confounded in the vast subiect of Gods mercy which like a deepe sea through which I cannot wade stops my passage so that here I can onely stand vpon the banck and cry with S. Paul O altitudo O the depth of his mercy In which deuout extasie I will end onely borrowing a short Gloria Patri and some sounds like those which environ the mercy Seat from the Prophet Dauids song of thanksgiuing My soule praise thou the Lord and forget not all his benefits which forgiueth all thy sinnes and healeth all thine infirmties which redeemeth thy life from the graue and crowneth thee with mercie and compassion To this glorious God full of compassion who crowneth vs here with mercy will crowne vs hereafter with glory be ascribed all honour and thanksgiuing for euer Amen DAVIDS STRAIT THE AFTER-NOONES SERMON VPON THE ACT SVNDAY Deliuered by IOHN KING Inceptor in Divinity one of the Praebendaries of Christ-church in Oxford PSAL. 71. 20. Thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken mee againe c. DAVID'S STRAIT 2 Sam 24. 14. And Dauid said vnto Gad I am in a great strait Let vs fall now into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great and let mee not fall into the hand of man THat Caution giuen heretofore by the Cryer to those that were to speak at Athens that they should presently fall to their matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without Preface or Passion shall serue me for a Preface to to my ensuing discourse My subject being so full of straitnes if I would hold proportion with it will not giue me the libertie of a larger introduction Yet before I take the words asunder you must take along with you some Praecognita some presuppositions by which you may looke back from my Text to the beginning of this Chapter and haue therein a briefe Epitome of the History here contained Israel had againe provoked the Lord to anger notwithstanding his former chastisements for their sinnes Now sinne seldome goes without some punishment attending on it God was in their debt and againe his anger was kindled against them In this anger he permits Dauid their King to add his sinne to theirs and so to fill vp the measure and number of their transgressions by his own in numbring the people vnnecessarily and vnlawfully David commands and preuailes against Ioab and the Princes that gainesayed it at the first but afterwards lest they should loose his fauour they execute his commands His sinne was 9 moneths and odd dayes old before he saw it and the Lord let him see the deformitie of it at this growth by some visitation different from the great pestilence he afterwards offered him as some collect out of 1 Chron. 27. 24. wherevpon he recall'd Ioab he finished not the numbring because there fell wrath for it against Israel His owne heart hereupon smote him first he acknowledged his folly presently Gad his Seer was sent to let him know that God would also smite him for this follie yet with such a mercifull hand Dauid might conceiue it was rather for discipline then destruction and vpon as easie termes as might stād with his justice Strike he would yet so that Dauid should prescribe in what kinde whether by famine sword or pestilence And although these conditions seeme hard on man's part who is the delinquent because they are all rather to be avoided then chosen yet they are easie and moderate on God the Iudges part who needed not to haue giuen any at all Nay any one of them or all at once and thousands more he might without injustice haue inflicted Therefore Dauid thought himselfe mercifully dealt with and vpon his second wiser thoughts professeth as much in my text Dixit autem David ad Gad Coarctor c. The Text you see is Responsorie and the Speakers Dauid and Gad. Gad had deliuered his message and it was now Dauid's turne being instantly vrg'd to it to giue him an answere Here it is specified to whom and by whom and what it was So that you may consider here the Words of the Historian And Dauid said vnto Gad. and the Words of the Historie in the rest The words of him that compiled this booke and his words that are here recorded the words of King Dauid The former shew the connexion and the distinction of persons and the Forme onely these latter prefent vnto vs the Substance and matter of the Annals In the words of the Historian though they are onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall make some short obseruations about the Persons of Dauid and Gad and some other circumstances In the words of the Historie which make vp Dauid's answere there is 1. His Deliberatiō I am in a great strait 2 His Resolution and this twofold Positiue Let vs fall now into the hand of the Lord with a Reason for His mercies are great Negatiue or Exclusiue and let mee not fall into the hand of man According to this order your patience and attention is desired First to the words of the Historian the Penman of the holy Ghost Dixit autem Dauid ad Gad. Dauid is here the Delinquent arraigned a little before v. 12. but by none of his glorious titles as they are giuen him in the precedent chap. v. 1. The anointed of the God of Iacob the sweet Psalmist of Israel c. But as the Lord instructed Gad Goe and say vnto Dauid plaine Dauid It was the King when he commanded Ioab to goe and number the people but it is now Dauid when he is convented and vnder discipline But whether we haue him by the title of the King we are sure it is the Person of the King And when Great ones sinne they commonly doe it according to the eminencie of their place with authority with a high hand In this particular the King would satisfie his curiositie that meerely in hauing the summe of the people taken Vt sciam that I may know the number of the people A knowledge vnfruitfull at the best and sauouring of infidelity also being he had a promise from the Lord that his people should be as the starres for number or the sands on the sea shore Yet he was so transported with this humor that say what Ioab and all the Captaines would the King's word preuailed Quod libet licet There needes no other warrant to justifie great Potentates bad actions but their will Barre them of this libertie or rather licentiousnes this were to streighten their Dominions For greatnes for the most part sweyes more with them then goodnes Therefore when at any time this goes to curbe or oppose that they will presently shake hands with virtue and banish out of their actions Optimus so they may but retaine Maximus in their titles Let a suit be neuer so vnjust yet if it be commenc'd in a great man's name it were his disgrace to take the foile in it In
even to himselfe and his owue house He would not lay a greivous burden of punishment vpon his peoples shoulders as our Saviour taxes the Lawyers and himselfe not touchit with one of his fingers but submits himselfe to hold aequall proportion with the lowest of his people who partly drew it all vpon their heads And Iosephus is of opinion that for this reason he chose the Pestilence howsoeuer we haue another expressed in the Text from the Lords mercies Because had it beene a Famine he might haue made provision before hand against that Had it beene the Enemies invasion he might hauh secured himselfe in his Forts strong holds But the Plague is the Lords besome of destruction which may sweepe away the King as soone as the Peasant and therefore Incidamus Let vs fall I with the rest I exempt not my selfe from the common calamitie Yet their is a particle more which I may not omit It is good to see the bottome of a danger at the first and to know the continuance of it A long and lingring expectation of the worst that may befall perplexes more oftentimes then if it came vpon vs presently The shape of death represented to our phantasies is more terrible then the experience of it to the sense But when we know the heat of an affliction will be soone past over it addes comfort and courage and resolution to the patients who hope for release at the expiration of that short time It was King Davids discretion here since he could not resolue which was the most greivous to choose that which was least tedious He cast with himselfe that he had but three daies to reckon vpon for the furie of the pestilence wheras he must haue told many long and irksome houres in the seaven yeares famine or but the three monet'hs pursuite of his enimies and therefore he makes it his request to the Lord as the sonne of David hastens Iudas in his trecherous designe that he might instantly enter vpon his passion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let vs now fall into the hand of the Lord. Now presently without further delay And he had his wish for immediatly the Lord sent a pestilence vpon Israel from the morning that very morning in which Gad he had this conference even to the time appointed Which appointed time whither it were onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the morning till dinner time as the Septuagint render it and Theodoret and St. Ambrose follow that opinion or till the time of the continuall evening sacrifice so the Chaldee Paraphase explaines it and St. Hierome and other moderne interpreters or till the time that David sacrificed vpon Araunahs threshing flowre or till the whole three dayes in the letter of the Scripture were expired I may not stād to discusse But it is very probable that David was in hope by the reason he giues of his choyce Multae misericordiae Domini that the Lord in his great mercie might contract and shorten euen that short time of three dayes But before I come to recount those consolations and advantages which Dauid forecast by falling into the hand of the Lord I must explicate the terme what is meant here by the hand of the Lord. Some thinke that Dauid excepted onely against the Sword of the Enemie the hand of man and left it to the disposition of the Almighty to inflict either the Pestilence or Famine which come both more immediatly from the hand of the Lord. Or that he did determinately make choice of the Pestilence but in some other words which are not expressed in the text as if it could not be euinced sufficiētly out of the text yet that he must fixe vpō because the Prophet Gad vrg'd him still to a definite answere Choose thee one of them that I may doe it vnto thee So Tostatus inferres But some later Commentators could see a determinate choice of the Pestilence in the very Phrase of the hand of the Lord here vsed For in many other places of holy writ this is more peculiarly call'd the hand of the Lord. As Exod. 9. 3. Behold the Hand of the Lord is vpon thy cattell c. and v. 15. I will strech forth my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with Pestilence So also we finde it Ier. 21. 5. 6. I my selfe will fight against you manu extentâ with an out stretched hand and smite the inhabitants they shall die of a great Pestilence And thus doth the Prophet Habb describe the awfull Matie of God He had hornes comming out of his hand what were those Before him went the Pestilence and burning coales or burning diseases went forth at his feet Nay 1 Chron. 21. 12. there is a sword put into the hand of the Lord. Gladius Domini Pestilentia the Sword of the Lord euen the Pestilence For albeit all the creatures are as armes and instruments of vengeance in the hand of the Lord the starres in their courses fought against Sisera Fire came downe from heauen at Eliah's praiers the Earth swallowed vp Core and his complices Beares devoured the 42 children in Bethel that mock't Elisha yet where we cannot discerne the hand of nature nor the hand of man as in the Pestilence of which we cannot giue any naturall cause neither can humane counsailes or remedies preuent or remoue it and such was this here which after so strange a manner and in so short a space swept away so many thousands as Iosephus excellently describes it there we attribute it to a supreame spirituall and inuisible cause to the hand or sword of the Lord. As those Magicians before Pharaoh when their Art failed them in producing lice were forc'd to acknowledge Digitus Dei est hic Thus did Dauid make his choice of the Pestilence ageeable to that denunciation of the Lord where it is intimated that if they did not pay the halfe shekell there commanded at the taking the summe of the people there should come a plague vpon them And the Rabbins though it be but a fond and too subtile a conceite of theirs affirme that Gad prōpted Dauid to this particular choice and according to his ministeriall function help'd to extricate him out of his perplexity in that at the end of the praecedent verse where Gad bids him aduise and see what answere I shall returne In the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dabar quod verbum from whence commeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deber which signifies the Pestilence and is the word vsed both before and after my text But without the helpe of such vaine curiosities Dauids refusall of the Famine and the Sword may be both implied in the negatiue part of his resolution non in manus hominum Because many times there may be a Famine caused by the helpe of man when neither the Heauens are made iron nor the Earth brasse vnto vs. As when the enemies set fire on the fruits
of the land which was Sampsons stratagem with foxes firebrandes to burne the Philistimes corne Or wheÌ„ they cut off the convoies block vp a beleaguered towne so that it cannot take in new prouisions which is the new militarie discipline of these times when by breaking the staff of bread and causing cleannes of teeth the enemies prevaile more then by their owne courage and force of armes Or else when in times of peace aud plentie our great Corne-masters will make a dearth by hoording vp their graine that they may the better enhance the price of it Suffering the bowells of the poore to be emptie while their store-houses are full and with a pittiles eye beholding their needy brethren whil'st they cannot but knowe that mise and ratts and other vermine revell in their garners There are other waies in which the hand of man may concurre to a famine Therefore David refusing those two vnder that phrase submits himselfe here to the Pestilence by submitting himselfe to the hand of the Lord. And of the Lord alone that he would visit immediatly without deputing or substituting any vnmercifull creatures to that worke of vengeance For he is facile and exorable slow to conceiue a wrath and loath to execute it when it is conceiued in rigor and strictnes For his mercies are great Which is the strong Inducement and Reason of Dauids choice to cast himselfe vpon the Lord. And obserue his emphaticall expressions He doth not say mercie but mercies in the plurall more then one Not few mercies but many mercies nor many litle but many and great mercies nor there a stoppe but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very many in their number very great in their dimensions Nay they are not onely many and great but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very many great and tender mercies as the Septuagint well render the Originall Not by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very bowells of motherly compassion for which the Evangelist's oftimes use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His mercies are extended according to the extension of all our miseries and elevated according to the elevation of our sinnes Be they neuer so many neuer so weightie yet the mercies of the Lord are ouer all his workes and ouer all those which we may most properly call our workes It is a high degree of mercie that although I haue offended in many things yet I might haue fallen into more and more foule transgressions had not his mercie restrain'd me It is an addition of mercie that the Lord who spared not the Angels which kept not their first estate but presently cast them downe from Heauen is long suffering towards me and expects my returne to him almost at mine owne leasure Non continebam à sceleribus tu á verberibus abstinebas He farther enlargeth his mercy when this long expectation and forbearance brings mee to repentance and that hee toucheth my heart with compunction and remorse Againe when his mercie leaues me not in an vnfruitfull repentance in the bitternesse of my soule buâ— accepts of it and seales vnto me the comfort of the remission of my sinnes Yet he followes this with another giuing me the power to amend my life and hereafter to walke more cautelously Nether are his mercies yet shortened but new euery morning nay euery moment minute in that he giues me constancie and perseuerance that I fall not into a recidiuation a relapse Lastly there is the height of mercy when he giues me a miserable sinner who am not worthy so much as to lift vp mine eyes to heauen an assured hope of obtaining heauen Here are seauen degrees of mercy like those seauen loauâ—s wherewith thousands were refreshed And I might with St Bernard gather vp many baskets full of the fragments of each of them But what heart can comprehend what discourse can containe those many very great and tender mercies that know no other bounds but aeternitie The mercie of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting ab aeterno per praedestinationem in aeternum per glorificationem Great are the mercies of the Lord euen in his executions of Iustice 1 That he will at all shew vs so great a testimonie of his loue as to correct vs. Quos amo arguo That Ezech. 16. 42. I will be no more angry is an euident token of the Lords greatest anger Tunc magis irascitur cum noâ— irascitur Let fauour be shewed to the wicked hee will not learne righteousnes sayth the Prophet Isa. 26. 10. The presumptioÌ„ of impunity will breed impudence in sinning and that not stay till it haue brought in most fearefull impenitency Super omnem irammiseratio ista as St. Bernard exclames such forbearance such conniuence is beyond all vengeance Let then this mercy of the Lord first shew it selfe that he will be pleased to disciplinate and correct vs and not leave vs to our owne corrupt imaginations not giue vs ouer to the inuentions of our owne hearts and in the second place he will not forget to be a Father of mercies towards vs in the measure of his corrections It is a fearefull thing indeede to fall into the hand of the Lord but it is then onely when his left hand of Clemencie doth not know what his right hand of iustice and seuerity purposeth to inflict But such iustice without mercy onely attendes those that haue reiected and conteâ—ned both Otherwise there is euer a hand of mercie either ready to stay the hand of the Lords seuerity towards the paenitent as the Angell held Abrahams hand when he was striking or at the least to breake the force of the blowes to moderate and temper them according to our patience As the Prophet Habbakuk makes it his petition In wrath remember mercy so our last translation hath it but the vulgar makes it a confident perswasion Cum iratus fueris misericordiae recordaberis Indeede wee haue Gods owne word nay his oath for it as Dauid had Once haue I sworne by my holinesse that I will not lye vnto Dauid If his children forsake my law I will visit their iniquity with the rod with stripes but it shall be In Plagâ—s filiorum hominum with no more cruell stripes then humane infirmitie can beare as we read the same promise repeated Misericordiam autem non auferam Neuerthelesse my mercy louing kindnesse shall not depart from them Behold then what consolations Dauid had in the many mercies of the Lord the same are still stretched out ouer vs if as he was a maÌ„ after Gods heart we be after Dauids What euer calamitie or pressure be vpon vs we must keepe holy Iobs aequanimitie and good temper to receiue evill as well as good from the hand of the Lord. But when the visitation is particularly discerned to be the Plague as Dauid here desired when we see that the hand of the Lord is vpon those houses
TWO SERMONS VPON THE ACT SVNDAY BEING the 10th of Iuly 1625. Deliuered at St MARIES in Oxford PSAL. 133. 1. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in vnitie OXFORD Printed by I. L. and W. T. for WILLIAM TVRNER Anno Dom. 1625. DAVID'S ENLARGEMENT THE MORNING SERMON ON THE ACT SVNDAY Preached by HENRY KING Inceptor in Diuinity one of his MAIESTIES Chaplaines in Ordinary PSAL. 18. 36. Thou hast enlarged my steps vnder mee that my feet did not slip DAVID'S ENLARGEMENT PSAL. 32. VERS 5. I said I will confesse my sinnes or transgressions vnto the Lord. And thou forgauest the iniquitie of my sinne THis Text hath two generall parts The first records Dauids Repentance The second Gods mercy to him The former part containes these seuerall circumstances 1 A resolution I said 2 The Act resolv'd vpon Confession I will confesse 3 The Subiect of that confession Sinnes or transgressions 4 Their pluralitie or the Extent of his confession not sinne but sinnes A terme implying both their generality and number For although the Septuagint read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hebrew is sinnes 5 Their propriety which he assumes to himselfe Mea my sinnes 6 He specifies the Confessor vnto the Lord. In the latter part I onely obserue two circumstances 1 the Readinesse and Propension and speed of Gods mercy He sayes he will confesse c. and presently Tu remisisti Thou forgauest 2 his Bounty set downe in such termes as may convey vnto him the most liberall pardon Iniquitatem peccati the very formality of the Sin not my sinne but the Iniquity of my sinne too both the Act and the Obliquity both the Guilt of the sinne and the Punishment due vnto it The contemplation of a religious worke doth much affect a good man and howsoeuer the Act onely crownes him yet the purpose delights him I was glad saith Dauid when men said vnto me we will go into the house of the Lord. See with what pious Alacrity he vtters his intentions to an Act of Religion it doth him good but to speake of it And here you may discerne as much Alacrity in his intended repentance when he records the very determination that which at first was either barely design'd by his thoughts or at most but said I said Words in Gods Method are the Introduction to Deeds His Fiat was the Seminary of all being for he said onely and it was done That man who sayes well is engaged to equall his words else like a Bankrupt he forfaits that good opinion his pretences and speeches had wonne St. Augustine sayes Verba sunt folia Words are as leaues and in good trees leaues are the pledges of fruit that ensues He that onely speakes and does not is not a fruitfull Christian rather he is like a Sycomor whose issue is nothing but a lease This is not enough Fructus quaeritur saith the same Father God expects from vs what Dauid here exhibites fruit not leafe or not leafe without fruit He sayes deuoutly and from those seeds a repentance to a new life springs I said I will confesse c. Istud diâ—ere nihil aliud est quam secum deliberare It is a Deliberation or it signifies as much as Decernere Constituere to purpose or to resolue Resolutions are the Moulds wherein Actions are cast and no man can define a Deed better then to call it the effect of what our purpose had contriued And euery purpose is a silent Dialogue betwixt the Soule and her Faculties by whose consent that which we resolue is established For man is a Theater wherein are many subtile spectators waiting vpon euery action He is a short Modell of a Common-wealth Each Sense is an Agent each Faculty an Officer Hee hath his Common-Pleas in his Common sense his Chancery in the Conscience he hath his Proiectors and those as busie as the State hath any Thought and Phantasie and the quicke Imagination The Memory is his Recorder and lastly the Tongue is the Speaker in this Assembly who reports those Acts which which are designed I said But our Intents doe not alwayes come to publication nay they do not alwayes need it and then the office of the tongue is not required A resolution may sometimes speake without the Organs of vtterance it may be intelligible it may be audible and yet not vocall As Saint Ambrose speakes of Susanna Conscientia loquebatur vbi vox non audiebatur In religious purposes that determine in God and in which there is no parties interested but God and the soule there is no necessity to vse words Words are but the Interpreters of our mindes one to another but as Midwiues that deliuer our thoughts and howeuer betwixt Man and Man this verball trafficke be necessary yet betwixt vs and God that sees our thoughts before the tongue hath formed them into syllables or set the stampe of language vpon them it is not so He reades vs in the power of speech and not onely in the Organs which actuate that power Hee is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so well acquainted with the heart that he dictates to it as it doth to the tongue And therefore hee that vnderstand our words whilest they are in Principijs in their concepon and parentage whilest they are yet Intra causas lodged and couched within their causes as Saint Augustine expresseth it Vox mea nondom in ore erat auris Dei iam in Corde erat He I say that knowes our thoughts not onely before we vtter them in words but before wee our selues know what we shall next thinke cannot need a Dixi I said to informe him of our purposes since his intelligence precedes our thoughts hee cannot but take his information from them better then from our words and so the sense of the Text will hold as well in a Cogitavi as one Translation of ours reades it I thought I will confesse as in a Dixi I said For in Gods apprehension they are all one and no way distinguisht saue in a little Priority of time for thoughts are words elder Brothers and the Dialect they speake is our Mother tongue the originall language of Mankinde which neuer yet suffered confusion When the tongues were dispersed at Babel the thoughts were not and howsoeuer each Nation be distinguished in his peculiar speech we all thinke alike euen as anger and laughter haue the same wayes of expression in all parts of the world So that this Dixi was not so much the language of Dauids Tongue as of his Heart Corde pronunciare erat He spake vnto God in his Thoughts which are the most constant most vnalterable dialect and therefore most proper to expresse the certainty of that Act which followes vpon this Resolution in the next part His confession I said I will confesse c. 2 Sinne is the weightiest of all sorrowes the Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The thing that presseth downe
thee in the teeth with them and in the very next words he â—â—atly prohibits the necessity of such priuate confession leauing 〈…〉 vpon the scope of this text Thou art not to confesse to thy fellow seruant least he may divulge it but to him that is thy Lord that careth for thy soule to him that is most mild and curteous to him that is thy Physitian I said I will confesse my sinnes vnto the Lord. But doth God need an informer Did he not know Dauid's sinne before his confession or cannot he know mine vnlesse I tell him Yes surely he knew them before But he knew them as my Iudge not as my Confessor He knew them but not that way which most delighteth him and is best for me in a repentance In a word he knew them before but he knew them to my Condemnation He knew them not to my Comfort so as to forgiue them till he receiued them from mine owne mouth I said I will confesse my sinnes and thou forgauest Like the tidings of release vnto a Captiue or a repriue vnto a coÌ„demned man so is the sound of this word Tu remisisti thou forgauest It is the savour of life vnto life a reuiuing or recouery from the death of the soule Sinne and an earnest of a new-life both in the Body and the Soule in the new Ierusalem 'T is the voice of the Turtle the true language of the Gospell deriued from his lippes that left the blessing of his peace vpon all that loue the Peace of his Church that legend of mercy which Christ commanded his Apostles to divulge in all parts of the world for the remission of sinnes This was the end of Christs comming into the world to saue sinners his owne peculiar worke who alone as he hath the property to haue mercy so hath he the sole power to forgiue Quis potest peecaâ—ae dimittere nisi solus Deus That the Church hath a power to remit sinnes also is true in a subordinate sense that is a Ministeriall a Declaratory power as our Liturgie fully expresses it and hath giuen power and commandement to his Ministers to Declare and Pronounce to his people being penitent the Absolution and remission of their sinnes c. But he hath giuen them no Iudiciary or Authoritatiue power to pardon absolutely of themselues This is Gods prerogatiue he alone doth that act the Church but reports it he signes the deed the Church as a witnes testifies it he hath the originall power to absolue the Church hath power not to dispence but to pronounce his absolution he grantes and seales the pardon the Church conveyes and publishes it he hath the possession the true inheritance as of the Throne so of the keyes of Dauid the Church hath but the vse and custody of those keyes by which she opens and shuts yet not at her owne pleasure as if she could hang new locks where she listed or make new dores for sinners to goe out at but with a limitation Shee must not presume to goe farther then those Keyes lead her So many roomes as Christ hath opened by those keyes she may opeÌ„ or she may shut The Ministers who are his Dorekeepers should take too much vpoÌ„ them if they should presume beyond this Mistake me not I doe not in any sense of diminution call the Ministers Dorekeepers as if I would inferre their office determined at the Church-doore No their keyes open farther then so and by vertue of them they may goe as high as Gods Presence Chamber the Church there to receiue and to deliuer his messages to his people to signifie his pleasure to them either for the Remission or Reteining of their sinnes but beyond this their keyes will not lead them They cannot open Gods Priuy Chamber where all his secret Counsellâ— â—his Acts of mercy or of iudgement of Pardon or Condemnation are concluded this is accessible to none but God himselfe They are not able with any key in their bunche to open that doore And if by violeÌ„ce they shall attempt to breake it open as the Successors of Peter haue done for many yeares sitting there as Counsellours 〈◊〉 in Commission with God nay sitting 〈◊〉 Godâ—â—aith â—aith St. Paul to condemne or to absolue 〈◊〉 him let them know in this they haue committed a Riot not lesse then Lucifers and their aspiring insolence muâ—t expect a Praecipitation as violent and deepe as his I haue almost lost my selfe in this Labyrinth of Pâ—pâ—ll vsurpation I retrait to my teâ—t in S. Ambrose his words who hath briefly stated and limited the Power of Preists Absolution In the forgiuenesse of sinnes saith he men vse their Ministery but exercise no right of any Authoritie men aske an men pronounce but the Deity graunts Tu remisisti Thou forgauest Which speech doth not onely intimate his Power but his readines to forgiue See in what a forward terme Dauid expresses Gods alacriâ—â— and propension to mercy setting it downe in the Prâ—terperfect tense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast forgiuen as a thing past in graunt before the suit was commenced Seneca spake it of the Court 〈…〉 praecipâ—â—s beneficia lenta sunt They were prone and speedy to doe injuries but their benefitâ— came slowlie from them and with difficulty ' â—is otherwise with God he is of no 〈◊〉 Power nor doth he for slow his faucâ—â—s 〈…〉 price vpon them by delay God is not slow or 〈◊〉 concerning his promise saith S. Peter Or if he be slow he is slow to nothing but to wrath only In that Act which was the swifâ—est exclusion of his vengeance the Floud howsoeuer theâ— that suddaine Inundation surprised the World came vpon it vnawares whilst they were eating and drinking as our Sauiour saith yet when it was done He is sorrie Though he repented he had made man and from that repentance put on a resolution to destroy him Yet after his destruction he relents into mercy he is sorry he had demolished and annihilated his creature by water though most deservedly and then makes a Promise and Couenant neuer to destroy him so againe Did he not giue Abraham leaue to dispute and argue Sodom's reprieue to plead a Pardon for it after his sentence was past and the Executioner ready to giue fire Yet for all that he heard him cut till haâ—â— said all he could say till he had made all his Abatements from Fiftie euen to the last Ten. And when he sate downe before Niniveh and had beleaguered it with his Iudgements yet you see he giues them faire Quarter Fourty Dayes to parley and to make their Composition with Him Nay he allowed Rebellious Israel Fourty yeares Fourty yeares long was I grieued with this generation so slow is he to wrath so loath to execute his vengeance And yet He is not so slow to punish but he is by many degrees swifter to shew mercy and to forgiue Nescit tarda molimiâ—a spiritus