col. Oxf. When he was to take his journey said to the fellowes Commendo vos dilectioni Dei odio papatus superstitionis The Pope imitates Peter to whom he pretends succession in the worst things he cuts off not onely the ear but head he denies Christ but weeps not for it Vzziah though a King must not meddle with the Priests office and Azariah the High-Priest must not intrude himself into the Kings office yet the High-Priest of Rome will have both swords he will be a Priest and a King too he will be for matters of the world as well as for matters of God Boniface the eight shewed himself one day in the attire of a Priest another day in the attyre of a Prince affirming that he was both Bellarmine of late hath somewhat minced the matter that the Pope hath no power in temporal matters directè yet indirectè quoad bonum spirituale he may play Rex Excellent So as a man get into an house it makes no great matter whether directly or indirectly And so as the Pope may depose Princes and dispose of their Kingdoms and butcher them at his pleasure what availeth it whether directly or indirectly I am sure this is indirect dealing by an indirect distinction to break down the wall of partition that God himself hath set up between the Priest and the Magistrate That the Pope exalts himself above all that is called God I prove 1. In that he is not onely in equipage with God in remitting of sins but is made more mighty for God in the creation made but creatures but he can make as many gods as he lust 2. More merciful than Christ which is concluded for this reason It is not read in all the Scripture that Jesus Christ drew any soul out of purgatory but the Pope of his great piety and mercy doth every day an infinite number nay Credat Judaeuâ— Appella Pope Gregory did bring Trajans soul out of hell 3. More wise then God for he can institute a sacrifice alsufficient to save those that Christs sacrifice cannot save 4. Of more authority than God whose word is not authentical without his allowance But what he saith though never so crosse to the Text is Ipsissimum Dei verbum Besides all the names and titles of Christ given him in the Scripture to shew him Lord of the Church are attributed to the Pope the head of Antichristian heresies Bellarmine saith that he is universal Pastour Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium De concâ—â— anâ—ho l. 2. c. 17. Admirabilis Leo de tribu Judae Radix David And those which Antichrist would onely rob him of are Head of the whole body of the Church Bridegroom of the Spouse Foundation of the Church as if one body might have two heads one spouse two husbands at once Moreover mind his horrible pride claiming authority above Kings Emperours Lawes Scriptures yea over men and Angels Their doctrine is that Papa babet imperium in Angelos Daemonas And their practise the like For Clement the sixt in his Bull upon the Jubile 1350. Prorsus mandamus Angelis Paradisi quatenuâ— animam in Purgatorio penitus absolutam in Paradisi gloriam introducant And is not this to make himself a god is not this that beast full of the names of Blasphemie I might adde much I will onely conclude with that saying of Pope Marcellus the second wherein he seemes to be prety ingenious Onâ—ph in vitâ for striking his hand upon the table he uttered these words Non video quo modo qui hunc locum altissimum tenant salvari possunt I see not how any Pope can be saved And that of Pius Quintus Cornel. à Lap. iâ— Num. 11.11 recited by A lapide When I was first in orders I had some good hopes of salvation when I was made a Cardinal I doubted but now that I am Pope I do almost despair 2 Thes 2.3 4. That man of sin The son of Perdition c. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as god sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is god Papists The Pope hath given liberty to some to have all their own rites onely acknowledging his Supremacy but the ground being laid for point of Doctrine it matters not there 's enough gained to make him that had sworn obedience to accept of all the rest They that bear witnesse to themselves as Papists do are not to be heard in their own cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless they compass such a decree as Stratocles did for Demetrius Whatsoever Demetrius will command
all that therein is being himself of opinion that God in Essence one and in himself immutable without change or diversity yet for the manifesting of his omnipotency and power as he had created in the world sundry kinds of people much differing both in nature manners and condition and yet all framed to the image of himself So was he also contented to be of them diversly served according to the diversity of their nature and manners But there is but one true Religion 1. Because there is but one true God the object of true Religion Eph. 4.4 2. Because there but is one end and scope of Christian life and duty and that is eternal blessedness and one way to that mark which is Christ himself and one walking in that way which is Christian practice 3. Because there can be no agreement together of two divers religions no more than iron and clay can be tempered together 2 Còr. 6.14 15 Joh. 4.24 4. Because of the express word of God 1. Commanding straitly that himself be worshipped alone and enduring no compeer Exod. 20.3 2. Prohibiting that no tribe or family man or woman should turn his heart from the Lord to any other God Deut. 29 18. 3. Threatning severely to stretch out his hand upon them that swear by the Lord and by Malcham Zeph. 1.5 4. Executing his wrath and displeasure upon this mixture of Religion spewing out of his mouth those that are neither hot nor cold Rev. 3.16 Popish religion saith Were I to chuse a religion to license lasciviousness and gratifie the flesh it should be the Popish Religion said Sir Walt. Rawl that a lewd miscreant or infidel in the businesse of the Altar partakes of the true holy and blood of Christ that men may save the labour of searching for that it is both easy and safe to beleeve with the Church at a venture the bare act of the Sacrament confers grace without faith that the meer signe of the Crosse made by a Jew or infidel is of force to drive away the Devil that Masse in the very work wrought doth not onely pardon our sins in this life but when we lye frying in purgatory that Almes given merit heaven dispose to justification satisfy God for sin that abstinence from some meates and drinks is meritorious that indulgences may dispence with sin afterward to be comitted that one man may deliver anothers soul out of torments So that he that wants neither mony or friends needs not fear the smart of sins O Religion sweet to the wealthy to the needy desperateâ— Valdus of France Wickliffe of England Hierom of Prague and Luther of Germany framed not a new Church but reformed the old they endeavoured and not without happy success to cleanse and scoure restore and reforme those Churches which were foiled filthily with the blemishes of disorder and errour Cardinal Wolsey when bidden not for to fear the King loved him as well as ever he did said that was not the cause of his sadnesse but had he served God as diligently as he had done the King he would never bave forsaken him in his gray hairs Anselmus A godly person seeing a woman curious about her person to please her lover and himself not so diligent to please his God cryed out O miserable man whom so infinite love blessings and riches cannot provoke to such carâ— and diligence of pleasing God Tertul. as the vilest things do make our industry to please the Devil Religion is the greatest enemy to religion the false to the true Favos etiam vespae faciunt Omnia cum liceant non licet esse pium Wasps also make combs though instead of honey we find Gun-powder Traytours against Kings and Kingdomes must be punished in an high degree and great reason But why when hourely we hear high treason against God goes that uncensured so much as with a word The Egyptians worshipped whatsoever they conceived comely And Zenophanes saith if beasts could paint they would pourtray God to their own shape and feature because they can conceive no further Fourteen principal cities in Germany protested for Luther from whence came the name of the Protestant Religion It was the offer of great Cham the Tartarian Prince Tuus Pontifâ—x meus Pontifex 〈◊〉 tuus Lutherus meus Lutherus eâ—â—o Buâ—â—ing of whom Lipsius reports that when Stephanus the mighty King of Poland was departed sent a Legate to them telling them he would be of any religion if he might reign Of Charles the fifth Emperour it is said his actions that seemed most favourable were the most pernicious to Religion However truth of Religion is not to be judged by the prosperity or adversity of the Professours Religion is rather a setler than stickler in Policy if they work otherwise they labour out of their vineyard and move out of their proper spheare Far then is Religion from overthrowing government or everting the degrees of superiority and inferiority that be among men True indeed we are all one in Christo Gal. 3.28 but not in mundo in Christ but not in the world Christ died indifferently for all that is for servants as well as for masters yet the degrees that be in the world must be retained and acknowledged to the end of the world Yet in all ages Religion hath been slandered Elias was called a troubler Paul an Innovator Luther a trumpeter of rebellion Melanchton a blasphemer of God and his Saints Calvin a Mahometan Zanchius an Anabaptist a Zwenckfeldian a Novatian and what not Contra Sychophantae morsum non est remedium Arminius paved his way first by aspersing the fame and authority of Calvin Zuinglius Beza Martyr and other champions of the truth The Papists reported the Waldenses those ancient Protestants to be Manichees Arrians Catharists c. As they do us to be Libertines Enthusiasts Atheists c. Thus they set their mouths against heaven and their tongue walketh through the earth Psal 73.9 But well said one God will cut out such false tongues Psal 12.3 And broyl them upon coales of Juniper Psal 120.4 However Religion is both the bulwark and beauty muniment and ornament of a land Even as Sampsons strength and glory lay in his hair so doth the strength and glory of a land consist in Gods sincere service which if it should be shaved and deprived of though every shower were a shower of gold saith a Divine every stone in the land a pearle every beggar an honourable Senator every fool as wise as Solomon every weakling as strong as Sampson yet for all our wealth honour strength wisdome and glory we shall sing a doleful Miserere with Phineas wife The glory is departed for Religion is gone If any man among you seeme to be religious and bridleth not his tongue Jam. 1.26 27. but deceiveth his own heart this mans religion is vain Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherlesse and widows
no good edge When he giveth quietnesse who then can make trouble Job 34.29 and when he hideth his face who then can behold him whether it be done against a Nation or against a man onely Peace Epiphanius used to say that he never let his adversary sleep not that he disturbed him but agreed with him presently not suffering the Sun to go down upon his wrath There is peace 1. External 2. Internal 3. Eternal of the 1. World 2. Minde 3. God Or more plainly peace between 1. Man and man 2. Man and himself 3. God and man Christ both procures us peace by his blood and keeps peace by his intercession He both makes and maintains peace Pax nostra bellum contra satanam For as Aulius Fulvius when he took his son in the conspiracy with Catiline said Ego te non Catalinae sed Patriae so God hath not begotten us in Christ that we should follow the arch-traitour Satan but serve him in holinesse Est pax peccatorum pax justorum pax temporis pax eternitatis Pax temporis interdum conceditur bonis malis sed pax eternitatis nunquam dabitur nisi bonis quia non est pax impiis De pace peccatorum inquit Psal Nalla salus bello pacem nos possumus omnes Drances Zelavi in peccatoribus pacem peccatorum videns De hac dicit Christus non veni mittere pacem sed gladium De pace justorum dicit Apostolus fructus spiritus est Charitas gaudium pax paientia hanc reliquit Christus Apostolis pacem relinquo vobis De pace temporis inquit Propheta Orietur in diebus ejus justitia Innocens 3. l. 3. De sacr Alt. myst c. 11. abundantia pacis Hanc incessanter petit Ecclesia Da pacem in diâ—bus nostris De pace aeternitatis Dominus dixit Apostolis pacem meam dâ— vobis non quomodo mundus dat Ego do vobis De hac inquit David In pace dormiam c. Dona nobis pacem ut de pace temporis per pacem pectoris transeamus ad pacem aeternitatis It is observable that amongst these seventeen sins Omnia pace vigent pacis tempore florens which are called works of the flesh Gal. 5. eight of them are of the adverse party to peace and that all the nine fruits of the spirit there reckoned up are peace and the assistants thereof Which sheweth what a concourse of evils is in strife Pausanias in Atticis p. 13. and that all good things which we can expect from the Spirit are in peace Hence even the heathens feigned Eirene Peace to be the nurse of Pluto their god of riches The work of righteousnesse shall be peace and the effect of righteousnesse Isa 32.17 quletnesse and assurance for ever Tamerlane after a great battel with and victory over the Muscovit Turk Hist fol. 212. beholding so many thousands of men there dead upon the ground was so far from rejoycing thereat that turning himself to one of his familiars he lamented the condition of such as commanded over great armies commending his fathers quiet course of life who being now well stricken in years and weary of the world delivered up unto him the government of his Kingdome retiring himself into a solitary life the more at quiet to serve God and so to end his days in peace Accounting him happy in seeking for rest and the other most unhappy which by the destruction of their own kind sought to procure their own glory Protesting himself even from his heart to be grieved to see such sad tokens of his victory Yea Fol. 216. the stern Bajazet marching with his great army against Tamerlane and by the way hearing a countrey shepheard merrily reposing himself with his homely Pipe as he sate by the side of a mountain feeding his poor flock standing still a great while listning unto him to the great admiration of many at last fetching a deep sigh brake forth into these words O happy shepheard which hadst neither Orthobulos nor Sebastia to lose bewraying therein his own discontentment And yet withal shewing that worldly blisse consisteth not so much in enjoying of much subject unto danger as enjoying in a little contentment devoid of fear Better is an handful with quietnesse Eccles 4.6 than both the hands full with travel and vexation of spirit Famine It is the want of bread and bread is the stay and staffe of life When this stay is gone our lives fall quickly when this staffe is broken the thread of life breaks too Famine within hath fought more eagerly than sword without Xenophon reports of one Anaxalaus accused in the Spartane judgement for delivering up the City of Bizantium to the enemy when he saw many die with famine he answered he knew difference between warring with an enemy and Nature It is numbred among the sore judgements of God if it be not the sorest 1. Causing faintnesse and madnesse Gen. 47.13 2. Hunger burneth Deut. 32.24 3. It causeth pining and languishment Lam. 4.9 4. Shame and howling Joel 1.11 5. Rage and cursing Isa 8.21 6. It breaks all the bonds of nature Deut. 28.53 54. Lam. 4.10 Isa 9.20 But yet this famine of the body is a light judgement to a famine of the Word which drieth up the soul and bringeth with it eternal death Amos 8.11 12. Miserable was the famine amongst the Jews in Jerusalem besieged by the Romanes some chewing the graines of raw wheat wives snatching the meat from their husbands â—useb l. 3. c. 6. children from their parents and that which was most miserable the mothers from the infants mouths c. Many seeing no way but one went and and laid them down upon the Beers to welcome death So miserable was the sight that Titus himself sorrowed and sighed and stretching forth his hands called God to witnesse Turk Hist fol. 1â—09 that he was not the cause of this calamity In Transilvania they ate up all the dogs cats mice and rats that they could get dead horses loathsome carrion of other hunger-starved beasts One man did eat another A woman having six children did among them eat one another until they were at length all six devoured yna thieves and malefactors hanged for their villanies were by the poor and miserably hungry people cut down from the Gallows and devoured At Athens the father and son fought for a dead mouse which dropped down betwen them from the top of the house God can cause a famine either by immoderate drought Joel 1.10 Or by immoderate moisture vers 17. These are usually the natural causes of famine but 't is good to enquire after the supernatural as Jacob enquired who stood on the top of the ladder and sent the Angels to and fro Gen. 28.13 I behold and low a black horse Pestilence The word in the Hebrew Ezek. 14.19 comes from another word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Loqui which signifieth to speak And
but they are either false or uncertain therefore I mention them not Witchcraft is fitly called the Black Art for there is no true light in them that use it Isa 8.19 20. They depart from God and his testimony and so tempt the Devil to tempt them And they which in case of Loss or Sickness c. make Hell their refuge shall smoke and smart for it in the end Satan seeks to them in his temptations they seek unto him in their consultations and now that they have mutually found each other if ever they part it is a miracle He is an unspeakable proud Spirit and yet will stoop to the meanest man or woman to be at their command The Witch of Endor is twice in one verse called the Mistress of the Spirit because in covenant with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominam Pythonis 1 Sam. 28.7 whereby he may cheat them and their clients of salvation Every one that consults with him worships him though he bow not as Saul did Neither doth that old Man-slayer desire any other reverence than to be sought unto Some have thought Witches should not die unless they had taken away the life of Mankind But they are mistaken both for the act of the Witch and the guilt as also because of the league and confederacie with the Devil which is high treason against God because he is Gods chiefest enemy And therefore though no hurt ensue this contract at all the Witch deserves present and certain death for the contract it self Thou spalt not suffor a Witch to live Exod. 22.18 Vocatio Particularis EVery one ought to be a man of Imployment Every one ought to have some business to turn his hand unto It was said to Adam and in him to Mankind not only as a curse but as a command In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread Gen. 3.19 Not that every man is bound to labour in such an imployment as causeth the face to sweat But thereby is meant serious labour and imployment in some honest Calling Consider 1. The law on Adam binds all his posterity None may eat the bread of idleness 1 Tim. 4.13 2. The state of Innocency endured not idleness 3. God who is the Author of our Being is the Author of our Calling 4. Not to live in an honest Calling is to live unjustly Eph. 4.28 5. Christ himself submitted to the law of Creation for our example 6. The blessing of God on honest labour and his curse on idle persons Yea it is a great blessing when we freely enjoy the exercise of our Callings It is our duty to have a Calling and it is a mercy to go on profitably and peaceably in it The Emperor and the Pope being sained by the smart invention of a Satyrist to be reconciled and both placed in their Majestick Thrones The States of the World are brought in before them First comes a Counsellor of State with this Motto I advise you two Then a Courtier I flatter you three Then a Husbandman I feed you four Then a Merchant I cosen you five Then a Lawyer I rob you six Then a Soldier I fight for you seven Then a Physician I kill you eight And lastly a Priest I absolve you all nine This was his Satyr of his Times Diligence in a lawful Calling is the best remedy against Poverty which oft prompts a man to Theft Seneca said He had rather be sick in his bed than idle That Jonah had a Calling or Occupation it 's plain they took it for granted cap. 1.8 At Athens every man was once a year at least to give account to the Judges by what Art or Trade he maintained himself By Mahomet's law the Grand Signior himself must use some Manual trade Solyman the Magnificent made Arrow-heads Mahomet the Great Horn-rings for Archers c. A Kinsman of the Bishop of Lincoln begging of him to bestow an Office upon him He answered Cosen if your Cart be broken I 'll mend it but an Husbandman I found you and so I leave you Let every man abide in the same Calling wherein he was called 1 Cor. 7.20 Husbandman Great men were antiently much addicted to husbandry as Vzziah 2 Chron. 26.10 and Job cap. 1.3 which Socrates called the horn of plenty And the Romans reckoned that Corn was never so cheap as when men were fetched from the Plough Plin. to govern the Commonwealth Quasi gauderet terra laureato vomere aratro trium phali But now the case is otherwise as Beza complaineth that Husbandry and Shepherdry are left for the basest and simplest men and for such as all others might prey upon Which bringeth to mind saith he that which once I saw painted in a table where the Noble-man had this poesie By my sword I defend you all The Clergy-man By my prayers I preserve you all The Country-man By my labour I feed you all Lastly the Lawyer I devoure you all Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens Gen. 49.14 Physician Physick is either 1. Curative Or 2. Preventive Curative Physick we term that which restoreth the Patient unto sanity Physicians hold that in every two years there is such store of ill humors and excrements ingendred in the body that a vessel of one hundred ounces will scarce contain them and taketh away Diseases actually affecting whether chronical or acute of long or short duration and danger Preventive we call that which by purging noxious humours and the causes of diseases preventeth sickness in the healthy or the recourse thereof in the valerudinary The medicine must not be in the power of the sick but of the Physician The Remedy not fitted to the Malady it increaseth daily The disease being inveterated 't is necessary to proceed slowly in the cure for he that desires to do all together confounds all Paracelsus glorying that he could make other men immortal died himself at forty seven They say there are some Diseases are Opprobria Medicorum Mali mediciest desperare ne â—â—ret Sen. Mat. 9.12 they do puzzle the most learned Physicians and put them to a stand But Christ cures all for Omnipotenti Medico nullus insanabilis occurrit morbus They that be whole need not a Physician but they that are sick Merchant Merchandise well managed is of great use to Kingdoms and States for many reasons viz. For 1. Descrying the counsels and strength of other Nations 2. Procuring the love and friendship of forein Princes and people 3. Exchanging of commodities for Non omnis fert omnis tellus 4. Gaining experience of many great matters 5. Occasioning the building of many fair Cities Let Merchants take heed how they fell by small measures and for great rates Quorum oculos culpa clausit pana aperut neither let their measure want of its due proportion lest God sill it up with his fierce wrath Those that have lived unconscionably shall diâ— uncomsortably at which time their treasures of
a thing of evil is made good as in Regeneration Create in me a clean heart 3. When the bodies shall be raised out of the dust at the Resurrection The first is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Resurrection is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a new creation There be several Pillars for the Resurrection to lean upon Resurrectio mortuorum fiducia Christianorum 1. The Power of God Idoneus est reficere qui fecit 2. The Justice of God Psal 58.11 3. The solemn Funerals that be in all Nations When we go to a Burial we go to a lowing of seed 4. The Resurrection of Christ 1 Cor. 15.20 Facilius est restituere quà m constituere The First-fruits the Head the Husband is in heaven therefore the second fruits the members the Wife shall be there also Adde hereunto 1. Bonitas Dei Absit ut Deus manuum suarum operam ingenii sui curam afflatus sui vaginam libertatis suae haeredem testimonii sui militem Tertul. Spiritus sancti templum in aeternum destituat exitium 2. Exempla resurgentium in the Old and New Testament Christ raised up three The one in demo the daughter of Jairus the other in feretro the Widows son of Naim the third in sepulchro which was Lazarus when he began to stink These are praeludia nostrae resurrectionis 3. Dulcis titulus mortis 1 Thess 4.13 14. Joh. 11.12 The dead are but asleep Quaedam partes ab animantibus divulsae Zanard de gen corrup arte medici iterum reliquis uniuntur Imo D. Aug. super Psal 101. Refert à quibusdam traditum Pelicanum restro pullos suos occidere sed post seipsum sauciando sanguinem effundere eoque super pullos effuso eos ad vitam revocare Deus pari modo nuntium nobis mortem mittit ut ad vitam restauraret In Ireland there are birds called Martins as some write which if they be hung in a dry place when they are dead Grimst p. 34. they renew their feathers every year The husbandman prizeth as much the corn sowen in the field as that which is in the garner Tertul. Dies moritur in noctem tamen rursus cum suo cultu universo orbi reviviscit Hinc Job 17.12 Post tenebras spero lucem Fear not saith God to Jacob Gen. 46.4 to go down to Egypt for I will go down with thee and I will also surely bring thee up again The like may be said to every godly person going down to the grave All shall rise again good and bad Cain shall rise with the same hand wherewith he slew his brother Jezabel with the same body that was eaten up by the dogs Rabsekeh with the same tongue wherewith he railed on the God of Israel Judas with the same lips wherewith he traiterously betrayed our Saviour Christ Such like as these shall rise with horror of conscience But the godly that have stuck to Christ shall rise with comfortable consciences Sive comedo Hierom. sive bibo sive aliquid aliud facio semper vox illa terribilis sonat in auribus meis Surgite mortui venite ad judicium Marvel not at this Joh. 5.28 29. for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice And shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation Judicium Vltimum After the Resurrection comes Judgment Death were nothing if there were no Judgment The Assises were nothing if there were no Execution Dies judicii exinde probatur Si non sit judicium tum non est Deus justus Si non est Deus justus tum non est Deus si non Deus tum non est mundus si non sit mundus tum nulli sunt homines Sic ratione probatur Then shall be signes in the Sun The Sun of Righteousness appears in three signes Viz. 1. Leo Roaring in the Law as the people could not endure the voice thereof 2. Virgo Born of a Virgin in the Gospel 3. Libra Weighing our works in his ballance at the last and dreadful Audit Which Bernard uttered elegantly saying Christ comes three manner of ways Viz. 1. Ad homines 2. In homines 3. Contra homines Christ ha tha fourfold Exaltation and the last is the greatest Viz. In 1. Mount Tabor his Transfiguration 2. Jerusalem his Resurrection 3. Mount Olivet his Ascension 4. The Clouds his coming to Judgment If the Queen of Sheba condemned the men of that age how shall she condemn us She was a Queen and we but Subjects she left her kingdom and country we sit under our own vines under our own fig-trees in our own soil in our own country she came from the farthest part of the earth to Solomon but Christ cometh from heaven to see us she was moved only by his fame we both hear Christ in his Word and see him in his Sacraments she coming to Solomon brought presents Christ coming to us gives us rewards she came to behold Solomon a meer man but we may behold Christ God and Man A greater than Solomon greater in wisdom for never man spake as he did He did all things well therefore greater in might He made the deaf to hear the blind to see the lame to go c. never man did as he did Greater in Majesty for Solomon in all his royalty was but a type of our King coming in the clouds Without repentance surely this Queen shall arise up with a witness in judgment against us and condemn us at the dreadful day Poena damni poenalior est quà m poena sensus If Esau Erugiit clamore magno to see his younger brother Jacob to have got the blessing roared with a great cry out of measure how loud will the Reprobate roar when he shall behold the Saints figured in Jacob to have got the benediction of the Heavenly Father Venite benedicti If Belshazzar at the sight of an hand-writing against him which only concerned the losing of his temporal Kingdom was so changed in his look and troubled in his thoughts that the joints of his bones were loosed and his knees smote one against another how shall the Reprobate be perplexed in his wits and crossed in his will when he shall see and hear Christ thundring out against him Ite maledicti Memento 1. Peccati ut doleas 2. Mortis ut desinas 3. Divinae justitiae ut timeas 4. Misericordiae ne desperas Above all remember those four last things viz. 1. Death 2. Judgment 3. Heaven 4. Hell But the chiefest is Judgment for all the rest attend it Death is usher to Judgment going before and Hell the execution following after Death would not be so fearful if Judgment did not follow Hell would not be so painful if Judgment went not before Italians in great Thunder use to ring their Bells and
the Ghost in Jeronimo cry for revenge they shall haunt you and set no colour before you but red and crimson yea and throw bowles of blood upon your faces never leaving you till they have brought you from a dying life to a violent and cursed death like the poor fish that feeling the heat of the water thinks to mend her self and leaps into the fire Would not our hearts bleed within us to see an army of men marching against the mouth of a Canon to be wounded discomfited some groaning and crying out some slain out-right and cut off by the middle some crawling on the ground with their lungs peeping out through their sides some stooping with their bowels in their hands some sliced down their legs some cloven down the chin some their brains dasht out and besprinkled on the drumme All these and thousands such are but as fleebitings to that horrid slaughter and horrible blood-shed of the damned in hell fire And when all is done we must dye A grave onely remaines to receive us Three cubits are allotted to us None telluris tres tantum cabiti te expectant A little quantity of ground hath nature proportioned though sometime thou didst possesse as much as ever the tempter shewed Christ The remainder of mighty Hercules will scarce fill a little pitcher When certain Philosophers intentively beheld the tom be of Alexander Heri fecit ex aurò thesaurum hodie aurum ex eo facit thesaurum yesterday the world did not content him to day three cubits contain him Alcibiades bragging of his lands Socrates carried him to the Map of the world and bid him demonstrate them but he could not find them for alas Athens it self was not discernable This earth would serve the wicked still had they not better lye in rottennesse than combustion were not a cold grave more welcome than a hot furnace Now they beg not a city though a little one a Zoar nor a house though poor and bleak as Codrus nor an open aire though sharp and irksome scortched with the Indian sun or frozen with a Russian cold for of such favours there is now no hope Give them but a mountain to fall on them or rock to hide them and they are pleased Here is a strange alteration for the wicked when they shall go from a glorious mansion to a loathsom dungeon from a table of surfeit to a table of vengeance from fawning observants to afflicting spirits from a bed of down to a bed of fire they that commanded all the earth cannot now command a piece of earth to do them service God will wound the hairy scalp of him that goeth still in his wickednesse there remaineth for impenitent sinners a worme that knaweth the conscience and there is prepared for the wicked a fire which never goeth out where is horrour terrour weeping wailing wringing of hands gnashing of teeth continual death yet those that are there never dye Tantalus his Apples Sisyphus his stone and those ravening Harpies whereof the Poets do speak are nothing in respect of those torments whereof the wicked shall tast unlesse in this world they do repent and cast their accounts a fresh The pains of Hell as a reverend father of the Church observes make a four-fold impression in the soules of men 1. A carefull fear that declineth them 2. A doubtfull fear that conflicteth them 3. A desperate fear that shrinketh them 4. A damned fear that suffereth them Then the will shall be a hell in it self the memory shall be continually troubled with a fixed recordation of things passed which it once possessed the understanding shall be darkned with innumerable waves of imaginations the light shall be affirighted with ugly Devils and darknesse the hearing with odious and hideous out-cries the smelling with noisome stinkes the tast with raging thirst and ravishing hunger the feeling afflicted in every part with intollerable paines in comparison whereof our earthly fires are no more but painted flames Depart from me is a cursed condemnation viz. from my Quire of glorious Angels from the communion of blessed Saints Apostles Martyrs and Confessors from me from my holy hill Well may the wretched soul Esau like weep and howle To be secluded from the presence of God is of all miseries the greatest in so much that a father on Matthew saith Many do abhorre hell but I esteem the fall from that glory to be a greater punishment than hell it self Better to endure ten thousand thunderclaps than be deptived of the beatifical vision O the madnesse of most that will rather lose God and Christ and heaven and all than lose a lust Lysimachus King of Lacedemonia being forced to surrender himself his Army and his Kingdome into his enemies hands for a draught of water they being all ready to die for thirst when he had drunk his water he breaks out O how short a pleasure is this that for one draught of water I have lost a glorious Kingdome Truly infinite greater cause will the damned have to complain of their losse Something 's do perfect a good feast viz. Good company good chear good place and good time But all those good things are awanting Varro apud Gelljum at the black banquet in the nethermost hell At other feasts the more the merrier but that 's a sorry supper where the more the more miserable Oh! do not do not run the hazard of these eternal torments for enjoying the pleasure of sin for a season He that playes the thief is a very fool it may be he may not be an hour in stealing the commodity and yet he may lye a whole year in the Goal for it and have hanging when all is done But oh how many greater fools are there than these that will haply for an hours pleasure or at the most for a lifes-time lye in the Goal and prison of hell not for a year but to all eternity Suppose that by your unjust gain you increase your estate and get large revenews if you lose God what get you if you lose a soul what gain you if you lose Christ what advantageth it you We read of a certain salt in Sicilia Aug. de civit the which if it be put into the fire swims as water and being put into water crackles as fire Among the Garamantes a people dwellidg in the middle of Lybia we read of a fountain the which in a cold night is hot and in the hot day so cold that none can endure to drink it And we read of a stone in Archadia the which being once made hot can never be cooled Certainly the fire into which the damned souls are cast Cupient mori et mors fugit ab illis and tormented is without all intermission of time or punishment They shall desire to dy and death shall she from them Rev. 9.6 Propound to thy self a bottomlesse gulfe hideous to behold in darknesse dungeon-like in torments horrible to the smell most odious breathing out
die so was it necessary he should live again 1. In regard of Gods Decree Isa 53.10 revealed in his Word promising that He should see his seed that is the Just and that He would prolong his days Peter in his Sermon on the day of Pentecost averrs That David in the 16. Psalm spake of Christ's Rising by way of prediction the knowledge whereof came unto him by Divine infusion Act. 2.31 2. It was necessary for the instruction and settlement of our Faith we being naturally prone to infidelity And that 1. Concerning the Divinity of our Saviour Christ the glory and truth whereof had not been made sufficiently apparent had he not used his power in rising again But in that he is risen he hath mightily declared himself to be the Son of God i.e. Ex afflicto ejus statu as Gal. 4.14 very God of very God Who although he was crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God 2 Cor. 13.4 If Christ be not risen saith the same Apostle 1 Cor. 15. then our preaching is in vain and in vain our faith By his Resurrection therefore we obtain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fidei a full measure of faith in this that there is no place of doubting left us but that we firmly may believe that Jesus Christ is true God for whom to be held bound in the strict chains of a powerful death is a matter of the greatest impossibility Again it was necessary for the settlement of our Faith 2. Concerning the victory Christ hath gotten over death The weaker is overcome of the stronger so that if Christ had not risen he had been weaker than Death had not been a sufficient Redeemer we had been still in our sins we could not have been perswaded God had received perfect satisfaction But being that he is revived by the same Power that giveth life unto all Death hath no longer dominion over him Gods justice is satisfied and we remain no longer in our sins Wherefore we may well in the language of triumph proclaim O death where is thy sling O grave where is thy victory And we continuing the same note may adde by the vertue of a lively faith Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 3. It was necessary for the comforting assistance of our Hope lest it should be converted into a Desperate humour Our propensity to Desperation is by woful experience too well known But inasmuch as our Saviour our Head Clarissima fidei confâ—ssio Brentius Brevis longa totaque aurea est haec Apologia saith another had a glorious Exit out of the grave and an absolute conquest over death it is forcible enough to make us hope that we his members united unto him by the indissoluble bond of the Spirit shall also rise again after death Upon this hope was that speech of Job grounded I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reins be consumed within me Job 19. Were it not for Christ's Resurrection hope herein might have failed both him and us for his is the cause of ours therefore is he stiled Primitiae dormientium The first-fruits of them that sleep 4. It was necessary for the compleat and perfect consummation of our eternal happiness For in that he was humbled to sustain great evils by dying for our freedom from all evil so was he glorified by his Resurrection for our promotion to all â—ood He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification Rom. â— ult And as it is Heb. 7.25 He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them 5. It was necessary in regard of the compleat discharge of his office of Priesthood to which he was from all eternity anointed of the Father If he had not risen again he had not performed the full duty of that calling which required that he should make satisfaction for the sins of people which he did by offering up himself an Offering and a Sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling favour upon the Cross And further that calling required also that he should apply the vertue of this Sacrifice the merit of his death to every true Believer which could not be performed without his Resurrection So that as he died to satisfie the justice of God so was it requisite he should rise from death to make to us a particular application of the vertue of his Passion by his effectual Intercession unto his Father in heaven for us upon earth Whereupon comes the Apostles Quaere and Answer Rom. 8.34 Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Thus much of the Necessity of Christ's Resurrection The second point is concerning the Ends of his Resurrection which are divers Viz. 1. In regard of himself 2. In regard of the Law 3. In regard of us In regard of himself the end of his Rising was twofold 1. To declare that he himself that Holy and Just one whom the Jews had by wicked hands crucified and slain was the Prince of life Who at his pleasure as he could give life to others so unto himself Act. 3.15 though he were brought to the lowest step of an humbled state though death held him in its hands For if at his Crucifying the shaking of the earth the rising of some dead bodies the obscuration of the Sun not hap'ning within the compass of the course of nature because not at the usual time of the conjunction of those two Planets the Sun and Moon wrested a confession out of the spectators that He was the Son of God much more may his Resurrection evict thus much that He is the Prince of life who might lay down and take up his life when he pleased And 2. That having finished and perfected the great work of our Redemption he might reign thenceforth for ever in glory â—â—n 7.14 Whose dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and whose Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed Albeit he seemed for a time to be deposed from his Royalty whilst he submitted himself to death yet it was but a short cessation that he might come off with the greater honour and so to enter into his greatest glory In regard of the Law the end of his Rising was to ratifie the truth of that Promise of life which was pass d unto man upon the performance of that Covenant passed betwixt God and man Do this and thou shalt live It could not be but that in equity Christ should live again being that he did fulfill exactly and precisely
ye use the best means by an honest vocation to acquire what may be communicated to your wives necessity And thus much for the precept commanding love As love is enjoyned so is bitternesse prohibited The obligation that women have on men in wedlock is that they are bound to good-behaviour towards them Their conversation and society must be ever sweetned with the best delights that pious souls and affectionate hearts can afford This bitternesse that is to be abandoned doth discover it self in the 1. Affections 2. Speeches 3. Actions In the affections when men grounding an advantage on trifling matters take occasion to grow exasperate and harsh to the weaker vessels which frequently ends either in a deadly hatred or in a languishing and remisse love whereas our love ought to be the same still rather more than lesse like Christs love to his Church ever nourishing and cherishing it In speeches when mens words aim at the reproach and contumely of their wives A thing repugnant to peaceful content and wounds a tender nature worse than a sword and strikes deeper into the heart than poisoned arrowes to which reproachful language is by the Psalmist compared Rather than be of another temper moderate your passions and your tongues Pleasing words best befit those lips that often greet one another with an holy kisse Good words if there be but the least spark of grace extant in the heart will make them pliable to the utmost of your desires and their loves reciprocal In action there is a discovery of bitterness And that is when men shall bear an heavy and tyrannical hand over to their wives either by removing them from their oeconomical government or subjecting them unto their vassals or withdrawing from them what their necessity pleads for or the support of their dignity requires These are symptomes of no candid dealing And yet there is a worse expression of bitterness than all this which is when men through impatience shall lay violent hands upon them But for a man to use her discourteously with blowes whom he hath selected out of all the world to be his familiar causing her to forsake all friends for his sake is flat opposite to reason to amity to nature to civility To beat her is to beat himself than which there cannot be a more unreasonable unfriendly unnatural uncivil part Beside Eve was not made of the foot of man to be troden under but of the rib of man that he might hold her as dear as himself Right dear therefore unto you ought to be your wives upon whom the principal part of your temporal felicity hath certain dependance Love your wives and be not bitter unto them And thus much for the second head the head of the woman which is the man Having thus run over the reciprocal duties of man and wife a word and but a word of the third head And the head of Christ is God God is the head of Christ in regard of his 1. Divinity 2. Humanity In regard of his Divinity and that by eternal generation because he is the generative principle of the Son according to that nature he is God of very God being consubstantial and coessential with the Father So that here is a kind of subjection whence the Arrians assume an inequality of essence whose assumption is most blasphemously untrue for here is only a subjection in regard of order which imports no inequality of nature as the woman is not inferiour unto man in nature which is the same in both but in order only by divine constitution so neither Christ to God God is the head of Christ in regard of his humanity and that foure wayes 1. In respect of perfection the perfection of God is infinite the perfection of Christ as man proceeding from the Father is finite 2. In respect of eminency so God is above Christ as man as the Creator above the creature 3. In respect of influence all the divine graces in the humane nature of Christ were originally derived from God from whom every good and perfect gift doth descend 4. In respect of government for he was anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellowes whereby with the more alacrity he did the will of him that sent him He was fill'd full with the Holy Ghost and so fulfilled all righteousness And thus much concerning these three heads the head of the woman which is man the head of man which is Christ and the head of Christ which is God THE ROYAL REMEMBRANGER OR PROMISES Put in Suit PSAL. 132.1 Lord remember David and all his afflictions AS for the Penman of this Psalme who he should be Expositors aâ—e at variance notwithstanding we may with them are soundest safely Father it on the Father or the Son David or Solomon If on David as Lyra doth the Son put the Fathers work to the Fathers use Faelicis faelix filius ille patris if on Solomon he was thereby his own Fathers Son following his steps happy father happy son David loved God 1 King 2.3 so did Solomon David had a care to instruct his son in the wayes of God Solomon loved the Lord walking in the statutes of his father A president for Kings and their sons For Kings to bring up their sons in the fear of God 1 King 3.3 for Kings sons in the fear of God to obey the King their father Few Kings and few Kings sons are now adayes of this nature happy therefore are these Kingdomes of great Britaine and Ireland that have such a King the son of such a King witnesse daily experience God grant us to make good use of it Well then whether it be David or Solomon the father or the son which was the Author of this Psalm it matters not he was a King and inspired by God yet it seemes rather to be Solomon As for the title of this Psalme it is called Shir Hamagnoloth a song of degrees There is a new song Psal 33.3 there is a song of triumph or thanksgiving for deliverance past such as Moses song after the Israelites had passed through the red sea Exod. 15. Such a song was Deborah's and Baraks after they had delivered Israel from Jabin and Sisera Judg. 5. There is a song of mourning Such a song was Davids for Saul's death 2 Sam. 1. Such a song if we may call it a song is Jeremies Lamentation There is a song of loves whereof we may read Ezek. 33.32 there is a song of joyes such was Hannah's 1 Sam. 2. Such was Elizabeth's John's Mother such was Maries the Mother of Christ such was Zacharies Luk. 1. such was the Angels to the shepheards in the field such was old Simeons Luk. 2. There is Shir Hashirim 1 King 4.32 a song of songs which is Solomons Cant 1. this is but one of a thousand and five which he composed So here is Shir Hamagnaloth a song of degrees Here are fifteen songs of degrees following one the other which are so named
because as Lyra saith that the Levites sung them on the steps or degrees whereby they went up to the Temple for indeed we read that there were such steps whereof if we beleeve Lyra there were fifteen which opinion as unlikely with Luther I passe over But it is probable that they were sung in an high place where they that were appointed to sing might be both better heard and seen As for the time when they were sung it is thought they were sung at the departure of the people out of the temple for an up-shot to their divine service therefore called songs of degrees or ascensions for songs of conclusions because short However Sine periculo bÃc erratur and therefore more fit to conclude with all If it be thus we see the antiquity of this custom of concluding with a Psalme I return to the Author as he was in office in that therefore he was a King that was the inditer of this Psalme we learn this That Rex pâ—us est reipublicae opnamento Kings and Magistrates should be godly They are to have the practice of piety Many I think have it lying by them or in their hands few indeed have it in their hearts Many would have it if they did know how this is the way yet godly wisdom the practice will follow and this is gotten by going to God Mat. 7.7 God doth give the Spirit of wisdom to such as earnestly desire it Ask and it shall be given you Solomons request to God was for wisdom and he gave it him and more than that None was than more wise then Solomon the Queen of Sheba came from the farthest bounds of the earth to hear him discourse And none was then more wealthy or in so great prosperity Prov. 3.16 Bona throni and bona scabelli because none more wise The way then to prosper is to obtain wisdom of God Length of dayes is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Again I gather from hence That Kings and Governours should not dispose the wisdom which God bestows on them to their own private ends but they must make others of the same rank their sons their subjects partakers of it as here David and Solomon did ut Regis ad exemplum that they might conforme themselves to the like godly courses Which may be a counterblast to all those bastards of the whore of Babylon that have snapped at the credit of some Princes witnesse K. James of blessed memory saying that he was more fit to be a Divine than a King Blind leaders of the blind why not both I mean not my profession In that they are filled with so great a measure of divine knowledge above others they are fitter to be Kings David was a King and a Prophet so was Solomon why should the like then be accounted a fault in others Furthermore he that is the Principal Member of Gods Church within his own dominions should be soundly grounded in Gods word and able to render an account of his faith How were it possible that he and his house with Joshuah should serve the Lord truly if he were ignorant of the points of Religion or of those things wherein he is to serve him Kings must serve God as well as others Reges ut reges saith Austin Worship him all ye gods Psal 97.7 Aug. It was Gods own command Deut. 17.18 where he setteth down what a King must do And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his Kingdom that he shall write him a Copy of this Law in a book out of that which is before the Priests the Levites And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them c. Lastly from this ariseth another observation That Kings and Governours ought to pray for divine Knowledge and Wisdom For in their Kingdoms they are Judges of Ecclesiastical and Civil matters except they wilfully give up their titles of right How can they judge righteously if they be ignorant of the matters whereof they are Judges They must scan matters over and over and sift them for it is the honour of Kings to search out a matter Be wise now therefore O ye Kings Prov. 25.2 Psal 2.10 Psal 119.104 be instructed ye Judges of the earth But how is this gotten Through thy precepts I get understanding saith David Here I limit not my self to Kings but what I say of their duty I say of all Christians for they are Kings through Christ The use then is this Revel 1.6 How far from pleasing God are such as neglect this so great a duty and so great a good that whereas they may have wisdom for the asking or whereas if by asking they obtain it they should use it to the edification of others all is neglected hence instead of pious songs such as Davids Solomons the world is filled with swarms of Pamphlets Let us therefore pray that God would teach all of us so to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome And this for Preface to what ensues The words are short and sweet being a breviary of the whole Psalm which is partly petitional non voz sed votum from this first verse to the eleventh and partly repetitional of Gods promises non votum sed vox from the eleventh verse to the end all which is sweetly compiled in these words Lord remember David and all his afflictions Two things are here recommended to Gods remembrance viz. David and his afflictions Luth. But what David Not bare David without either welt or gard not David materialiter but David formaliter saith Luther as he was godly David as unto whom God passed his word and promise that when thy dayes shall be fulfilled speaking to David by the Prophet Nathan and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowels and I will est ablish his Kingdom 2 Sam. 7. he shall build an house for my name and I will stablish the throne of his Kingdome for ever And this is it that is comprised in this verse and enlarg'd in the rest Therefore saith he remember David that is the promises made to David We can have no better exposition of Scripture than scripture 1 Kings 8.28 Solomon in another place prayes for the same Therefore now Lord God of Israel keep with thy servant David my father that thou promised'st him saying there shall not be cut off unto thee a man from my sight as the originall is to sit on the throne of Israel but on condition so that thy children take heed to their way that they walk before me as thou bast walked before me And now O God of Israel let thy word I pray thee â—e verified c. Again
Revel 1. Hence the Angels of the seven Churches are called stars fixt in Christ's right hand tanquam in firmamento as in the firmament of heaven not unlike to that star that directed the three wise men unto Christ Mat. 2. Now when these stars these Pillars of fire by the light of grace which shined in them perceived the grace which was given unto Paul When James Cephas and John who seemed to be pillars perceived the grace that was given unto me And thus I come to the ground or hand of the union the fodder that knit them together grace perceived the grace that was given unto me Grace is either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Active or Passive The active is Gods love and free grace ready to grace us The Passive Gods graces Gods gifts whereby we are graced wherewith we are glorified graced here to be glorified hereafter The first is a branch or a blossom of his goodnesse that tree of life that tree of good The last the fruit sweet as honey in the heart as the little book in the Revelation was in Saint John's mouth By that active grace God decreed mans Election Rev. 10.20 ere any thing had a being and by that active grace he doth bestow in the dispensation of the fulnesse of times the riches of his mercy heaven upon earth By it God comes to man ere man can go to God He comes to man with his preventing grace inspiring him with religious thoughts breathing into him the true breath of life and ravishing him with the desire of things supernatural out of natures compasse and sphere of activity that thus man might come to him he comes to man by his preparing grace casting his understanding and will into a new mould that thence he may become a new man wise unto salvation obedient to the death He comes to man by his operating grace God first prepares then works he first makes man capable o◠his works then works on him works in him and works of wonder actually freeing from the tyranny of sin and renewing him in the inward man the understanding will affections He comes to man by his cooperating grace As by his operating grace he moves the will to will that which is good so by this cooperating grace he makes him able to effect what the will desires to work out salvation with fear and trembling He comes unto man by his consummating grace giving him power to be constant to the end till he come to the full period Eternal glory the height of his ambition Heaven Eph. 2.5 Ye are saved by grace Thus God begins by his grace by his grace he doth finish what he hath begun Now beloved this active grace of God distinguished by the diversities of its gracious acts works in man passive grace those heavenly characters of the Deity drawn by the finger of God Some of these are common to the Reprobate with the Elect some proper only to the elect some are saving graces of the Spirit some not Some of these are called gratin gratis data others gratia gratis data gratum faciens Vocation Christian doctrine Prudence in businesses Patience in labour Fortitude in dangers the gift of Prophecy the gift of Tongues the gift of Miracles and such like are gifts of grace but not saving graces of the Spirit neither are these of any moment except God gives the earnest of the Spirit in the heart 2 Cor. 1.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I may use the Apostles phrase except they be seasoned with the grace of God I mean the saving graces which make a man acceptable in the sight of God Faith Hope Charity Faith justifies as the hand makes rich Hope maketh not ashamed Charity beareth all things 1 Cor. 13. believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things it never faileth But whether there be Prophecies they shall fail whether there be Tongues they shall cease whether there be Knowledge it shall vanish away Now all these together are like the sweet Incense in the spoons that were offered by the twelve Heads of Israel at the dedication of the Tabernacle Numb 7.86 Or like Noah's Sacrifice after the Deluge making a sweet favour in the nostrils of God Bernard S. Bernard makes mention of a threefold grace One whereby we are converted another whereby we are aided in fiery trials a third whereby after trial we are rewarded The first is initial whereby we are called the second beneficial whereby we are justified the last is final whereby we are glorified The first is Gods free grace the second is Christs merit the third the reward glory Of the first it is said Of his fulness have we all received Of the two last grace for grace as Bernard expounds it Munera gloriae aeterna merita temporalis militiae Which give me leave to interpret for my self Not for any merit of ours but for Christs merits for us The two first make way for the last the last cannot be obtained while the soul dwelleth in this prison of mortality but the two first with those I have spoken of already make up a perfect man in Jesus Christ in some measure in this life The original of these graces if we would know we must run to God Every good and perfect gift cometh from above Jam. 1. Non per naturam insita sed divinitus data they are transcendent they are given When Christ led captivity captive he gave gifts unto men He poured forth his Spirit saith Joel He gave he poured forth Ephes 1. Joel 2. that is active grace gifts unto men his Spirit that is gifts of his Spirit that is passive grace Grace is given of God by grace A blessed Giver a blessed gift The earth of our hearts brings not forth such branches of vertue but as the earth after Gods curse upon it thorns and thistles I will not here encounter with Papists concerning Free-will in both kinds of Gods graces but leave it to some other David who can better cut off Goliah's head as with the sword of the Spirit as with his own sword and beat them with their own weapons Only let me ask them one question What have we that we have not received 1 Cor. 4.7 And conclude this with that of the Psalmist Not unto us not unto us then O Lord but unto thy Name give the glory Thus we have had a sight of the riches of Gods mercy Now will I shew you the man to whom it was given by grace to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven that we may know who is he and we will call him blessed Therefore as Samuel said of King Saul I apply to our Saul here See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen It is Paul justified sanctified made gracious made glorious 1 Sam. 10. Once a Persecuter now as Saul once among the Prophets a Prophet so Saul now among the Apostles an Apostle by the