else this is their Attrition and this is their enough for salvation A sigh of the penitent a word of the Priest makes all clean and induces an absolute pureness Thus some of the Ancients went too far They would pardon no sin after Baptism These new Men go not far enough They pardon all too easily Old Physicians thought all hurts in the heart presently mortal These new Physitians can pare off some of the heart and give it to Idolatry for so they say that the worship due to God may be given to a creature so it be not Tanquam Deo as that the Creature is thereby professed to be God and yet they confess that that worship which they give to the creature is idolatry but not that Idolatry say they which is forbidden in the commandment which is that that Creature so worshipped with the worship due to God be also believed to be God and so truely I believe it will be hard to finde any Idolatry in the world That they that worship any thing in representation of God do believe advisedly that representation to be very God But the true reason why no hurt received in the heart can be healed is quia palpitat because it is in perpetual motion If the heart lay still as other parts do so that medicinal helps might be applied to it and admitted by it there were more hope Therefore when we lay such a weight upon the heart as may settle it fix it give it a reposedness and acquiescence though it do receive some wounds though it be touched with some tentations it may be cured But is there any such weight as should so settle the heart the soul of Man This love of Pureness is that weight August Amor est pondus animae sicut gravitas Corporis As the weight of my body makes that steady so this love of Pureness is the weight and the ballast of my soul and this weight stays the palpitation the variation the deviation of the heart upon other objects which variation frustrates all endeavors to cure it The love of this pureness is both the ballast and the frait to carry thee steadily and richly too through all storms and tempests spiritual and temporal in this life to the everlasting Jerusalem If you be come to this love this love of pureness of heart never to lock up your door till you have carried out your dust never to shut your eyes at night till you have swept your conscience and cast your foulness into that infinite sea of the blood of Christ Jesus which can contract no foulness by it never to open your eyes in the morning but that you look out to glorifie God in the rising of the Sun and in his other creatures and in the peace and safety of your house and family and the health of your children and servants But especially to look inward and consider whether you have not that night mingled poyson with Gods Physick whether you have not mingled sloth and laziness in that which God gave you for rest and refreshing whether you have not mingled licentiousness in that which God gave you for a remedy against fornication And then when you shall have found that sin hath been awake in you even when your bodies were asleep be sure you cast not the Spirit of God into a sleep in you when your bodies are awake but that you proceed vigilantly in your several wayes with a fore-knowledge that there is every where coluber in via A Snake in the way in every way that you can take in every course of life in every calling there is some of the seed of the old Serpent presents it self And then if by Gods infallible word explicated in his Church Psal 119.104 which is Lucerna pedibus vestris The word is the light but the Church is the Lanthorne 2 Sam. 22.29 it presents and preserves that light unto you and though it be said Lucerna Dominus Apoc. 21.23 Thou O Lord art my light God himself And Lucerna Agnus The Lamb Christ himself is your light And lucerna mandatum Prov. 6.23 John 5.35 The commandments of God are your light yet it is also said of Iohn Baptist Lucerna ardens he was a burning and a shining light The Ministry of the Gospel in the Church is your light If by the benefit of this light you consider every step you make weigh every action you undertake this is that love of Pureness that Pondus animae the setling of the heart that keeps it from evaporating upon transitory things and settles it so as that it becomes capable of that cure which God in his Church in the Absolution of sins and seals of Reconciliation exhibits to it To recollect and contract that which hath been said This pureness is not a purifying pureness to correct and reform those things that appertain not to us nor it is not such a purified pureness as makes us Canonize our selves and think others Reprobates for all this is no pureness at all neither is it the true pureness if it be not in the heart for outward good works not done to good ends are impure nor is this pureness of heart acquired by any other means then by discharging the heart in a detestation of former habits and a sedulous watchfulness in preventing future attempts nor can this pureness of heart though by these means attain'd to be preserved but by this noble and incorruptible affection of Love that puts a true value upon it and therefore prefers it above all other things And this was the first of the two marks which we found to be upon that person that should be capable of the Kings friendship He that loveth pureness of heart And the other is that he have by honest industry fitted himself in some way to be of use to the publike delivered in that phrase Grace of lips He that loveth pureness of heart There 's his honesty for the Grace of his lips There 's his sufficiency The King shall be his friend There 's his reward his preferment Gratia labiorum Ordinarily in Scriptures where this word lips is not taken naturally literally narrowly for that part of the body but transferred to a figurative and larger sense either it signifies speaking onely as in Solomon As righteous lips are the delight of Kings and the King loveth him that speaketh right things That is Him in whose Counsels Prov. 16.13 and in whose relations he may confide and rely or else it is enlarged to all manner of expressing a mans ability to do service to that State in which God hath made his station and by lips and fruits of lips is well understood the fruit of all his good labors and endeavors And so may those words be well interpreted With the fruit of a mans mouth shall his belly be satisfied and with the encrease of his lips shall he be filled 18.20 That is his honest labors in a lawful calling shall
speaking for him Diis Loquimini Deo speak to God And loquimini Diis speak to them whom God hath call'd Gods As Religious Kings are bound to speak to God by way of prayer so those who have that sacred office and those that have that Honorable office to do so are bound to speak to Kings by way of Counsel God hath made all good men partakers of the Divine Nature They are the sons of God The seed of God But God hath made Kings partakers of his Office and Administration And as between man and himself God hath put a Mediator that consists of God and Man so between Princes and People God hath put Mediators too who consider'd in themselves retain the nature of the people so Christ did of man but consider'd in their places have fair and venerable beams of his power and influences of him upon them And as our Mediator Christ Jesus found always his Fathers ears open to him so do the Church and State enter blessedly and successfully by these Mediators into the ears of the King Of our Mediator Christ himself Heb. 5.7 it is said That he offered up prayers and strong cryes and Tears Even Christ was put to some difficulties in his Mediation for those that were his But he was heard says that text in that he feared Even in those things wherein in some emergent difficulties they may be afraid they shall not these Mediators are graciously and opportunely heard too in the due discharge of their offices That which was Davids prayer is our possession Psal 36.11 our happiness Let not the foot of Pride come against us we know there is no Pride in the Head and because there is no fault in the Hands neither that is in them into whose hands this blessed Mediatorship is committed by the great places of power and Councel which they worthily hold the foot of pride forraign or home-oppression does not shall not tread us down And for the continuation of this happiness let me have leave to say with Mordicai's humility and earnestness too to all such Mediators 4.14 that which he said to Esther Who knows whether thou beest not brought to this place for this purpose To speak that which his sacred and gracious ears to whom thou speakest will always be well pleased to hear when it is delivered by them to whom it belongs to speak it and in such humble and reserved manner as such soveraign persons as owe an account but to God should be spoke too Sic loquimini Deo So let Kings speak to God that was our first Sic loquimini Diis So let them whom Kings trust speak to Kings whom God hath called Gods that was our second And then a third branch in this rule of our first duty is Sic loquimini imaginibus Dei So speak you to Gods Images to Men of condition inferior to your selves for they also are Images of God as you are And this is truely Imaginibus Dei most literally the purpose of the Apostle here That you under-value no Man for his outward appearance Vers 2. That your over-value no man for his goodly apparel or Gold Rings That you say not to a poor man Stand thou there Vers 3. or if you admit him to sit Sit here under my footstool But it is a precept of Accessibleness and of Affability Affability that is A civility of the City of God and a Courtship of the Court of heaven to receive other Men the Images of God Apoc. 3.20 with the same easiness that God receives you God stands at the Door and knocks and stays our leisure to see if we will open and let him in Even at the door of his Beloved he stood and knocked till his head was filled with dew and his locks with the drops of the night Cant. 5.2 But God puts none of us to that to which he puts himself and his Christ But Knock says he and it shall be opened unto you Mat. 7.7 No staying at the door opened as soon as you knock The nearest that our Expositors can come to finde what it was that offended God in Moses striking of the Rock for water is that he strook it twice Num. 20.10 that he did not believe that God would answer his expectation at one striking God is no in-accessible God that he may not be come to nor inexorable that he will not be moved if he be spoken to nor dilatory that he does not that he does seasonably Daniel presents God Antiquum Dierum as an Old Man Ambro. but that is as a Reverend not as a froward person Mens in sermonibus nostris habitat gubernat verba The soul of man is incorporate in his word As he speaks we think he thinks Et bonus paterfamilias in illo primo vestibulo aestimatur says the same Father As we believe that to be a free house where there is an easie entrance so we doubt the less of a good heart if we finde charitable and courteous language But yet there is an excess in this too in this self-effusion this pouring of a mans self out in fair and promising language Inaccessibleness is the fault which the Apostle aims at here and truly the most inaccessible Man that is is the over-liberal and profuse promiser He is therefore the most inaccessible because he is absent when I am come to him and when I do speak with him To a retir'd to a reserv'd man we do not easily get but when we are there he is there too To an open and liberal promiser we get easily but when we are with him he is away because his heart his purpose is not there But sic loquimini Deo so speak ye to God that 's a remembrance to Kings Sic loquimini Diis so speak ye to them whom God hath call'd Gods that 's a remembrance to Mediators between Kings and Subjects Sic loquimini Imaginibus Dei so speak ye to Gods Image to all men that 's a remembrance to all that possess any superiority over others as that your loquimini may be accompanied with a facite your saying with Doing your good words with good actions for so our Apostle joyns them here So speak ye and so Do and so we are come to our second rule from the rule of our Words to the Rule of our Actions Facite John Baptist was all voice yet John Baptist was a fore-runner of Christ The best words are but words but they are the fore-runners of Deeds but Christ himself as he was God himself is Purus Actus all Action all Doing Comfortable words are good cordials They revive the spirits they have the nature of such occasional physick but Deeds are our food our dyet that that constantly nourishes us 1 John 3.18 Non verbo says the Apostle Let us not love in word nor in tongue but in Deed and in Truth Not that we may not love in words but
that our Deeds are the true seals of that love which was also love Ambrose when it was in words But Ne quod luxuriat in flore attenuetur hebetetur in fructu lest that tree that blew early and plentifully blast before it knit second your good words with actions too It is the Husbandry and the Harvest of the righteous man as it gather'd in David The Mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom Psal 37.30 so we read it there it is in the Tongue in words onely The Vulgar hath it Meditatur He Meditates it so the heart is got in But the Original Hagah is noted to signifie fructificavit He brings forth fruits thereof and so the Hand is got in too And when that which is well spoken was well meant and hath been well expressed in Action that 's the Husbandry of the righteous Man then his Harvest is all in It is the way of God himself Philo Judaeus notes Exod. 20.18 that the people are said to have seen the noise and the voice of God because whatsoever God says it determines in Action If we may hear God we may see him what he says he does too Therefore from that example of God himself S. Gregory directs us We must says he shew our Love Et veneratione sermonis Ministerio largitatis what a fair respect in words and what a reall supply in Deeds Nay when we look upon our pattern that is God Tertullian notes well That God prevented his own speaking by Doing Benedicebat quae benefaciebat first he made all things Good and then he Blessed them that they might be better first he wrought and then he spoke And so Christs way and proceeding is presented to us too so far from not Doing when he speaks as that he Does before he speaks Acts 1.1 Luke ult 19. Christ began to Do and to Teach says S. Luke but first to Do. And He was mighty in Deeds and in words but first in Deeds We cannot write so well as our Copy to begin alwayes at Deeds as God and his Christ But yet let us labor to write so fair after it as first to afford comfortable words and though our Deeds come after yet to have them from the beginning in our intention and that we do them not because we promised but promise because we love to do good and love to lay upon our selves the obligation of a promise The instrument and Organ of Nature was the eye The Natural Man finds God in that he sees in the Creature The Organ of the Law which exalted and rectified Nature was the Hand Fac hoc vives perform the law and thou shalt live So also the Organ of the Gospel is the Ear for faith comes by hearing But then the Organ of faith it self is the Hand too A Hand that lays hold upon the Merits of Christ for my self and a Hand that delivers me over to the Church of God in a holy life and exemplary Actions for the edification of others So that All All from nature to Grace determines in Action in Doing good Sic facite Deo so do good to God in reall assisting his cause Sic facite Diis so do good to them whom God hath called Gods in reall secondings their religious purposes Sic facite Imaginibus Dei so do good to the Images of God in reall relieving his distressed Members as that you do all this upon that which is made the Reason of all in the second part of this text Because you are to be judged by the law of liberty Timor futuri judicii hujus vitae praedagogus Part. II. Basil Our School-Master to teach us to stand upright in the last judgement Judicium is the Meditation and the fear of that judgement in this life It is our School-master and School-master enough I said unto the fool Psal 75.5 thus and thus says David And I said unto the wicked thus and thus says he for says he God is the Judge He thought it enough to enlighten the understanding of the fool enough to rectifie the perverseness of the wicked if he could set God before them in that Notion as a Judge for this is one great benefit from the present contemplation of the future judgement that whosoever does truly and advisedly believe that ever he shall come to that judgement is at it now He that believes that God will judge him is Gods Commissioner Gods Delegate and in his name judges himself now Therefore it is a useful mistaking which the Romane Translation is fallen into in this Text in reading it thus Sicut incipientes judicari So speak ye and so Do as they upon whom the judgement were already begun For Qui timet ante Christi Tribunal praesentari Aug. He that is afraid to be brought to the last judgement hath but one Refuge but one Sanctuary Ascendat Tribunal Mentis suae constituat se ante seipsum Let him cite himself before himself give evidence himself against himself and so guilty as he is found here so innocent he shall stand there Let him proceed upon himself as Job did 9.28 and he is safe I am afraid of all my sorrow says he Afraid that I have not said enough against my self nor repented enough Afraid that my sorrows have not been sincere but mingled with circumstances of loss of health or honour or fortune occasioned by my sins and not onely not principally for the sin it self I am afraid of all my sorrowes sayes he but how much more then of my mirths and pleasures To judge our selves by the judgement of flatterers that depend upon us to judge our selves by the event and success of things I am enriched I am preferred by this course and therefore all 's well to judge our selves by example of others others do thus and why not I All these proceedings are Coram non Judice all these are literally Praemunire cases for they are appellations into forraigne Jurisdictions and forraigne Judicatures Onely our own conscience rectified is a competent judge And they that have passed the triall of that judgement do not so much rise to judgement at last as stand and continue in judgement their judgement that is their triall is passed here and there they shall onely receive sentence and that sentence shall be Euge bone serve Well done good and faithfull servant since thou didst enter into Judgement in the other world enter into thy Masters Joy in this But howso ever we be prepar'd for that judgement well or not well and howsoever the Judge be disposed towards us well or not well there is this comfort given us here that that judgement shall be per legem by a Law we shall be judged by a law of Liberty which is our second branch in this second part Per Legem The Jews that prosecuted the Judgement against Christ durst not do that without pretending a Law Habemus legem say they we have a law
in contemplation of whom that service is done and that is done especially when by a holy and exemplar life we draw others to the love and obedience of the same Gospell which we professe for then have we declared this true and faithfull saying this Gospell to have been worthy of all acceptation when we have look'd upon it by our reason embraced it by our Faith and declared it by our good works and all these considerations arose out of that which at the beginning we called Radicem the Roote of this Gospell the Word the Scripture the Tree it self the Body of the Gospell that is The coming of Christ and the Reason of his coming To save Sinners And then the fruit of this Gospell that Humility by which the Apostle confesseth himselfe to be the greatest Sinner we reserve for another exercise Serm. 14. A Second SERMON Preached at Whitehall April 2. 1621. SERMON XIV 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners of which I am the chiefest WE have considered heretofore that which appertained to the Roote and all the circumstances thereof That which belongs to the Tree it selfe what this acceptable Gospell is That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners and then that which appertains to the fruit of this Gospell the Humility of the Apostle in applying it to himselfe Quorum ego Of which Sinners I am the chiefest were reserved for this time In the first of these that which we call the Tree the Body of this Gospell there are three branches first an Advent A coming and secondly the Person that came and Lastly the worke for which he came And in the first of these we shall make these steps First that it is a new coming of a Person who was not here before at least not in that manner as he comes now venit He came And Secondly that this coming is in Act not only in Decree so he was come and slaine ab initio from all eternity in God's purpose of our Salvation nor come only in promise so he came wrapped up in the first promise of a Messiah in Paradise in that ipse conteret He shall bruise the Serpents head nor come only in the often renuing of that promise to Abraham in semine tuo In thy seed shall all Nations be blessed nor only in the ratification and refreshing of that promise to Judah Donec Silo Till Silo come and to David in Solio tuo The Scepter shall not depart nor as he came in the Prophets in I says virgo concipiet That he should come of a virgin nor in Michaeas Et tu Bethlem That he should come out of that Towne but this is a Historicall not a Propheticall an Actuall not a Promissary coming it is a coming already executed venit he came he is come And then Thirdly venit in mundum He came into the World into the whole World so that by his purpose first extends to all the Nations of the World and then it shall extend to thee in particular who art a part of this world He is come into the world and into thee From hence we shall descend to our second branch to the considerations of the person that comes and he is first Christus in which one name we find first his capacity to reconcile God and man because he is a mixt person uniting both in himself and we find also his Commission to work this Reconciliation because he is Christus an annointed person appointed by that unction to that purpose And thirdly we find him to be Jesus that is actually a Saviour that as we had first his capacity and his Commission in the name of Christ so we might have the execution of this Commission in the name of Jesus And then lastly in the last branch of this part we shall see the work it self Venit salvare He came to save It is not offerre to offer it to them whom he did intend it to but he came really and truly to save It was not to show a land of promise to Moyses then say there it is but thou shalt never come at it It was not to shew us salvation then say there it is in Baptism it is in Preaching and in the other Sacrament it is but soft there is a Decree of predestination against thee and thou shalt have none of it But venit salvare He came to save And whom Sinners Those who the more they ackowledg themselves to be so the nearer they are to this salvation First then for the Advent this comming of Christ Part 1. we have a Rule reasonable general in the school Missio in divinis est novo modo operatio Then is any person of the Trinity said to be sent or to come when they work in any place or in any person in another manner or measure then they did before yet that Rule doth not reach home to the expressing of all commings of the persons of the Trinity The second person came more pretentially then so more then in an extraordinary working and Energie and execution of his power if it be rightly apprehended by those Fathers who in many of those Angels which appear'd to the Patriarcks and whose service God us'd in delivering Israel out of Egypt and in giving them the Law in Sinai to be the son of God himself to have been present and many things to have been attributed to the Angels in those histories which were done by the son of God not only working but present in that place at that time So also the Holy Ghost came more presentially then so more then by an extraordinary extention of his power when he came presentially and personally in the Dove to seal Johns Baptism upon Christ But yet though those pretential commings of Christ as an Angel in the old Testament and this comming of the Holy Ghost in a Dove in the New were more then ordinary commings and more then extraordinary workings too yet they were all far short of this comming of the son of God in this Text for it could never be said properly in any of those cases That that or that Angel was the son of God the second person or that that Dove was the Holy Ghost or the third person of the Trinity but in this Advent which we have in hand here it is truly and properly said this man is God this son of Mary is the son of God this Carpenters son is that very God that made the world He came so to us as that he became us not only by a new and more powerful working in us but by assuming our nature upon himself It is a perplex't question in the School and truly the Balance in those of the middle age very even whether if Adam had not sinned the son of God had come into the world and taken our nature and our flesh upon him Out of the infinite testimonies of
the soul it is the only means to recover thee But yet wert thou not better to make this grace thy diet then thy physick Wert thou not better to nourish thy soul with this grace all the way then to hope to purge thy soul with it at last This as a Diet the Apostle prescribes thee Whether you eat or drink do all to the glory of God He intends it farther there Whatsoever you do and farther then that in another place Whatsoever ye do in deed 1 Cor. 10.31 Col. 3.17 or in word do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Since there is no action so little but God may be glorified in it there is no action so little but the Devil may have his end in it too and may overthrow thee by a tentation which thou thinkest thy self strong enough to leap over And therefore if you have not given over all love of true weights and true measures weigh and measure your particular and indifferent actions before you do them and you shall see at least grains of iniquity in them and then this advantage will you have by this preconsideration and weighing your actions before hand that when you know there is sin in that action and know that nothing can counterpoise nor weigh down sin but onely the Blood of Christ Jesus you may know too that the Blood of Christ Jesus cannot be had before hand God gives no such non-obstantes no such priviledges no leave to sin no pardon for sin before it be committed And therefore if this premeditation of this action bring thee to see that there is sin in it it must necessarily put a tenderness a horror an aversion in thee from doing that to which being thus done with this preconsideration and presumption the Blood of thy Saviour doth not appertain To all your other Wares the baser and courser they are the greater weight and measure you are content to give to the basest of all to sin you give the lightest weight and scantest measure and you supply all with the excuses of the custom of the time that the necessity of your trade forces you to it else you should be poor and poorly thought of Beloved God never puts his children to a perplexity to a necessity of doing any sin how little soever though for the avoiding of a sin as manifold as Adams It is not a little request to you to beware of little sins It is not a little request and therefore I make it in the words of the greatest to the greatest for they are all one Head and Body of Christ to his Church Cant. 2.15 Capite vulpeculas Take us the little Foxes for they devour the Vines It is not a cropping not a pilling nor a retarding of the growth of the Vines but Demoliuntur as little as those Foxes are they devour the Vines they root them out Thy Soul is not so easily devoured by that Lion 1 Pet. 5.8 Apoc. 5.5 that seeks whom he may devour for still he is put to seek and does not always finde And thou shalt hear his roaring that is thou shalt discern a great sin and the Lion of the Tribe of Judah will come in to thy succor as soon as thou callest But take heed that thy Soul be not eaten up with vermin by those little sins which thou thinkst thou canst forbear and give over when thou wilt God punished the Egyptians most by little things Hailstones and Frogs and Grashoppers and Pharaohs Sorcerers Exod. 8.16 which did greater failed in the least in Lice It is true there is Physick for this Christ Jesus that receives thy greatest sins into his Blood can receive these Vermin too into his Bowels even at last but yet still make his Grace rather thy Diet by a daily consideration before hand then thy Physick at last It is ill to take two Physicks at once bodily and ghostly Physick too upon thy Death-bed The Apothecary and the Physician do well together the Apothecary and the Priest not so well Consult with him before at least consult with thine own Conscience in those little actions which either their own nature or the custom of the time or thy course of life thy calling and the example of others in thy calling made thee think indifferent For though it may seem a degree of flattery to preach against little sins in such a City as this where greater sins do abound yet because these be the materials and elements of greater sins and it is impossible to say where a Bowl will lie that is let fall down a Hill though it be let never so gently out of the hand and there is no pureness of heart till even these Cobwebs and Crums be swept away He that affects that pureness will consider well that of St. Augustine Psal 24.4 Interest inter rectum corde mundum corde a right heart and a clean heart is not all one He may have a right heart that keeps in the right way in the profession of the right Religion but he onely keeps his heart pure that watches all his steps even in that right way St. Augustine considers that question of David Psal 24.3 Quis ascendet and quis stabit Who shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place And he applies the answer Innocens manibus mundo corde He that hath clean hands and a pure heart Thus That he that hath clean hands clean from blood clean from bribery and oppression clean from fornication and such notorious sins Ascendet in montem He shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord he shall be admitted to all the benefits that the Christian Church can give him but onely he that hath a pure heart a care to glorifie God in a holy watchfulness upon all his particular actions to the exclusion of lesser sins stabit shall stand safe confident unshaken in his holy place even in the judgment of God clean hands justifie him to men a pure heart to God And therefore this pureness of heart is here wrapped up in the richest mantle in the noblest affection that the nature of man hath that is love For this is not onely a contentment an acquiescence a satisfaction a delight in this pureness of heart but love is a holy impatience in being without it or being in a jealousie that we are without it and it is a holy fervor and vehemency in the pursuit of it and a preferring it before any other thing that can be compared to it That 's love and therefore it deserves to be insisted upon now when in our order proposed at first from the thing it self that is required pureness and the seat and center of that pureness the heart and the way of this fixation of this pureness in the heart detestation of former habits of sins and prevention of future sins in a watchful consideration of all our actions before we do them We are come to that affection
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
another Religion and Prudence As that love which Christ bare to St. John who lay in his bosome towards whom Christ had certainly other humane and affectionate respects then he had to the rest made him not the less fit to be an Apostle and an Evangelist nor the great Office of Apostleship made him not unfit for that love that Christ bare him so both these endowments Pureness of heart and Grace of lips are not only compatible but necessary to him to whom the King shall be a friend And both these doth God require if we consider the force of the Original words when he says Bring ye men of wisdom and known among the Tribes and I will make them Rulers over you For Deut 1.13 that addition known among the Tribes excludes reserv'd men proud and inaccessible men though God do not intend there popular men yet he does intend men acceptable to the people And when David comes to a lustration to a sifting of his Family as he says He that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me expressing in that this Pureness so intending to speak of this Grace of lips Psal 101.6 which is an ability to be useful to others for which nothing makes a man more unfit then Pride and harshness and hardness of access he scarce knows how to express himself and his indignation against such a man Him says he that hath a proud look and a high heart I cannot and there he ends abruptly He does not say v. 5. I cannot work upon him I cannot mend him I cannot pardon him I cannot suffer him but only I cannot and no more I cannot tell what to do with him I cannot tell what to say of him and therefore I give him over Him that hath a proud look and a high heart I cannot Whatsoever his grace of lips be how good soever his parts he doth not only want the principal part Pureness of heart but he cannot be a fit instrument of that most blessed union between Prince and Subject if his proud look and harsh behavior make him unacceptable to honest men It was says the Orator to the Emperor Theodosius Execratio postrema an Execration and an expressing of their indignation beyond which they could not go when speaking of Tarquin Libidine praecipitem Avaritia caecum furore vaecordem crudelitate immanem vocarunt superbum They thought it enough to call a man that was licentious and covetous and furious and bloody proud Et putaverunt sufficere convitium they thought themselves sufficiently revenged upon him for all their grievances and that they had said as much as any Orator in an Invective any Poet in a Satyr could say when they had imprinted that name upon his memory Tarquin the Proud To those therefore that have insinuated themselves into the friendship of the King without these two endowments If the King hath always Christ for his example Matth. 22.12 if he say to them Amice quomodo intrasti Friend how came you in If you had not this wedding garment on or if this wedding garment were not your own but borrowed by an Hypocritical dissimulation Amice quomodo intrasti though you be never so much my friend in never so near place to me I must know how you got in for I have but two doors indeed not two doors but a gate and a wicket a greater and an inferior way A religious heart and useful parts if you have not these if you fear not God and if you study not as I do the welfare of my people you are not come in at my gate that is Religion nor at my wicket that is the good of my people And therefore how near so ever you be crept I must have a review an inquiry to know quomodo intrasti how you came in But for those which have these two endowments Religion and care of the publick we have the word of the King of Kings of God himself in the mouth of the wisest King King Solomon The King shall be his friend And the King hath Christ himself still for his example Who loved them whom he loved to the end For as long as the reason upon which he grounds his word remains Demesthenes Regis verbum Regi Rex est the Kings word the Kings love the Kings favor Regi Rex est is a King upon the King and bindes him to his word as well as his subjects are bound to him To recollect and fasten these pieces these be the benefits of this pureness of heart and grace of lips first That the King shall take an immediate and personal knowledge of him and not be misled by false characters or false images of him by any breath that would blast him in the Kings ear And then tnat he shall take it to be his Royal Office and Christian duty to do so that to those men whom he findes so qualified he shall be a friend in all those acceptations of the word in our Text Amabit he shall love them impart his affections to them Sociabit he shall associate them to him and impart his consultations unto them And Sociabit again He shall go along with them and accompany their labors and their services by the seal of his countenance and ratification And Docebit He shall instruct them clearly in his just pleasure without intangling or snaring them in perplexities by ambiguous directions This is the capacity required to be religious and useful this is the preferment assured The King shall be his friend and this is the compass of our Text. Now Beloved as we are able to interpret some places of the Revelation better then the Fathers could do Accommodatio ad Diem because we have seen the fulfilling of some of the Prophecies of that Book which they did but conjecture upon so we can interpret and apply this Text by way of accommodation the more usefully because we have seen these things performed by those Princes whom God hath set over us We need not that Edict of the Senate of Rome Ut sub titulo gratiarum agendarum That upon pretence of thanking our Princes for that which we say they had done Boni principes quae facerent recognoscerent Good Princes should take knowledge what they were bound to do though they had not done so yet We need not this Circuit nor this disguise for Gods hand hath been abundant towards us in raising Ministers of State so qualified and so endowed and such Princes as have fastned their friendships and conferred their favors upon such persons We celebrate seasonably opportunely the thankful acknowledgment of these mercies this day This day which God made for us according to the pattern of his first days in the Creation where Vesper mane dies unus the evening first and then the morning made up the day for here the saddest night and the joyfullest morning that ever the daughters of this Island saw made up this day Consider the tears of
any thing that shall be said before lessen but rather enlarge your devotion to that which shall be said of his Passion at the time of the due solemnization thereof Christ bled not a drop the lesse at last for having bled at his Circumcision before nor will you shed a teare the lesse then if you shed some now And therefore be now content to consider with me how to this God the Lord belong'd the issues of Death That God the Lord The Lord of Life could die is a strange contemplation That the red-Sea could be dry Potuisse Mori Exod. 14.21 That the Sun could stand still Jos 10.12 That an Oven could be seven times heat and not burn That Lyons could be hungry and not bite is strange miraculously strange But super-miraculous That God could die But that God would die is an exaltation of that But even of that also it is a super-exaltation that God should die must die and non exitus saith Saint Augustin God the Lord had no issue but by death and oportuit pati saith Christ himself all this Christ ought to suffer was bound to suffer Psal 94.1 Voluisse Mori Deus ultionum Deus saith David God is the God of Revenges He would not passe over the sin of man unrevenged unpunished But then Deus ultionum libere egit sayes that place The God of Revenges works freely he punishes he spares whom he will and would he not spare himself He would not Dilectio fortis ut Mors Can. 8.6 Love is as strong as Death stronger it drew in Death that naturally was not welcome Si possibile saith Christ If it be possible let this Cup passe when his Love expressed in a former Decree with his Father had made it impossible Many waters quench not Love Christ tryed many He was baptized out of his Love v. 7. and his love determin'd not there He wept over Jerusalem out of his love and his love determined not there He mingled blood with water in his Agony and that determined not his love He wept pure blood all his blood at all his eyes at all his pores in his flagellations and thornes to the Lord our God belonged the issues of blood and these expressed but these did not quench his love Oportuisse Mori He would not spare nay he would not spare himself There was nothing more free more voluntary more spontaneous then the death of Christ 'T is true libere egit he died voluntarily But yet when we consider the contract that had passed between his Father and him there was an Oportuit a kinde of necessity upon him All this Christ ought to suffer And when shall we date this obligation this Oportuit this necessity when shall we say it begun Certainly this Decree by which Christ was to suffer all this was an eternall Decree and was there any thing before that that was eternall Infiâ—ite love eternall love be pleased to follow this home and to consider it seriously that what liberty soever we can conceive in Christ to dy or not to dy this necessity of dying this Decree is as eternall as that Liberty and yet how small a matter made he of this Necessity and this dying Gen. 3.15 His Father calls it but a Bruise and but a bruising of his heele The Serpent shall bruise his heele and yet that was that the Serpent should practise and compasse his death Himself calls it but a Baptism as though he were to be the better for it I have a Baptism to be baptized with Luk. 12.50 and he was in paine till it was accomplished and yet this Baptism was his death The holy-Ghost calls it Joy For the joy which was set before him he endured the Crosse which was not a joy of his reward after his passion Heb. 12.2 but a joy that filled him even in the middest of those torments and arose from them When Christ cals his passion Calicem a cup and no worse Can ye drink of my cup He speaks not odiously not with detestation of it indeed it was a cup salus mundo Mat. 20.22 A health to all the world and quid retribuem saies David Psal 116.12 What shall I render unto the Lord Answer you with David Accipiam Calicom I will take the cup of salvation Take that that cup of salvation his passion if not into your present imitation yet into your present contemplation and behold how that Lord who was God yet could die would die must die for your salvation That Moses and Elias talked with Christ in the transfiguration both St. Matthew and St. Mark tel us but what they talked of Mat 17.3 Mat. 9.4 Luc. 9.31 only St. Luke Dicebant excessum ejus saies he they talked of his decease of his death which was to be accomplished at Jerusalem The word is of his Exodus the very word of our Text Exitus his issue by death Moses who in his Exodus had prefigured this issue of our Lord and in passing Israel out of Egypt through the red sea had foretold in that actual prophecy Christs passing of mankind through the sea of his blood and Elias whose Exodus and issue out of this world was a figure of Christs ascension had no doubt a great satisfaction in talking with our blessed Lord De excessu ejus of the full consummation of all this in his death which was to be accomplished at Jerusalem Our meditation of his death should be more viseral and affect us more because it is of a thing already done The ancient Romans had a certain tenderness and detestation of the name of death they would not name death no not in their wils there they would not say Si mori contingat but Si quid humanitas contingat not if or when I die but when the course of nature is accomplished upon me To us that speak daily of the death of Christ He was crucified dead and buried can the memory or the mention of our death be irksome or bitter There are in these latter times amongst us that name death freely enough and the death of God but in blasphemous oaths and execrations Miserable men who shall therefore be said never to have named Jesus because they have named him too often and therefore hear Jesus say Nescive vos I never knew you because they made themselves too familiar with him Moses and Elias talked with Christ of his death only in a holy and joyful sence of the benefit which they and all the world were to receive by it Discourses of religion should not be out of curiosity but edification And then they talked with Christ of his death at that time when he was at the greatest heighth of glory that ever he admitted in this world that is his transfiguration And we are afraid to speak to the great men of this world of their death but nourish in them a vain imagination of immortallity and immutability But bonum est