〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By good works The vulgar reads it thus and the Council of Trent cites it thus and some of ours so the text runs thus Give diligence that by good works ye may make your calling and election sure I inquire not how duly but certainly there is no cause that we should fear or dislike this reading good works are a notable confirmation to the soul of the truth of our calling and election Though Cardinal Bellarmine makes ill use of the place striving hereupon to inferre that our certitude is therefore but conjectural because it is of works For the solution whereof justly may we wonder to hear of a conjectural certitude Certainly we may as well hear of a false-truth what a plain implication is here of a palpable contradiction Those things which we conjecture at are only probable and there can be no certainty in probability Away with these blinde peradventures had our Apostle said and he knew how to speak guesse at your calling and election by good works his game here had been fair but now when he saies By good works indeavour to make your calling and election sure how clearly doth he disclaim a dubious hit I-misse-I and implies a fecible certainty And indeed what hinders the connection of this assurance Our works make good the truth of our faith our faith makes good our effectual calling our calling makes good our election therefore even by good works we make our election sure Neither can it hurt us that the Cardinal saith we hold this certainty to be before our good works not after them and therefore that is not caused by our good works We stand not nicely to distinguish how things stand in the order of nature surely this certainty is both before and after our works before in the act of our faith after in our works confirming our faith neither do we say this certainty is caused by our good works but confirmed by them neither doth this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imply alwaies a thing before uncertain as learned Chamier well but the completing and making up of a thing sure before To which also must be added that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good works must be taken in the largest latitude so as to fetch in not only the outward good offices that fall from us in the way whether of our charity justice or devotion but the very inmost inclinations and actions of the soul tending towards God our believing in him our loving of him our dreading of his infinite Majesty our mortification of our corrupt affections our joy in the holy Ghost whatsoever else may argue or make us holy These are the means by which we may and must endeavor to make our calling election sure But to let this clause passe as litigious the undoubted words of the text goe no less If ye do these things ye shall never fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these things are the vertues precedently mentioned and not falling is equivalent to ascertaining our calling and election Not to instance then and urge those many graces which are here specified I shall content my self with those three Theological vertues singled out from the rest faith hope charity for the makeing sure our calling and election For faith how clear is that of our Saviour He that believes in him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but hath passed from death to life Joh. 5.24 This is the grace by which Christ dwels in our hearts Ephes 3.17 and whereby we have communion with Christ and an assured testimony of and from him For he that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself 1 John 5.10 And what witness is that This is the record that God hath given us eternall life and this life is in his Son verse 11. He that hath the Son hath life verse 12. See what a connection here is Eternal life first this life eternal is in and by Christ Jesus this Jesus is ours by faith This Faith witnesseth to our souls our assurance of Life Eternall Our hope is next which is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thrusting out of the head to look for the performing of that which our faith apprehends and this is so sure a grace as that it is called by the name of that glory which it expecteth Colos 1.5 For the hope sake which is laid up for you in heaven that is for the glory we hope for Now both faith and hope are of a cleansing nature both agree in this Purifying their hearts by faith Act. 15.9 Every one that hath this hope purifyeth himself even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 The Devil is an unclean Spirit he foules wheresoever he comes and all sin is nasty and beastly Faith and hope like as neat huswives when they come into a foul and sluttish house cleanse all the roomes of the soul and make it a fit habitation for the Spirit of God Are our hearts lifted up then in a comfortable expectation of the performance of Gods merciful promises and are they together with our lives swept and cleansed from the wonted corruptions of our nature and pollutitions of our sin this is an undoubted evidence of our calling and election Charity is the last which comprehends our love both to God and man for from the reflection of Gods love to us there ariseth a love from us to God again The beloved Disciple can say We love him because he loved us first 1 John 4.19 And from both these resulteth our love to our brethren which is so full an evidence that our Apostle tells us we know we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 For the love of the Father is inseparable from the love of the Son he that loves him that begets loves him that is begotten of him Shortly then think not of a ladder to clâ—mbe up into heaven to search the books of God First look into your own lives those are most open we need no locks or keyes to them the Psalmist in his fifthteenth will tell you who is for that blisseful Sion are your lives innocent are your works good and holy do ye abound in the fruites of piety justice Christian compassion Let these be your first tryall it is a flat and plain word of the divine Apostle whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God 1 John 3.10 Look secondly into your own bosomes open to none but your own eyes If ye find there a true and lively faith in the Son of God by whose blood ye are cleansed from all your sins by vertue whereof ye can cry Abba Father a sure hope in Christ purifying your souls from your corruptions a true and unfained love to your God and Saviour who hath done so much for your soules so as you dare say with that fervent Apostle Lord thou knowest that I love thee and in him and for his sake a sincere love to his
to all because all will not receive it for that God calleth all and gives unto all men sufficient helps to believe if they will and goes no further and therefore that according to the prevision of our free co-working with this sufficient grace his decree determines of us is but somewhat better then Pelagian To hold that faith is so the gift of God as that he doth not only give common and sufficient helps to men whereby they are made able to believe if they will but so works in them by his grace that they do by the power thereof actually believe and conceive true faith in their soul This is fair and Orthodoxe And even to this do the Belgick opponents professe to come up in their late dogmatical writings Electionis vero quae ad gratiam est fructus c. Beneficio illorum mediorum quae per gratiam suppeditantur homo non tantum potens redditur ad credendum sed actu etiam credit fidem concipit c. Beneficio illius solius gratiae in omnibus qui credunt ea ingeneretur efficiatur Remonstr Scripta Dogm Declar. Sent. circa 1. Artic. which how fitly it holds suit with their other Tenents let it be their care to approve unto the Church of God I am sure an ingenuous constancy to this position might be a fair advantage taken for peace For the Second the question is upon what point of Mans Estate we should fasten the decree of predestination whiles the one part holds Man falne the object of this decree The other Man believeing or incredulous What reason is there this should raise so loud a strife since we do willingly wink at the rest of the differences of like nature concerning this point For there are fix several opinions about the object of predestination whiles some take it to be Man indefinitely and commonly considered Others hold it to be Man that was to be created Others Man as he was creable fallable saveable others Man created but as in his pure naturalls Others Man falne which is the most common Tenet Lastly others man as believeing or disobeying the call of God Luc. Irelcat Cal. Be Why should these two last be brought upon the Stage with so much profession of hostility whiles the other four are passed over by a willing connivency on all hands and the Authors of them whose reputation so small a mote is not thought worthy to disfigure go away with meet honour in the Church of God There is none of the four first which upon some straining may not yield harsh and unpleasing consequences and yet are let go without the mischief of a publick division I must boldly say reserving my judgment concerning this point to my self that if this supposed faith may be yielded the meer guift of God as formerly I cannot discern any so dangerous inconvenience in this branch of the opinion as should warrant the breach of the common Peace As for the order what do we brawling about our own conceits We all know there is but one most simple Act of God in this his decree wherein therefore there can be neither precedency not posteriority If we now for our understandings sake shall so express this one act of God as that whiles we vary in the explication we are confounded in our own senses what do we but fight with our own shadowes That God requires faith as necessary to Salvation is graunted of all but in what place it comes into his decree there is the doubt One part makes four distinct acts of Gods decree wherein the generall purpose of mercy to Mankind through his Son Christ Jesus to save believers and the guift of necessary means for the attaining of faith comes before the speciall decree of saving those particulars whom he foresaw would believe repent persevere and contrarily the other makes fewer decrees in a contrary order placing the decrees of particular election to life before the ordination of the means tending thereunto So as faith and perseverance issue from this speciall decree of chusing individuall persons to life Why should we be distracted in the abstractions of our own making and not rather rest silent and wondring in the acknowledgment of the simplicity of that one act of the infinitely wise God who doth Uno intuitu see Man creable created falne redeemed believeing which our shallow capacities shall in vain labour to comprehend Surely it were the better posture of our hands to have one of them laid upon our lips the other lifted up for admiration then to imploy them in buffeting each other for an invincible ignorance or misprison of that which our finite nature can never admit us to know O God what do we search or quarrell to miss those wayes of thine which are past finding out Quod aiunt contra Rem Deum ab aeterno certas quasdam personas segregasse ut eas per Christum perque fidem in ipsum salvaret non quia praevideret illas credituras sedâ—ex mera tantum gratia secundum beneplacitum suum sed hoc decretum Dei esse aeternum immutabile c. Haec descriptio ita laxa est ut etiam nostrum pedem addmittat Colloq Hag. p. 81 Remonstr vindic 1. Art That we may consider all these joyntly together that God hath set apart certain particular persons to save them by Christ and by faith in him not because he foresaw they would believe but of his meer grace only according to his good pleasure and that this decree is eternall and unchangeable is agreed on by both sides This description the Belgick Opponents grant to be so wide a shooe that it will serve their foot also Sed si personas certas vel singulares intelligant tanquam singulares ac perinde extra Christum fidem consideratas id vero pernegamus Rem ibid. p. 83. Contra Rem Neque nos unquam diximus singulares illas personas quas Deus ab aeterno elegit plane extra Christum fidem esse consider and as ut qui semper rotunde professi sumus merita Christi fidem in ipsum in electione ista singularium personarum adeo spectari haberi pro mediis quibus eos Deus statuit ad salutem perducere Colloq Hag. contra Rem pag. 140. And why then should either part seek or care for any other Last Surely a Christian needs not either search or know any more Now comes in a Scholasticall quirke to trouble the peace of Mens hearts and brains Whether God have set apart these certain singular persons as persons singular without all respects to any other considerations or whether his decree lookt at them as invested with those qualities which he meant to give and foresees as given Doubtless to make Men capable of Salvation there is faith repentance good works perseverance in good actually required of God But these necessary dispositions are ranged under the execution of Gods decree These he requires these he gives these he
lesse transmitted to Constantinople Set those aside and what holinesse can Tiber challenge above Rhene or Thames Let fooles be mocked with these fancies but you whom God hath indued with singular judgment and understanding in all things will easily resent the fraud and see that there is no more reason why the English Church should conform in opinion to the Romish were the Doctrines equally indifferent then the Roman Church to the English They are but the several limms of one large and universal body and if in respect of outward order there have been or may be acknowledged a precedency yet in regard of the main substance of truth we cannot admit of any dependance on any Church under Heaven Here that which is the purer from Error and corruption must take the wall maugre all the loud throats of acclaming parasites yea so far must we needs be from pinning our faith upon the sleeve of Rome as that we cannot without violence offered to our own consciences but see and say that there is no particular Church on Earth so branded by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures as Rome In so much as the best abbettors and dearest fautors of that See are glad to plead that Rome is St. Peters and St. Johns Babylon we blesse God for standing on our own feet and those feet of ours stand upon the infallible grounds of the Prophets and Apostles of Primitive Creeds Councels Fathers and therefore we can no more deceive you then they can deceive us The censure that the enemies of our Church cast upon it is not untruth but defect they dare not but grant what we say is true but they blame us for not saying all is true which they say now that which we say was enough to serve those antient Christians which lived before those lately devised additions the refusal whereof is made haynous and deadly to us how safe how happy is this erring Let my soul be with those blessed Martyrs Confessors Fathers Christians which never lived to hear of those new Articles of the new Roman faith and I dare say you will not wish yours any other where there can be no danger in old truths there can be nothing but danger in new obtrusions But I finde how apt my pen is to over-run the bounds of a letter my zeal of your safety carries me into this length the errors into which these seducers would lead you are deadly especially upon a revolt your very ingenuity I hope besides grace will suggest better things to you Hold that which you have that no man take your crown My Soul for yours you go right so sure as there is a heaven this way will lead you thither go on confidently and cheerfully in it let me never be happy if you be not you will pardon my holy importunity which shall be ever seconded with my hearty prayers to the God of truth that he will stablish your heart in that eternal truth of his Gospel which you have received and both work and crown your happy perseverance such shall be the fervent apprecations of Your much devoted Friend Jos Exon. RESOLUTIONS FOR RELIGION WHereas there are many loud quarrels and brabbles about matter of Religion this is my firme and steadfast Resolution wherein I finde peace with God and my own Soul as being undoubtedly certain in it self and holily charitable to others and that in which I constantly purpose God willing as to Live so to Dye 1. I do believe and know that there is but one way to Heaven even the True and Living way Jesus Christ God and Man the Saviour of the World 2. I believe and know that this way however it is a narrow and straight way in respect of the World yet hath much Latitude in it self So as those that truely believe in this Son of God their Saviour though they may be mis-led into many by-pathes of small errors yet by the mercy of God are acknowledged not to be out of the main high way to eternal life 3. I believe and know that the Canonical Scriptures of God are the true and unfailing Rule of our Faith so as whatsoever is therein contain'd is the infallible Truth of God and whatsoever is necessary to be believed to eternal Salvation is therein expresly or by clear and undoubted consequence contein'd and so set forth as it neither needeth farther explication nor admits of any probable Contradiction 4. I believe and know that God hath ever since the creation of Mankinde had a Church upon Earth and so shall have to the end of the World which is a Society or Communion of Faithful men professing his Name against which the gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail for the failing thereof 5. I believe and know that the consenting voice of the successions and present universality of faithful Men in all times and places is worthy of great authority both for our Confirmation in all truths and for our direction in all the circumstantial points of Gods service so as it cannot be opposed or sever'd from without just offence to God 6. I believe and know that besides those necessary truths contain'd in the Holy Scriptures and Seconded by the Consent and Profession of all Gods faithful ones there may be and ever have been certain collateral and not-mainly importing verities wherein it is not unlawful for several particular Churches to maintain their own Tenets and to dissent from other and the several members of those particular Churches are bound so far to tender the common Peace as not to oppose such publiquely received truths 7. I do confidently believe that if all the particular Churches through the whole Christian World should meet together and determine these secondary and unimporting truthes to be believed upon necessity of Salvation and shall enact Damnation to all those which shall deny their assent thereunto they should go beyond the Commission which God hath given them and do an act which God hath never undertaken to warrant Since there can be no new Principles of Christian Religion however there may be an application of some formerly received Divine truthes to some emergent occasions and a clearer explication of some obscure verities 8. I do confidently believe that God hath never confin'd the determination of his will in all questions and matters pertaining to Salvation or whatsoever controversies of Religion to the breast of any one Man or to a particular Church or to a correspondence of some particular Churches so as they shall not possibly err in their Definitions and Decrees 9. I do confidently believe that the Church of Rome comprehending both the head and those her adherents and dependance being but particular Churches have highly offended God in arrogating to themselves the priviledg of infallibility which was never given them and in ordaining new Articles of faith and excluding from the bosome of Gods Church and the Gates of Heaven all those which differ from her in the refusal of her late bred
who finding an answerable acceptance disposed himself to the place So as we two who came together to the University now must leave it at once Having then fixed my foot at Halsted I found there a dangerous Opposite to the Success of my Ministry a witty and bold Atheist one Mr. Lilly who by reason of his Travails and Abilities of Discourse and Behaviour had so deeply insinuated himself into my Patron Sir Robert Drury that there was small hopes during his entireness for me to work any good upon that Noble Patron of mine who by the suggestion of this wicked Detractor was set off from me before he knew me Hereupon I confess finding the obduredness and hopeless condition of that man I bent my prayers against him beseeching God daily that he would be pleased to remove by some means or other that apparent hindrance of my faithful Labours who gave me an answer accordingly For this malicious man going hastily up to London to exasperate my Patron against me was then and there swept away by the Pestilence and never returned to do any farther Mischief Now the coast was clear before me and I gained every day of the good Opinion and favourable respects of that Honourable Gentleman and my worthy Neighbours Being now therefore setled in that sweet and civil Country of Suffolk near to S. Edmunds-Bury my first work was to build up my house which was then extreamly ruinous which done the uncouth Solitariness of my life and the extream incommodity of that single House-keeping drew my thoughts after two years to condescend to the necessity of a Married estate which God no less strangely provided for me For walking from the Church on Monday in the Whitson-week with a Grave and Reverend Minister Mr. Grandidg I saw a comely and modest Gentlewoman standing at the Door of that house where we were invited to a wedding-dinner and enquiring of that worthy Friend whether he knew her Yes quoth he I know her well and have bespoken her for your wife when I further demanded an account of that Answer he told me she was the Daughter of a Gentleman whom he much respected Mr. George Winniff of Bretenham that out of an opinion had of the fitness of that Match for me he had already treated with her Father about it whom he found very apt to entertain it advising me not to neglect the opportunity and not concealing the just praises of the Modesty Piety good Disposition and other Vertues that were lodged in that seemly Presence I listned to the motion as sent from God and at last upon due prosecution happily prevailed enjoying the comfortable Society of that meet Help for the space of fourty nine years I had not passed two years in this estate when my Noble Friend Sir Edmund Bacon with whom I had much intireness came to me and earnestly sollicited me for my Company in a Journey by him projected to the Spa in Ardenna laying before me the Safety the Easiness the Pleasure and the Benefit of that small Extravagance if opportunity were taken of that time when the Earl of Hertford passed in Embassy to the Arch-Duke Albert of Bruxells I soon yielded as for the reasons by him urged so especially for the great desire I had to inform my self ocularly of the State and practise of the Romish Church the knowledge whereof might be of no small use to me in my Holy Station Having therefore taken careful order for the Supply of my Charge with the Assent and good allowance of my neerest Friends I entred into this secret Voyage we waited some dayes at Harwich for a winde which we hoped might waft us over to Dunkerk where our Ambassador had lately landed but at last having spent a Day and half a night at Sea we were forced for want of favour from the wind to put in at Quinborow from whence coasting over the Rich and pleasant Country of Kent we renewed our shipping at Dover and soon landing at Calais we passed after two dayes by Wagon to the strong Towns of Graveling and Dunkerk where I could not but finde much horâ—or in my self to pass under those dark and dreadfull prisons were so many brave Englishmen had breathed out their Souls in a miserable Captivity From thence we passed through Winnoxberg Ipre Gaunt Courtray to Bruxells where the Ambassador had newly sate down before us That Noble Gentleman in whose Company I travelled was welcomed with many kind Visitations amongst the rest there came to him an English Gentleman who having run himself out of breath in the Inns of Court had forsaken his Country and therewith his Religion and was turned both Bigot and Physitian residing now in Bruxels This man after few interchanges of Complement with Sir Edmund Bacon fell into a Hyperbolical predication of the vvonderful miracles done nevvly by our Lady at Zichem or Sherpen heavell that is Sharp hill by Lipsius Apricollis the credit vvhereof vvhen that vvorthy Knight vvittily questioned he avovved a particular miracle of cure vvrought by her upon himself I coming into the room in the midst of this Discourse habited not like a Divine but in such colour and fashion as might best secure my travel and hearing my Country-mans zealous and confident Relations at last askt him this question Sir Quoth I put case this report of yours be granted for true I beseech you teach me what difference there is betwixt these miracles which you say are wrought by this Lady and those which were wrought by Vespasian by some Vestalls by Charmes and Spells the rather for that I have noted in the late published report of these miracles some Patients prescribed to come upon a Friday some to wash in such a well before their approach and divers other such Charm-like observations The Gentleman not expecting such a question from me answered Sir I do not profess this kind of Scholarship but we have in the City many famous Divines with whom if it would please you to conferr you might sooner recieve satisfaction I askt him whom he took for the most eminent Divine of that place he named to me Father Costerus undertaking that he would be very glad to give me conference if I would be pleased to come up to the Jesuites Colledge I willingly yielded In the afternoon the forward Gentleman prevented his time to attend me to the Father as he styled him who as he said was ready to entertain me with a meeting I went alone up with him the Porter shutting the Door after me welcomed me with a Deo gratias I had not stay'd long in the Jesuites Hall before Costerus came in to me who after a friendly Salutation fell into a formall speech of the unity of that Church out of which is no Salvation and had proceeded to leese his Breath and labour had not I as civilly as I might interrupted him with this short Answer Sir I beseech you mistake me not My Nation tells you of what Religion I am I come not
of Divine knowledg or holinesse ever brake forth upon any Saint or Angel but from his blessed irradation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justly therefore is he Pater luminum the Father of Lights and as the child oft-times resembles the Father this quality the Light hath from God that it is wondrously diffusive of it self reaching forth it self largely in very quick and instantanie motions to all those things which are capable of it Other Creatures though beneficiall yet impart themselves more sparingly unto us The Earth yields us fruit but it is onely perhaps once a year and that not without much cost and angariation requiring both our labour and patience The Clouds do sometimes drop fatnesse but at great uncertainties other whiles they pour down famine upon our heads the Sea yields us commodities both of passage and sustenance but not without inconstancy and delaies and oft-times takes more in an hour then it gives in an age his favours are locall his threats universall But the Light is bountifull in bestowing it self freely with a clear safe unlimited largesse upon all Creatures at once indifferently incessantly beneficially The reflection of this quality upon us should be our diffusivenesse That we should so be lights as that we should give light so have light in our selves that we should give it unto others The Prophet Daniel who was a great Philosopher Astronomer in his time tells us of a double shining or light The one as of the Firmament the other as of the Stars The one a generall Light dispersed through the whole or body of the Skie the other a particular one compacted into the bodies of those starry globes which are wont to be called the more solid piece of their Orbe Thus it is in the Analogy of the spirituall light There is a generall Light common to Gods Children whereof our Saviour Let your Light shine so before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in Heaven Thus the great Doctour of the Gentiles exhorts his Philipians Philip. 2.15 that they be blameless and harmelesse the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation among whom saith he ye shine as lights in the world There is a particular light propper to severall vocations especially those that are publick and encharged with the care of others whether spirituall or civill Of the one you know what our Saviour said in the Mount Vos estis lux mundi of the other you know what God said in Davids case I have ordained a Lampe for mine Anointed Ps 132.17 that is a glorious successour To begin with the latter Princes and Governours are and must be Lights by an eminence for God is Light and he hath called them Elohim Exod. 22.28 Gods So as they must imitate God in shining to the World sending forth the rayes both of good example and of Justice and Judgment into the eyes of their People An ordinary Star-light is not enough for them they are the Vice-gerents of him who is Sol jâ—stitiae Malac. 4.2 the Sun of Righteousnesse they must fill the world therefore with their glorious beams and give so much more light as their Orbe is higher and their Globe more capacious And blessed be God what beams of light our Sun sends forth of Temperance Chastity Piety Mercy and Justice let Malice it self say let even Rebellion it self witness Now if he be the Sun you great ones are our Stars as you receive your Light from him the light of your honour and good example so whilst you keep the one of them to your selves so you must communicate the other to your inferiours And if in presence his light dim or extinguish yours yet the World affords you darkness enough abroad to shine in Oh shine you clearly in the dark night of this evill World that the beholders may see and magnify your brightness and may say of one there is a Mars of truly heroical courage there is the Mercury of sound wisdom and learning there the Jupiter of exemplary honour and magnificence there the Phosphorus of Piety and ante-lucan devotion and may be accordingly sensible of beneficiall influences to your Country Far be it from any of you to be a fatall Sirius or Dog-star which when he rises yields perhaps a little needless light but withall burns up the Earth and inflames the ayr puts the World in a miserable combustion Far be it from you to be dismall and direfull comets that portend nothing but horrour and death to the earth or if your light be of a lower accension far far be it from you to be any of those ignes fatui that do at once affright and seduce the poor travailer and carry him by leud guidance into a ditch Such such alas there are give me leave to complain where can I do it better then at a Court the professed Academy of honour That a strange kind of loose debauchednesse hath possessed too many of the young Gallants of our time I fear I may take in both sexes with whom modesty civility temperance sobriety are quite out of fashion as if they had been sutes of their Grandsires wardrobe As for Piety and Godliness they are so laid by as if they were the cast rags of a despised frippery He is no brave Spirit with too many that bids not defiance to good orders that revells not without care spends not withour measure talks not without grace lives not without God Wo is me is this the fruit of so long and clear a Light of the Gospel Is this to have fellowship with the Divine Light Now the God of Heaven be mercifull to that Wild and Atheous licenciousnes wherewith the World is so miserably over-run and strike our hearts with a true sence of our grievous provocations of his name that our serious humiliations may fore-lay his too-well-deserved judgments In the mean time if there should be any one such amongst you that hear me this Day as commonly they will be sure to be farthest off from good counsell let Wise Solomon School him for me Rejoyce O Young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee up in the dayes of thy Youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment And let me add this if he be not for the light he shall be for the fire for the same Spirit of God which tells him here that God is Light tells him elsewhere which he shall once feel though he will not believe that our God is a consuming fire Now in the second place for us of the holy Tribe we are stars too And if not Stars Revel 1.16 Yet Candles Matth. 5.13 However Lights we must be and that both in Life and Doctrine If the first there are stars of severall magnitudes some goodly and great ones that move in Orbes of their own
others small and scarce visible in the Galaxy of the Church but all are Stars and no Star is without some light If but the Second there are large Tapers and Rush-candles one gives a greater light then the other but all give some Never let them go for either Stars or Candles that neither have nor give light And wo is me if the Light that is in us be darkness how great how dangerous is that darknesse Blessed be God we have a learned able and flourishing Clergy as ever this Church had or I think I may boldly say any other since the Gospel look't forth into the World there have not been clearer Lamps in Gods Sanctuary since their first lighting then our dayes have seen yet why should we stick to confesse that which can neither be concealed nor denyed that there are some amongst so many whose wicke is too much for their Oyle yea rather whose snuffe is more then their Light I mean whose offensive lives shame their holy Doctrines and reproach the Glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ these as we lament so we desire to have top't by just censures but hear you my worthy brethren do not you where you see a thiefe in the Candle call presently for an extinguisher for personal faults do not you condemn an holy calling Oh be you wisely charitable and let us be exemplarily holy Lastly for you Christian hearers think not that this Light may be put off to publick and eminent persons only Each of you must shine too at the least tanquam faces Philip. 2. If they be as Cities up-an Hill the meanest of you must be as Cottages in a Vally though not high-built yet wind-tight and water tight If they be Beacons you must be Lanterns every one must both have a light of his own and impart it to others It is not a charge appropriated to publick Teachers that the Apostle gives to his Hebrewes Exhort one another dayly while it is called to day least any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3.13 Even the privatest person may shine forth in good counsell he that is most obscure may and must do good works in his place and improve his graces to others good These these my beloved are the light which we must both have and give not to have were to have no fellowship with God to have and not to give it were to ingrosse and monopolize grace which God cannot abide Hath any of you Knowledge Let him communicate it and light others Candle at his Hath any man worldly riches let him not be Condus but Promus to do good and distribute forget not Hath any man Zeal Zeal I say not fury not frenzy let him not glow only but shine let him say with Jehu Come see my Zeal for the Lord Hath any man true piety and devotion let him like a flaming brand enkindle the next thus thus shall we approve our selves the Sons of that infinite and communicative Light thus shall we so have fellowship with the God who is Light that shining like him and from him here in Grace we may shine with him hereafter above in everlasting glory which the same God grant to us for the sake of the Son of his love Jesus Christ the righteous to whom with thee O God the Father and thy blessed Spirit one infinite and incomprehensible Lord be given all praise honour and glory now and for ever Amen A SERMON Preacht in the Cathedral at EXCETER UPON The solemn Day appointed for the CELEBRATION OR THE PACIFICATION Betwixt the Two KINGDOMS Viz. Septemb. 7. 1641. By JOS. EXON PSAL. 46.8 Come behold the Works of the Lord what Desolations He hath made in the Earth He maketh warrs to cease unto the ends of the Earih c. IT was doubtless upon the happy end of some warr and the renovation of an established peace that this gratulatory Psalme was penned and therefore fits well with our occasion My text then is an earnest invitation to a serious and thankfull consideration of the great works of God in his contrary proceedings with men Desolations of warr and restaurations of Peace we are called first to a generall survay of Gods wonderfull works and then to a speciall view of the works of his justice first what desolation he hath made upon Earth then of his mercy in composing all the busie broils of the World He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the Earth These must be the subject both of our eyes and of my tongue and your ears at this time We must then behold the works of the Lord but that we may behold them we must come and that we may both come and behold them we are invited to both Come and behold We are naturally full of distractions ready to mind any thing but what we should unless we be called we shall not come and unlesse we come and behold we shall behold to no purpose that which our Saviour saith of Martha is the common case of us all we are troubled about many things One is carking about his household affaires another is busying his thoughts with his law-suits another is racking his mind with ambitious projects another is studying which way to be revenged of his enemy and some other perhaps rather then want work will be troubling themselves with matters of State or other mens affaires that concern them not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 busie Bishops in other mens diocess we had need to be call'd off from these vain unmeet avocations ere we offer to behold the works of God else it will fall out with us as it doth ordinarily with our bodily sight that whiles we have many objects in our eye we see nothing distinctly at all Away therefore with all the distractive yea divulsive thoughts of the World and let us Come and behold the works of the Lord as the Vulgar hath it in the next verse vacate videte Come then from thy counting house thou from thy shop-board thou from thy study thou from thy barr thou from the field and behold the works of the Lord. Indeed how can we look beside them What is there that he hath not done What thing is it that he hath not created or what event can befall any of his Creatures which he hath not contrived Or what act can fall from any Creature of his wherein he is not interested So as unlesse we will wilfully shut our eyes we cannot but behold the works of the Lord But there is more in this charge then so as these works are not meant of the ordinary occurrents so it is not a mere sight that is here called for but a serious and fixed contemplation It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I remember Beza distinguishes upon an other occasion a bending of our eyes upon this holy object Solomon the Son interprets his Father David Eccles 7.13 Consider the work
sure having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his The Lord knoweth and none but he neither Man nor Angel It is sealed on purpose that it may be concealed and reserved only in the counsel of the most High It is therefore a most high and dangerous presumption in any man to passe a judgment upon the final estate of another especially to the worse part This is no other then to rush into the Closet of the Highest and to break open his cabinet and to tear up the privy Seal of Heaven an insolence that God will not passe over unrevenged It was a good answer that the Servant gave in the story who carrying a covered dish through the Street and being asked what it was answered It is therefore covered that thou mayest not know and so it is here the final estate of every Soul is sealed that it may be known only to the God of Heaven and if any man dare to pry into this Ark of God with the men of Bethshemesh let him fear to be struck dead as they were 1 Sam. 6. The Romanists have taken too much boldnesse this way there is one of their Saints St. Matilda or St. Maude a Prophetesse of theirs which in her Revelations professeth that she would needs know of God what became of the Souls of four men Sampson Solomon whom I must tell you the greatest part of the Romish Doctors give out for a cast away very injuriously and uncharitably since that besides his being a type of Christ and a pen-man of some part of holy Scripture his Ecclesiastes is a plain publication to all the World of his penance for his former miscarriages Origen and Trajane and received this answer What my pitty hath done with Sampson I will not have known that men may not be incouraged to take revenge on their enemies what my mercy hath done with Solomon I will not have known lest men should take too much liberty to carnal sins What my bounty hath done with Origen I would not have known lest men should put too much confidence in their knowledg What my liberality hath done with Trajan I would not have known for the advancement of the Catholick faith lest men should sleight the Sacrament of Baptism a presumptious question and an answer answerable So they have not stuck to tell us that the same day that their St. Thomas Becket dyed there dyed in all the World three thousand thirty and three whereof 3000. went to Hell thirty to Purgatory and three whereof their Saint was one to Heaven sure I think much alike I will not weary you with their frenzies of this kind they have bragg'd of some of their Saints who have had this deep insight into the hearts of men and counsels of God that they could tell by the view who should be saved who condemned and some fanatick Spirits in our Church have gone so farr as to take upon them as some vain Palmesters by the sight of the hand to judge of fortunes by the face and words and garbe and carriage of men to passe sentence of reprobation upon other mens souls what an horrible insolence is this in any creature under Heaven or in it There may be perhaps grounds to judg of a mans present condition God doth not call any man to stupidity or unreasonablenesse If I see a man live debauchedly in drunkennesse in whoring in professed profanesse If I hear him in his ordinary speeches to tear Gods name in pieces with oaths and bsasphemies I may safely say that man is in a damnable condition and must demean my self to him accordingly forbearing an entire conversation with him with such a one eat not saith the Apostle but if I shall presume to judg of his finall estate I may incur my own condemnation in pronouncing his Judg not that ye be not judged Perhaps that man whom thou sentencest is in the secret counsel of God sealed to life and shall go before thee to Heaven who that had seen Manasses revelling in his Idolatry Magick Murder worshiping all the hoast of Heaven polluting the house of God with his abominable altars using sorceries and inchantments filling the streets of Jerusalem with innocent blood 2 Kings 21. would not have said there is a cast-away Yet howsoever the history of the Kings leaves him in his sin and dishonor yet in the 2 Chron. 33. You find his conversion his acceptation his prayer and how God was entreated of him vers 19. So as for ought we know he lived a Devil and dyed a Saint Who that had seen and heard Soul breathing out threatnings and executing his bloody cruelties upon the Church of God dragging poor Christians to their judgments and executions would not have given him for a man branded for hell yet behold him a chosen vessel the most glorious instrument of Gods name that hath been since Christ left the earth as thou lovest thy Soul therefore meddle not with Gods seal leave that to himself Thou mayest read the superscription of a man if thou wilt and judge of his outside but take heed of going deeper look well to the seal that God hath set upon thine own soul look for that new name which none can read but he that hath it this is worth thine enquiry into and God hath given thee the Characters whereby to decipher it whom he did predestinate them also he called and whom he called them also he justifyed and whom he justified them also he glorified that is they are as sure to be glorified as if they were glorified already Rom. 8.30 Read thine own name in the book of life and thou art happy as for others let thy rule be the judgment of charity and let Gods seal alone Secret things belong to God and things revealed to us and our children but if thou wilt needs be searching into Gods counsel remember that of Solomon as the Vulgar reads it Prov. 25.27 Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur a gloria He that pries into Majesty shall be overwhelmed with glory Now that from the Secrecy we may descend to the Peculiarity of Designation You know it in common practise in your trades and merchandise that when a man hath bought a parcel of commodities he sets his marke upon them to distinguish them from the rest in the warehouse so doth our God he sets a mark upon his own whereby they are plainly differenced from others And this mark besides the stampe of his eternal decree is true sanctification By this then it is that we are known from the World As upon some large plain where there are severall flocks and heards feeding together every one knows his own by his mark So the man with the writers inkhorne set a mark upon those which mourned for their own sins and the sins of their people Ezek. 9. It is therefore so farr from truth that our sanctification is no certain proof of our son-ship and of our interest in the covenant of grace as that there is no other
so much as give an occasion to an adversary 1 Tim. 5.14 wether of calumny or of Triumph oh that we could be fearful of doing any unfit thing because of the evil Angels we shall be sure to hear of it again to our cost even the most carelesse boyes will be affraid to offend in the face of the monitor such are the evill Angels to us Be sure every unbeseeming and unlawfull act that passeth from us is upon their file and shall once be urged against us to our shame and conviction My Brethren we would be loath to come under the power of their torment as we would avoid this fearfull issue let us be jealous of their suggestions and our carriage and not dare to do ought that may be scandalous Because of the Angels Good use may be made you see even of this sense but I take it our Apostle intended here to intimate the presence of and respect to the good Angels It is no a lesse comfortable then well-grounded point of Divinity That none of Gods Children upon Earth want the assidence and Ministration of those blessed spirits we have it from him that cannot fail us Matth. 18.10 and the sweet singer of Israel had warbled out this Heavenly note before him The Angels of the Lord encamp about those that fear him Ps 34.7 And he that was rapt up into the third Heaven and saw those wonderfull Orders of Angels can tell us they are all ministring Spirits sent forth to Minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation Heb. 1.14 Now these as they guard and attend every of Gods elect ones when they are singled and sequestred in the greatest solitariness so we can not think they leave their whether common or severall charges when they assemble together for the exercises of piety and devotion so as the publique meetings of Gods Saints can be no other then filled with whole troupes of Angels This as it is a truth so it was the received opinion of the Jewes as Capellus pregnantly cites it out of the Sedar Tephilloth of the Portugall Jewes in his learned Spicelegium Coronam dant tibi Domine Deus noster Angeli turba illa superna cum populo tuo Israel hic inferne Congregato O Lord our God the Angels give glory to thee even those Heavenly troupes that are assembled with thy Israel here below Out of the reverend and awfull respect therefore that is due to these glorious though invisible beholders there may no unseemly thing be done or admitted in the Church of God and therefore The Women ought to have power on their Heads because of the Angels and surely my beloved were we fully perswaded that now at this present there is within these walls a greater Congregation of Angels then of Men and Women I suppose it could not but strike such an awe into us as to make us at once holily mannerly and fervently devout It is a great fault in us Christians that we think of nothing but what we see whereas that spirituall and intelligible World which is past the apprehension of these Earthly senses is far greater farr more noble and excellent then all visible and materiall substances Certainly there is not one Angel in Heaven that hath not more glory then all this sensible World can be capable of what should I tell you of the excellency of their nature the height of their offices the Majesty of their persons their power able to confound a World their nearness both of place and of essence to that infinite deity their tender love and care of man-kind any of which were able and worthy to take up a whole lives meditation And if there be so much perfection in one how unconceiveable is the concurrent lustre and glory of many had we eyes to see these invisible supervisors of our behaviour we could not we durst no let fall any so much as indecent gesture before such a presence Quicken then I beseech you and sharpen your eyes dear and beloved Christians to see your selves seen even of them whom ye cannot see and let your whole carriage be thereafter he is not worthy to claim more priveledge then of a beast that can see nothing but sensible objects brute Creatures can see us if we see nothing but our selves and then wherefore serves our understanding wherefore our faith and if we see invisible beholders why are we not affected accordingly certainly it were better for us not to see then than seeing to neglect their presence What is then the honor what the respect that we must give to the Angels of God who are present in our holy assemblies I must have leave to complain of two extremities this way There are some that give them too much veneration there are others that give them no regard at all In the first are those within the Roman Clientele who are so over-curteous as that they give them no lesse then the honor of adoration of invocation reviving herein the erroneous opinion and practise of them which Theodoret held confuted by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Colossians It is the praise that Franciscus de Sales Bishop of Genua gives to Petrus Faber one of the first associates of Ignatius Loiola that his manner was whensoever he came to any place he still made suit to the Tutelar Angels that presided there for their aid of converting the people from heresie and found great successe in it This imploration and worship is ordinary wherein they do that to the Angels which the Angels themselves have forbidden to be done and yet I must needs say if any creature could be capable of a religious worship it is they and if any creature were fit to be prayed unto it is they rather then the highest Saints of Heaven for whereas it is the just ground of our refusing to pray to the Saints that we cannot be sure of their presence and notice sure rather of the contrary and therefore cannot pray in faith that ground is here justly removed we are sure that the Angels of God are present with us we are sure that they hear us pray but this is an honor reserved as peculiar to the God of Angels and to that one mediator betwixt God and man Jesus Christ those Spirits hate to be made rivals to their maker neither have we learned that unreasonable modesty to sue to wayters when we are called up to supplicate the King The other extreme is of carelesse christians that do no more think of Angels then if there were none suffering their bodily eyes to be taken up with the sight of their assembled neighbours but never raising their spirituall eyes to behold those spiritual essences which are no lesse present and certainly I fear we are all much to blame this way and may justly tax our selves of an unthankful dull irreligious neglect of these glorious Spirits I finde that the Mahometan Preists in their Morning and Evening prayer still end their devotion with Macree Kichoon Be
both 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath sealed us Lo the promise was past before vers 20. and then yet more confirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 21. and now past under seale 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 22. Yea but the present possession is yet more and that is given us in part by our received earnest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earnest is a binder wherefore is it given but by a little to assure all In our transactions with Men when we have an honest Mans word for a bargain we think it safe but when his hand and seale infallible but when we have part in hand already the contract is past and now we hold our selves stated in the commodity what ever it be And have we the promise hand seale earnest of Gods Spirit and not see it not feel it not know it Shortly whom will we believe if not God and our selves No Man knowes what is in Man but the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Man that is in him as St. Paul to his Corinthians Ye have heard Gods Spirit hear our own out of our own mouth Doth not every Christian say I believe in God c. I believe in Jesus Christ I believe in the holy Ghost I believe the Communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins and life Everlasting And doth he say he believes when he believes not or when he knows not whether he believe or no what a mockery were this of our Christian profession Or as the Jesuitical evasion commonly is is this only meant of an assent to these general truthes that there is a God a Saviour a sanctifyer Saints remission salvation not a special application of these several articles to the soul of him whose tongue professeth it Surely then the devil might say the creed no less confidently then the greatest Saint upon Earth There is no Devil in hel but believes not without regret that there is a God that made the World a Saviour that redeemed it a blessed Spirit that renewes it a remission of sins an eternal Salvation to those that are thus redeemed and regenerate and if in the profession of our faith we go no further then Devils how is this Symbolum Christianorum To what purpose do we say our creed But if we know that we believe for the present how know we what we shall do what may not alter in time we know our own frailty and ficklenesse what hold is there of us weak wretches what assurance for the future Surely on our part none at all If we be left never so little to our selves we are gone on Gods part enough there is a double hand mutually imployed in our hold-fast Gods and ours we lay hand on God God laies hand on us if our feeble hand fail him yet his gracious and omnipotent hand will not fail us even when we are lost in our selves yet in him we are safe he hath graciously said and will make it good I will not leave thee nor forsake thee The seed of God saith the beloved disciple Joh. 3. remaines in him that is born of God so as he cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trade in sin as an unregenerate not lose himself in sinning so as contrary to Card. Bellarmines desperate Logick even an act of infidelity cannot marr his habit of faith and though he be in himself and in his sin guilty of death yet through the mercy of his God he is preserved from being swallowed up of death whiles he hath the seed of God he is the Son of God and the seed of God remaines in him alwayes That of the great Doctor of the Gentiles is sweet and cordiall and in stead of all to this purpose Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I am fully perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ â—esus our Lord. Rom. 8.39 O divine oratory of the great Apostle Oh the heavenly and irrefragable Logick of Gods Pen-man it is the very question that we have now in hand which he there discusses and falls upon this happy conclusion That nothing can separate Gods elect from his everlasting love he proves it by induction of the most powerfull agents and triumphes in the impoâ—ence and imprevalency of them all and whiles he names the principalities and powers of darkness what doth he but imply those sins also by which they work And this he saies not for himself only least any with Pererius and some other Jesuites should harp upon a particular Revelation but who shall separate us he takes us in with him and if he seem to pitch upon his own person in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the subject of this perswasion reacheth to all true believers That nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Us not as it is over-stretched by Bellarmine and Vasquez indefinitely for those that predestinate in generall but with an implyed application of it to himself and the believing Christians to whom he wrote The place is so clear and full that all the miserable and strained Evasions of the Jesuiticall gainsayers cannot elude it but that it will carry any free and unprejudiced heart along with it and evince this comfortable truth That as for the present so for the future we may attain to be safe for our spirituall condition What speak I of a safety that may be when the true believer is saved already already past from death to Life already therefore over the threshold of Heaven Shortly then our faith may make our calling sure our calling may make sure our election and we may therefore confidently build upon this truth that our calling and election may be made sure Now many things may be done that yet need not yea that ought not to be done This both ought and must be indeavored for the necessity and benefit of it This charge here as it implies the possibility so it signifies the convenience use profit necessity of this assecuration for sure if it were not beneficiall to us it would never be thus forceably urged upon us And certainly there needs no great proof of this For nature and our self-love grounded thereupon easily invites us to the indeavour of feoffing our selves in any thing that is good this being then the highest good that the Soul of Man can be possibly capable of to be ascertained of Salvation it will soon follow that since it may be done we shall resolve it ought it must be indeavored to be done Indifferent things and such as without which we may well subsist are left arbitrary to us but those things wherein our spirituall well-being consisteth must be mainly laboured for neither can any contention be too much to attain them such is this we have
children as such Not as men not as witty wise noble rich bountiful useful but as Christians showing it self in all real expressions These these are excellent and irrefragable proofs and evictions of your calling and election Seek for these in your hearts and hands and seek for them till ye finde them and when ye have found them make much of them as the invaluable favours of God and labour for a continual increase of them and a growth in this heavenly assurance by them What need I urge any motives to stir up your Christian care and diligence Do but look first behinde you see but how much pretious time we have already lost how have we loitered hitherto in our great work Bernards question is fit still to be asked by us of our souls Bernarde ad quid venisti Wherefore are we here upon earth To pamper our Gut To tend our hide To wallow in all voluptuous courses To scrape up the pelf of the World As if the only end of our being were carnal pleasure wordly profit Oh base and unworthy thoughts What do we with reason if we be thus prostituted It is for beasts which have no soul to be all for sense For us that have ratiocination and pretend grace we know we are here but in a thorowfare to another world and all the main task we have to do here in this life is to provide for a better Oh then let us recollect our selves at the last and redeem the time and over-looking this vain and worthless World bend all our best indeavours to make sure work for eternity Look secondly before you and see the shortness and uncertainty of this which we call a life what day is there that may not be our last what hour is there that we can make account of as certain And think how many World 's the dying Man would give in the late conscience of a careless life for but one day more to do his neglected work and shall we wilfully be prodigall of this happy leasure and liberty and knowingly hazard so wofull and irremediable a surprisall Look thirdly below you and see the horror of that dreadfull place of torment which is the unavoydable portion of careless and unreclaimable sinners consider the extremity the eternity of those tortures which in vain the secure heart sleightly hoped to avoid Look lastly above you and see whether that Heaven whose out-side we behold be not worthy of our utmost ambition of our most zealous and effectuall endeavours Do we not think there is pleasure and happiness enough in that region of glory and blessedness to make abundant amends for all our self-combats for all our tasks of dutyfull service for all our painfull exercises of mortification Oh then let us earnestly and unweariably aspire thither and think all the time lost that we imploy not in the endeavour of making sure of that blessed and eternall inheritance To the full possession whereof he that hath purchased it for us by his most precious blood in his good time happily bring us Amen A Plain and Familiar Explication OF CHRIST'S PRESENCE IN THE SACRAMENT OF HIS Body and Blood Out of the Doctrine of the Church of ENGLAND For the satisfying of a Scrupulous Friend Anno 1631. THat Christ Jesus our Lord is truly present and received in the blessed Sacrament of his body and blood is so clear and universally agreed upon that he can be no Christian that doubts it But in what manner he is both present and received is a point that hath exercised many wits and cost many thousand lives and such as some Orthodox Divines are wont to express with a kind of scruple as not daring to speak out For me as I have learn'd to lay my hand on my mouth where God and his Church have been silent and to adore those mysteries which I cannot comprehend so I think it is possible we may wrong our selves in an over-cautious fear of delivering sufficiently-revealed truths such I take this to be which we have in hand wherein as God hath not been sparing to declare himself in his word So the Church of England our dear Mother hath freely opened her self in such sort as if she meant to meet with the future scruples of an over-tender posterity Certainly there can be but two wayes wherein he can be imagined to be present and received either corporally or spiritually That he should be corporally present at once in every part of every Eucharistical Element through the World is such a Monster of opinion as utterly overthrowes the truth of his humane body destroyes the nature of a Sacrament implies a world of contradictions baffles right reason transcends all faith and in short confounds Heaven and Earth as we might easily show in all particulars if it were the drift of my discourse to meddle with those which profess themselves not ours who yet do no less then we cry down the gross and Capernaitical expression which their Pope Nicholas prescribed to Berengarius and cannot but confess that their own Card. Bellarmine advises this phrase of Christs corporall presence should be very sparingly and warily taken up in the hearing of their people but my intention only is to satisfie those Sons of the Church who disclaiming from all opinion of Transubstantiation do yet willingly imbrace a kind of irresolution in this point as holding it safest not to inquire into the manner of Christs presence What should be guilty of this nice doubtfulness I cannot conceive unless it be a misconstruction of those broad speeches which antiquity not suspecting so unlikely commentaries hath upon all occasions been wont to let fall concerning these awful mysteries For what those Oracles of the Church have divinely spoken in reverence to the Sacramental union of the signe and the thing signified in this sacred business hath been mistaken as literally and properly meant to be predicated of the outward Element hence have grown those dangerous errors and that inexplicable confusion which hath since infested the Church When all is said nothing can be more clear then that in respect of bodily presence the Heavens must contain the glorified humanity of Christ untill his return to judgment As therefore the Angel could say to the devout Maries after Christs resurrection seeking for him in his grave He is risen he is not here so they still say to us seeking for his glorious body here below He is ascended he is not here It should absolutely lose the nature of an humane body if it should not be circumscriptible Mar. 16.6 Glorification doth not bereave it of the truth of being what it is It is a true humane body and therefore can no more according to the natural being even of a body glorified be many wheres at once then according to his personal being it can be separated from that Godhead which is at once every where Let it be therefore firmly setled in our souls as an undoubted truth That the humane body of Christ
in us Implying that so doth our mouth and stomach receive the bread and wine as that in the mean time our souls receive the flesh and the blood of Christ now the soul is not capable of receiving flesh and blood but by the power of that grace of faith which appropriates it But that we may clearly apprehend how these Sacramental acts and objects are both distinguished and united so as there may be no danger of either separation or confusion that which followeth in the consecratory prayer is most evident Hear us O merciful father we beseech thee and grant that we receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christs holy institution in remembrance of his death and passion may be partakers of his most blessed body and blood who in the same night that he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and gave it to his disciples saying Take eat this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me What more can be said what come we to receive outwardly The Creatures of bread and wine To what use In remembrance of Christs death and passion what do we the whiles receive inwardly we are thereby made partakers of his most blessed body and blood by what means doth this come about By virtue of our Saviours holy institution still it is bread and wine in respect of the nature and essence of it but so that in the spiritual use of it it conveyes to the faithful receiver the body and blood of Christ bread and wine is offered to my eye and hand Christ is tendred to my soul Which yet is more fully if possibly it may be expressed in the form of words prescribed in the delivery of the bread and wine to the communicant The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body soul into everlasting life and take and eat this in remembrance that Christ dyed for thee and feed on him in thine heart by faith with thanksgiving c. No gloss in the world can make the words more full and perspicuous So do we in remembrance of Christs death take and eat the sacramental bread with our mouths as that our hearts do feed upon the body of Christ by our faith And what is this feeding upon Christ but a comfortable application of Christ and his benefits to our souls Which is as the prayer next following expresses it Then do we feed on Christ when by the blessed merits and death of our blessed Saviour and through faith in his blood we do obtain remission of our sins and all other benefits of his passion and are fulfilled with his grace and heavenly benediction Or if we desire a more ample commentary upon this sacramental repast and the nourishment thereby received the prayer ensuing offers it unto us in these words We most heartily thank thee for that thou hast vouchsafed to feed us which have duely received these holy mysteries with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and dost assure us thereby of thy favour and goodness towards uâ— and that we be very members incorporate in thy mystical body which is the blessed company of all faithful people and be also heirs through hope of thy everlasting kingdome by the merits of the most precious death and passion of thy dear Son This then is to feed upon Christ Lo the meat and manducation and nourishment are all spiritual whiles the elements be bodily and sensible which the allowed homilies of the Church also have laboured in most significant termes to set forth Thou must carefully search and know saith the first sermon concerning the sacrament Tome 2. what dignities are provided for thy soul whither thou art come not to feed thy senses and belly to corruption but thy inward man to immortality and life nor to consider the earthly creatures which thou seest but the heavenly graces which thy faith beholdeth For this table is not saith Chrysostome for chattering jayes but for Eagles who fly thither where the dead body lieth And afterwards to omit some other passages most pregnantly thus It is well known the meat we seek for in this supper is spiritual food the nourishment of our soul a Heavenly refection and not earthly an invisible meat and not bodily a ghostly substance and not carnal so that to think without faith we may enjoy the eating drinking thereof or that that is the fruition of it is but to dream a gross carnal feeding basely abjecting and binding our selves to the elements and creatures whereas by the advice of the council of Nice we ought to lift up our minds by faith and leaving these inferiour and earthly things there seek it where the son of righteousness ever shineth Take this lesson O thou that art desirous of this table of Emissenus a godly father That when thou goest to the reverend communion to be satisfyed with spiritual meats thou look up with faith upon the holy body and blood of thy God thou marvel with reverence thou touch it with the mind thou receive it with the hand of thy heart and thou take it fully with the inward Man Thus that homily in the voice of the Church of England Who now shall make doubt to say that in the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist Christ is only present and received in a spiritual manner so as nothing is objected to our senses but the Elements nothing but Christ to our faith and therefore that it is requisite we should here walk with a wary and even foot as those that must tread in the midst betwixt profaneness and superstition not affixing a deity upon the Elements on the one side nor on the other sleighting them with a common regard not adoring the Creatures not basely esteeming their relation to that Son of God whom they do really exhibit to us Let us not then think it any boldness either to inquire or to determine of the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament and confidently to say that his body is locally in Heaven spiritually offered to and received by the faith of every worthy communicant upon Earth True it is that in our Saviours speech Joh. 6. to believe in Christ is to eat his flesh and to drink his blood even besides out of the act of this Eucharistical supper so as whosoever brings Christ home to his soul by the act of his faith makes a private meal of his Saviour but the holy Sacrament superadds a further degree of our interest in the participation of Christ for now over and above our spiritual eating of him we do here eat him Sacramentally also every simple act of our faith feeds on Christ but here by virtue of that necessary union which our Saviours institution hath made betwixt the signe and the thing signified the faithfull communicant doth partake of Christ in a
salvation and knowledg of the truth So Ambrose interprets that place of 1 Tim. 2 he would have all to be saved saith he if themselves will for he hath given his law to all excepts no man in respect of his law and will revealed from salvation The Dedarative Decree of salvation to be equally and indifferently proclaimed unto all men Act. Syno in Thes c. For the further allowing whereof the same Zanchius cites the testimonies of Luther Bucer and others Neither doth it much ablude from this that our English Divines at Dort call the Decree of God whereby he hath appointed in and by Christ to save those that repent believe and persevere Decretum annunciativum salutis omnibus ex aequo indiscriminatim promulgandum Sect. 3. Surely it is easy to observe that we are too fearful of some distinctions which carry in them a jealousy of former abuse and yet both may well be admitted in a good sence and serve for excellent purpose As that if we labour for our better understanding to explicate the one will of God by several notions of the antecedent and consequent will of God which Paulus Ferrius a reformed Schoolman approves by the suffrages of Zanchius Polanus and other Orthodox Divines to look at it a little running as that which gives no smal light to the business in hand As there is wont to be conceived a double knowledg of God the one of meer understanding whereby he forknowes al things that may be the other of vision or approbation whereby he foreknowes that which undoubtedly shall be so there is a double will to be conceived of God answerable to this double knowledg an Antecedent will which answers to the meer understanding whereby God wills every possible good without the consideration of the adjuncts appertaining to it A consequent will answering to the knowledg of approbation whereby all circumstances prepensed God doth simply will this or that particular event as simply good to be and which is there upon impossible not to be The one of these is a will of complacency the other of prosecution the one is as it were an optative will the other an absolute In the first of these God would have all to be saved because it is in a sort good in it self in that the nature of man is ordeinable to life and man hath by God common helps seriously offered for the attaining thereof neither can we think it other then pleasing to God that his creatures should both do well and fare well In the latter he willeth some of all to be saved as not finding it simply good all circumstances considered to extend this favour to all this appears in the effect for if God absolutely willed it it could not fail of being neither doth ought hinder but these two may stand well together a complacence in the blessedness of his creature and a will of his smart For both that which we will in one regard we may not will in another As we may wish a felon to live as a man to dye as a malefactor and besides the possibility of one opposite doth not hinder the Act of another as he that hath power to run perhaps doth sit or ly Learned Zanchius methinks gives at once a good satisfaction as to this doubt so to the ordinary exception whereat many have stumbled of the pretended mockage of Gods invitations De nat Dei 1.3 c. 4. where he means not as some have misconceived a serious effect In the parable of the Gospell saith he those which were first bidden to the marriage feast and came not were they therefore mocked by the King because he only signified unto them what would be acceptable unto him and what was their duty to perform and yet he did not command them to be compelled as he did the second guests to come to the wedding Surely no yet in the mean time there was not the same will of the King in the inviting of the first and of the second for in these second there was an absolute will of the King that they should without fail come and therefore he effectually caused them to come In the former he only signified and that fairly and ingenuously what would be pleasing to him Thus he The entertainment of this one distinction which hath the allowance of Orthodox and learned Authors to be free from any danger or inconvenience would mitigate this strife since it is that which the Opponents contend for which the Defendents may yield without any sensible prejudice As for the envy of that irrespective and absolute decree of reprobation wherewith the Defendents are charged it is well taken off if we distinguish as we must of a negative and positive reprobation The latter whereof which is a preordination to punishment is never without a respect and prevision of sin for although by his absolute power God might cast any Creature into everlasting torment without any just exception to be taken on our parts yet according to that sweet providence of his which disposeth all things in a fair order of proceeding he cannot be said to inflict or adjudge punishment to any soul but for sin since this is an act of vindicative justice which still supposeth an offence If this be yielded by the Defendents as it is wherein also they want not the voyces even of the Romish School what needs any further contention especially whiles the defendents plead even those that are most rigorous that upon the non-election of some damnation is not causally but only consecutively inferred Non causaliter sed consecutive Perk. de praedest Sure I am that by this which is mutually yielded on both parts all mouths are stopped from any pretence of calumniation against the justice of the Almighty and we are sufficiently convinced of the necessity of our care to avoid those sins which shall otherwise be rewarded with just damnation Let this be enough for the first Article less will serve of the rest Concerning the extent of Christs death the Belgick Opponents profess to rest willingly in those words of Musculus Omnium peccata tulit c. He hath born the sins of all Men if we consider his sacrifice according to the virtue of it in it self and think that no Man is excluded from this grace but he that refuses it So God loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life J. 3.6 But if we respect those which do so believe and are saved so he hath borne only the sins of many Thus he Neither will the Opponents yield any less What is this other then the explication of that usuall distinction which we have whether from St. Austin or his Scholar Prosper of the greatness of the Price and the propriety of the redemption That equall to all This perteining but to some That common word seems enough to the Belgick Opponents The price of Christs
warfares to God should not intangle himself with this world it is a sufficient and just conviction of those who would divide themselves betwixt God and the World and bestow any main part of their time upon secular affairs but it hath no operation at all upon this tenet which we have in hand that a man dedicate to God may not so much as when he is required cast a glance of his eye or some minutes of time or some motions of his tongue upon the publick business of his King and Countrey Those that expect this from us may as well and upon the same reason hold that a minister must have no family at all or if he have one must not care for it yea that he must have no body to tend but be all Spirit My Lords we are men of the same composition with others and our breeding hath been accordingly we cannot have lived in the World but we have seen it and observed it too and our long experience and conversation both in Men and in books cannot but have put something into us for the good of others and now having a double capacity qua cives qua Ecclesiastici as members of the common wealth as Ministers and Governours of the Church we are ready to do our best service in both one of them is no way incompatible with the other yea the subjects of them both are so united with the Church and Commonwealth that they cannot be severed yea so as that not the one is in the other but one is the other is both so as the services which we do upon these occasions to the Comonwealth are inseparable from our good offices to the Church so as upon this ground there is no reason of our exclusion If ye say that our sitting in Parliament takes up much time which we might have imployed in our studies or pulpits consider I beseech you that whiles you have a Parliament we must have a convocation and that our attendance upon that will call for the same expense of time which we afford to this service so as herein we have neither got nor lost But I fear it is not on some hands the tender regard of the full scope to our calling that is so much here stood upon as the conceit of too much honour that is done us in taking up the room of Peers and voting in this high Court for surely those that are averse from our votes yet could be content we should have place upon the wool-sacks and could alow us ears but not tongues If this be the matter I beseech your Lordships to consider that this honour is not done to us but our profession which what ever we be in our several persons can not easily be capable of too much respect from your Lordships Non tibi sed Isidi as he said of old Neither is this any new grace that is put upon our calling which if it were now to begin might perhaps be justly grudged to our unworthyness but it is an antient right and inheritance inherent in our station No less ancient then these walls wherein we sit yea more before ever there were Parliaments in the Magna Consilia of the Kingdome we had our places and as for my predecessors ever since the Conquerours time I can show your Lordships a just catalogue of them that have sat before me here and truely though I have just cause to be mean in mine own eyes yet why or wherein there should be more unworthiness in me then the rest that I should be stript of that priviledg which they so long injoyed though there were no law to hold me here I cannot see or confesse What respects of honour have been put upon the prime Clergy of old both by Pagans and Jewes and Christians and what are still both within Christendom and vvithout I shall not need to urge it is enough to say this of ours is not meerly arbitrary but stands so firmely established by law and custome that I hope it neither will nor can be removed except you will shake those foundations which I believe you desire to hold firme and inviolable Shortly then my Lords the church craves no new honour from you and justly hopes you will not be guilty of pulling down the old as you are the eldest sons and next under his Majesty the honourable patrons of the Church so she expects and beseeches you to receive her into your tenderest care so to order her affairs that ye leave her to posterity in no worse case then you found her It is a true word of Damasus Uti vilescit nomen episcopi omnis statua perturbatur Ecclesiae If this be suffered the misery will be the Churches the dishonour blurre of the act in future ages will be yours To shut up therefore let us be taken off from all ordinary trade of secular imployments and if you please abridge us of intermeddling with matters of common justice but leave us possessed of those places and priviledges in Parliament which our predecessors have so long and peaceably injoyed ANTHEMES FOR THE CATHEDRAL OF EXCETER LOrd what am I A worm dust vapor nothing What is my life A dream a daily dying What is my flesh My souls uneasie clothing What is my time A minute ever flying My time my flesh my life and I What are we Lord but vanity Where am I Lord downe in a vale of death What is my trade sin my dear God offending My sport sin too my stay a puffe of breath What end of sin hells horrour never ending My way my trade sport stay and place help up to make up my dolefull case Lord what art thou pure life power beauty bliss Where dwell'st thou up above in perfect light What is thy time eternity it is What state attendance of each glorious sp'rit Thy self thy place thy dayes thy state Pass all the thoughts of powers create How shall I reach thee Lord Oh soar above Ambitious soul but which way should I flie Thou Lord art way and end what wings have I Aspiring thoughts of faith of hope of love Oh let these wings that way alone Present me to thy blissfull throne ANTHEME FOR Christmas Day IMmortall babe who this dear day Didst change thine Heaven for our clay And didst with flesh thy Godhead vail Eternal Son of God All-hail Shine happy star ye Angels sing Glory on high to Heavens King Run Shepherds leave your nightly watch See Heaven come down to Bethleems cratch Worship ye Sages of the East The King of Gods in meanness drest O blessed maid smile and adore The God thy womb and armes have bore Star Angels Shepherds and wise sages Thou Virgin glory of all ages Restored frame of Heaven and Earth Joy in your dear Redeemers Birth LEave O my soul this baser World below O leave this dolefull dungeon of wo And soare aloft to that supernal rest That maketh all the Saints and Angels blest Lo there the God-heads radiant throne Like to ten thousand Suns in one Lo there thy Saviour dear in glory dight Ador'd of all the powers of Heavens bright Lo where that head that bled with thorny wound Shines ever with celestial honor crownd That hand that held the scornfull reed Makes all the fiends infernall dread That back and side that ran with bloody streams Daunt Angels eyes with their majestick beames Those feet once fastened to the cursed tree Trample on death and hell in glorious glee Those lips once drench't with gall do make With their dread doom the world to quake Behold those joyes thou never canst behold Those precious gates of pearl those Streets of gold Those streams of Life those trees of Paradise That never can be seen by mortal eyes And when thou seest this state divine Think that it is or shall be thine See there the happy troups of purest sprights That live above in endless true delights And see where once thy self shalt ranged be And look and long for immortalitie And now before-hand help to sing Allelujahs to Heavens King FINIS BOOKS printed for and to be sold by John Crook at the Sign of the Ship in St Pauls Church-yard ANnales veteris novi Testamenti Aviro Reverend Jacob Usserio Archiepisco Armachano Folio The Annals of the Old and New Testament with the Synchronismus of Heathen story to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans by James Usher D.D. Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland Folio The Antiquities of Warwikcshire illustrated beautified with Maps prospects and pourtractures by William Dugdale Folio Hymens Preludia or Loves Master piece being the 9th and 10th parts of Cleopatra Folio The History of this Iâ—on Age wherein is set down the Original of all the wars and commotions that have happened from the year of God 1500. Illustrated with the figures of the most Renowned persons of this Time Folio The History of the great and renowned Monarchy of China Fol. The holy History containing excellent observations on the Remarkable passages of the old Testament written Originally in French by N. Caussin S.I. and now rendred into English by a Person of Honour 4. Ejusdem de textus hebraici Veteris Testamenti variantibus Lectionibus ad Lodovicum Capellum Epistola Quarto Usserii de 70. Interpretum versione syntagma Quarto Montagues Miscellanea Spiritualâ—ia 4. second part A Treatise of Gavelkind both name and thing shewing the true Etymology and derivation of the one the nature antiquity and Original of the other by William Sonner Quarto The Holy Life of Mounsier de Renty a late noble man of France 8. Certain discourses viz. of Babylon the present See of Rome of laying on of hands of the old forme of words in Ordination of a set forme of prayer being the judgment of the Late Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland by N. Bernard D. D. Octavo The Character of England with reflections upon Gallus Castratus 12. The French Gardiner instructing how to cultivate all sorts of Fruit-trees with directions to dry and conserve them in their natural An accomplished peice illustrated with sculpture By whom also all manner of Books are to be sold brought from beyond the Seas