acceptable musick to them that hear them They shall be so first In re in their matter in the doctrine which they preach In Re. The same trumpets that sound the alarm that is that awakens us from our security and that sounds the Battail that is that puts us into a colluctation with our selves with this world with powers and principalities yea into a wrastling with God himself and his Justice the same trumpet sounds the Parle too calls us to hearken to God in his word and to speak to God in our prayers and so to come to treaties and capitulations for peace and the same trumpet sounds a retreat too that is a safe reposing of our souls in the merit and in the wounds of our Saviour Christ Jesus And in this voice they are musicum carmen a love-song as the text speaks in proposing the love of God to man wherein he loved him so as that he gave his onely begotten Son for him God made this whole world in such an uniformity such a correspondency such a concinnity of parts as that it was an Instrument perfectly in tune we may say the trebles the highest strings were disordered first the best understandings Angels and Men put this instrument out of tune God rectified all again by putting in a new string semen mulieris the seed of the woman the Messias And onely by sounding that string in your ears become we musicum carmen true musick true harmony true peace to you If we shall say that Gods first string in this instrument was Reprobation that Gods first intention was for his glory to damn man and that then he put in another string of creating Man that so he might have some body to damn and then another of enforcing him to sin that so he might have a just cause to damne him and then another of disabling him to lay hold upon any means of recovery there 's no musick in all this no harmony no peace in such preaching But if we take this instrument when Gods hand tun'd it the second time in the promise of a Messias and offer of the love mercy of God to all that will receive it in him then we are truely musicum carmen as a love-song when we present the love of God to you and raise you to the love of God in Christ Jesus for for the musick of the Sphears whatsoever it be we cannot hear it for the decrees of God in heaven we cannot say we have seen them our musick is onely that salvation which is declared in the Gospel to all them and to them onely who take God by the right hand as he delivers himself in Christ So they shall be musick in re in their matter in their doctrine and they shall be also in modo In modo in their manner of presenting that doctrine Religion is a serious thing but not a sullen Religious preaching is a grave exercise but not a sordid not a barbarous not a negligent There are not so eloquent books in the world as the Scriptures Accept those names of Tropes and Figures which the Grammarians and Rhetoricians put upon us and we may be bold to say that in all their Authors Greek and Latin we cannot finde so high and so lively examples of those Tropes and those Figures as we may in the Scriptures whatsoever hath justly delighted any man in any mans writings is exceeded in the Scriptures The style of the Scriptures is a diligent and an artificial style and a great part thereof in a musical in a metrical in a measured composition in verse The greatest mystery of our Religion indeed the whole body of our Religion the coming and the Kingdome of a Messias of a Saviour of Christ is conveyed in a Song in the third chapt of Habakkuk and therefore the Jews say that that Song cannot yet be understood because they say the Messiah is not yet come His greatest work when he was come which was his union and marriage with the Church and with our souls he hath also delivered in a piece of a curious frame Solomons Song of Songs And so likewise long before when God had given all the Law he provided as himself sayes a safer way which was to give them a heavenly Song of his owne making for that Song he sayes there he was sure they would remember Deut. 31. So the Holy Ghost hath spoken in those Instruments whom he chose for the penning of the Scriptures and so he would in those whom he sends for the preaching thereof he would put in them a care of delivering God messages with consideration with meditation with preparation and not barbarously not suddenly not occasionally not extemporarily which might derogate from the dignity of so great a service That Ambassadour should open himself to a shrewd danger and surprisall that should defer the thinking upon his Oration till the Prince to whom he was sent were reading his letters of Credit And it is a late time of meditation for a Sermon when the Psalm is singing Loquere Domine sayes the Prophet speak O Lord But it was when he was able to say Ecce paratus Behold I am prepared for thee to speak in me If God shall be believed to speak in us in our ordinary Ministry it must be when we have so as we can fitted our selves for his presence To end this then are we Musicum carmen in modo musick to the soul in the manner of our preaching when in delivering points of Divinity we content our selves with that language and that phrase of speech which the Holy Ghost hath expressed himself in in the Scriptures for to delight in the new and bold termes of Hereticks furthers the Doctrine of Hereticks too And then also are we Musicum carmen when according to the example of men inspired by the Holy Ghost in writing the Scriptures we deliver the messages of God with such diligence and such preparation as appertains to the dignity of that employment Now these two to be Musick both these wayes Vox suavis in matter and in manner concur and meet in the next which is to have a pleasant voyce Thou art a lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voyce First A Voyce they must have they must be heard if they silence themselves by their ignorance or by their laziness if they occasion themselves to be silenced by their contempt and contumacy both wayes they are inexcusable for a voyce is essentiall to them that denominates them John Baptist hath other great names even the name of Baptist is a great name when we consider whom he baptized him who baptized the Baptist himself and all us in his own blood So is his name of Preacher the fore-runner of Christ for in that name he came before him who was before the world so is his Propheta that he was a Prophet and then more then a Prophet and then the greatest among the sons of women these were great
assistance but his own And he returns again ther 's his first comfort and he returns now now that God had spoken to him before he set out and now that God had revealed to him an army of Angels in his assistance and now that God had increased his temporal state so far as that he was become two bands so that though he should loose much yet he had much left In benefits that pass from men of higher ranck to persons of lower condition it is not the way to get them to ground the request upon our own merit Merit implies an obligation that we have laid upon them and that implies a debt And a Petition for a due debt is an affront it is not so much a Petition delivered as a writ served upon him to call him to answer his injust deteining of a just debt Thus it is amongst men between whom their may be true merit but toward God there can be none and therefore much more there boldness to proceed with him upon pretence of merit Et de Deo no tuanquam de benefico largitore sed tanquam de tardo debitore cogitare That if we come not to our ends and preferment quickly we should give over considering God as a gratious and free giver in his time and begin to consider him as a slack pay master and ill debtor because he payes not at our time No Man was worthy to be biden to the supper Mat. 22.8 But those that were biden were not worthy that invitation made them not worthy No sparke of worth in us before God call us but that first grace of his doth not presently make us worthy If we love Christ a little and allow him his share Mat. 13.37 but love father and mother more if we renounce all other love we are not ambitious but yet would live quiet without troubles without crosses if we take not up our cross or if we take it and sink under it if we do not follow or if we take it and sink under it if we do not follow or if we follow a wrong guide bear our afflictions with the stupidity of a Stoique or with the pertinacy of an Heretique If we love not Christ more then all and take our cross and follow and follow him non digni sumus we are not worthy of him Nay all this doth not make us worthy really Luk. 23.25 but imputatively they shall be counted worthy to enjoy the next world and the resurrection says Christ We are not worthy as to profess our unworthiness It is a degree of spiritual exaltation to be sensible of our lowness Mar. 1 7. I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose his shoe latchet says John Baptist even humility it self is a pride if we think it to be our own Onely say thus to Christ with the Centurion non dignus ut venirem I was not worthy to come to thee Luk. 7.7 non dignus ut intres I was not worthy that thou shouldest come to me and let others say of thee as those Elders whom the Centurion sent said of him dignus est he is worthy that Christ should do for him Be thou humble in thy self and thou shalt be worthy of a double honour thou shall be truly worthy in the sight of man and thou shalt be counted worthy in the sight of God Parvus Now for all this unworthiness Jacob doth not so much extenuate himself as to annihilate himself The word is Katon it is not Elil it is parvus sum not nihil sum It is but little that man is proportioned to the working of God but yet man is that creature who onely of all other creatures can answer the inspiration of God when his grace comes and exhibites acceptable service to him and cooperate with him No other creature is capable of grace if it could be offered to them It is true and useful Cyp. that Cyprian presses nihil est nostrum nam quid habes quod non accepisti What hast thou that thou hast not received Her 's a Nihil nostrum but he doeth not press it so far as to say nihil nos her 's a nihil habemus we have nothing but not a nihil sumus that we are nothing it is true and useful that Hierom says ipsum meum Hier. Epist 1. ad sine Dei semper auxilio non erit meum without the continual concurrence oâ— Gods grace that which is mine now would be lost and be none of mine but it is as true that Augustin says too Cerâ—um est nos velle facere â—um volumus facimus It is we our selves that choose and perform those spiritual actions which the grace of God onely enables us to choose and perform It is truly and elegantly said by Ambrose of our power and out will Ei committi nihil aliud quam dimitti to be delivered to our own will is to be delivered to the executioner for nihil habet in suis vicibus nisi periculi facilitatem it hath nothing in it but a nearness or danger but yet God hath made a natural man onely capable of his grace and in those men in whom he hath begun a regeneration by his first grace his grace proceeds not without a cooperation of those men This humility then is safely limited in Jacobs bounds parvus sum it is no great matter that I am but yet come not to such a nihil sum such an extenuation of thy self as to think that grace works upon thee as the sun does upon gold or precious stones to purifie them to that concoction without any sense in themselves Now this littleness how poor and small a thing Man is Proe omnibus appears to him whether he consider himself in omnibus or in singulis as the word imports here as he is altogether or as he is taken a sunder Take man at his best and greatest growth as he is honourable for as there is a stamp that gives values to gold so doth honour and estimation to the temporal blessings of this lif Honour is that which God esteems most and is most jealous of in himself his honour he will give to none and it is the broadest and apparantest outward seal by which he testifies his love to man but yet what greatness is this in which David repeats that infirmity twice in one Psalm Psal 49.12.20 Man shall not continue in honour but is like the beast that dye Man is in honour and understandeth not he is like to the beasts that perish In nature things that are above us shew as little as things below us men upon a hill are as little to them in the valley as they in the valley to them that are raised It is so in nature but we have forced an unnatural perversness in our selves to think nothing great but that which is a great way above us whereas if we will look downvvards and see above how many better
affected not to be entendred to wear those things which God hath made objects and subjects of affections that which St. Paul places in the bottome and lees Rom. 1.30 and dregs of all the sins of the Jews to be without natural affections this distemper this ill complexion this ill nature of the soul is under the first part of this curse if any man love not for he that loves not knows not God for God is love But this curse determins not upon that neither is it principally directed upon that not loving for as we say in the schools Amor est primus actus voluntatis the first thing that the will of man does is to affect to choose to love something and it is scarce possible to find any mans will so idle so barren as that it hath produced no act at all and therefore the first act being love scarce any man can be found that doth not love something But the curses extends yea is principally intended upon him that loves not Christ Jesus though he love the creature and orderly enough yea though he love God as a great and incomprehensible power yet if he love not Christ Jesus if he acknowledg not that all that passes between God and him is in and for Christ Jesus let him be accursed for all his love Now there are but two that can be loved God and the Creature and of the creatures that must necessarily be best loved which is neerest us which we understand best and reflect most upon and that 's our selves for for the love of other creatures it is but a secondary love if we lâ—â—e God we love them for his sake if we love our selves we love them for our sakes Now to love our selves is only allowable only proper to God himself for this love is a desire that all honor and praise and glory should be attributed to ones self and it can be only proper to God to desire that To love our selves then is the greatest treason we can commit against God and all love of the creatures determines in the love of our selves for though sometimes we may say that we love them better than our selves and though we give so good that is indeed so ill testimony that we do so that we neglect our selves both our religion and our discretion for their sakes whom we pretend to love yet all this is but a secondary love and with relation still to our selves and our own contentments for is this love which we bear to other creatures within that definition of love Velle bonum amato to wish that which we love happy doth any ambitious man love honor or office therefore because he thinks that title or that place should receive a dignity by his having it or an excellency by his executing it doth any covetous man love a house or horse therefore because he thinks that house or horse should be happy in such a Master or such Rider doth any licentious man covet or solicite a woman therefore because he thinks it a happiness to her to have such a servant No it is only himself that is within the difinition vult bonum sibi he wishes well as he mistakes it to himself and he is content that the slavery and dishonor and ruin of others should contribute to make up his imaginary happiness August O dementiam nescientem amare homines humaniter what a perverse madness is it to love a creature and not as a creature that is with all the adjuncts and circumstances and qualities of a creature of which the principal is that that love raise us to the contemplation of the Creator for if it be so we may love our selves as we are the Images of God and so we may love other men as they are the Images of us and our nature yea as they are members of the same body for omnes homines una humanitas all men make up but one mankind and so we love other creatures as we all meet in our Creator in whom Princes and Subjects Angels and men and wormes are fellow servants Si malè amaveris tunc odisti If thou hast lov'd thy self August or any body else principally or so that when thou dost any act of love thou canst not say to thine own conscience I do this for Gods sake and for his glory if thou hast loved so thou hast hated thy self and him whom thou hast loved and God whom thou shouldest love Si bonè oderis saies the same Father If thou hast hated as thou shouldst hate if thou hast hated thine own internal tentations and the outward solicitations of others Amasti then thou hast expressed a manifold act of love of love to thy God and love to his Image thy self and love to thine Image that man whom thy virtue and thy example hath declined and kept from offending his and thy God And as this affection love doth belong to God principally that is rather then to any thing else so doth it also principally another way that is rather then any affection else for the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom but the love of God is the consummation that is the marriage and union of thy soul and thy Saviour But can we love God when we will do we not find that in the love of some other things or some courses of life of some waies in our actions and of some particular persons that we would fain love them cannot when we can object nothing against it when we can multiply arguments why we should love them yet we cannot but it is not so towards God every man may love him that will but can every man have this will this desire certainly we cannot begin this love except God love us first we cannot love him but God doth love us all so well from the beginning as that every man may see the fault was in the perversness of his own will that he did not love God better If we look for the root of this love it is in the Father for though the death of Christ be towards us as a root as a cause of our love and of the acceptableness of it yet Augst Meritum Christi est affectum amoris Dei erga nos the death of Christ was but an effect of the love of God towards us So God loved the world that he gave his Son if he had not lov'd us first we had never had his Son here is the root then the love of the Father and the tree the merit of the Son except there be fruit too love in us to them again both root and tree will wither in us howsoever they grew in God I have loved thee with an everlasting love Jer. 31.3 saies God therfore with mercy I have drawn thee if therefore we do not perceive that we are drawn to lov again by this lov 't is not an everlasting lov that shines upon us All the sunshine all the glory of this life
kindled Num. 11.15 there and only their doth Moses attribute even to God himself the feminine sex and speaks to God in the original language as if he should have call'd him Deam Iratam an angry she God all that is good then either in the love of man or woman is in this love for he is expressed in both sexes man and woman and all that can be ill in the love of either sex is purged away for the man is no other man then Christ Jesus and the woman no other woman then wisdom her self even the uncreated wisdom of God himself Now all this is but one person the person that professes love who is the other who is the beloved of Christ is not so easily discern'd in the love between persons in this world and of this world we are often deceived with outward signs we often mis-call and mis-judg civil respects and mutual courtesies and a delight in one anothers conversation and such other indifferent things as only malignity and curiosity and self-guiltiness makes to be misinterpretable we often call these love but neither amongst our selves much less between Christ and our selves are these outward appearances alwaies signs of love This person then this beloved soul is not every one to whom Christ sends a loving message or writs too for his letters his Scriptures are directed to all not every one he wishes well to and swears that he does so for so he doth to all As I live saith the Lord I would not the death of a Sinner not every one that he sends jewels and presents to for they are often snares to corrupt as well as arguments of love not though he admit them to his table and supper for even there the Devil entred into Judas with a sop not though he receive them to a kiss for even with that familarity Judas betrayed him not though he betroth himself as he did to the Jews Osc 2.14 sponsabo te mihi in aeternum not though he make jointures in pacto salis in a covenant of salt an everlasting covenant not though he have communicated his name to them which is an act of marriage for to how many hath he said ego dixit Dii estis I have said you are Gods and yet they have been reprobates not all these outward things amount so far as to make us discern who is this beloved person for himself saies of the Israelites to whom he had made all these demonstrations of love yet after for their abominations devorc'd himself from them I have forsaken mine house Jer. 12.7 I have left mine own heritage I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies To conclude this person beloved of Christ is only that soul that loves Christ but that belongs to the third branch of this first part which is the mutual love The Affection but first having found the person we are to consider the affection it self the love of this text it is an observation of Origens that though these three words Amor Dilectio and Charitas love and affection and good will be all of one signification in the sctiptures yet saies he wheresoever there is danger of representing to the fancy a lascivious and carnal love the scripture forbears the word love and uses either affection or good will and where there is no such danger the scripture comes directly to this word love of which Origens examples are that when Isaac bent his affections upon Rebecca and Jacob upon Rachel in both places it is dilexit and not amavit Cant 5.8 and when it is said in the Cant. I charge you Daughters of Jerusalem to tell my well-beloved it is not to tel him that she was in love but to tell him quod vulneratae charitatis sum that I am wounded with an affection good will towards him but in this book of Pro. in all the passages between Christ and the beloved soul there is evermore a free use of this word Amor love because it is even in the first apprehension a pure a chast and an undefiled love Eloquia Dominis casta sayes David All the words of the Lord and all their words that love the Lord all discourses all that is spoken to or from the soul is all full of chast love and of the love of chastity Now though this love of Christ to our souls be too large to shut up or comprehend in any definition yet if we content our selves with the definition of the Schools Amare est velle alicui quod bonum est love is nothing but a desire that they whom we love should be happy we may easily discern the advantage and profit which we have by this love in the Text when he that wishes us this good by loving us is author of all good himself and may give us as much as pleases him without impairing his own infinite treasure He loves us as his ancient inheritance as the first amongst his creatures in the creation of the world which he created for us He loves us more as his purchase whom he hath bought with his blood for even man takes most pleasure in things of his own getting But he loves us most for our improvement when by his ploughing up of our hearts and the dew of his grace and the seed of his word we come to give greaâ—â—r cent in the fruit of sanctification than before And since he loves â—s thus and that in him this love is velle bonum a desire that his beloved should be happy what soul amongst us shall doubt that when God hath such an abundant and infinite treasure as the merit and passion of Christ Jesus sufficient to save millions of worlds and yet many millions in this world all the heathen excluded from any interest therein when God hath a kingdome so large as that nothing limits it and yet he hath banished many natural subjects thereof even those legions of Angels which were created in it and are fallen from it what soul amongst us shall doubt but that he that hath thus much and loves thus much will not deny her a portion in the blood of Christ or a room in the kingdome of heaven No soul can doubt it except it have been a witness to it self and be so still that it love not Christ Jesus for that 's a condition necessary And that is the third branch to which we are come now in our order that this love be mutuall I love them c. If any man loves not our Lord Jesus let him be accursed Mutual saies the Apostle Now the first part of this curse is upon the indisposition to love he that loves not at all is first accursed That stupid inconsideration which passes on drowsilie and negligently upon Gods creatures that sullen indifferency in ones disposition to love one thing no more than another not to value not to chuse not to prefer that stoniness that in humanity not to be
which must save our Soules is not confined to Cloysters and Monasteries and speculative men only but is all so evidently and eminently to be found in the Courts of religious Princes in the tops of high places and in the Courts of Justice in the gates of the City Both these kinds of Courts may have more directions from him then other places but yet in these places hee is also gloriously and conspicuously to be found for wheresoever he is he cries aloud as the Text saies there and he utters his voyce Now Temptations to sin are all but whisperings we are afraid that a husband that a father that a competitor that a rivall a pretender at least the Magistrate may heare of it Tentations to sin are all but whisperings private Conventicles and clandestine worshipping of God in a forbidden manner in corners are all but whisperings It is not the voice of Christ except thou hear him cry aloud and utter his voice so as thou maist confidently doe whatsoever he commands thee in the eye of all the world he is every where to be found he calls upon thee every where but yet there belongs a diligence on thy part thou must seek him Quaerere Esaias is hold saith St. Paul and saies I was found of them that sought me not when that Prophet derives the love of God to â—he Gentiles who could seeke God no where but in the booke of Creatures and were destitute of all other lights to seek him by and yet God was found by them Esaias is bold cries the Apostle that is It was a great degree of confidence in Esaias to say That God was found of them that sought him not Rom. 10.20 It was a boldness and confidence which no particular man may have that Christ will be found except he be sought he gives us light to seek him by but he is not found till we have sought him It is true that in that Commandement of his Primum quaerite Regnum Dei First seek the Kingdom of God the primum is not to prevent God that we should seek it before he shewes it that 's impossible without the light of Grace we dwell in darknesse and in the shadow of death but the primum is That we should seek it before we seek any thing else that when the Sun of Grace is risen to us the first thing that we do be to seek Christ Jesus Amos 5.4 Querite me vivetis Seek me and ye shall live why we were alive before else we could not seek him but it is a promise of another life of an eternall life if we seek him and seek him early which is our last consideration The word there used for early signifies properly Auroram Early the Morning and is usually transfer'd in Scriptures to any beginning of any action so in particular Evill shall come upon thee Esay 47.11 and thou shalt not know Shakrah the morning the beginning of it And therefore this Text is elegantly translated by one Aurorantes ad me They that have their break of day towards me they that send forth their first morning beames towards me their first thoughts they shall be sure to find me St. Hierom expresses this early diligence required in us well in his translation qui mane vigilaverint They that wake betimes in the morning shall finde me but the Chaldee Paraphrase better qui mane consurgunt they that rise betimes in the morning shall finde me for which of us doth not know that we wak'd long agoe that we saw day and had heretofore some motions to find Christ Jesus But though we were awake wee have kept our bed still we have continued still in our former sins so that there is more to be done then waking we see the Spouse her self saies In my bed by night Cant. 3.1 I sought him whom my Soule lov'd but I found him not Christ may be sought in the bed and missed other thoughts may exclude him and he may bee sought there and found we may have good meditations there and Christ may be neerer us when we are asleep in our beds then when when we are awake But howsoever the bed is not his ordinary station he may be and he saies he will be at the making of the bed of the sick but not at the marriage of the bed of the wanton and licentious To make haste the circumstance only requir'd here is that he be sought early and to invite thee to it consider how early he sought thee It is a great mercy that he staies so long for thee It was more to seek thee so early Dost thou not feele that he seeks thee now in offering his love and desiring thine Canst not thou remember that he sought thee yesterday that is that some tentations besieged thee then and he sought thee out by his Grace and preserved thee and hath he not sought thee so so early as from the beginning of thy life nay dost thou not remember that after thou hadst committed that sin he sought thee by imprinting some remorse some apprehension of his judgments and so miro divino modo quando te oderat diligebat Grego by a miraculous and powerful working of his Spirit he threatned thee when he comforted thee he lov'd thee when he chid thee he sought thee wen he drove thee from him He hath sought thee amongst the infinite numbers of false and fashionall Christians that he might bring thee out from the hypocrite to serve him in earnest and in holyness and in righteousness he sought thee before that amongst the Herd of the nations Gentiles who had no Church to bring thee into his inclosures and pastures his visible Church and to feed thee with his word and sacraments he sought thee before that in the catalogue of all his Creatures where he might have left thee a stone or a plant or a beast and then he gave thee an immortal Soul capable of all his future blessings yea before this he sought thee when thou wast no where nothing he brought thee then the greatest step of all from being nothing to be a Creature how early did he seek thee when he sought thee in Adam's confused loynes out of that leavened and sowre loaf in which we were all kneaded up out of that massa damnata that refuse condemnable lump of dough he sought and sever'd out that grain which thou shouldst be yea millions of millions of generations before al this he sought thee in his own eternal Decree And in that first Scripture of his which is as old as himself in the book of life he wrote thy name in the blood of that Lamb which was slain for thee not only from the beginning of this world but from the writing of that eternal Decree of thy Salvation Thus early had he sought thee in the Church amongst hypocrites out of the Church amongst the Heathen In his Creatures amongst creatures of an ignoble nature and
plura because they are more and so as the more beautiful and better proportioned a body is the more it draws the eye to look upon it so they are nearer quia potiora because they are better and so as the more evidence and light and lustre they have in themselves the easier things are discerned so they are nearer Plura quia manifestiora because they are more visible First how there should be more helps in the Christian religion then in the Jewish is not so evident at first for first if we consider the law to be salvation they had a vast multiplicity of laws scarse less then 600 several laws whereas the honor of the Christian religion is that it is verbum abbreviatum an abridgment of all into ten words as Moses cals the Commandements and then a re-abridgment of that abridgment into two love God and love thy Neighbour that is faith and works If we consider their laws to be their salvation they had more and if we consider their sacrifices to be their salvation they had more too for their Rabbins observe at least 50 several kinds of contracting uncleaness to which there were appropriated several expiations and sacrifices whereas we have only the sacrifices of prayer and of praise and of Christ in the sacrament for so it is the ordinary phrase manner of speech in the Fathers to call that a sacrifice not only as it is a commemorative sacrifice for that is amongst our selves and so every person in the congregation may sacrifice that is do that in remembrance of Christ but as it is a real sacrifice in which the Priest doth that which none but he does that is really to offer up Christ Jesus crucified to Almighty God for the sins of the people so as that that very body of Christ which offered himself for a propitiatory sacrifice upon the cross once for all that body and all that that body suffered is offered again and presented to the Father the Father is intreated that for the merits of that person so presented and offered unto him and in contemplation thereof he will be merciful to that congregation and applie those merits of his to their particular souls These are our sacrifices prayer and praise and Christ thus offered and how are these more then the Jews had they had more laws and more sacrifices and as many sacraments as we and if nearness of salvation consist in the plurality of these how is salvation nearer to us then to them quatenus plura in that first respects as the means are more as it is truly and properly said that there are more ingredients more simples more means of restoring in our dram of triacle or mithridate then in an ounce of any particular syrup in which there may be 3 or 4 in the other perchance so many hundred so in that receit of our Saviour Christ quicquid ligaveris in the absolution of the Minister that whatsoever he shall bind or loose upon earth shall be bound or loose in heaven there is more physick then in all the expiations and sacrifices of the old law There an expiation would serve to day which would not serve to morrow if it were omitted till the sun were set upon it it required a more severe expiation and so also an expiation would serve for one transgression which would not serve for another but here in the absosolution of the Minister there is a concurrence a confluence of medecines of all qualities purgative in confession and restorative in absolution corasive in the preaching of Judgments and cordial in the balm of the sacrament here is no limitation of time at what time soever a sinner repenteth nor limitation of sins whatsoever is forgiven in earth is forgiven in heaven salvation is nearer us in this respect that we have plura adminicula more outward and visible means then the Jews had because we may receive more in one action then they could in all theirs It is so also not only quia plura because we have more means Potiora but quia potiora because those means which we have are in their nature better more attractive and more winning The means as we have said before were their laws and their sacrifices and their sacraments and for their law it was lex interficiens non perficiens it was a law August that punished unrighteousness but it did not confer righteousness and their sacrifices being in blood if we remove from them their typical signification and what they prefigured which was the shedding of the blood of the lamb which takes away the sins of the world must necessarily create and excite a natural horror in man and an aversness from them Take their sacraments into comparison and then one of their sacraments Circumcision was limited to one sex it reached not to women and their other sacrament the passover was in the primary signification and institution thereof only a gratulatory commemoration of a temporal benefit of their deliverance from Egypt And therefore to constitute a judgment proportionably by the effects we see the law and the sacrifice and the sacraments of thy Jews did not much work upon foraign Nations it was salvation but salvation shut up amongst themselves whereas we see that the law of the Chrstians which is to conforme our selves to our great example and pattern Christ Jesus who if we would consider him meerly as man was the most exemplar man for all Theological vertues moral too that ever any history presented the sacrifices of Christians which are all spiritual therein more proportional to God who is all spirit and the sacraments of Christians in which though not ex opere operator not because that action is performed not because that sacrament is administred yet ex pacto and quando opus operamur by Gods covenant when soever that action is performed whensoever that sacrament is administred the grace of God is exhibited and offered nec fallaciter as Calvin saies well it is offered with a purpose on Gods part that that grace should be accepted we see I say that these laws and these sacrifices and these sacraments have gain'd upon the whole world for in their nature and in their attractiveness and in their applyableness and so in their effect they are potiora better and in that respect salvation is nearer us then it was to the Jews Manifestiora And so it is lastly quia manifestiora because they have an evidence and manifestation of themselves in themselves Now this is especially true in the sacraments because the sacraments exhibit and convey grace and grace is such a light such a torch such a beacon as where it is it is easily seen As there is a lustre in a precious stone which no mans eye or finger can limit to a certain place or point in that stone so though we do not assign in the sacrament where that is in what circumstance or part of that holy action
wherewith this inestimable pureness is to be embraced love He that loveth pureness of heart Love in Divinity is such an attribute or such a notion as designs to us one person in the Trinity and that person who communicates and applies to us Amor. the other two persons that is The Holy Ghost So that as there is no power but with relation to the Father nor wisdom but with relation to the Son so there should be no love but in the Holy Ghost from whom comes this pureness of heart and consequently the love of it necessarily For the love of this pureness is part of this pureness it self and no man hath it except he love it All love which is placed upon lower things admits satiety but this love of this pureness always grows always proceeds It does not onely file off the rust of our hearts in purging us of old habits but proceeds to a daily polishing of the heart in an exact watchfulness and brings us to that brightness Augustine Ut ipse videas faciem in corde alii videant cor in facie That thou maist see thy face in thy heart and the world may see thy heart in thy face indeed that to both both heart and face may be all one Thou shalt be a Looking-glass to thy self and to others too Mulieres The highest degree of other love is the love of woman Which love when it is rightly placed upon one woman it is dignified by the Apostle with the highest comparison Ephes 5.25 Husbands love your wives as Christ loved his Church And God himself forbad not that this love should be great enough to change natural affection Gen. 2.24 Relinquet patrem for this a man shall leave his Father yea to change nature it self caro una two shall be one Accordingly David expresses himself so in commemoration of Jonathan 2 Sam. 1.26 Thy love to me was wonderful passing the love of women A love above that love is wonderful Now this love between man and woman doth so much confess a satiety as that if a woman think to hold a man long she provides her self some other capacity some other title then meerly as she is a woman Her wit and her conversation must continue this love and she must be a wife a helper else meerly as a woman this love must necessarily have intermissions And therefore St. Jerome notes a custom of his time Jerome perchance prophetically enough of our times too that to uphold an unlawful love and make it continue they used to call one another Friend and Sister and Cousen Ut etiam peccatis induant nomina caritatis that they might apparel ill affections in good names and those names of natural and civil love might carry on and continue a work which otherwise would sooner have withered In Parables and in Mythology and in the application of Fables this affection of love for the often change of subjects is described to have wings whereas the true nature of a good love such as the love of this Text is a constant union But our love of earthly things is not so good as to be volatilis apt to fly for it is always groveling upon the earth and earthly objects As in spiritual fornications the Idols are said to have ears and hear not and eyes and see not so in this idolatrous love of the Creature love hath wings and flies not it flies not upward it never ascends to the contemplation of the Creator in the Creature The Poets afford us but one Man that in his love flew so high as the Moon Endymion loved the Moon The sphear of our loves is sublunary upon things naturally inferior to our selves Let none of this be so mistaken as though women were thought improper for divine or for civil conversation For they have the same soul and of their good using the faculties of that soul the Ecclesiastick story and the Martyrologies give us abundant examples of great things done and suffered by women for the advancement of Gods glory But yet as when the woman was taken out of man God caused a heavy sleep to fall upon man Gen. 2.22 and he slept so doth the Devil cast a heavy sleep upon him too When the woman is so received into man again as that she possesses him fills him transports him I know the Fathers are frequent in comparing and paralleling Eve the Mother of Man and Mary the Mother of God But God forbid any should say That the Virgin Mary concurred to our good so as Eve did to our ruine It is said truly That as by one man sin entred and death Rom. 5.12 so by one man entred life It may be said That by one woman sin entred and death and that rather then by the man for 1 Tim. 2.14 Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression But it cannot be said in that sense or that manner that by one woman innocence entred and life The Virgin Mary had not the same interest in our salvation as Eve had in our destruction nothing that she did entred into that treasure that ransom that redeemed us She more then any other woman and many other blessed women since have done many things for the advancing of the glory of God and imitation of others so that they are not unfit for spiritual conversation nor for the civil offices of friendship neither where both tentation at home and scandal abroad may truly be avoided I know St. Jerome in that case despised all scandal and all malicious mis-interpretations of his purpose therein rather then give over perswading the Lady Paula to come from Rome to him and live at Jerusalem But I know not so well that he did well in so doing A familiar and assiduous conversation with women will hardly be without tentation and scandal St. Jerome himself apprehended that scandal tenderly and expresses it passionately Sceleratum me putant omnibus peccatis obrutum The world takes me for a vicious man more sceleratum for a wicked a facinorous man for this and obrutum surrounded overflowed with all sins Versipellem lubricum mendacem satanae arte decipientem They take me to be a slippery fellow a turn-coat from my professed austerity a Lyar an Impostor a Deceiver yet though he discerned this scandal and this inconvenience in it he makes shift to ease himself in this Nihil aliud mihi objicitur nisi sexus meus They charge me with nothing but my sex that I am a man Et hoc nunquam objicitur nisi cum Hierosolymam Paula proficiscitur nor that neither but because this Lady follows me to Jerusalem He proceeds farther That till he came acquainted in Paulas house at Rome Omnium penè judicio summo sacerdotio dignus decernebar every man thought me fit to be Pope every man thought reverently of him till he used her house St. Jerome would fain have corrected their mis-interpretations and slackned the
hast nothing of thine own Hoc est nec ingratum esse nec superbum therein thou art neither unthankful to God nor proud of thy self As he that hath no other good parts but money and locks up that or employs it so as that his money feeds upon the Commonwealth and does not feed it that it lies gnawing and sucking blood by Usury and does not make blood by stirring and walking in Merchandize is an unprofitable member in State so he that hath good parts and smothers them in a retired and useless life is inexcusable in the same measure When therefore men retire themselves into Cloysters and Monasteries when they will not be content with St. Pauls diminution to be changed from Saul to Paulus which is little but will go lower then that little by being called minorites less then little and lower then that minims least of all and yet finde an order less then that as they have done nullani nothing at all Exore suo out of their own mouths they shall be judged and that which they have made themselves here God shal make them in the world to come nullanos nothing at all Paulum sepultae distatinertiae celata virtus It is all one as if he had no grace of lips if he never have the grace to open his lips to bury himself alive is as much wrong to the State as if he kill himself Every man hath a Politick life as well as a natural life and he may no more take himself away from the world then he may make himself away out of the world For he that dies so by withdrawing himself from his calling from the labours of mutual society in this life that man kills himself and God calls him not Morte morietur He shall die a double death an Allegorical death here in his retiring from his own hand and a real death from the hand of God hereafter In this case that Vae soli Wo be unto him that is alone hath the heaviest weight with it when a man lives so alone as that he respects no body but himself his own ease and his own ends For to sum up all concerning this part the Subject as our principal duty is Pureness of heart towards God and to love that intirely earnestly so the next is the Grace of lips Ability to serve the Publick which though we be bound not to love it with a pride we are bound not to smother with a retiring And then for these endowments for being Religious and serviceable to the State The King shall be our friend Which is our second general part to which in our order proposed we are now come As it is frequent and ordinary in the Scriptures when the Holy Ghost would express a superlative Rev nota superlativi the highest degree of any thing to express it by adding the name of God to it as when Saul and his company were in such a dead sleep as that David could take his Spear and pot of water from under his head It is called Tardemath Jehovah sopor Domini The sleep of the Lord The greatest sleep that could possess a man and so in many other places fortitudo Domini and timor Domini signifie the greatest strength and the greatest fear that could fall upon a man so also doth the Holy Ghost often descend from God to Gods Lieutenant and as to express superlatives he does sometimes use the name of God so doth he also sometimes use the name of King For Reges sunt summi Regis defluxus says that Author who is so antient that no man can tell when he was Trismegistus God is the Sun and Kings are Beams and emanations and influences that flow from him Such is the manner of the Holy Ghost expressing himself in Esai Tyrus shall be forgotten seventy years Esay 23.15 according to the years of one King that is during the time of any one mans life how happy and fortunate soever And so also the miserable and wretched estate of the wicked is likewise expressed Job 18.14 His hope shall be rooted out of his dwelling and shall drive him to the King of fears that is to the greatest despair ad Regem interituum says the Vulgar to the greatest destruction that can be conceived So that in this first sence Amicitia Regis the Kings friendship that is promised here The King shall be his friend is a superlative friendship a spreading a delating an universal friendship He that is thus qualified all the world shall love him Rex qui fortunatus So also by the name of King both in the Scriptures and in Josephus and in many more prophane and secular Authors are often designed such persons as were not truly of the rank and quality of Kings but persons that lived in plentiful and abundant fortunes and had all the temporal happinesses of this life were called Kings And in this sence the Kings friendship that is promised here The King shall be his friend is utilis amicitia all such frinds as may do him good God promises that to men thus endow'd and qualified belongs the love and assistance that men of plentiful fortunes can give great Persons great in Estate great in Power and Authority shall confer their favours upon such men and not upon such as only serve to swell a train always for ostentation sometimes for sedition much less shall they confer their favours upon sycophants and buffoons least of all upon the servants of their vices and voluptuousness but they whom God hath made Kings in that sence Masters of abundant fortunes shall do good to them only who have this pureness of heart and grace of lips Rex Ipse But if these words be not only intended of the King literally That he shall do good to men thus endowed and qualified but extended to all men in their proportion that all that are able should do good to such persons yet this Text is principally intended of the King himself and therefore is so expressed singularly and emphatically The King shall be his friend As God hath appointed it for a particular dignity to his Spouse the Church That Kings shall be their foster-fathers Esa 49.23 and Queens their nurses so God hath designed it for a particular happiness of religious and capable men that they may stand before the King and hear his wisdom as the Queen of Sheba observed of the servants of Solomon 1 Reg 10. 9. and pronounced them happy for that This then is a happiness belonging to this pureness and this grace that the King shall not only nor absolutely rely upon the information of others and take such a measure and such a character of men as the good or bad affections of others will present unto him but he shall take an immediate knowledge of them himself he shall observe their love to this pureness of heart and their grace of lips and so become their friend Unto which of the Angels said
our Neighbours Proximus tuus est antequam Christianus est August A man is thy Neighbor by his Humanity not by his Divinity by his Nature not by his Religion a Virginian is thy Neighbor as well as a Londoner and all men are in every good mans Diocess and Parish Irrides odorantem lapides says that Father Thou seest a man worship an Image and thou laughest him to scorn assist him direct him if thou canst but scorn him not Ignoras quomodo illum praesciverit Deus thou knowest not Gods purpose nor the way of Gods purpose upon that man his way may be to convert that man by thee and to bring that man to serve him Religio tuis fortasse quam tu qui irridebas perchance more sincerely then thou not onely when thou didst laugh at him but even when thou didst preach to him For brass I will bring gold says God in Esay and for iron silver God can work in all metals and transmute all metals he can make a Moral Man a Christian and a Superstitious Christian a sincere Christian a Papist a Protestant and a dissolute Protestant a holy man by thy preaching And therefore let this light shine in our hearts in the testimony of a good Conscience in having accepted this Calling but also shine in our tongues preach Though the Disease of St. Chrysostomes times should overtake ours Nicepho Qui quantum placuit tantum principibus displicuit The more good he did by preaching the more some great persons were displeased with him yet all this were but St. Paul's importune a little out of season but out of season we must preach How much more now now when as the Apostle says of God we may say of Gods Lieutenant In whom there is no change nor shadow of change no approach towards a change no occasion of jealousie of it How much were we inexcuseable if either out of fullness of fortunes or emptiness of learning if either out of state or business or laziness or pretence of fear where no fear is we should smother this light which if it have truly shin'd in our hearts will shine in our tongues too It must shine there and it must shine in our hands also in our actions in the example of our life Christ says to his Apostles Vos estis Lux You are light there they were illumin'd ' Mat. 15.14 16. but to what use It follows That men may see your good works For as St. Ambrose says of the Creation Frustra fecisset Lucem Ambro. God had made light to no purpose if he had not made Creatures to show by that light so we have the light of Learning and the light of other abilities to no purpose if we have no good works to show when we have drawn mens eyes upon us Upon those words of Solomons Gregor Tempus tacendi tempus loquendi St. Gregory makes this note That Solomon does not say first There is a time of speaking and a time of silence that when a man hath taken that calling that binds him to speak then he might prevaricate in a treacherous silence but first there is a time of silence of study of preparation how to speak and then speak on in Gods Name But howsoever there may be tempus tacendi some time wherein we may be silent yet there is not tempus peccandi no circumstance of time no circumstance at all can excuse an ill life in an ill man less in a leading and exemplar man least of all in a Church-man To that which is vulgarly said Loquere ut te vidiam speak that I may see thee I do not see thee not see what is in thee except I hear thee preach Let me add more Age ut te audiam do something that I may hear thee I do not hear thee not hear thee to believe thee except I hear of thee in a good testimony of thy conversation I hope our times and our callings is far enough from that suspition of St. Ambrose Ne sit nomen inane crimen immane in Sacerdotibus God forbid the name of Priest should priviledge any man otherwise obnoxious from just censure He were a stranee Master of faculties to himself that would give himself a Dispensation so this were truly to incur a Premunire in the highest Kingdom to forfeit all everlastingly to appeal from our conversation to our profession to make a holy profession the Cloak nay the reason of unholy actions But I speak not now of enormous ill but of omissions of good and of too easie venturing upon things in their own nature indifferent For as for our words St. Bernard says well Nugae in ore laici sunt Nugae in ore Sacerdotis blasphemiae Idle words are but idle words in a secular mans mouth but in a Church-mans mouth they are blasphemies So for our actions it may become us it may concern us to abstain from some indifferent things which other men without any scandal may do Hierom. Vehementer destruit Ecclaesiam Dei laicos esse meliores Clericis Nothing shakes the Church more then when Church-men are no better then other men are 4. 10. Where we read in Genesis Vox sanguinis The voice of Abel's blood calls it is in the Original Vox sanguinum of bloods in the plural many bloods much blood the blood of a whole Parish of a whole Province cries out against the life of such a man for his Sermons are but his Texts his life is his Sermon that preaches Aaron and Moses were joyned in Commission Aaron had the tongue the power of speaking Moses had the Rod the power of doing great works When the Lystrians call'd Paul Act. 14.12 Mercury for his Eloquence they call'd his Companion Barnabas Jupiter their eye was upon their great work as well as their sweet words Clearly and ingenuously we we the Ministers of the Gospel acknowledge our selves to be principally intended by the Apostle in this Text this light that is the knowledge and the love of Gods truth must shine in our hearts sincerely there and in our tongues assidiously there and in our hands evidently there and so we are the persons but yet not we alone though the Apostle express it in that phrase in Cordibus nostris When this Apostle speaks of Hereditas nostra our inheritance and Pax nostra our peace and Spes nostra our hope as he does to the Ephesians and often elsewhere he does not so appropriate Christ of whom he says all that to himself as that they to whom he writes should not have an inheritance and a peace and a hope in Christ as well as he or any Apostle So when he says here in Cordibus nostris in our hearts he intends that the Colossians that people to whom he writes and he writes to all should have that light in their hearts and consequently in their tongues and hands too in words and actions as well as men of the Church It is
God at any time Amicus Thou art my son says the Apostle Indeed to none of them Heb. 1.5 it was a name peculiar to Christ Unto what man did God ever say Thou art my friend only to one to Abraham Israel and Jacob Esa 41.8 2 Chr. 20.7 and the seed of Abraham my friend Jehosaphat before this had taken knowledge of this friendship between God and Abraham Didst thou not give this Land to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever And so doth St. James also record this friendship after Abraham believed and he was called the friend of God James 2.23 God never called any man friend but him to whom he gave a change of name and honorable additions He called him Abraham a name of dilatation Patrem multitudinum a Father of multitudes he made him able to do good to others for he did not only say Blessed shalt thou be for that might be blessed of others or blessed amongst others but it is not Eris Benedictus but Eris Benedictio Thou shalt be a Blessing Gen. 12.2 a Blessing to others I will make thee a blessed instrument of conveying my Blessings to other men That 's Gods friendship and the highest preferment that man is capable of in this life to extend men beyond themselves and make them his Instruments to others Step we a step lower from God to the King for as Kings have no example but God so according to that example they are reserv'd and sparing in affording that name of friend to any For as moral men have noted friendsship implies some degrees of equality which cannot stand between King and Subject But this is the encouragement to this loving of pureness and this seeking the grace of lips that this is the true and the only way to that friendship of the King which is intended in the word of this Text. The word is Nagnah and Nagnah hath such a latitude in the Scriptures as may well give satisfaction to any Subject For Nagnah signifies Amare to love and so the King shall love this man But we have known cases in which Kings have been fain to disguise and dissemble their love out of a tenderness and lothness to grieve them whom they have lov'd before and so the King may love this man and he never the better Therefore this word Nagnah signifies sociare to draw him nearer to associate him to him in Counsels and other ways and always to afford him easie accesses unto him but we have known cases too in which Kings though they have opened one Cabinet their Affections yet they have shut up another their Judgements and their last purposes even from them whom they have drawn near them For Kings naturally love to be at their liberty and it is not only a greatness but an ease to be able to disavow an instruction upon the mis-understanding of the Minister and Instrument Therefore against such intricacies and intanglings this Dagnah signifies Docere The King shall teach him inform him directly candidly ingenuously apertly without any perplexities or reservations And who would not purifie his heart and add grace to his lips that he might taste this friendship of the King to be loved by him and feel the influences of his affection to be drawn near him and made partaker of his consultations to be taught by him and carried all the way with clearness and without danger of mistaking And who would not imploy the thoughts of a pure heart and the praises of graceful lips in thanksgivings to Almighty God who hath bless'd us with such times as that such Subjects have found such a King Neither is this encouragement to this Pureness and this Grace in our Text only in the benignity of the King which yet were a just provocation that the King would consider such men before others for all Kings do not always so but it is in his duty it is in his office for as our Translators have expressed it we see it is not said The King will be but The King shall be his friend it is not an arbitrary but a necessary thing God in whose hands the Kings heart is Non Arbitrarium and who only can give Law and Precept to the King hath said The King shall be his friend Neither hath God left the King at that largenesse that he shall seem to be his friend and do for him as though he were his friend but yet not be so Etiam simulare Philosophiam Philosophia est It is a degree of wisdom to seem wise Veritas Amicitiae To be able to hold the world in opinion that one is great with the King is a degree of greatness And we have some Tales and Apophthegms to that purpose when men have been suiters to the King for that favour that they might bid him but good morrow in his ear thereby to put impressions in the beholders that they had a familiar interest in him But when the grounds of this Royal friendship are true and solid Purenss of heart and Grace of lips the friendship must be so too And then the ground being good as it is not said the King shall seem to be but he shall be so it is not said the king shall have been but he shall be he shall be so still he shall continue this friendship but yet but so long as this Pureness and this Grace continues which produced this friendship in him Duratio Amicitiae For all this great frame the friendship of the King turns upon this little hinge this particle this monosyllable His The King shall be His His friend And to whom hath that His relation To him and him only that hath both Pureness of heart and Grace of lips Neither truth in Religion nor abilities to serve the Publique must be wanting in him to whom the King shall be a friend For for the first sincerity in Religion St. Ambrose expressed that Ambros Offic. l. 2.22 and the other too elegantly An idoneum putabo qui mihi det consilium qui non dat sibi Can I think him fit to give me counsel that mis-counsels himself in the highest business Religion Mihi eum vacare credam qui sibi non vacat Shall I think that he will study me that neglects himself His best self the soul it self And then for his doing good to the Publick L. 1. 8. Officium ab Efficiendo Efficium dicendum says he He only is fit for an Office that knows how to execute it he must have pureness of heart for his end for he that proposes not that end will make an ill end And he must have this Grace of lips which implies that civil-wiswisdom which as the Philosopher notes versatur circa media perveniendi He must know wherein he may be useful and beneficial to others thankful to God profitable to others that 's his circumference and then his centre here is the love of the King For these destroy not one