an infinite reward p Aug. in Psal 36. Quid appendis cum infinito quantumcunque finitum no finite thing be it never so great can q Ber. serm in annunciat Quid sunt merita ad tantam gloriam weigh downe that which is infinite That our workes may beare scale in the Sanctuary and poyse the reward five graines must be added to them 1 Propriety 2 Liberty 3 Utility 4 Perfection 5 Proportion First propriety wee can merit by nothing that is not our owne worke no more than wee can oblige a man to us by repaying him his owne coyne Certainly that which is not our worke is not our merit Secondly liberty wee can challenge nothing by way of merit for a worke which wee are engaged by duty to performe no more than oblige a man to us for discharging a bond which wee were bound under a great penalty by a precise day to satisfie Thirdly utility or profit if that wee doe to another no way advantage him if hee be no whit the better by it what colour have wee to exact or reason to expect a reward from him for such a worke Fourthly perfection unlesse a worke be done sufficiently the labourer cannot in justice demand his hire nor the workeman require his price Fiftly proportion no labour or worke can merit more than in true estimation it is worth the labourer deserveth his hire such a hire as is correspondent to his paines but no other Hee that labours but a day deserveth not two dayes much lesse a weeke or a moneths hire If the plea of merit is overthrowne by the defect of any one of these conditions how much more by the defect of all 1. If wee have no interest in the worke be it never so meritorious in it selfe wee cannot merit by it because it is not ours 2. Let it bee ours and meritorious in another that were not bound to performe it yet weee cannot merit by it if wee are any way obliged in duty to performe it because it is not free 3. Let the worke be free yet if what wee doe no way redound to his benefit from whom we expect a reward wee cannot justly demand any recompence from him because our worke is not profitable to him 4. Let the worke be profitable yet if it bee not done as it should bee in every circumstance wee cannot sue for the price agreed upon because the worke is not perfect 5. Let the worke bee perfect and exact yet wee can exact no more for it than the skill or the paines together with the materials deserve Presse we each of these circumstances and much more if we presse them all together they will yeeld the doctrine of Saint r Basil in psal 114. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil upon the 114. Psalme There remaines a rest eternall for them who here strive lawfully not according to the merit of workes but according to the grace of our most bountifull God Let us once more squeze them First a meritorious act must be our owne if wee have any expectance for it these wee call ours are not so By the grace of God saith the Apostle I am that I am and his grace in mee was not in vaine But I laboured more than they all yet not I but the ſ 1 Cor. 15.10 grace of God which was with mee And this the Propht t Esay 26.12 Esay professeth in his prayer to God Lord thou wilt ordaine peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our workes in us If these texts are not cleare enough the Apostles question is able to non-plus all the Pelagians in the world u 1 Cor. 4.7 Who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou hast not received There is no good worke which is not comprised within the will or the deed and both as we heard before are the work of grace in us Upon this firme ground Saint * In psal 102. Si de tuo retribuis peccatum retribuis omnia enim quae habes ab illo habes tuum solum peccatum habes Enchirid. ad Laur. c. 302. Ideo dictum intelligitur non est volentis neque currentis sed miserentis Dei ut totum Deo detur qui hominis voluntatem bonam praeparat ad juvandam adjuvat praeparatam Austine buildeth a strong fort for grace against mans merit If thou renderest any thing to God of thine owne thou renderest sinne for all the good thou hast thou hast received from God thou hast nothing which thou maist call thine owne but sinne And elsewhere when the Apostle saith It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that hath mercy wee are thus to understand him That wee ought to ascribe the whole unto God who both prepareth the will of man to bee helped and helpeth it being prepared Secondly a meritorious act must be free in our power and at our choice to doe or leave undone our workes are not so for when x Luk. 17.10 wee have done all that wee can wee are commanded to say wee are unprofitable servants we have done that which it was our duty doe This wedge Marcus the y Tract de iis qui putant ex operibus justificari c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hermite driveth in forcibly The Lord saith hee willing to shew that all the commandements are of duty to be performed and that the adoption of children is freely given to man by his blood saith when yee have done all things that are commanded you say wee are unprofitable servants c. therefore the kingdome of heaven is not the hire of workes but a gift of the Lord prepared for his faithfull servants Thirdly a meritorious worke must bee of use and some way beneficiall to him of whom a reward in strict justice is demanded ours are not so for z Psal 16.2 our goodnesse extendeth not unto God hee is farre above it This naile Saint a L 10. de civ Dei c 5. Totum hoc quod recte colitur Deus credendum est homini prodesse non Deo neque enim fonti se quisquam dixerit profuisse quod biberit Austine excellently fasteneth If we serve and worship God as wee ought the whole benefit thereof accrueth to our selves and not unto God for no man will say that the fountaine gaineth any thing by our drinking of it c. Fourthly a meritorious act must bee compleat perfect and without exception ours are not so for b Vide Plat. in dial Euthyph b Rom. 8.26 wee cannot pray as wee ought and our very best actions are so stained that the Prophet Esay calleth them no better than c Esay 64.6 But we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesse is as filthy ragges filthy ragges or menstruous clouts This arrow Saint d Moral in Job l. 5. c. 7. Ipsa justitia nostra si ad examen justitiae
and godly in this present world Againe if any Spirit tell thee that thou art rich in spirituall graces and lackest nothing when thine owne Spirit testifieth within thee that thou art blinde and naked and miserable and poore beleeve not that Spirit For the Spirit of God is a contest with our spirit q Rom. 8.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee beareth witnesse with our spirit that wee are the sonnes of God and when they both sweetly accord we may without presumption conclude with Saint r Tract 22. in Joh Veritas pollicetur qui credit habet vitam aeternam ego audivi verba Domini credidit infidelis cum essem factus sum fidelis sicut ipse monuit transii de morte ad vitam in judicium non venio non praesumptione meâ sed promissione ipsius Austine The truth promiseth whosoever beleeveth in mee hath eternall life I have heard the words of the Lord I have beleeved whereas I was before an Infidell I am now made faithfull and according to his promise have passed from death to life and shall come into no condemnation It is no presumption to ground assured confidence upon Christs promise Hereunto let us adde the testimony of the effects of saving grace As the testimony of the Spirit confirmeth the testimony of the Word so the effects of saving grace confirme both unto us These Saint Bernard reckoneth to bee Hatred of sinne Contempt of the world Desire of heaven Hatred of our unregenerate estate past contempt of present vanities desire of future felicity And doubtlesse if our hatred of sinne bee universall our contempt of worldly vanities constant and our desire of heavenly joyes fervent wee may build upon them a strong perswasion that we are in the favour of God because we hate all evill that we are espoused to Christ because wee are divorced from the world and that heaven belongeth unto us because wee long for it Howbeit these seeme to bee rather characters of christian perfection than common workes of an effectuall vocation Though wee arrive not to so high a degree of Angelicall rather than humane perfection yet through Gods mercy wee may bee assured of our election by other more easie and common workes of the Spirit in us I meane true faith sincere love of goodnesse in our selves and others hungring and thirsting after righteousnesse striving against our fleshly corruptions godly sorrow filiall feare comfortable patience and continuall growth in grace and godlinesse Tully writeth of l Cic. Verr. 5. Syracuse That there is no day through the whole yeere so stormy and tempestuous in which they have not some glympse of the sunne neither undoubtedly after the travels of our new birth are past is there any day so overcast with the clouds of temptation in the soule of a Christian in which the Sunne of righteousnesse doth not shine upon him and some of these graces appeare in him For if hee decay in one grace hee may increase in another if hee finde not in himselfe sensible growing in any grace hee may feele in himselfe an unfained desire of such growth and godly sorrow for want of it and though hee conquer not all sinne yet hee alloweth not himselfe in any sinne and though he may have lost the sense yet not the essence of faith and though hee bee not assured in his owne apprehension of remission of sinnes yet hee may bee sure of his adhesion to God and relying upon him for the forgivenesse of them with a resolution like that of Job Though he kill me yet will I put my trust in him And this is the summe and effect of what our Christian casuists answere to the second question Quid sit what is the white stone whereby as a certaine pledge grace and glory are secured unto us The third question yet remains Propter quid sit to what end this white stone is given In the maine point of difference betweene the reformed and the Romane Church concerning assurance of salvation that wee bee not mis-led wee must distinguish of a double certainty The one of the subject or of The person The other of the object or of The thing it selfe The certainty of the one never varieth because it dependeth upon Gods election the certainty of the other often varieth because it dependeth upon the vivacity of our faith Even as the apple in the eye of many creatures waxeth and waineth with the Moone and as t Solin Poly-hist c. 56. Uniones quoties excipiunt matutini aeris semen fit clarius margaritum quoties vespertini fit obscurius Solinus writeth that the Margarite is clearer or duskier according to the temper of the aire and face of the skie in which the shell-fish openeth it selfe so this latter assurance waxeth and waineth with our faith and is more evident or more obscure as our conscience is more or lesse purged from dead workes If our faith be lively our assurance is strong if our faith faile our assurance flagges and in some fearfull temptation is so farre lost that wee are brought to the very brinke of despaire partly to chasten us for our former presumption partly to abate our spirituall pride and humble us before God and in our owne spirits but especially to improve the value of this jewell of assurance and stirre us up to more diligence in using all possible meanes to regaine it and keep it more carefully after we have recovered it By the causes of Gods taking away of this white stone from us or at the least hiding it out of our sight for a while wee may ghesse at the reasons why hee imparteth it unto us 1. First to endeare his love unto us and enflame ours to him For how can wee but infinitely and eternally love him who hath assured us of infinite joyes eternall salvation an indefeizable inheritance everlasting habitations and an incorruptible crowne 2. Secondly to incourage us to finish our christian race through many afflictions and persecutions for the Gospels sake which we could never do if this crowne of glory were not hung out from heaven and manifestly exhibited to the eye of our faith with assurance to winne it by our patience 3. Thirdly but especially to kindle in us a most ardent desire and continuall longing to arrive at our heavenly countrey where wee shall possesse that inheritance of a kingdome which is as surely conveighed unto us by the Word and Sacraments as if Almighty God should presently cause a speciall deed to bee made or patent to bee drawne for it and set his hand and seale to it in our sight To knit up all that hath beene delivered that it may take up lesse roome in your memory and bee more easily borne away let mee entreat you to set before your eyes the custome of the Romanes in the entertainment of any great personage whom after they had feasted with rare dainties served in covered dishes at the end of the banquet they gave unto him an Apophoreton or
eternity yet I deny that this is any good description of time because every description ought to be per notius by something that is more known whereas eternity is farre more obscure than time it selfe all men have a common notion of the one few or none of the other Neither doe they give any better satisfaction who define time by duration For albeit there is a time of duration of every thing and a duration also of time it selfe yet duration is not time duration is the existence of any thing in time not the terme or time it selfe They define time most agreeable to the Scriptures who affirme it to be the continuall fluxe of moments minutes houres dayes weekes moneths yeeres ages from the creation of the world to the dissolution thereof after which the u Apoc. 10.6 Angel sware that time should be no more But I need to speake no more of time at this time because the word in my text is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 time but season or as it is here rendered The accepted time The season is that in time which light is in the aire lustre in metals the flower in plants creame in milke quintessence in hearbs the prime and best of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now there being a threefold season 1. Naturall which Husbandmen observe in sowing Gardeners in planting and graffing Mariners in putting to Sea Chirurgians in letting bloud Physicians in purging c. 2. Civill of which the Poet speaketh Mollissima fandi tempora which all humble suppliants observe in preferring petitions to Princes and great Personages 3. Spirituall which all that have a care of their salvation must observe in seeking the Lord while he may be found The Apostle in this place pointeth to this third and his meaning is Behold now presse hard to get into the kingdome of heaven for now the gate is open now labour hard in Gods vineyard for now is the eleventh houre now put up your petitions to the Prince of peace for now is the day of audience now provide your selves of spirituall merchandize for now is the mart now cast your selves into the Bethesda of Christs bloud for now the Angel troubleth the water now get a generall pardon for all your sinnes under the broad seale of the King of heaven for now is a day of sealing When the King commeth saith St. x Chrys in hunc locum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome there is no time for sessions or assises but for pardon and favour Behold now the King is come to visit his subjects upon earth and from his first comming to his last the day of grace continueth Behold now is this accepted time He calleth it an accepted time saith St. y Ib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome because now God accepteth them to favour who a thousand times incurred his displeasure It is called in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a time of good will and favour as Calvin rendereth the words who biddeth us marke the order first a time of grace is promised and after a day of salvation to intimate unto us that salvation floweth from the meere grace and mercy of God We are active in sinne to our owne damnation but meere passive to the first grace we draw on damnation with the cart-ropes of vanity but God draweth us to salvation with the cords of love The speciall point of doctrine to which this ecce or index in my text pointeth is that we ought to take speciall notice of the time of grace beginning at the birth of our Saviour and ending to us at the day of our death and to all men that shall be upon the earth at the consummation of the world As the celestiall spheres are wrapt one in another and the greatest which the Philosophers terme the Primum mobile invelopeth all the rest so the parts of time are enclosed the lesser in the greater houres in dayes dayes in yeeres yeers in ages and ages in the time of the duration of the world To explicate then to the full the time of our Lords birth it will be requisite to treat 1 Of the age of the world 2 Of the yeere of the age 3 Of the day of the yeere in which the true z John 1.9 light that lighteneth every man that commeth into the world first shined on the earth 1 Of the age of the world The Jewes according to an ancient tradition received from the house of Elias make three ages of the world as it were so many stages of time 1 From the creation to the law 2 From the law to the Messias 3 From the comming of the Messias to the end of the world To each of these they allow two thousand yeeres counting thus 1 a Carion in Chron. Duo millia vacuum 2 Duo millia lex 3 Duo millia Messias post mundi deflagratio Saint y Aug. de civit Dei l. 22 c 30. Post hanc tan quam in die septimo requi escet Deus cum eundem septimum diem quod nos erimus in seipso faciet requiescere Austine doubleth these files and maketh reckoning of sixe ages 1 From Adam to the Deluge 2 From the Deluge to Abraham 3 From Abraham to Solomon 4 From Solomon to the captivity 5 From the captivity to Christs birth 6 From Christs birth to the day of judgement after which in the seventh we shall all keepe an eternall Sabbath in heaven By both which computations it appeareth that the birth of our Saviour fell late towards the declining and end of time as b Maxin Taur hom 6 de nativ In fine temporum natus est ille cujus aeternitatem nulla saeculorum tempora comprehendunt Maximus Taurinensis observeth Here the wit of man which like the Sea will still be working though oftentimes foaming out his owne shame curiously enquireth why the desire and joy of all mankind was so long delayed why he was so late born whose birth was of more importance than of all the Potentates Princes Kings Emperours and Monarchs of the whole world Was not Christ the bright morning starre how came it then to passe that he appeared not till the afternoone if not evening of the world Was not he the bridegroome whose * Marriage song Epithalamium Solomon by the spirit of prophesie endited in the booke of Canticles how could hee then heare his dearest Spouse breathe out so many sighes and shed such abundance of teares in so many ages still longing for his comming and crying c Cant. 1.1 Let him come into the flesh and kisse mee with the kisses of his lips Was not hee the good Samaritan which healed the wounded man after Moses the Levite and Aaron the Priest passing by left him as they found him and did him no ease at all how then could this tender hearted Chirurgian suffer wounded mankinde to lie so many ages weltring in his owne bloud and
Temporizers who with Peter stand aloofe and dare not come neere lest by continuall conversation with him they might perhaps so alter their licentious lives that in the high Priests Hall their speech might bewray them to bee Galileans A second sort come but in their comming wander out of the way and these are mis-led Papists who in a sottish modesty dare not presume to touch the hemme of Christ his garments but must have Saints to promote their suites A third sort come but a cleane contrary way and these are meale-mouthed hypocrites whose words seeme to bee sweetened with our Saviours breath they are so savoury but compare wee the forwardnesse of their lives in practice to the forwardnesse of their tongues in profession and if yee were as blinde as old Isaac yee may discerne the voice of Jacob but the hands of Esau The fourth sort come but they over-shoot the way and these are Humorists who with Saint Peter in unadvised zeale over-runne themselves and step before Christ but bee not like unto these for they want Saint Pauls ita currite for the levell of their way and Christ his venite for the period of their race Come unto mee not to the Law not to mans traditions they will rather burthen you than ease you Ambulare vis ego sum via falli non vis ego sum veritas mori non vis ego sum vita Accedit qui credit Come unto mee in faith and feare not in hope and doubt not in confidence and despaire not in patience and faint not Use 1 Here then yee see if yee will bee advised by the wonderfull Counseller that in the way of salvation yee are to seeke to no other guide to lead you than himselfe in whom all the promises of GOD are Yea and Amen for under heaven there is no other name given whereby yee may bee saved but the name of Jesus Christ There is one God one Mediatour betwixt God and man the man Christ Jesus Bee it knowne unto you therefore men and brethren that through his name is preached unto you forgivenesse of sinnes and from all things from which by the Law of Moses yee could not bee justified by him every one that commeth unto him is justified for so himselfe promiseth Come unto mee Doctr. 3 All. There was a time when the mercies of God were confined within the narrow precincts of Judea but when the fulnesse of time was come the Sonne of God and heire of all things brake downe the partition wall and dispread his saving health among all Nations teaching and admonishing every man to deny ungodlinesse and embrace the Gospel For the righteousnesse of God is made manifest by faith to all There is no difference but as all sinned in the first Adam and deprived themselves of the glory of God so redemption is freely offered to all in the second Adam that sinners should give all the glory to God Ideo omnibus opem sanitatis obtulit ut quicunque perierit mortis suae causam sibi ascribat qui curari noluit cùm remedium haberet quò posset evadere saith Sain Ambrose Say not then in thine heart I am not the cause of my destruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 injurious blasphemy against so good a God who so willingly holdeth out his golden Scepter of grace unto us and so graciously inviteth all that are wearie to rest under the shadow of his mercie Funeris haud tibi causa fui per sidera juro As I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of a sinner thy destruction is from thy selfe O Israel but in mee is thy helpe But if all are invited why doe not all come Some like the Israelites filled with the garlike of Egypt rellish not heavenly manna others like the Laodiceans thinke they are rich enough when indeed they are wretched miserable and poore Whence it commeth to passe that as of many multitudes in Sauls army onely a few bankrupt beggars came to David in the cave of Adullam so none come to Christ but a few sinne-feeling Publicans troubled Hannaes weeping Maries bed-rid Aeneases leprous Naamans in a word none but such as are poore in spirit and vexed in mind with enduring the heavie burden of sinne All that are weary and heavie laden How heavie a burden sinne is if any mans wounded conscience have not felt hee may perceive it in the Angels whom it pressed downe to hell in Cain whom it drove to despaire in David whom it so bruised that he cryed out it is a burden too heavie for me to beare in our Saviour from whom it wrung drops of bloud only for taking our sinne upon him Why then doe wee take so great paines to doe wickedly why doe wee mumble Satans morsels which will one day prove more bitter than the gall of Aspes and more tormenting than the Vipers tongue Are wee now speechlesse can wee not now answer these demands how then shall wee doe when not onely our consciences shall accuse us but God also who is greater than our conscience shall condemne us Issachars legacy was that hee should bee an Asse couching between two burdens Surely if hee were hee might have been like Balaams Asse to rebuke our forwardnesse who load our selves with sinne till with the woman in the Gospel we are so crooked that we are not able to looke up to the hills from whence commeth our salvation Saint Paul chose rather with his hands to cast out the tackling of the ship than that being over-laden it should sinke and shall not wee unlade our barkes of sinne for feare that with Hymineus and Philetus wee make shipwracke of a good conscience Aristippus commanded his servants to cast away his gold in the street quia tardius irent segnes propter pondus and shall not wee be content with Eliah to leave our mantles behinde us that we may with more expedition be carried to heaven in triumph Virtutis via non capit magna onera portantes But why doe wee teach that sinne is a burden sith so many goe bolt upright under it and make it a passe-time Onus non est quod cum voluprate feras saith the Oratour I answer sinne is a burden not to every one at all times but to a conscience feeling sinnes evill Multa mala sunt intus foras nemo tamen ea sentit nisi qui graditur viam mandatorum Dei saith Saint Austine so long as the strong man ruleth the house he possesseth all things in peace grave in suo loco non gravitat they who are dead in sinne feele no weight how great soever it be Use 1 Here then let us view our naturall disposition wee have as Epiphanius saith a wild figge-tree rooted in our hearts which sprouteth out in our words and sheweth the fruit thereof in our workes if the fruit thereof seeme sweet unto us if the grapes of Sodome delight our eyes if the burden of sinne seeme not onely supportable to us but also as
kindleth our zeale and quickeneth all our spirituall exercises of piety To nourish and maintaine this oyle that our lamp goe not out I will endeavour to open two springs in my Text the one a higher the other a lower the one ariseth from God and his joy the other from our selves and our salvation That the conversion of a sinner is a joy and delight to God I need not to produce arguments to prove or similes to illustrate he that spake as never man spake hath represented it unto us by many exquisite emblemes The k Luke 15.4 8 10 32. joy of a woman for her lost groat found of a shepheard for his wandering sheep recovered of a father for his prodigall child returned and reclaimed Saint * L. 8. confes c. 3. Quantò majus periculum fuit in proelio tantò majus gaudium in triumpho Austine yeeldeth a reason hereof The more danger there is in the conflict with temptation the greater joy in the triumph Such was the joy of the Church for l Cyp. de lapsis Fortiores ignibus facti qui anteà ignibus cesserunt unde superati inde superarunt Castus and Aemilius who though at the first upon the sight of fire prepared for them they gave backe and were at a kind of stand yet afterwards beyond all hope and expectation made a noble profession of their faith and gloriously endured the fiery tryall To whom did our Saviour ever more honour than to Zacheus the converted Publicane to whose house he came being not invited and brought with him the gladdest tidings that ever were heard there This m Luke 19.9 day salvation is come to this house and to Mary Magdalen out of whom he cast seven n Mat. 26.13 Divels to whom he first appeared after his resurrection whose spikenard he mingled with the ointment of the Gospel in such sort that whosoever smelleth the savour of life hath a sent also of the boxe of sweet perfume which she brake upon our Saviours head Scipio as Livie writeth never looked so fresh nor seemed so beautifull in the eyes of his souldiers as after his recovery from a dangerous sicknesse which he tooke in the camp neither doth the soule ever seem more beautifull than when she is restored to health after some dangerous malady The Palladium was in highest esteem both with the Trojans and Romanes not so much for the matter or workmanship as because it was catched out of the fire when Troy was burnt And certainly no soule is more precious in the eyes of God and his Angels than that which is snatched out of the fire of hell and jawes of death As the woman in the Gospel more rejoyced for her lost groat after she found it than for all the groats she had safe in her chest and as the shepheard tooke more delight in his lost sheepe after he found it than in the rest which never wandered so saith our blessed Saviour o Luke 15.7 There shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance I have opened the first spring and we have tasted the waters thereof I am now to open the second which is this That as our repentance is joy unto God and his Angels so it is grace and salvation to our selves As repentance is called p Heb. 6.1 repentance from dead workes so also q Acts 11.18 repentance unto life For God pawnes his life for the life of the penitent As I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of a sinner but rather that hee should returne and live r Plin. l. 2. c. 103 In Dodone Jovis fons cum sit gelidus si extinctae faces admoveantur extinguit Causs in Parab hist l. 10. In Epiro esse ferunt fontem in quo faces accenduntur extinctae Pliny writeth of a fountaine in Africa in which torches that are blowne out being dipped are kindled againe such is the fountaine of teares in the eyes of a penitent sinner if the light of his faith be extinguished to his sense and all outward appearance yet dipped in this fountaine it is kindled againe and burnes more brightly than ever before The Scripture furnisheth us not with many examples in this kind lest any should presume yet some we find that none might despaire A man could hardly runne a more wicked race than the theefe upon the Crosse who lived both in caede and ex caede maintaining his riot and wantonnesse by robbery and murder yet hee holdeth on his course even to the goale and there taketh a greater booty than ever before for hee stealeth a celestiall Crowne And behold this theefe nailed hand and foot to the Crosse yet comming to our Saviour by faith and embracing him by love and receiving from him together with a discharge from the prison of hell a faire grant of Paradise Å¿ Luke 23.43 This day shalt thou be with mee in Paradise It should seem they were ill imployed either all or the greatest part of that day who came in but at the last houre into the Lords Vineyard yet they who came in then received their full hire The Divell occupied a large roome in Martes heart and found there good entertainment else hee would have never taken sixe other inmates with him to dwell and lodge there yet Christ cast all t Marke 16.9 seven out of her and a whole legion out of u Marke 5.9 another and though this were a great miracle yet to cheare up the drooping lookes â—nd comfort the fainting spirits and strengthen the feeble knees of all â—hat bow to hâ—m for pardon and forgivenesse he wrought farre greater For he raised three dead men the first * Mat. 9.25 newly departed the second x Luke 7.12 brought out and lying upon the beere the third y John 11.44 buried and stinking in his grave A man may be ill a long time before he take his bed and lye long in his bed before hee feele the pangs of death and be long dead before hee be buried and a good while buried before he putrifie yet to shew that no time prescribeth against Gods mercy nor excludeth our repentance from dead workes Christ by miracle raised two that were dead and a third stinking in his grave To comfort those that are wounded in conscience the good z Luke 10.30 Samaritan cured him that was wounded between Jerusalem and Jericho and left halfe dead to comfort them that are sicke in soule hee recovered * Mat. 8.14 Peters wives mother lying sicke in her bed to comfort them that have newly as it were given up the ghost hee raised Jairus daughter to comfort them that have been sometimes dead in sinnes and transgressions he raised the widowes sonne to comfort them that have been so long dead in sinnes that they begin to putrifie hee raised up Lazarus stinking in his grave God forbid
Jonas in like manner cries I am cast out of thy sight Jonah 2.4 there is smoak in the flaxe yet was not the flaxe quenched for he addeth immediatly yet I will looke againe to thy holy Temple If thou wilt thou canst Matth. 8.2 said one poore man in the Gospel Lord if thou canst said another Marke 9.22 both these were as the smoaking flaxe in my Text. For the former doubted of Gods power the latter of his will yet neither of both were quenched O miserable man that I am saith S. Paul in the person of a Christian travelling in his new birth who shall deliver me from this body of death here is a cloud of smoak Rom. 7.24.25 yet it is blown away in an instant and the flame breaketh out and blazeth into Gods praises Thankes be unto God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ Man for a little smoake will quench the light but Christ every where cherisheth the least sparke of grace and bloweth it gently by his spirit till it breake forth into a flame To encourage us the more hee accepteth the will for the deed and a good assay for the performance If thou canst but shed a teare for thy sins he hath a bottle to put it in if thou steale a sigh in secret he hath an eare for it if thy faith be but as a graine of mustard seed it shall grow to a great tree Nathanael at the first had but a small ground to beleeve that Christ should bee the Messias but afterwards Christ made good his words unto him hee saw greater things to build his faith upon Because I said unto thee John 1.50 I saw thee under the fig-tree beleevest thou thou shalt see greater things than these Apollos at the first was but catechized in Johns Baptisme Act. 18.27.28 but afterwards Aquila and Priscilla expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly and hee helped them much which had beleeved through grace for hee mightily convicted the Jewes and that publikely shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ Joseph of Arimathea richer in grace than wealth and a great dispreader of the Gospel and as many ancient Writers report the first planter of Christian Religion in this Island yet till Christs death had small courage to professe him but when the evening was come Mar. 15.42.43 which was the preparation that is the day before the Sabbath hee went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus Saint Augustine at the first was drawne to the Church by the lustre of Saint Ambrose his eloquence as himselfe a Aug. confess l. 5. c. 4. confesseth but afterwards he was much more taken with the strength of his proofe than the ornaments of his speech and God by his Spirit so blowed the sparke of divine knowledge in this smoaking flaxe that the Church of God never saw a cleerer lamp burning in it since it had him If we consider the smoaking flaxe in the second condition to wit after the lampe is blowne out the spirituall meaning is That those in whom there was ever any spark of saving grace shall never be quenched or that after the most fearfull blast of temptation there remaines yet some divine fire in the heart of every true beleever which Christ will never quench Christ will not quench the smoaking flaxe if there bee any sparke of divine fire in it yet if this sparke bee not blowne and the weeke enlightened againe it will dye in like manner if wee doe not according to the Apostles precept 2 Tim. 1.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stirre up the grace of God in us and use the utmost of our religious endeavours to kindle againe the lampe of faith in our soules that sparke of divine faith and saving grace which wee conceive that wee have will dye As it is not presumption but faith to bee confident in Gods promises when wee walke in his Ordinances so it is not faith but presumption to assure our selves of the end when wee neglect the meanes of our salvation Wee may no otherwise apprehend or apply unto our selves the gracious promises made to all true beleevers in the Gospel than they are propounded unto us which is not absolutely but upon conditions by us to bee performed through the helpe of divine grace namely to wash our selves Esa 1.16 17. to make us cleane to put away the evill of our doings from before Gods eyes to cease to doe evill to learne to doe well to seeke judgement to relieve the oppressed to judge the fatherlesse Dan. 4.27 Job 41. ◠Apoc. 3.19 Mat. 3.8 and to pleade for the widow to breake off our sinnes by righteousnesse and our iniquity by shewing mercy to the poore to abhorre our selves and repent in dust and ashes to remember from whence wee are fallen and doe our first workes to bee zealous and amend and to bring forth fruits meet for repentance To argue from a strong perswasion of our election and from thence to inferre immediately assurance of salvation is as Tertullian speaketh in another case aedificare in ruinam The safe way to build our selves in our most holy faith and surely fasten the anchor of our hope is to conclude from amendment of life repentance unto life from our hatred of sinne Gods love unto us from hunger and thirst after righteousnesse some measure of grace from godly sorrow and sonne-like feare and imitation of our heavenly Father the adoption of sonnes from continuall growth in grace perseverance to the end from the fruits of charity the life of our faith and from all a modest assurance of our election unto eternall life Not curiously to dispute the Scholasticall question concerning the absolute impossibilitie of the apostacy of any Saint and the amissibility of justifying faith which many learned Doctours of the Reformed Churches hold fitter to bee extermined than determined or at least confined to the Schooles than defined in the Pulpit that wherein all parties agree is sufficient to comfort the fainting spirits and strengthen the feeble knees of any relapsed Christian That God will never bee wanting to raise him if hee bee not wanting to himselfe But if when hee is returned with the Sow to his wallowing in the mire hee taketh delight therein and never striveth to plucke his feet out of it nor rise up out of the dirt if hee never cry for helpe nor so much as put forth the hand of his faith that Christ may take hold of it and by effectuall grace draw him out of the mudde hee will certainly putrifie in his sinnes Hee that heareth the Word of God preached and assenteth thereunto and is most firmly perswaded of Gods love to him for the present if through the rebellion of the flesh against the spirit or the suggestions of Sathan or by the wicked counsels and examples of others hee chargeth himselfe with any foule sinne either of impiety against God or iniquity against men or impurity
also doth the like Ovid. Met. l. 1. Cuncta priùs tentanda sed immedicabile vulnus Ense recidendum est ne pars sincera trahatur Si frustra molliora cesserint Seneca l. 1. de irâ— ferit venam For Physicians first minister weak and gentle potions and as the disease groweth apply stronger medicines And good Surgeons Homer l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like Machaon in Homer first lay plasters and poultesses to wounds and swellings and never launce or burne the part till the sore fester and other parts be in danger whom good Magistrates ought to imitate and never to use violent and compulsive remedies but when they are compelled thereunto nor to take extreme courses Senec. l. 1. de ira Ultima supplicia motibus ultimis parat ut nemo pereat nisi quem perire etiam pereuntis intersit but when the malady is extreme Desperate remedies are never good but when no other can be had for they that are of a great spirit if they be well given will not if they be ill cannot be amended by such meanes They resemble Jeat which burneth in water but is quenched with oyle or the c Plin. nat hist l. 31. c. 7. Uno digito mobilis idem si toto corpore impellitur resistens ita ratio est libra menti Colossus at Tarentum which you may move with your finger but cannot wagge if you put your whole strength to it As for those that are of a weaker spirit and are easily daunted harsh courses will doe them more hurt than good for they resemble tender plants which dye if they are touched with a d Rustici frondibus teneris non putant adhibendam falcem quia reformidare ferrum videntur cicatricem nondum pati posse knife or iron instrument The sixth rule is to sweeten the sharpest censures with mild speeches This rule is delivered by Lactantius in these words Circumlinere poculum coelestis sapientiae melle when wee minister a wholsome but bitter potion to annoint the side of the cup with honey when we give the patient a loathsome pill to lap it in sugar The manner whereof the Spirit sheweth us in divers letters sent to the Churches of e Apoc. 2.3 Asia First we are to professe the good will wee beare to the party and make it knowne unto him that whatsoever we doe we doe it in love f Apoc. 3.19 I rebuke and chasten as many as I love Secondly to acknowledge their good parts if they have any g Apoc. 2.2 4. I know thy workes and thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not beare them that are evill neverthelesse I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love Thirdly to give them some good advice and counsell with our reproofe h Apoc. 3.18 I counsell thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou maist bee rich and white raiment that thou maist be clothed and that the shame of thy nakednesse may not appeare and to annoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou maist see Lastly to promise them favour upon any token of amendment i Apoc. 3.20 Be zealous therefore and repent behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man heare my voice and open the doore I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Some there are who like best a resolute Chirurgian who be the patient never so impatient will doe his duty and quickly put him out of his paine though in the meane time he putteth the party to most intolerable torture Give me a tender-hearted Chirurgian who being to set an arme or legge that is out of joynt handleth it so gently that the patient scant feeleth when the bone falleth in Thus Nathan the Prophet handled King David 2 Sam. 12.3 4 5 6 7. and by telling him first a parable of a poore man that had but one lambe c. and afterwards applying it unexpectedly to the King himself ere he was aware as it were set not his body but his soule in joynt The seventh rule is to keep the execution of justice within certaine bounds set by equity and mercy This rule is laid downe by the Prophet Micah Hee hath shewed thee O man what is good Micah 6.8 and what the Lord requireth of thee to doe justice and to love mercy and by Solomon Eccles 7.16 Be not just overmuch Cut not too deep nor launce too farre Ne excedat medicina modum It is better to leave some flesh a little tainted than cut away any that is sound It is more agreeable to Gods proceedings to save a whole City for ten righteous mens sake than after the manner of the Romans when there was a mutiny in the Campe to pay the tythe to justice by executing every tenth man through the whole Army For as Germanicus cryed out in Tacitus Tacit. annal l. 1. Non medicina ista est sed clades when hee saw a great number of souldiers put to the sword for raising up sedition in the Army Stay your hand this is not an execution but a slaughter not a remedy but a plague not severity of justice but extremity of cruelty For which Theodosius the Emperour was justly excommunicated by St. Ambrose and Aegyptus sharply censured by the Poet Ovid. l. 1. de Pont. Eleg 9. qui caede nocentum Se nimis ulciscens extitit ipse nocens And Scylla was proscribed by the Historians and Poets of his time to all ages because hee was not content with the punishment of sixty thousand in Rome who were executed with most exquisite torments but entring afterwards into Praeneste there left not a man alive and else where also his cruelty raging in the end as Lucan observeth hee let out the corrupt bloud but when there was in a manner no other bloud left in the whole body of the Common-wealth Lucan de bel ci l. 1. periere nocentes Sed cum jam soli poterant superesse nocentes What was this else Sabast conjur Caâ—il Vastaâ—e civitatem non sanaâ—e than as Salust speaketh to exhaust a city not to purge it I am not against the cutting off a rotten member to preserve the whole body I know the sword is the only cure of an incurable wound which yet hath no place when there is no sound part in the whole body a Bodin de rep l 3. c 7. Et si salutare est putre membrum ad universi corporis salutem urere aut secare non propterea si omnia membra extabuerint aâ—t gangâ—ena inficiantuâ— sectionibus erit aut ustionibus utendum Bodine speaketh pertinently to this purpose It doth not follow that because it is good Surgery sometimes to burne out rotten flesh or cut off a member to save the whole that therefore if a gangrene overspread the whole we are to apply a Razor or Cupping-glasse b Sen.
deâ—â—em Poena ad paucos metus ad omnes perveniat Seneca better adviseth Let the clap fright all the thunderbolt strike but a few For as c Cassex Jan. Grat. not in Tac. Principi non minus turpia multa supplicia quà m medico funera Cassiodore noteth It is as great a shame for a Magistrate as for a Physician to have many dye under his hand Chuse therefore the fattest of the beasts for sacrifice that is make the chiefe authours and ring-leaders in any sedition or riot a sinne-offering for the rest and an example unto all This moderation Tully used in repressing the conspiracy of d Salust in conjur Catil Cataline e Quintus Curtius de gest Alex. Alexander in punishing the rebellion of the Articinae Scipio in disciplinating his Army as if they had all read that divine sentence of f Senec. l. 1. de clem Divina potentia est greâ—aum ac publice servare multos occidere indiscretos incendii ruinae potentia est Seneca To kill men pell mell and murder multitudes together is liker a ruine of a house or the devouring of a common fire than a moderate execution of justice but on the contrary To save whole multitudes of men and that together from death and destruction is an eminent worke of the divine power The eighth rule is to be touched with a g Rom. 12.15 fellow-feeling of anothers misery This is laid downe by S. Paul h Colos 3.12 Weep with them that weep put on the bowels of mercy kindnesse and meeknesse A good Magistrate should not bee like the iron instruments of Chirurgians that have no sense at all of the intolerable paine which they cause in the part pricked or launced but like Zaleuchus who put out one eye of his owne when hee sentenced his sonne according to law to lose both his eyes It should bee a cut in their heart to cut deep into any member of Christ Jesus Why hath God given us soft hearts but to melt into compassion why moist eyes but to shed teares as well for others grievous affliction as our owne sinnes Teares saith the Poet are the most sensible and best sensible parts we have Nostri pars optima sensus and they that have sap of grace in them are fullest of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eras Adag If Augustus never pronounced a capitall sentence without fetching a deep sigh If Marcellus wept before he set fire to Syracuse Valer. Max. Ante fuas lachrymas quà m ipsorum sanguinem effudit If Scipio professed in an Oration to his Souldiers that he drew a sword through his own bowels when he put thirty of them to death to expiate the trespasse of eight thousand Nay if God himselfe who is void of all passion is yet full of compassion At que dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox If hee never pronounce the dreadfull sentence of destruction against any City or Country without great regret and seeming reluctation Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up O Ephraim How shall I deliver thee O Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim My heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together Vers 9. I will not execute the fiercenesse of mine anger for I am God and not man c. Beloved brethren how should wee bee affected when any of his children our brethren are like to be ruined by our sentence How loth should wee bee to draw bloud one from another who are members one of another and fellow-members of Christ Jesus Were Christ againe upon earth could you see him stripped stark naked and flead with whips and pierced with nailes and racked on the crosse and not bee pricked at heart with compunction and wounded deeply with compassion And doth hee not assure us that whatsoever is done bee it good or bad to any of his little ones Matth. 10.42 Acts 9.4 is done unto him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Therefore never look that he will have mercy on you in heaven if you have no compassion on him here calling for food in his starved sighing for home in his banished groaning for ease in his burthened mourning for liberty in his imprisoned crying for pity in his grievously afflicted and tortured members I have applyed this Text to instruction and correction now a word of comfort from this that the Judge of all flesh is so meeke as hath been shewed When Benhadad the King of Syria was discomfited and utterly overthrowne by the King of Israel according to the advice of his servants who told him that the Kings of Israel were mercifull 1 Kings 20.31 32 34. hee sent them clothed with sackcloth with ropes upon their heads to entreat for peace now when the King of Israel saw their submission he made a covenant of peace with them Better advice I cannot give you than to put in practise what they did when you are overtaken with Gods judgements and affrighted with hell torments cast your selves downe to the ground before him and poure out your soules with a showre of teares and put ropes upon your heads that is acknowledge what you have deserved for your sinnes and sue day and night for pardon and in the end you shall finde by your owne experience that he that is over all is rich in mercy unto all that call upon him Rom. 10.12 For he will not only raise you up and set you upon your feet and pull the rope off your neckes Cant. 1.11 but will farther decke you with golden chaines of spirituall graces linked together hee will make you borders of gold with studs of silver Nay as when Tygranes threw first his crowne and after himselfe downe at the feet of Pompey that noble Commander as Xiphiline writeth Xiph. in compend Dion taking pity on him put his Diadem againe with his owne hands upon his head and after took him by the hand raised him from the ground and set him in a chaire of state by him So the great Commander of heaven and earth when he seeth your unfeigned humility and lowest submission to him will raise you up put a crowne of glory upon your head and set you in a throne of majesty on his right hand to sit with him in judgement upon the twelve Tribes of Israel So be it To God the Father c. THE LAMBE TURNED LION A Sermon preached in his Graces Chappell at Lambeth Decemb. 6. Anno Dom. 1619. before his Majesties high Commissioners there assembled THE FOURTH SERMON MATTH 12.20 Till he send forth judgement unto victory Most REVEREND c. THe words of Gedeon to the Ephraimites Judges 8.2 Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer may not unfitly bee applyed to the written Word of God in comparison of other bookes Is not the gleaning of Scripture better than the vintage of all secular learning Hierom.
cause in favour of the defendant and being taxed for it by his friends in private shewing them the coyn he received demanded of them quis possit tot armatis resistere who were able to stand against so many in complete armour Steele armour is bullet or musket proofe but nothing except the feare of God is gold or silver proofe Nothing can keepe a Judge from receiving a reward in private in a colourable cause but the eye of the Almighty who seeth the corrupt Judge in secret and will reward him openly if not in his lower Courts on earth yet in his high Court of Star-chamber in heaven 5 All corruption is not in bribes hee who for hope of advancement or for favour or for any by-respect whatsoever perverteth judgement is not cleere from corruption though his hands be cleane The Judges who absolved the beautifull strumpet Phryne had their hands cleane but their eyes foule The Judges who absolved Murena that by indirect meanes purchased the Consulship of Rome are not taxed for taking any bribe from him yet was their judgment corrupt because that which swayed them in judgment was not the innocency of Murena but his modest carriage together with his sickness then upon him moving them unto compassion An upright Judge must in a morall sense be like Melchisedek without Father or Mother kiffe or kin I meane in justice hee must take no notice of any affinity or consanguinity friendship or favour or any thing else save the merits of the cause to which 6 Hee must give a full hearing for otherwise the Poet will tell him that g Sen. in med Qui aliquid statuit parte inauditá alterá aequum licet statuerit baud aequus est though the sentence he gives may be just yet he cannot be just The eare is not only the sense of discipline or learning as the Philosopher speaketh but of faith also as the Apostle teacheth yea and of truth also and justice Though a Judge need not with Philip stop one of his eares while the accuser is speaking yet ought he alwayes to reserve an eare for the defendant and according to the ancient decree of the Areopagites h Demost orat de coron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heare both parties with like attention and indifferency their full time Albeit our Lord and Saviour knew the hearts of men which no earthly Judge can yet to prescribe a rule to all Judges hee professeth sicut audio sic judico i Joh. 5.30 as I heare so I judge Never any Romane Emperour was so much censured with injustice and folly as k Sueton. in Claud. Claudius Caesar and the reason why hee so oft mistooke was because hee often sentenced causes upon the hearing of one side only and somtimes upon the full hearing of neither But of hearing you heare every day not onely the Preachers at the Assizes but the Counsell on both parts call upon you for it I would you heard as oft of that which I am to touch in the next place without which hearing is to no purpose 7 Expedition If the time had not prevented me I would have long insisted upon the prolonging of suits in all Courts of justice For a man can come into none of them but hee shall heare many crying with him in the Poet Quem das finem Rex magne laborum When shall we leave turning Ixions wheele and rowling Sisyphus stone O that we had an end either way long delayed justice often more wrongeth both parties than injustice either I am not ignorant of the colourable pretence wherewith many excuse these delayes affirming that questions in law are like the heads of Hydra when you cut off one there arise up two in the place of it which if it were so as it argueth a great imperfection in our laws which they who are best able make no more haste to supply than beggars to heale the raw flesh because these gaine by such defects as they by shewing their sores so it no way excuseth the protraction of the ordinary suits disputes and demurres in which there is no more true controversie in point of law than head in a sea-crab 8 Of courage and resolution I shall need to adde nothing to what hath beene spoken because the edge of your sword of justice hath a strong backe the authority of a most religious and righteous Prince under whom you need not feare to doe justice but rather not to execute justice upon the most potent delinquent 9 There remaines nothing but Equity to crowne all your other vertues which differeth but little from moderation above enforced for moderation is equity in the minde as equity is moderation in the sentence Bee not over just saith l Eccl. 7.16 Solomon but moderate thy justice with equity and mitigate it with mercy for summum jus est summa injuria justice without mercy is extreme cruelty and mercy without justice is foolish pity both together make Christian equity Therfore these two vertues resemble Castor and Pollux which if either alone appeare on the mast is ominous but both together promise a prosperous voyage or like the metals which are so termed quia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the veynes succeed one the other after the veyne of one metall you fall upon the veyne of another so in scripture you shall finde a sequence of these vertues as in the Prophet Micah m Micah 6.8 Hee hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to doe justly and love mercy and in Zechary n Zech. 7.9 Execute true judgement and shew mercy and compassion every man to his brother and in Solomon o Pro. 21.21 Hee that followeth after righteousnesse and mercy findeth life righteousnesse and honour To gather then up at length the scattered links of my discourse to make a golden chaine for your neckes Be instructed O ye Judges of the earth either Judges made of earth earthly men or made Judges of the earth that is controversies about lands tenures and other earthly and temporall causes serve the Lord of heaven in feare and rejoice unto him with trembling bee religious in your devotion moderate in your passions learned in the lawes incorrupt in your courts impartiall in your affections patient in hearing expedite in proceeding resolute in your sentence and righteous in judgement and execution So when the righteous Judge shall set his tribunall in the clouds and the unrighteous Judge as being most contrary to him shall receive the heaviest doome ye that are righteous Judges as being likest to him shall receive a correspondent reward and bee taken from sitting upon benches on earth to be his Assessours on his throne in heaven To whom c. THE APOSTOLICK BISHOP A Sermon preached at the Consecration of the L. B. of Bristow before his Grace and the Lord Keeper of the Great Seale and divers other Lords Spirituall and Temporall and other persons of eminent quality
of sinnes is peculiarly attributed to the Spirit and by a metonymie termed the Holy Ghost Barradius bringeth us an answer out of the schooles that z Barrad in harmon Evang. remission of sinnes is a worke of Gods goodnesse and mercy now workes of goodnesse are peculiarly attributed to the holy Spirit who proceedeth as they determine from the will of the Father and the Sonne whose object is goodnesse as workes of wisedome are attributed to the Sonne because hee is the word proceeding by way of generation from the understanding of his Father This reason may goe for currant in their way neither have I any purpose at this time to crosse it but to haste to the period of this discourse in which that I may better discover the path of truth in stead of many little lights which others have brought I will set up one great taper made of the sweetest of their waxe The Holy Ghost is sometimes taken for the person of the Comforter which sealeth Gods chosen to salvation sometimes for the gifts effects or operations of the Holy Ghost as it were the prints of his scale left in the soule these are principally three 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirituall power or authority 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertue or ghostly ability to worke wonders and speake with divers languages 1 Is common to all them that are sanctified 2 Is peculiar to Christs Ministers 3 Restrayned to the Apostles themselves and some few others of their immediate successors z Joh. 3.5 Exceâ—t a man be borne of the water and of the spirit 1 Regenerating grace is termed the holyGhost 2 Spirituall order or ministeriall power is called the Spirit or holy Ghost in this place and Luk. 4.18 Esay 61.1 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the Gospell c. 3 Miraculous vertue is called the holy Ghost Act. 2.4 And they were filled with the holy Ghost and spake with divers tongues 1 The Spirit of grace and regeneration the Apostles received at their first calling 2 The Spirit of ecclesiasticall government they received at this time c. 3 The Spirit of powerfull and extraordinary operation they received in the day of Pentecost 1 In their mindes by infallible inspiration 2 In their tongues by multiplicity of languages 3 In their hands by miraculous cures Receive then the Holy Ghost is 1 A ghostly function to ordaine Pastors and sanctifie congregations to God 2 Spirituall gifts to execute and discharge that function 3 Spirituall power or jurisdiction to countenance and support both your function and gifts Thus have I opened the treasury of this Scripture out of which I now offer to your religious thoughts and affections these ensuing observations And first in generall I commend to the fervour of your zeale and devotion the excessive heat of Christs love which absumed and spent him all for us flesh and spirit His flesh he offereth us in the Sacrament of his Supper his spirit hee conferreth in the sacred rite of consecration His body hee gave by those words Take eate this is my body his spirit hee gave by these Receive ye the holy Ghost a gift unestimable a treasure unvaluable for it was this spirit which quickned us when wee were dead in trespasses and sinnes it is this spirit which fetcheth us againe when wee swoune in despaire it is this spirit that refresheth and cooleth us in the extreme heat of all persecutions afflictions sorrowes and diseases to it we owe 1 Light in our mindes 2 Warmth in our desires 3 Temper in our affections 4 Grace in our wils 5 Peace in our consciences 6 Joy in our hearts and unspeakeable comfort in life and death This is the winde which bloweth a Cant. 4.16 Blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits upon the Spouse her garden that the spices thereof might flow out This is the breath which formeth the words in the cloven tongues this is the breath which bloweth and openeth all the flowers of Paradise This is the blast which diffuseth the savour of life through the whole Church This is the gale which carryeth us through all the troublesome waves of this world and bringeth us safe to the haven where we would be And as the Spouse of Christ which is his mysticall body is infinitely indebted to her head for this gift of the spirit whereby holy congregations are furnished with Pastors and they with gifts and the ministery of the Gospell continually propagated so wee above all nations in the world at this day are most bound to extoll and magnifie his goodnesse towards us herein among whom in a manner alone this holy seed of the Church remaineth unmixed and uncorrupt not onely as propagated but propagating also not children onely but Fathers Apostolicall doctrine other reformed Churches maintaine but doe they retaine also Apostolicall discipline laying of hands they have on Ministers and Pastors but consecration of Archbishops and Bishops they have not And because they want consecrated Bishops to ordaine Pastors their very ordination is not according to ancient order Because they want spirituall Fathers in Christ to beget children in their ministery their Ministers by the adversary are accounted no better than filii populi whereas will they nill they even in regard of our Hierarchy the most frontlesse Papists must confesse the children begot by our reverend Fathers in the ministery of the Gospell to be as legitimate as their owne For albeit they put the hereticke upon us as the Arrians did upon the Catholike Fathers calling them Athanasians c. yet this no way disableth either the consecration of our Bishops nor the ordination of our Priests not onely because we have proved the dogge lyeth at their doores and that they are a kinde of mungrils of divers sorts of heretickes but because it is the doctrine of their Church b See Croy in his third conformity Whitaker in fine resp ad demonstrat Sanderi Rivet procem de haeref q. 1. Cath. orthod that the character of order is indeleble and therefore Archbishop Cranmer and other of our Bishops ordained by them if they had afterwards as Papists most falsly suppose fallen into heresie could not lose their faculty of consecration and ordination The consecration of Catholicke Bishops by Arrians and baptisme of faithfull Christians children by Donatists though heretickes is made good as well by the decrees of ancient as later Councels determining that Sacraments administred even by heretickes so they observe the rite and forme of words prescribed in holy scripture bee of force and validity Praysed therefore for ever bee the good will of him that dwelt in the bush that the Rod of Aaron still flourisheth among us and planteth and propagateth it selfe like that Indian fig-tree so much admired by all Travellers from the utmost branch whereof issueth a gummy juyce which hangeth
thy noble Prophet of the royall race t Esa 53.8 5. He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgressions of my people was he stricken He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes wee are healed therefore was Barabbas acquitted and Jesus condemned to the scourge and the crosse Againe ver 12. hee powred his soule unto death and hee was numbred with the transgressors therefore Jesus was executed with two malefactors the one on the right hand the other on the left Againe hee bare the sinne of many and made intercession for the transgressors therefore Jesus when they crucified him said u Luk. 23.34 Father forgive them for they know not what they doe How readest thou in Moses law * Deut. 21.23 cursed is he that hangeth on a tree therefore Jesus who became a curse for us hung on the tree of the crosse Againe all things by the law are purged by sprinkling of blood with a bunch of Hyssope therefore Jesus blood was x Joh. 19.29 shed upon the crosse and a bunch of Hyssope there offered unto him How readest thou in the booke of Psalmes y Psal 22.21 they gave me gall to eate and when I was thirsty they gave mee vinegar to drinke therefore Jesus said on the crosse I thirst and they filled a spunge full of vinegar and put it on a reede and gave him to drinke Againe z Psal 22.18 they parted my garments among them saith David Christ his type and on my vesture did they cast lots therefore after Jesus * Mat. 27.35 gave up the Ghost the souldiers parted his garments and cast lots Christ was fastened to the wood of the crosse as a Gen. 22.9 Isaak was bound to the faggot Behold the type accomplished and the scripture fulfilled hee b Esa 53.10 made his soule an offering for sinne be not faithlesse but believe Christ was lift up c Num. 21.9 upon the crosse as the brazen serpent was set up upon a pole for a signe Behold the type accomplished and the scripture fulfilled d Zach. 12.10 they shall looke upon him whom they have pierced be not faithlesse but believe Christs flesh was torne bruised pierced and as it were broached on the crosse as the paschall Lambe yet without any bone broken Behold the type accomplished and the scripture fulfilled e Psal 22.16 they pierced my hands and feet and thou f Psal 34.20 keepest all my bones so that not one of them is broken Be not faithlesse but believe sith every circumstance of Christs passion is a substantiall proofe every indignity offered unto him is an Axiome every nayle and thorne a poignant argument every marke and scarre in his flesh a demonstration à signo and his extension on the crosse a declaration and ostension that hee is the true Messiah The Jew hath his payment I now take the Gentile to taske Vs 2 Contr. Graec. Gentiles who maketh a laughing stocke of the crosse O foolish Greeke why dost thou esteeme the doctrine of the crosse foolishnesse in which all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge are hid The Abderites tooke Democritus for a man besides himselfe but Hypocrates that great Physician made them know that they were out of their wits not the Philosopher The folly O Greeke is in thy judgment not in the doctrine of the crosse the shadow is in thine eye or the dust in thy spectacle and not in the object for hadst thou a single eye and a cleare spectacle thou mightst see the crosse beset with foure Jewels 1 Wisedome in the height and top 2 Humility in the depth and basis 3 Obedience on the right side 4 Patience on the left Thou mightest see by God his infinite wisedome light drawne out of darknesse and good out of evill and order out of confusion Thou mightest observe in it infinite justice and mercy reconciled thou mightest admire glory conquered by shame power overcome by weakenesse wisedome confounded by folly death killed by dying the grave destroyed by being buryed in it and hell by descending into it Yea but thy pride will not brooke to have any faith in a man crucified or to hope for salvation from him who could not save himselfe from the accursed tree Indeed if he had beene inforced thus to die if he had not laid downe his life of his owne accord and made his soule an offering for sinne thy objection had something in it considerable but sith he dyed by power and not of infirmity for though to dye simply be of infirmity yet so to dye to lay downe his life at his own pleasure and take it up again was of power sith being in the form of God he g Phil. 2.8 humbled himselfe to death even the death of the Crosse and in it triumphed over death hell and the Divell stop thy mouth for ever from blaspheming the crosse or rather open it to the everlasting praise of him that dyed on it whose misery if thou beleeve is thy happinesse his ignominy thy glory his death thy life his Crosse thy Crown Thou eternizest the memory of Codrus Curtius the Decii and D. Claudius for devoting and sacrificing themselves for their Country how canst thou then but much more love and honour yea and adore Jesus Christ who Codrus-like put on the habit of a common souldier or rather servant and dyed in the battaile to gaine us an everlasting victorie over all our enemies Curtius-like leapt into the Hiatus or gulfe of death and hell to save mankinde from it Decius and Claudius-like devovit se pro terrarum orbe gave himselfe up to death for the life of the whole world Use 3 And so I let the Greeke passe the Romanists turne is next who maketh an Idol of the Crosse Contra Papist O superstitious Papist why dost thou vow pilgrimages and creepe on all foure to the Crosse Why dost thou fall downe at it and often lash thy selfe before it Why dost thou kisse it and weepe upon it and make a woodden prayer to it saying Ave lignum spes unica all haile thou wood of the Crosse our onely hope Was the Crosse crucified for thee Did thy gilt crucifix die for thee Hast thou not heard how the Gentiles of old traduced the Christians quod h Minutius Fâ—elix 〈◊〉 Oâ—â— 12 10. Crucis erant religiosi that they religiously worshipped the Crosse and what answer the godly Fathers in those purest times returned unto them Cruces nec habemus nec optamus we neither have Crosses nor desire them Didst thou never heare what S. Helena the renowned mother of great Constantine did when she discovered the true Crosse to which our Lord was nailed by the inscription St. Ambrose telleth thee i Orat. de obit Theod. Invenit titulum Regem adoravit non utique lignum quia hic est
departure Buried out of the said Hospitall this yeere 200 Remaining under cure at this present 304 There hath beene brought into the Hospitall of Bridewell for this yeere past of wandring souldiers and vagrant persons to the number of 1578 Of which number many have beene chargeable for the time of their being there which cannot be avoided by reason of their misery nor passed away without charge There is maintained and kept in the said Hospitall in arts and occupations and other workes and labours Apprentices taken up out of divers parishes and streets of this City to the number of 200 I have made an end of the Catalogue but you must not make an end of your good workes I have set before you a faire copy you must write after it or else this schedule will prove a hand-writing against you at the day of judgement who have had not onely many most forcible exhortations to good workes in this place but such noble and royall presidents as you see and yet have not been bettered by them You cannot want pitifull objects of mercy your pious charity hath daily Oratours the teares of orphans the sighes of widowes the groanes of the sicke and the lamentable cryes of prisoners and captives Neither is it sufficient for you now and then to drop upon the dry and thirsty ground you must stillare pluviam liberalissimam you must powre downe golden showres to refresh Gods inheritance To whom much is given much shall bee required of him In other seizements you give as you are in the Kings books but contrariwise you are in Gods bookes and hee valueth you as you give to pious and charitable uses And let mee intreat you for the love of your Redeemer from everlasting thraldome to open your hands towards the redemption of many hundreds of our countrey-men whose bodies are in captivity under Turks and Infidels their wives and children in misery at home and it is to be feared their soules in worse case Next to the redemption of these spirituall Temples of the holy Ghost I commend unto you the reparation and beautifying of his materiall Temple you have most decently and beautifully adorned and trimmed the daughters of Zion the lesser and later built Churches in this City let not your piety bee lesse to the Mother-Church dedicated to the most publike and solemne worship of God where you are fed with the finest flower of wheat and drinke of the purest juice of the grape and in the fullest manner partake of the communion of Saints which was the second inference I made from the attribute of Christ in my text whereby hee is stiled Primitiae dormientium The first fruits of them that slept 2 The second inference from the attribute here mentioned the first fruits of c. is the communion of the faithfull with Christ both in sanctification and glorification for the further manifestation whereof it will bee requisite to specifie whereof Christ is the first fruits viz. 1 Coeli for he is the first begotten of his Father 2 Uteri for he was the Virgins first borne 3 Sepulchri for hee is the first fruits of them that slept In all three the faithfull partake with him after a sort 1 In that hee is Primitiae coeli the first fruits of heaven For as hee is the naturall sonne of God so are wee the adopted sonnes of God and by his spirit made l 2 Pet. 1.4 partakers of the divine nature as hee is the first borne of heaven m Heb. 12.23 so wee are also of the generall assembly and Church of the first borne which are written in heaven 2 In that he is Primitiae uteri virginei the first fruits of a virgins womb For as Christ was borne of a virgin Mother so the Christian Church our Mother is continually in child-bearing and yet remaineth still a virgin 3 Most properly doe wee partake with him in that hee is Primitiae sepulchri for hee is n Joh. 12.24 that corne of wheat Saint John speaketh of which was sowne at his death digged deepe into the earth at his buriall sprang up againe at his resurrection and now is become the first fruits of them that slept in like manner wee are sowne at our death digged deep into the earth at our buriall and shall spring up againe at the last resurrection and bee offered as o Apoc. 14.4 first fruits unto God and the Lambe Where the first fruits are taken out there must needs bee a lumpe or heape out of which they are taken p Calvin in hunc locum In primitiis totius anni proventus consecrabatur in the first fruits the whole crop of the yeere was hallowed so in Christ who is our first fruits all true believers are sanctified as those words of our Saviour in that most divine prayer to his Father recorded import q Joh. 17.19 for their sakes I sanctifie my selfe that they also might bee sanctified through the truth If Christ sanctified himselfe for us shall not wee endeavour as hee enableth us by his grace to sanctifie our selves also for him If hee impart this his dignity to us and maketh us r Jam. 1.18 the first fruits of his creatures let us dedicate our selves unto him let us bee given to him as Å¿ 1 Sam. 1.28 Samuel was all the dayes of our lives Hee hath chosen us to bee marke I beseech you what fruits not blossomes not leaves fruits I say not stalkes not empty eares like those who make a bare profession of the truth and all their religion is in their eares bearing no fruit at all or in no degree answerable to their holiest profession If God hath made us fruits let us not make our selves ranke weeds by heresie or filthy dung by a corrupt life After the first fruits are carried away out of the field the rest of the shockes or sheafes follow of course t Theod. in hunc locum primitias universa massa sequitur Christ the first fruits is carried away long since out of the field of this world into the celestiall barne A barne farre more stately beautifull and glorious than any Princes pallace upon earth and when the harvest shall come which is u Mat. 13.39 the end of the world wee shall bee carried thither also every one in his owne order the first fruits is Christ after they that are Christs at his comming ver 23. Before I can proceed according to my desire and your expectation to the period of my discourse and end of all mens course viz. death called here sleepe I must remove sixe rubbes that lye in my way For wee read of three dead men raised in the Old Testament and as many in the New before Christ himselfe rose how then is hee the first fruits of them that slept 1 I will offer to your consideration many solutions of this doubt that you may take your choice Saint Jerome gives but a touch at it yet because it is upon the
that are bound visit not the sicke or imprisoned in a word performe not any of those duties which shall be vouchsafed the naming at the generall day of retribution unto all men which shall be according to their workes not according to their words The witty Epigrammatist deservedly casteth a blurre upon Candidus his faire name and debonaire carriage because all the fruits of his friendship grew upon his tongue * Martial Epigr. Candide κοῖνα φιλῶν haec sunt tua Candide πάντα quae tu magniloquus nocte dieque sonas Ex opibus tantis veteri fidoque sodali das nihil dicis Candide κοινα φιλων Thou sayst my friend Candidus that all things are common among friends but it seems these words of thine are thy all things For of all thy wealth and goods thou makest no friend thou hast a doite the better thou givest nothing at all and yet art most prodigall in thy language and wearest out that Proverb threed-bare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are common amongst friends The Naturalists observe that the females of Biâ—ds oftentimes lay egges without cockes but they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ova subventanea egges filled up with winde unfit to be hatched such is the issue of most mens love now a dayes it bringeth forth partus subventaneos windy brats that is good words faire promises and happy wishes But though in our gardens of pleasure wee nourish many plants and trees for their beautifull blossomes and goodly flowers yet it is manifest out of the 16. Thou shalt eare freely of every tree in the garden Verse of the second of Genesis that there grew no tree in the terrestriall Paradise of God that bare not fruit neither shall any but such as fructifie bee transplanted into the celestiall For x Mat. 3.10 Every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen downe and cast into the fire Wee reade in our Chronicles of King Oswald that as he sate at table when a faire silver dish full of regall delicacies was set before him and he ready to fall to hearing from his Amner that there were great store of poore at his gate piteously crying for some reliefe commanded his Steward presently to take the dish off the table and distribute the meat and beat the dish all in pieces cast it among them whereat the Bishop his Amner taking hold of his hand was heard to use these or the like speeches Nunquam veterascet haec manus the hand which beareth such fruit shall never wither or waxe old in part he was a true Prophet for afterwards in a battell where the King was slaine having his arme first cut off the arme with the hand being found were covered in silver kept as a holy Relique and by this means endured many hundred of yeers after the whole body was consumed That which quencheth Hell fire in the conscience is the bloud of Christ that which applyeth this bloud is faith that which quickneth this faith is love that which demonstrateth this love are workes of mercy and bounty piety and pity which are not so much offices to men as sacrifices to God faith cryeth for these as Rachel did for children Give mee fruit or else I dye For y James 2.26 Faith without works is dead as the body without breath And can aman think we live by a dead faith Give saith our Saviour and it shall be given unto you Which precept of his was so imprinted in the minde of that noble Matron z Hieron epitaph Paul Mat. Damnum putabat si quisquam debilis aut esuriens cibo sustentaretur alterius Et Cyp. de elecmos Demus Christo vestimenta terrena indumenta coelestia recepturi demus cibum potum secularem cum Abrah Isa Jac. ad coeleste convivium venturi Paula that shee accounted it a great losse and dammage to her if any prevented her charity in relieving any poore or distressed member of Christ she was a like affected as if one had taken a great bargaine out of her hand A great bargaine indeed to lay out mony in earthly trash and receive for it heavenly treasure to bestow ragges and receive robes to give a little broken meat that perisheth to the hungry and for it to bee bid with Abraham Isaac and Jacob to an everlasting banquet in Heaven I should close with this sweet straine of Saint Cyprian but that there remaineth another note pricked in the last words of my Text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One another If any demand why Christ addeth this clause enjoyning mutuall love I answer because gratitude charity and necessity inforceth it Where love is not answered there is no gratitude where kindnesse is not requited there is no justice where offices of friendship are not mutually performed there is no life All a Senec. ep 48. Alteri vivas oportet si vis tibi Societas nostra lapidum fornici similima est quae casura nisi invicem obstarent hoc ipso sustinentur humane societies are like archt-building in which unlesse every stone hold up another the whole frame suddenly falleth Howbeit though gratitude justice and necessity plead for correspondency in Christian charity yet the world is full of complaints of parents against their children husbands against their wives pastors against their flockes tutours against their pupills masters against their servants that their providence love and care is not answered in the observance love gratitude and obedience of their inferiours Fathers upbraid their children saying Amor descendit non ascendit Love descendeth from us to our children but ascendeth not from them to us Husbands commence actions of unkindnesse against the wives of their bosome that the kinder they are to them the more disloyall they find them Pastors take up the Apostles complaint against his Corinthians that the b 2. Cor. 12.15 more he loved them the lesse hee was loved againe Tutours murmure that their care to breake their scholars of ill conditions is recompenced with hatred And Masters that their good usage of their servants is requited with contempt whereby you see how needfull it was that Christ should with his owne mouth as it were heat the glew to joyne our affections together with his own finger knit the knot to tye our hearts together with his owne hands to write a new bond to inwrap our soules one in another and with his owne presse print anew in our mind the commandement of mutuall love the characters whereof were quite worne out of most mens memory Seneca fitly resembleth the mutuall and reciprocall duties of friendship in giving and receiving benefits one from another to a game at Tennis wherein the ball is tossed backward and forward from one racket to another and never falleth to the ground or if it fall it is his forfeit who mist his stroake even so every kind office wherewith our friend serveth us ought to be returned backe to him that no courtesie fall to
caveret si caveret evaderet Cyprian pricking the right veine telleth us it is a thing to be bewailed with teares of bloud that none almost mindeth everlasting torments For did they minde them and beleeve them they could not but feare them and if they feared them â—â—â—y would beware of them and if they would beware of them they might escape them O that men therefore were wise to thinke upon hell before they rushed on the brinke of it and enter into a serious consideration of Gods fearfull judgements upon obstinate and impenitent sinners before they were overtaken by them This is the scope and effect of these words and I pray God they may worke this effect in us that laying before our eyes the fearfull ends of the wicked and their damnation wee may learne from henceforth to be wise unto salvation The unum necessarium and chiefe point of all to be thought upon in this life is what shall become of us after wee goe from hence for here God knowes we have but a short time to stay We reade in King l Eccles 3.1.2 Solomons distribution of time according to the severall occasions of mans life to every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven a time to be borne and a time to dye but wee reade of no time to live as if our death bordered upon our birth and our cradle stood in our grave yet upon this moment rather than time of our life dependeth eternity Division The greatest perfection attainable by man in this life is wisedome and the most proper act of wisedome is consideration and the chiefest point of consideration is our later end First therefore the Spirit of God in this Text commendeth wisedome to their desires Secondly consideration to their wisedome Thirdly their later end to their consideration and the more to stirre up their affections and expresse his he delivereth this his advice in a wish and accompanieth it with a deep sigh saying O that they were wise they would understand this that it is not for their sakes that they might bragge but for their enemies sake that they might not bragge that I have thus long spared them For I had long ere this scattered them abroad and made their remembrance cease from amongst men but that I knew their adversaries would take advantage thereat and waxe proud upon it Verse 27. and say our high hand and not the Lord hath done it For they are a Nation void of councell neither is there any understanding in them Which words beare a light before the words of my Text Coherence and thus bring them in O that they were wise then they would understand this viz. that nothing standeth between them and my wrath my wrath and their destruction but the pride of their enemies they are indebted to the fury malice and insolency of the Heathen who seeke utterly to destroy them and by proudly treading upon their neckes to trample true religion under feet that hell raines not downe upon them from heaven and they not burnt like Sodome and consumed like Gomorrah Were they wise they would understand it and understanding consider how neere they are to their end and considering it meet the Lord upon their knees to prevent their utter overthrow Observ 1. O that they were so wise If those words wherewith Moses beginneth his Swan-like song immediately before his death Verse 2. My doctrine shall drop as the raine and my speech shall distill as the dew as the small raine upon the tender herbe and as the showers upon the grasse were verified of any of his words they are certainly of these in my Text which drop like raine or rather like hoâ—y from his mouth whereby wee may taste how sweet the Lord is in his speeches how milde in his proceedings how passionate in his perswasions what force of art eloquence he useth to draw us unto him without force violence Are not sighes the very breath of love are not sobs the accents of grief are not groanes fetched deep the long periods of sorrowes ravishing eloquence which Almighty God breathes out of the boyling heat of his affection both here and elsewhere O m Hos 6.4 Ephraim what shall I do unto thee O Judah how shall I intreat thee for your righteousnesse is as a morning cloud your goodnes as an earthly dew vanisheth away O that n Psal 81.13 14 15 16. my people had hearkened unto mee and Israel had walked in my wayes I should soone have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured for ever Hee should have fed them with the finest of the wheat and with honey out of the rocke would I have satisfied thee And O o Mat. 23.37 Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest those that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather her chickens under her wings but yee would not How can the affection more outwardly enlarge or the heart open it selfe than by opening the bosome and stretching out the armes to imbrace Behold the p Esay 65.2 armes of Almighty God stretched all the day long to a rebellious people which walketh in a way that was not good after their owne thoughts What truer Embassadours of a bleeding heart than weeping eyes behold the teares of our Saviour over Jerusalem and reach your hand and thrust it into the hole of his side and you shall feele drops from his heart bleeding afresh for your ungratefull refusall of his love and despite of his grace If drops of raine pierce the stones and drops of warme Goats bloud crumble the Adamant into pieces shall not Christs teares sinke into our affections and the drops of his heart bloud breake our hearts with godly sorrow and make them so thorougly contrite by unfained repentance that they may be an acceptable sacrifice unto him according to the words of the Psalmist q Psal 51.17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou shalt not despise Were not that City very unwise that would refuse any tolerable conditions of peace offered by a potent enemy against whâ—m shee could not make her party good in warre Beloved are wee able to hold out warre with Almighty God to maintaine a fight against his plagues and judgements what are we but dead men if hee lay hold on his glittering sword why then doe wee not come in whilest hee holdeth out his golden Scepter of mercy why sue wee not to him for a treatie of peace It can be no disparagement to us to seeke to him first yet we need not he seeketh to us first he maketh an overture of his desire for peace he draweth conditions with his owne hand and offereth them to us as wee heard before out
giving sentences or making decrees The Judges among the Romanes when they acquitted any man cast in a white stone into an urne or pot according to that of the Poet Mos erat antiquis niveis atrisque lapillis His damnare reos illis absolvere culpâ And likewise the Citizens of Rome in choosing their Magistrates wrote his name to whom they gave their voice in a white stone By allusion to which two customes I conceive the Spirit in this place promiseth to every one that shall overcome the lusts of the flesh by the Spirit the assaults of the Devill by faith and the persecutions and troubles of the world by his constancy calculum absolutorium suffragatorium an infallible token of his absolution from death and election to a crowne of life an assurance of present justification and future glorification Thus I take the Quid nominis to bee cleare the greatest controversie is about the Quid rei what that gift or grace is what that signe or token what that proofe or testimony whereby our present estate of grace and future of glory are secured unto us Some ghesse not farre off the truth That it is testimonium renovatae conscientiae the testimony of a renewed conscience For as the eye in a glasse by reflection seeth it selfe looking so the conscience by a reflection upon it selfe knoweth that it knoweth God and beleeveth that it beleeveth in Christ and feeleth that it hath a new feeling sense and life The eye of faith in the regenerate seeth himselfe sealed to the day of redemption and observeth the print of the seale in himselfe and the image of the heavenly which it beareth I shall speake nothing to disparage this testimony of conscience which affordeth to every true beleever singular contentment in life and comfort in death The nearer the voice is the briefer and more certainely wee heare it and therefore wee cannot but distinctly take that deposition for us which conscience speaketh in the eare of the heart And yet wee have a nearer and surer voice to settle our heart in the knowledge of our spirituall estate the testimony of Gods Spirit which is nearer and more inward to our soules than our soules to our bodies and the witnesse thereof may be as great or a greater joy to us than if God had sent an Angell to us as hee did to Daniel to shew unto us that wee were beloved of him or an Archangel as hee did to the Virgin k Luke 1.28 Mary to salute us Haile thou that art highly favoured of God If any demand as shee did not out of any doubt but out of a desire of farther information quomodo that is how doth the Spirit testifie to our spirits that we are the sonnes of God To speake nothing of elevations of Spirit and raptures and speciall revelations which are not now so frequent and so certaine as in former ages I answer The Spirit testifieth this unto us two manner of wayes by Motions or Words Effects or Deeds By words so are the expresse words of Saint l Prolog card vert 1. Dicuntur tibi verba quaedam arcana intrinsecus ut dubitare non possis quin juxta te fit Cyprian As when lightning breaketh the cloud and the suddaine splendour thereof doth not so much enlighten as dazle the eyes so sometimes thou art touched with I know not what motion and feelest thy selfe to bee touched and yet seest not him that toucheth thee there are inwardly spoken unto thee certaine secret words so as thou canst not doubt that hee is neare thee even within thee who doth solicite thee yet doth hee not let thee see him as hee is These secret words Saint m Serm. 1. in annunc Hoc est testimonium quod perhibet Spiritus sanctus dimissa sunt tibi peccata tua Bernard uttereth This is the testimony or record which the Spirit beareth unto thee Thy sinnes are forgiven thee I take it the meaning of the words of these Fathers is not that the holy Ghost doth sound these formall words in our bodily eares but that as God once n 1 Kin. 19.12 spake in a still small voice so in it still hee speaketh to the faithfull by the Spirit verbis mentalibus by mentall words or notions by which hee continually inciteth us to good restraines us from evill forewarneth us of danger and comforteth us in trouble And whilest wee listen to these notions or rather motions of the spirit within us wee heare this testimony often and distinctly But when wee give eare to the motions of the evill Spirit and entertaine him and delight in his society and thereby grieve and despite the Spirit of grace hee being thus grieved by us speaketh no more words of comfort in us but withdrawes his gracious presence and leaveth us in horrour of conscience and darknesse of minde In this time of spirituall desertion wee thinke wee have lost this white stone though indeed wee have not lost it but it is hid from us for a while for afterwards wee shall finde it having first felt the Spirit moving upon the waters of our penitent teares and in our powring out our soules before God assisting us with sighes and groanes that cannot be expressed then after we renewing our covenant with him our sins are blowne away like a thicke mist and light from heaven breaketh in againe upon us and with this light assurance and with assurance peace and with peace joy in the holy Ghost Yea but a weake Christian may yet demand How may I bee assured that my stone is not a counterfeit that my gold is not alchymy that my pearle is not glasse that my Edenis not a fooles Paradise that this testimony in my soule is not a suggestion of Sathan to tempt mee to presumption and thereby drowne mee in perdition The Spirit of God commanding mee to o 1 Joh. 4.1 Beleeve not every spirit but try the spirit whether they are of God Try the Spirits whether they are of God or no implyeth that there are Spirits which are not of God how then may I certainly know that this motion within mee is from the good and not rather from the evill Spirit By this if it accord with the word and the testimony of thine own conscience but if it vary from either thou hast just cause to suspect it If any Spirit shall tell thee that thou art lockt in the armes of Gods mercy and canst not fall from him though thou huggest some vice in thy bosome and lettest loose the reines to some evill concupiscence give that Spirit the lye because it accordeth not with the word of God testifying expressely that p Eph. 5.5 no whoremonger nor uncleane person nor covetous man which it an Idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdome of God and of Christ For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously
hee cannot enter into the kingdome of God hee gave credit unto it as all must doe who look for the inheritance * 1 Pet. 1.4 incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for them a 1 Pet. 1.3 for all those are begotten again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ not with corruptible seed but with incorruptible and after they are begotten they are born again of water and the Spirit b 1 Pet. 2.2 as new born babes they desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow therby and as they grow c 2 Cor. 4.16 the old man decayeth in them and the inward man is renewed daily Inregard of which great alteration and change wrought in them by the Spirit of regeneration was it that the holy Father when hee was solicited by the Mistresse of his affections in former times claiming ancient familiarity with him put her off saying Ego nunc non sum ego I am not the man thou takest me for thou art indeed thou remaining still in thy unregenerate estate but I am not I. And unlesse wee all feele and observe in us d Rom. 12.2 a transformation by the renewing of our minde that wee may prove what is that good that acceptable and perfect will of God we cannot challenge to our selves this new name whereunto the Saints of God have yet a second right by the e Rom. 8.15 Spirit of adoption Adoption as f Sum 1. p. â— 93. Art 4. Adopâ—o filiorum Dâ—i est per conformitaâ—em ad â—maginem filâ—â— natur lis â—nperfâ—â—tè pudeâ— pâ—â— gâ—â—tiam perfâ—câ—e per glorâ—â—m Aquinas defineth it is by conformity to the image of the naturall sonne of God imperfectly by grace here and perfectly by glory hereafter But this great Schoole-man it seemeth was no great Lawyer nor dived deepe into the nature of Adoption which he here counfoundeth partly with sanctification which is our conformity in part to Christ by grace and partly with glorification which is our perfect conformity to him when our sanctification is consummate in heaven In precise truth adoption is not by our conformity to the image of Christ but our conformity to the image of Christ is by the spirit of adoption Adoption saith g Sen. controv Ad pâ—â— est â—â—siâ—tâ— quae benefiâ—â— naturae juris imitatur Seneca is a most sacred thing containing in it an imitation of nature civilly giving them sonnes whom nature hath left childlesse and it may be briefly defined a legall supply of a naturall defect whereby they who can beget no children yet make heires to propagate their names to posterity ut sic abolita seculis nomina per successores novos fulgeant According to which definition God cannot be properly said to adopt any children though he give them the titles of sons and make them coheirs with Christ for adoptio est fortunae remedium is provided as a remedy and comfort of those who are destitute of children and want heires God wanteth none neither doth hee adopt for his contentment but for our solace and comfort In civill adoption the son begotten is not adopted the adopted is not begotten Nulla viro soboles imitatur adoptio prolem But in the divine adoption it is otherwise For God adopteth no sonne by grace whom hee regenerateth not by his Spirit Moreover in civill adoption the ground is either consanguinity or affinity which moved Julius to adopt Octavius or if neither eminencie of vertue and similitude of disposition which induced Nerva to adopt Trajan But in the divine h Pliâ— panâ—gyr Nulla adoptati cum adoptato cognatio nullâ—â—â—cessitudo nisi quod uterque optimâ—s â—rat dignâ—sâ— alter â—ligi alter eligere adoption on the contrary God adopteth not us because of any kindred or alliance in us to him antecedently but he sent his sonne to take our nature upon him and become kinne to us that for his sake hee might have some occasion to adopt us Men adopt those in whom they see worth but God first loveth and giveth worth that he may more worthily adopt and they whom he so adopteth by the grace which he conferreth upon them procure to themselves a third right to this title of sonnes by imitation of their father This imitation consisteth in walking after the Spirit as he is a Spirit in following after holinesse as he is most holy in loving mercy as his mercy is over all his workes in purifying our hearts and hands as he is purity it selfe in doing good to those that deserve ill of us as he causeth his i Mat. 5.45 sunne to rise upon the good and the bad and his raine to fall upon the just and the unjust lastly to aspire to perfection as he is perfection it selfe In the holy language of Scripture rather expression of vertue than impression of feature maketh a sonne all that through faith prevaile with God are accounted of the seed of Israel and all beleevers the sonnes of Abraham and because the unbeleeving Jewes did not the workes of Abraham Christ denyeth them to be his children k John 8.39 If yee were the children of Abraham yee would doe the workes of Abraham Whereupon l Serm. 125. in Evang. Qui genitotis opeâ—â—â—n facit aâ—â—aâ— genus Chrysologus inferreth He that doth not the workes of his Progenitors in effect disclaimeth his linage Constantine the great tooke not such joy in his sonne Constantius because he favoured him in his countenance as because he m Nazarius in panogyr Praestantissimum Principem hoc maximè juvit quod in primoribus annis ductae sunt lineae quibus virtutumsuarum effigies posset includi saw in his tender yeeres an assay and as it were the first draught of his owne vertues On the contrary the Roman Censors tooke such a distast at the sonne of Africanus for his debauched life that they tooke a ring off his finger in which the image of his father was ingraven because he so much degenerated from his fathers excellent vertues they would not suffer him to weare his fathers picture in a ring whose image he bare not in his minde neither will God suffer any to beare his name and be accounted his sonnes who beare not his image who resemble not his attributes in their vertues his simplicity in their sincerity his immutability in their constancy his purity in their chastity his goodnesse in their charity his holinesse in their piety his justice in their integrity Regeneration is wrought in the heart knowne to God onely adoption is an act sped in the court of heaven which none knoweth on earth but he that receiveth an exemplification of it by the Spirit but imitation of our heavenly Father by a heavenly conversation proclaimeth us to all the world to be his sonnes The title thus cleared the next point is the perpetuity thereof represented unto us by the engraving the new name in the white
stone I will give him a white stone and in it a new name written or engraven When the Pharisees appeached the woman taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the foule act of adultery it is there said that our Saviour stooping downe wrote on the ground but what he wrote the Evangelist writeth not Saint n In Evang. Terram terra accusat Ambrose ghesseth that he wrote Earth accuseth earth St. Austine these words He that among you is free from sinne let him cast the first stone Others are of opinion that he wrote in the dust some private sinnes of the accusers whose opinion hath thus farre footing in Scripture that God whose mercy is over all his workes writeth the sinnes of men in dust but his gifts and favours with a Diamond in precious gemmes as we may see on o Exod. 28.20 Aarons breastplate and here in a solid white stone White stones such as this in my text were in great use among the Romans and served 1 To declare the victour or conquerour in proving masteries 2 To acquit the accused in courts of justice 3 To deliver suffrages in the election of Magistrates Upon all these uses the allegory in my text toucheth For this white stone is given in token of victory Vincenti dabo and before I demonstrated it to bee an evidence of our justification and now I shall shew it to bee an assurance of our election to a kingdome in heaven As in the civill so much more in the divine use the act signified or done by it is altogether irrevocable Hee to whom the white stone was given in the theater or wheresoever the silver games were kept or prizes plaid was ever held Victor and carried that title to his grave Hee upon whom the Judges passed their sentence by casting white stones into an urne or pitcher was for ever acquitted of the crime laid to his charge Hee who gave his voice to any man by writing his name in a white stone neither did nor could after varie and shall wee thinke that hee to whom Christ giveth his white stone shall ever lose the benefit thereof The names of the twelve tribes engraven upon the twelve pretious stones on Aarons breast-plate continued for many hundreds of yeers as you may read in Josephus and may be in them still for ought we know yet if they could be razed out certainly their names cannot be blotted out o Luk. 10 20. which are written in heaven The calling and gifts of God are without p Rom. 11.29 repentance especially this of adoption in Saint q Aâ—â—h de Isac vit beat Num Deus pater ipsequi contulit potest sua dona rescindereâ— quâ—s adoptione suscepit eos à paterni affectus gratiâ relegare Ambrose his judgement What saith hee can God the Father reverse his owne grants can hee cast him out of his fatherly grace whom hee hath once adopted by no meanes For though a servant may cease to bee a servant if his Master cashiere him and a tenant to bee a tenant if hee have forfeited his estate yet a sonne cannot cease to bee a sonne hee that is borne cannot but bee borne and if hee bee borne of God hee cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though hee may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he cannot doe though he may suffer sin that is he cannot practise it as a man doth his trade or profession in a settled course without checke of conscience or reluctancy because the seed of God remaineth in him which fighteth against the poyson instilled by Satan and will in the end conquer it because it is r 1 Pet. 1.23 incorruptible seed When a childe of God is at the worst and hath received the greatest foyle in temptation hee remaineth still the child of God Å¿ Abbat praelect de verit grat Diatrib cont Tompson quoad sigillum though not quoad signum according to the seale though not according to the signe lose he may the signe in himselfe but God cannot lose his seale You will say peradventure this assertion openeth a window to presumption and carnall liberty nay rather it shutteth the leaves against it and fasteneth them with surest bolts and barres For lay this for a ground that he that hath received the Spirit of regeneration and grace of adoption cannot sinne desperately nor give absolute way to any corruption the conclusion to bee built upon it will bee this which necessarily checketh and choaketh all presumptuous thoughts That whosoever defileth his mouth with oathes or lies his hand with bribes his body with uncleannesse his conscience with any knowne sinne finding in himselfe no checke with it no struggling against it no smiting of the heart after it no earnest desire and in the end effectuall working out of it was never a true convert the sunne of righteousnesse never rose on him because hee yet lyeth frozen in the dregs of his naturall corruption t Cant. 2 5. Stay me with flaggons and comfort me with apples for I am sicke of love the doctrine of the perpetuity of the regenerates estate is a cup of the strongest wine in those flaggons which must bee given to none but such as amore languent such as have beene contracted to Christ and have received from him many jewels of grace and infallible tokens of speciall affection though at the present by some fearefull provocation they have so farre incurred his displeasure that hee will not looke upon their teares nor hearken to their sighes or groanes nor once turne his countenance towards them which they infinitely value above their life To these we are to minister this cordiall That Christ his contract with the soul is indissoluble that the Covenant of his peace is immovable that the seed of regeneration is immortall that whom God loveth he loveth to the end that they may have lost the sense but they cannot the essence of true faith that their new name is still written upon the white stone though such a mist be cast before their eyes that they cannot reade it now but after a great defluxe of penitent teares Christ will annoint them with the eye-salve of his Spirit and then they shall clearely see and reade it for hee that receiveth it knoweth it And so I fall into the third point the knowledge of this perpetuity Hee knoweth it who receiveth it As the eye seeth either 1. Per radium rectum a streight line drawne from the eye to the object Or 2. Per radium reflexum a beame reflected from the object to the eye so the soul hath a double knowledge direct of the object and reflexe of her owne acts As when I looke in a glasse I looke upon my selfe looking in it when I touch my pulse I feele my feeling of it in like manner the soule by reflexive knowledge apprehendeth her owne apprehension judgeth of her owne judgement and beleeveth her owne faith and beliefe How can there be any assurance by faith if
faire havens in heaven let us perfectly learne our way and all points of the Compasse and carefully steere by the Card of Gods Word and keepe in the streight and middle way of Gods commandements neither declining to the right hand nor to the left 6. Sixtly doth Satan play the crafty Merchant and cheate us with counterfeit stones for jewels with shewes of vertues for true graces let us also imitate the wisedome of Merchants who will bee perfect Lapidaries before they deale in pearles and pretious stones let us study the difference between true and seeming graces and pray continually to God that we may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgement that wee may bee able to discerne things that differ and try Spirits whether they are of God or no. 7. Lastly doth Satan play the temporizer and time all his suggestions let us also in a pious sense be time-servers let us performe all holy duties in the fittest season let us omit no opportunity of doing good let us take advantage of all occasions to glorifie God and helpe on our eternall salvation If wee heare a bell toll let us meditate on our end and pray for the sicke lying at Gods mercy if wee see an execution let us meditate on our frailty and reflecting upon our owne as grievous sinnes though not comming within the walke of mans justice have compassion on our brother if wee see Lazarus lying in the street let us meditate upon the sores of our conscience and our poverty in spirituall graces and extend our charity to him finally sith wee know at what time Satan most assaulteth us let us be best provided at those times especially at the houre of our death let us follow the advice of Seneca though a Heathen r Sen. ep 2. Quotidiè aliquid adversus mortem auxilii compara cum multa percurreris unum excerpe quod illo die concoquas lay up store for that day every day gather one flower of Paradise at least that even when the fatall houre is come and the stench of death and rottennesse is in our nostrils we may have a posie by us in which wee may smell a savour of life unto life which God grant c. SERMONS PREACHED AT SAINT PAULSCROSSE OR IN THE CHURCH THE BELOVED DISCIPLE THE XXX SERMON JOH 21. 20. The Disciple whom Jesus loved which also leaned on his breast at Supper IF wee must abstaine from all appearance of evill in our civill conversation much more certainly in our religious devotion For God is most jealous of his honour which is all he hath from us for all we hold of him Praef. Apolog. fest eccles and the streight rule of religion will in no wise bend to any obliquity on either side either by attributing any true worship to a false or any false worship to the true God From both which aspersions hee that seeth not the Liturgy established by law in the Church of England to bee most cleare and free either is short-sighted or looketh on her through a foule paire of spectacles and thereby ignorantly imagineth that dust to bee in her sacred Canons and Constitutions which indeed is not in them but sticketh in his glassie eyes let him but rub his spectacles and he shall see all faire and without any the least deformity or filth of superstition as well in the Service appointed for the Lords day as for the Saints feasts For though wee adorne our Calendar with the names of some eminent Saints and make honourable mention of them in our Liturgy as the ancient Church did of her Martyrs a Austin de civ Dei l. 22. c. 10. non tamen invocamus yet wee call not upon them wee lift not up our hands wee bow not our knees wee present not our offerings wee direct not our prayers wee intend not any part of religious worship to them sed uni Deo martyrum nostrum but to their God and ours as Saint Austine answereth for the practice of the Church in his time Which may serve as a buckler to beare off all those poysonous darts of calumny which those of the concision cast at that part of our Church-service wherein upon the yeerly returne of the Feast of the blessed Virgin the Archangell Apostles Evangelists Protomartyr Innocents and All-holy-ones wee remember the Saints of God but in no wise make Gods of Saints sanctificamus Deum non deificamus Sanctos wee blesse God for them wee worship not them for God Although our devotion glanceth by their names yet it pitcheth and is fixed upon the Angel of the covenant and sanctum sanctorum the holy of all holy ones our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ On the blessed Virgins anniversary wee honour him in his Mother on Saint John Baptists wee honour him in his forerunner on Saint Michaels we honour him in his Archangel the Captaine of his celestiall squadron on the Apostles wee honour him in his Ambassadours on the Evangelists wee honour him in his Chroniclers on Saint Stevens wee honour him in his Martyr on S. John the Divine his day wee honour him in his beloved Disciple who also leaned on his breast at Supper 1 The Disciple 2 The Disciple beloved 3 Beloved of Jesus 4 In Jesus bosome All Christians are not Disciples this is the Disciple all the Disciples were not beloved this is the beloved Disciple all that are beloved are not beloved of Jesus this is he whom Jesus loved lastly all whom Jesus loved were not so familiar with him or neare unto him that they leaned on his breast this was his bosome friend and as the text saith at supper leaned on his breast Every word is here a beame and every beame is reflected and every reflection is an intention of the heat of Christs affection to Saint John Divis 1 A Disciple there is the beame 2 Ille the or that Disciple there is the reflection 1 Beloved there is the beame 2 Beloved of Jesus there is the reflection 1 Leaning there is the beame 2 Leaning on his breast there is the reflection It is a great honour to bee a Disciple but a greater to bee the Disciple a great honour to bee beloved a greater to bee beloved of Jesus a great honour to leane on such a personage a greater to leane on his breast Thus I might with an exact division cut the bread of life but I choose rather after the manner of our Saviour to breake it and that into three pieces onely viz. John his 1 Calling in Christ 2 Favour with Christ 3 Nearenesse unto Christ 1 His calling in Christ The Disciple 2 His grace and favour with Christ whom Jesus loved 3 His nearenesse unto Christ who also leaned on his breast The Disciple The Spouse in the Canticles setting out her husband in his proper colours saith b Cant. 5.10 My beloved is white and ruddy that is of admirable and perfect beauty or white in the purity of his conversation and
blessed Virgin the babe a Luke 1.41 sprang in the wombe of Elizabeth so I doubt not but that at the reading of this text in your eares the fruits of your devotion which are your religious thoughts and zealous affections leap and spring for joy in the wombe of your soule for now is the accepted time the time of grace now is the day of salvation the day of our Lords Incarnation As the golden tongued Father spake of a Martyr Martyrem dixisse laudâsse est to name a man a Martyr is to commend him sufficiently so it may be said of this text to rehearse it is to apply it I need not fit it to the time for the time falleth upon this time and the day upon this day now if ever is this Now in season If any time in all the yeere be more acceptable than other it is the holy time we now celebrate now is the accepted time on Gods part by accepting us to favour now is the day of salvation by exhibiting to us a Saviour in our flesh let us make it so on our parts also by accepting the grace offered unto us and by laying hands on our Saviour by faith and embracing him by love and by joy dilating our hearts to entertain him with all his glorious attendants a troupe of heavenly Souldiers singing b Luke 2.14 Glory be to God on high on earth peace and good will towards men c Esay 49.13 Sing O heavens and be joyfull O earth and breake forth into shouting O ye mountaines for God hath comforted his people and will have mercy upon the afflicted Keepe this holy day above others because chosen by God to manifest himselfe in the flesh bid by an Angell and by him furnished both with a lesson and with an Anthem also Well might the Angell as on this day sing glory in excelsis Deo c. for on this day the Son of God out of his good will towards men became man and thereby set peace on earth and brought infinite glory to God in the highest heavens Well may this be called by the Apostle d Gal. 4.4 The fulnesse of time or a time of fulnesse which filled heaven with glory the earth with blessings of peace and men with graces flowing from Gods good will The heavens which till this time were as clasped boxes now not able longer to containe in them the soveraigne balsamum of wounded mankind burst open and he whose name is e Cant. 1.3 an ointment poured forth was plentifully shed upon the earth to revive the decayed spirits and heale the festered sores of wounded mankind Lift up then your heavie lookes and heavier hearts yee that are in the midst of danger and in the sight nay within the claspes of eternall death you have a Saviour borne to rescue you Cheare up your drouping and fainting spirits all ye that feele the smart and anguish of a bruised conscience and broken heart to you Christ is borne to annoint your wounds bruises and sores Exult and triumph ye gally slaves of Satan and captives of Hell fast bound with the chaine of your sinnes to you a Redeemer is borne to ransome you from spirituall thraldome Two reasons are assigned why festivities are religiously to be kept 1. The speciall benefits of God conferred upon his Church at such times which by the anniversary celebration of the dayes are refreshed in our memories and visibly declared to all succeeding ages 2 The expresse command of God which adjoyned to the former reason maketh the exercises of devotion performed at these solemnities duties of obedience It cannot be denied that in this latter consideration those feasts which are set downe in the booke of God have some prerogative above those that are found wrtiten onely in the Calendar of the Church But in the former respect no day may challenge a precedencie of this no not the Sabbath it selfe which the more to honour him whose birth we now celebrate resigned both his name place and rites to the f Athanas hom de semenie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lords day and if we impartially compare them the worke wrought on this day was farre more difficult and the benefit received upon it greater than that to the memory whereof the Sabbath was at the first dedicated It was a greater miracle that God should be made a creature than that he should make all creatures and the redemption of the world so farre exceeds the creation as the means by which it was wrought were more difficult and the time larger the one was finished in sixe dayes by the commandement of God the other not in lesse than foure and thirty yeeres by the obedience of Christ the one was but a word with God the breath of his mouth gave life to all creatures the other cost him much labour sweat and bloud and what comparison is there betweene an earthly and an heavenly Paradise Nay if wee will judge by the event the benefit of our creation had beene none without our redemption For by it we received an immortall spirit with excellent faculties as it were sharpe and strong weapons wherewith wee mortally wounded our selves and had everlastingly laid weltring in our own blood had not our Saviour healed our wounds by his wounds and death and raised us up againe by the power of his resurrection To which point Saint Austine speaking feelingly saith Si natus non fuisset bonum fuisset si homo natus non fuisset If hee had not beene borne it had beene good for man never to have beene borne if this accepted time had not come all men had beene rejected if this day of salvation had not appeared wee had all perished in the night of eternall perdition Behold now is the accepted time In this Scripture as in a Dyall wee may observe 1 The Index 2 The Circles Certaine Behold Different 1 The larger 2 The narrower The accepted time The day of salvation To man in generall it is an accepted time to every beleever in particular it is a day of salvation Lynx cum cessat intueri cessat recordari Because we are like the Lynx which mindeth nothing no longer than her eye is upon it the Spirit every where calleth upon us to looke or behold Behold not alwayes or at any time but now not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not time simply but season the flower of time not barely accepted but according to the originall well accepted or most acceptable not the day of helpe or grace but a day of salvation As in the bodies which consist of similar parts the forme of the whole and the forme of every part is all one for example the whole ocean is but water and yet every drop thereof is water the whole land is but earth and yet every clod thereof is earth the
Neither doe they stand much upon it for another of them saith Dicit Doctor meus citat divum Thomam quòd quando Apostoli erant ordinati Sacerdotes erant sine scientiâ Yet Bernard in his Epistle ad Eugenium maketh knowledge one of the keyes Claves vestras qui sanùm sapiunt alteram in discretione alteram in potestate collocant Doctr. 3 The most received opinion of the reformed Churches is That there is but one key in essence and that is Ministerium Verbi The Kingdome of God is compared to a house the doore of this house is Christ John 10.7 the key to open and shut this doore is the preaching of the Word Wee are the savour of death unto death unto some there is the power of binding to others of life unto life there is the power of loosing Hee that refuseth mee the word which I have spoken shall judge him there is the power of binding againe The truth shall make you free there is loosing But how many soever the keyes bee Christ hath them Non solùm authoritativè sed etiam possessivè What meaneth then Bellarmine in his bookes de Romano Pontifice to imply that the keyes remaine in Christs hands onely at the vacancy of the Popedome What a blasphemy is that of Cusanus who saith that potestas ligandi solvendi non minor est in Ecclesiâ quà m fuit in Christo and that of Maldonatus Christus Petro vices suas tradidit ipsamque clavem excellentiae that key of David which openeth and no man shutteth Or if hee have not this key so absolutely as Christ yet beyond all comparison above other Bishops they have the keyes of Heaven sed quodam modo and with an huc usque licet Whereupon Petrus de palude observeth that it was said of them Quaecunque solveritis in terrâ erunt soluta in coelo but of Saint Peter Brunt soluta in coelis Pardon I beseech you the enlargement of this point Blasphemiae dies haec est Rabsakeh hath blasphemed the living God The Pharisees and Scribes accounted it blasphemy to attribute forgivenesse of sinnes to any but God I am hee that blotteth out thine iniquity saith God by the Prophet Esay Whereupon Saint Jerome commenting saith Solus peccata dimittit qui pro peccatis mortuus est and Saint Austine accordeth with him Nemo tollit peccata nisi solus Deus tollit autem dimittendo quae facta sunt adjuvando ne fiant perducendo ad locum ubi fieri non possunt What then doth the Minister upon confession and contrition Hee pronounceth the penitent absolved or to attribute the most unto him hee absolveth the person in facie Ecclesiae remitteth not the sinne absolutely before God Saint Ambrose shall make up the reckoning Verbum Dei dimittit peccata Sacerdos est Judex Sacerdos officium exhibet sed nullius potestatis jura exercet Use 1 1. Hath Christ the keyes of death and hell O then let us kisse the Sonne lest hee bee angry and so wee perish out of the right way 2. Hath Christ the keyes of hell and death if then wee belong to Christ and follow his banner let us not care what death or hell man or divell can doe against us Transvectus vada Tartari Pacatis redit inferis Jam nullus superest timor Nil ultrà jacet inferos Jesus of Nazareth is returned from hell not as Theseus and Hercules with a Crosse and a Flagge but with principalities and powers chained before his triumphant chariot he doth not now threaten death as before O mors ero tua mors but insulteth over it O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Thankes bee unto God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Cui c. THE FOURTH ROW And in the fourth row a Chrysolite an Onyx and a Jasper A Jasper is a mixt stone consisting at least of two kinds of gemmes and therefore may not unfitly decipher our Saviour consisting of two natures who by inviting all to come unto him animi constantiam promovet comforteth fainting spirits which as Rueus saith is the vertue of the Chrysolite after his invitation promising to secure and rest all burthened and weary soules hee proveth himselfe an Onyx wherewith as Nilus saith the Nobles of Egypt made supporters for their beds If wee admit the Beryll into this fourth ranke because it is mentioned with the rest in the Apocalypse and set here in the first place by Saint Jerome Junius Tostatus and the Kings Translatours wee shall lose nothing by the change for the Beryll as Abulensis and others affirme is of singuâ—â—â—â—ertue to cure waterish and running eyes True it very well may bee in the stone but true I am sure i◠〈◊〉 â—â—e doctrine which this stone according to his ranke and myâ—â—â— her division standeth for This promise of our Saviour I will easâ— you is the onely Beryll in the world which can stay the water of their running eyes who weep for and sigh under the heavie burthen of sinne Yee see this fourth order is not out of order but sorteth well with the doctrine of the fourth Speaker and doth it not as well sort with the parts of the Preacher The Chrysolite is a solid stone not spangled or spotted with golden points as other gems but as it were gilt all over which may well represent the solidity of his proofes and uniformity of his whole discourse The Onyx a transparent gemme resembleth the perspicuity of his stile and the Jasper a stone full of veines setteth before us the plenty of Scripture sentences which like little veines were diffused through the whole body of his Sermon and in respect of these we may more truly say of it than To status of the Jasper Quot venae tot virtutes so many veines so many vertues The embossment of gold wherein these gemmes of divine doctrine were set was his Text taken out of A Sermon preached on Easter Tuesday by Master Bates fellow of Trinity Colledge afterwards Parson of S Clements and Prebend of Westminster MATTH 11.28 Come unto mee all yee that are weary and heavie laden and I will ease you MAn at the first was made a goodly creature in the image of his Maker having so neere neighbourhood with the eternall Majesty that hee dwelt in God and God in him but by his woefull revolt hee deprived himselfe of that sweet contentment hee still should have enjoyed in God and by his proud rebellion erected a Babel and partition wall whereby hee debarred himselfe of the fruition of him whom to behold is the height of all that good any creature can desire But mans Creatour retaining his love to that which hee had made though altogether blemished with that which wee had done looked downe upon us with a compassionate eye of his tender mercie suffered us not being desirous of the meanes of salvation with bootlesse travells still to wander in darknesse as strangers from the
which is the first place we speak not so properly when we say that God hath any vertue as when we attribute to him all vertue in the abstract all wisdom all justice all holines all goodnes Goodnes is the rule of our will but Gods will is the rule of goodnes it selfe we are to doe things because they are just good but contrariwise things are just good because God doth them therfore if vertue be the load-stone of our love it wil first draw it to God whose nature is the perfection of all vertue As for beauty what is it but proportion colour the beauty of colour it self is light light is but a shadow or obscure delineation of God whose face darkneth the sun dazleth the eies of the Cherubins who to save them hold their wings before them like a plume of feathers A glympse wherof when the Prophet David saw he was so ravished with it that as if there were nothing else worthy the seeing it were impossible to have enough of so admirable an object he crieth out d Psa 105.4 seek his face evermore not so much for the delight he took in beholding it as for the light he received from it For beholding the glory of God as in a mirrour with open face we are changed into his image after a sort made partakers of the divine nature ô my soul saith a Saint of God mark what thou lovest for thou becommest like to that which thou likest Si coelum diligis coelum es si terram diligis terra es audeo dicere si Deum diligis Deus es if thou sincerely perfectly lovest heavenly objects thou becomest heavenly if carnall thou becomest sensuall if spirituall thou becomest ghostly if God thou becomest divine Let us stay a while consider what a wonderful change is wrought in the soule of man by the power of divine love surely though a deformed Black-a-moor look his eies out upon the fairest beauty the world can present hee getteth no beauty by it but seems the more ougly by standing in sight of so beautiful a creature the sun burns them black darkeneth their sight who long gaze upon his beams but contrarily the Sun of righteousnes the more we looke upon him the more he enlighteneth the eies Poulin in opusc Illum amemus quem amare debitum quem amplecti chastitas cui nubere virginitas c. maketh them fair their faces shine who behold him as Moses his did after he came down from the Mount where he had parley with God O then let us love to behold him the sight of whose countenance will make us fair lovely to behold let us conform our selvs to him who wil transform us into himself let us reflect the beams of our affection upon the father of lights let us knit our hearts to him whom freely to love is our bounden duty to embrace is chastity to marry is virginity to serve is liberty to desire is contentment to imitate is perfection to enjoy is everlasting happines To whom c. THE ROYALL PRIEST A Sermon preached in Saint Maries Church in Oxford Anno 1613. THE XXXVII SERMON PSAL. 110.4 The Lord sware and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech Right Worshipfull c. THere are three principall attributes of God Wisedome Goodnesse Power Wisedome to comprehend all the good that can bee Goodnesse to will all that which in wisedome he comprehendeth Power to effect all that in goodnesse he willeth and decreeth for the manifestation of his justice and mercy to his creatures These three attributes of God shine most clearely in the three offices of Christ 1 Kingly 2 Priestly 3 Propheticall Power in his Kingly Wisedome in his Propheticall Goodnesse in his Priestly function For Christ by his Princely authority declareth especially the power by his Propheticall he revealeth the wisedome and by his Priesthood he manifesteth the goodnesse of God to all mankinde Christ as a Prophet in wisedome teacheth us what in his goodnesse he hath merited for us as a Priest and by his power he will bestow upon us as a King freedome from all miserie in the Kingdome of glory And on these three offices of Christ the three divine graces 1 Faith 2 Hope 3 Charity have a kinde of dependance 1 Faith holdeth on him as a Prophet 2 Hope as a King 3 Charity as a Priest For Faith buildeth upon the truth of his Prophesie Hope relieth upon the power of his Kingdome Charity embraceth the functions of his Priesthood whereby he washeth us from our sinnes in his owne bloud and maketh us a Apoc. 1.5 6. Kings and Priests unto God and his Father In this Psalme David as Christs Herauld proclaimeth these his titles First his Kingly Sit thou on my right hand ver 1. Be thou ruler in the midst of thine enemies ver 2. Secondly his Propheticall The people shall come willingly in the beautie of holinesse ver 3. Thirdly his Priestly The Lord sware thou art a Priest ver 4. To obscure which most cleare and evident interpretation of this Propheticall Psalme although some mists of doubts have beene cast in former times yet now after the Sun of righteousnesse is risen and hath dispelled them by his owne beames nothing without impietie can be opposed to it for b Mat. 22.42 43 44. there he whom David meaneth openeth Davids meaning he whom this Prophesie discovereth discovereth this Prophesie he to whom this Scripture pointeth pointeth to this Scripture and interpreting it of the Son of man sheweth most evidently that he is the King who reigneth so victoriously ver 1. the Prophet that preacheth so effectually ver 3. and the Priest that abideth continually according to the words of my text which offer to our religious thoughts three points of speciall observation 1 The ceremony used at the consecration of our Lord The Lord sware 2 The office conferred upon him by this rite or ceremonie Thou art a Priest 3 The prerogatives of this his office which is here declared to be 1 Perpetuall for ever 2 Regular after the order 3 Royall of Melchizedek First the forme and manner of our Saviours investiture or consecration was most honourable and glorious God the Father performing the rites which were not imposition of hands and breathing on him the holy Ghost but a solemne deposition of his Father with a protestation Thou art a Priest ceremonies never used by any but God nor in the investiture of any but Christ nor his investiture into any office but his Priesthood Plin. panegyr Trasan Imperium super Imperatorem Imperatoris voce delatum est nihil magis subjecti animo factum est quam quod caepit imperare At his coronation we heare nothing but the Lord said Sit thou on my right hand The rule of the whole world is imposed upon our Saviour by command and even in this did Christ shew his obedience
begotten Sonne a Priest for ever to sanctifie our persons and purge our sins and tender all our petitions to his Father What sinne so hainous what abomination so grievous for which such a Priest cannot satisfie by the oblation of himselfe What cause so desperate in which such an Advocate if he plead will not prevaile What suit so difficult which such a Mediatour will not carry We may be sure God will not be hard to be intreated of us who himselfe hath appointed us such an Intercessour to whom he can deny nothing Therefore surely if there be any Balme in Gilead it may be found on or gathered from the branches of this text The Lord sware And will not repent Is not this addition needlesse and superfluous Doth God ever repent him of any thing May wee be bold to use any such speech concerning God that he repented or retracted any thing We may the Scripture will beare us out in it which in many places warranteth the phrase as l Gen. 6.6 Then it repented the Lord that he had made man upon the earth and he was sorrie in his heart and m 1 Sam. 15.35 It repenteth me that I have made Saul King for he is turned from me and hath not performed my commandements and n Psal 106.15 He remembred his covenant and repented according to the multitude of his mercies and o Jer. 18.10 If this Nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their wickednesse I will repent of the plagues that I thought to bring upon them but if they doe evill in my sight I will repent of the good that I thought to doe unto them therefore now amend your wayes and your works and heare the word of the Lord God that the Lord may repent him of the plagues that he hath pronounced against you and p Jon. 3.9 God saw their workes that they turned from their evill wayes and God repented of all the evill that he had said he would do unto them and he did it not All which passages I have entirely related quia de Deo etiam vera dicere periculosum est as the heathen q Hil. de Trin. l. 5. Non potest Deus nisi per Deum intelligi à Deo discendum est quid de Deo intelligendum est Sage wisely observeth It is dangerous to speake even true things of God for we may speake nothing safely of him which is not spoken by him in holy Scriptures And above others the Ministers of the Gospel have a speciall charge given them not onely to looke to their matter but to have a care also retinere sanam formam verborum to keepe unto a wholesome platforme of words and phrases such as all those are which the holy Ghost hath sanctified unto us whereof this is one God repented c. which may be safely uttered if it be rightly understood Certaine it is and a most undoubted truth that the nature of God is free from passion his actions from exception his will from controll his purpose from casualty his sentence from revocation and therefore when God is said in holy Scripture to repent of any good by him promised or actually conferred upon any or any evill inflicted or menaced we are not from thence to inferre that there are any after-thoughts in God but onely some alteration in the things themselves As Parents and Nurses that they may be the better understood of their Infants clip their words or speake in a like tone to them so also our heavenly Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we may the better understand him speaketh to us in our owne language Num. 23.19 God is not a man that hee should lie nor the son of man that he should repent hath he said and shall be not doe it hath he spoken and shall he not make it good and expresseth himselfe in such termes as best sort with our conceits and apprehensions When we condemne the courses which we have formerly taken or undoe any thing which we have done our after-thoughts checke our former and we retract our errour and this retraction of our opinions and change in our minde we call repentance which though it be farre from the nature of God yet is it by a figure attributed unto him the more significantly to expresse his infinite hatred and detestation of sin in regard whereof he cast man out of his favour as if he had repented that he had made him he cast Saul out of his throne as if he had repented that he had set him in it as also to represent his compassionate love towards penitent sinners which prevaileth so farre with him that upon the least relenting and humiliation on our parts he reverseth the fearefull sentence he passed upon us as if it repented him that he ever had pronounced it We repeale some act or constitution of ours or cancell some deed because we repent of that which formerly we had done but God is said to repent not because his minde or affection is changed but because his actions are such as when the like are done by men they truely repent Thus St. n L. 9. de Civ Dei Poenitentiae nomen usurpavit effectus non illius turbulentus affectus Austine resolveth the case Some such effects which in men proceed from repentance descried in the Actions of God have occasioned these and the like phrases God repented and was sorrie in his heart Yea but what effects are these Hath he ever reversed any sentence repealed any act nay recalled so much as any word passed from him Is the * 1 Sam. 15.29 strength of Israel as man that he should lie or as the sonne of man that hee should repent Is not hee the o Hâ—b 13.8 same yesterday and to day and for ever Are not all his menaces and promises all his mercies and judgements all his words and workes p 2 Cor. 1.20 For all the promises of God in him are Yea and in him Amen unto the glory of God by us Yea and Amen Doubtlesse it shall stand for an unmoveable truth when heaven and earth shall passe away Mal. 3.6 Ego Deus non mutor I am the Lord I change not therefore we are yet in the suds there appeareth no ground to fasten repentance upon God either quoad affectum or quoad effectum But here the q Aquin. par 1. q. 16. art 7. Aliud est mutare voluntatem aliud velle mutationem Schoolemen reach us a distinction to take hold on whereby we may get out of the mire It is one thing to change the will and another thing to will a change God willeth a change in some things at some times but he never changeth his will Some things God appointeth to continue for ever as the dictates of the law of nature and the Priesthood of Christ some things for a time onely as the Legall Ceremonies and the Aaronicall Priesthood Againe some things he promiseth absolutely as
uttered but it may by ignorance be depraved no action of vertue can be so exactly performed but it may through malice be mis-construed It is not more proper to God to bring light out of darknesse peace out of trouble joy out of sorrow and out of sinne the greatest of all evils to extract much good by governing and disposing it to the declaration of his mercy and justice than it is naturall to the Divell and his impes out of the light of truth to endeavour to draw darknesse of errour and out of the best speeches and actions to straine and force out somewhat to maintaine and nourish their corrupt humours and bosome sinnes And what marvell sith even in Paradise amidst the sweetest flowers and wholsomest herbes and plants a Serpent could live and find there something to feed upon Paradise was the seat of mans happinesse the garden of pleasure the soyle of the tree of life seated in the cleerest ayre watered and environed with sweetest rivers enamelled with pleasantest flowers set by God himselfe with the choicest plants and yet was it not free from the serpent which turned the juices of those soveraign and medicinall simples into poyson Aristotle writeth of the Cantharides that they are killed with the sent of the a Arist de mirabil aus cult sweetest and most fragrant oyntments and it is morally verified in those gracelesse hearers to whom the Word which is the b 2. Cor. 2.16 sweet smelling savour of God to life becommeth a savour of death Such hearers the blessed Apostle Saint Paul sharply censureth in this chapter Occas who when hee preached to them salvation by the free grace of Christ hence concluded free liberty of sinne when to the comfort of all that are heavie laden with the burden of sinne he set abroach that heavenly doctrine where sinne abounded there grace superabounded they subsumed Let us therefore continue in sinne that grace may more abound whereas indeed they should have inferred the cleane contrary conclusion thus Grace hath abounded much more to us therefore wee of all men should not continue in sinne because God offereth us so good meanes to escape out of it The dew of heaven hath fallen plentifully upon us therefore wee ought to be most fruitfull in good workes not only because God hath better enabled us to doe them but also in a duty of thankfulnesse wee are to offer him our best service who hath enriched us with the treasures of his grace Therefore to beat them and in them all carnall Gospellers from the former hold St. Paul in this chapter planteth ordnance of many most forcible arguments drawne from three principall heads Analys 1. Christ and his benefits 2. Themselves and their former condition 3. The comparison between a sinfull and a holy course of life and their contrary effects 1 From Christ and his benefits after this manner The effect of grace is to mortifie sinne how then can they who have received a greater measure of grace by the merit of Christs death and buriall continue in sinne How can they that are dead to sinne live therein Whereas they urged grace for liberty of sinne the Apostle from grace enforceth sanctity of life whereas they alledged their redemption for their exemption from all service Saint Paul strongly concludes from so great a benefit a greater tye and obligation to serve the Lord their Redeemer whereas they built a fort of sin with the wood of Christs crosse he maketh an engine of the same wood to overthrow it by grace we are united to Christ and planted in him therefore we must live the life of the root bring forth the fruit of the c Ver. 5. Ver. 6. spirit If we have been planted together in the likenesse of his death wee shall be also in the likenesse of his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sinne might be destroyed that henceforth wee should not serve sinne c. 2 From themselves and their former condition thus When yee were free from righteousnesse yee were servants unto sinne now therefore being freed from sinne yee ought to be servants unto righteousnesse As yee d Ver. 18 19. yeelded your members servants of uncleannesse and iniquity unto iniquity so now yeeld your members servants of righteousnesse unto holinesse c. 3 From the comparison between the state of sin and grace thus When you were in the state of sinne you had no profit at all of your workes and you were confounded with shame for them and by them were brought to the very brink of death Coharent but now being in the state of grace you reap fruit here in holinesse the fruit of peace and joy and hereafter you shall reap the fruit of everlasting life and glory Thus you see the scope of the Apostle the occasion and coherence of the words which carry this sense Tell mee Exposit Gen. yee unsettled and unstable Christians who have been delivered from the thraldome of sinne and Satan and have given your names unto Christ and your members as servants unto righteousnesse why goe yee about to enthrall your selves anew to your ghostly enemies or make your selves vassals to your fleshly lusts Observe yee not the heavie judgements of God lighting daily upon presumptuous sinners See yee not before your eyes continuall spectacles of Gods justice and marke yee not in them the fearfull ends of those courses which now yee begin to take againe after yee had long left them Beleeve yee not the words of God e Rom. 2 9. Tribulation and anguish upon every soule that sinneth for hee will f Psal 68.21 wound the hairy scalpe of every one that goeth on in his wickednesse Or if you turne away your eyes from beholding the vialls of wrath daily powred upon sinners and stop your eares that yee may not heare the dreadfull threats which God thundereth out in his Law against such backsliders and relapsers as yee are yet can yee stifle your owne hearts griefe can yee forget the wofull plight into which your former courses brought you when free from righteousnesse yee let loose the reines to all licentiousnesse that yee might worke wickednesse even with greedinesse yee glutted your selves with earthly vanities and tooke a surfeit of sinfull pleasures What gaine did yee not then greedily gape after what preferment did yee not ambitiously seek into what mire of impurity did not yee plunge your selves No sinfull pleasure but yee tooke your fill of no dish of Satan which yee left untouched yet speake the truth between God and your owne conscience what true delight or solid contentment tooke yee in those things I know yee are ashamed to speake of it and I will not wound modest eares to relate it and ought yee not much more to be ashamed to returne with the dogge to his former vomit and with the sow to her wallowing in the mire Your soules have been cleansed by
the bloud of your Redeemer from all spots of impurity will yee againe pollute and soile them It is folly eagerly to pursue that which will bring you no profit at all and greater to follow afresh those things whereof ye were not only ashamed in the enjoying them but also are now confounded at the very mention of them yet this is not the worst shame is but the beginning of your woe For the end is death yea death without end Will yee then forsake the waies of Gods Commandements leading to endlesse felicity and weary your selves in the by-pathes of wickednesse in the pursuit of worldly vanities without hope of gaine with certaine losse of your good name nay of your life will yee sell heaven for the mucke of the earth set yee so much by the transitory pleasures of sinne mixed with much anguish and bitternesse attended on with shame that for them yee will be content to be deprived of celestiall joyes the society of Archangels and Angels and the fruition of God himselfe for ever nay to be cast into the darke and hideous dungeon of hell to frie in eternall flames to be companions of ghastly fiends and damned ghosts howling and shreeking without ceasing complaining without hope lamenting without end living yet without life dying yet without death because living in the torments of everlasting death Divis explicat verb. Having taken a generall survey of the whole let us come to a more particular handling of the parts which are three forcible arguments to deterre all men from all vicious and sinfull courses 1. The first ab inutili What fruit had yee 2. The second ab infami Whereof yee are now ashamed 3. The third à pernicioso or mortifero The end of these things is death 1. Fruit. What fruit This word fruit is fruitfull in significations it is taken 1 Properly for the last issue of trees and so it is opposed to leaves or blossomes for nature adorneth trees with three sorts of hangings as it were the first leaves the second blossomes the third fruits in this sense the word is taken in the first of Genesis and in the parable of the figge-tree cursed by our Saviour because hee found no fruit thereon 2 Improperly either for inward habits which are the fruits either of the spirit whereof the Apostle speaketh The g Gal. 5.22 fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance or of the flesh reckoned up by the same h Ver. 19 20. Apostle or for outward workes which are the fruits of the former habits whereof we reade Being i Phil. 1.11 filled with the fruits of righteousnesse and in the Epistle of S. k Jam. 3.15 James Full of mercy and good fruits Or for the reward of these works either inward as peace joy and contentment whereof those words of S. l Ver. 18. James are to be meant The fruit of righteousnes is sowne in peace of them that make peace and those of S. Paul No m Heb. 12.11 affliction for the time is joyous but grievous but in the end it bringeth the quiet fruit of righteousnesse to those that are exercised thereby Or lastly for outward blessings wherewith God even in this life recompenseth those who are fruitfull in good workes as the Prophet Esay and David assure them Surely it shall be n Esay 3.10 Psal 58.11 well with the just for they shall eate the fruits of their workes Utique est fructus justo Verily there is fruit for the righteous verily there is a God that judgeth the earth 2. Had. Had. It is written of the Lynx that he never looketh backe but Homer contrarily describeth a wise man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking both forward and backward forward to things to come and backward to things past for by remembring what is past and fore-casting things future he ordereth things present and in speciall what advantage a Christian maketh of the memory of his former sinnes and the sad farewell they have left in the conscience I shall speake more largely hereafter for the present in this cursory interpretation of the words it shall suffice to observe from the pretertense habuistis had ye not habetis have ye that sin like the trees of Sodome if it beare any fruit at all yet that it abideth not but assoone as it is touched falls to ashes Musonius the Philosopher out of his owne experience teacheth us and that truely that if we doe any good thing with paine the paine is soone over but the pleasure remaineth but on the contrarie if we doe any evill thing with pleasure the pleasure is soone over but the paine remaineth In those things whereof yee are now ashamed 3. Those things As after the wound is healed there remaines a scar in the flesh so after sinne is healed in the conscience there remaines as it were a scarre of infamie in our good name and of shame also in the inward man The act of sinne is transcunt yet shame the effect or rather proper passion of it is permanent sinne is more ancient than shame but shame out liveth sinne It is as impossible that fire should be without scorching heat or a blow without paine or a feaver without shaking as sinne especially heinous and grievous without a trembling in the minde and shame and confusion in the soule For as o In Saturnal Macrobius well observeth when the soule hath defiled her selfe with the turpitude of sinne pudore suffunditur sanguinem obtendit pro velamento she is ashamed of her selfe and sends forth bloud into the outward parts and spreadeth â—t like a vaile before her just as the Sepia or Cuttle fish when she is afraid to be taken p Plin. nat hist l. 9. c. 29. Sepiae ubi sensere se apprehendi offuso atramento quod illis pro sanguine est absconduntur sends from her bloud like inke whereby she so obscureth the water that the angler cannot see her If it be objected that some men as they are past grace so past shame also and some foreheads of that metall that will receive no tincture of modestie such as Zeno was in q L. 16. Si clam scelera perpetrasser obscurum minus gloriosum putabat sin publicitùs apertè in conspectu omnium absque pudore flegitiosus esset id dâ—mùm Principe Imperatore dignum putabat Nicephorus his story who held it a disparagement to himselfe to commit wickednesse in secret and cover his filthinesse with the darke shadow of the night for that it became not soveraigne majestie to feare any thing he thought he could not shew himselfe a Prince unlesse without feare or shame he committed outrages in the face of the sunne Such were those Jewes whom the Prophet Jeremie brands in the forehead with the marke of a Strumpet that cannot blush r Jer 8.12 Were they ashamed when they committed abominations nay Å¿ Jer.
k Isa 1.5 Why should yee bee stricken any more saith the Lord which is as if a Physician should say concerning his desperate Patient I will minister no more physicke to him give him what hee hath a minde unto because there is no hope of life in him As it is a loving part in a Tutour to correct his Scholar privately for a misdemeanour to save him from the heavier stroak of the Magistrate or the Jaile so it is a singular favour of God to chasten his children here that they may not bee condemned with the world hereafter I end the solution of this doubt with the peremptory resolution of Saint Bernard l In Cant. Si Deus non est recum per gratiam adetit pre◠vindictam sed vae tibi si ita recum adest imo vae ibi si ita tecum non dist If God be not with thee O Christian by grace he will be with thee by vengeance or judgement here and woe bee to thee if hee bee so with thee nay woe bee unto thee if hee bee not so with thee or not so even with thee for if thou art preserved from temporall chastisements thou art reserved to eternall punishments The last doubt that riseth in the minde of the broken hearted Christian to bee assoyled at this time is drawne from the words of the wise man m Eccl. 9.2 All things fall alike unto all men the same net taketh cleane and uncleane fowles and enwrappeth them in a like danger In famine what difference betweene the Elect and Reprobate both pine away In pestilence what distinction of the righteous and the sinner both are alike strucke by the Angel In captivity what priviledge hath hee that feareth God more than hee that feareth him not both beare the same yoake In hostile invasion how can wee discerne who is the childe of God and who is not when all are slaughtered like sheep and their blood like water spilt upon the ground Sol. 1 Here not to referre all to Gods secret judgement who onely knoweth who are his intruth and sincerity Sol. 2 nor to rely wholly upon his extraordinary providence whereby hee miraculously saveth his servants and preserveth them in common calamities even above hope as hee did Noah from the deluge of water which drowned the old world as hee did Lot from the deluge of fire which overwhelmed and burnt Sodome and Gomorrah as hee did the children of Israel in Goshen from the plagues of Egypt as hee did Moses from the massacre of the infants by Pharaoh as hee did Elias from the sword of Jezebel drunke with the blood of the Prophets as hee did all those Christians among the Romans that fled to the Sepulchres of the Martyres when the city was sacked by the n Aug. l. 1. de civ Dei c. 1. Gothes as hee did those pious children who carried their fathers and mothers upon their backes through the midst of the fire in the Townes neare Aetna whereof o C 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle religiously discourseth in his Booke De mundo When saith hee from the hill Aetna there ranne downe a torrent of fire that consumed all the houses thereabout in the midst of those fearefull flames Gods speciall care of the godly shined most brightly for the river of fire parted it selfe on this side and that side and made a kinde of lane for those who ventured to rescue their aged parents and plucke them out of the jawes of death To make an evident distinction betweene the godly and the wicked wee see here the fire divided it selfe as the waters before had done in the p Exod. 14.22 passage of the children of Israel through the red Sea Howbeit these exemptions and speciall protections in common calamities are neither necessary nor ordinary Sol. 3 I answer therefore farther that two things are to be considered in the good or evill casualties as they are called of this life the nature and substance of them which is in it selfe indifferent and the accidentary quality which maketh them good or bad Now so it is ordered by divine providence that the wicked possesse oft times the substance of these things I meane houses lands treasure and wealth but they have not them with that quality which maketh them good I meane the right use of them and contentation of minde in them On the contrary the godly often lacke the substance of these things yet not that for which they are to bee desired and which maketh them good contentment of minde with supply of all things needfull in which regard the indigencie of the godly is to bee preferred before the plenty and abundance of the wicked according to that of the Psalmist q Psal 37.16 A small thing that the righteous hath is better than great riches of the ungodly And doubtlesse that large promise of our Saviour r Mar. 10.29 There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or lands for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold in this time is to bee understood according to the former distinction thus Hee shall receive an hundred fold either in the kinde or in the value either in the substance of the things themselves or in the inward contentation and the heavenly wealth I now spake of In like manner death and all calamities which are as it were sundry kindes of death or steppes unto it have a sting and venomous quality which putteth the soule to most unsufferable paine and rankles as it were about the heart I meane Gods curse the sense of his wrath the worme of conscience discontent impatience despaire and the like ſ 1 Cor. 15.55 O death saith Saint Paul where is thy sting In like manner wee may insult upon all other evils O poverty O banishment O imprisonment O losses O crosses O persecutions Where is your sting it is plucked out of the afflictions of the godly but a worse left in the prosperity of the wicked In which regard the seeming misery of the godly is happy but the seeming prosperity of the wicked is miserable Albeit God sometim s giveth them both a drinke of deadly Wine yet hee tempereth the sharpe Ingredients of judgement with corrective Spices of mercy and sweetneth it with comforts in the Cup of the godly t 2 Cor. 1.5 As their sufferings for Christ abound so their consolations also abound by Christ And this evidently appeareth by the different working of the Cup of trembling in both the wicked presently after their draught rave and grow franticke but the godly are then in their best temper the wicked u Apoc. 16.10 gnaw their tongues for sorrow but the godly employ them in prayer and praises the wicked bite Gods iron rod and thereby breake their owne teeth but the godly kisse it the wicked are most impatient in afflictions the godly learne patience even by afflictions In a word the one in extremity of paine are
sonne when it is ripe which he permitted to grow in the father without applying any such remedy outwardly unto it yet this is most certaine that he never visiteth the sinne of the father upon the children if the children tread not in the wicked steps of their father Thus much the words that follow in the second Commandement imply unto the n Exod. 20.5 third and fourth generation of them that hate mee He often sheweth mercy to the sonne for the fathers sake but never executeth justice upon any but for their owne sinnes The sinne of the sonne growes the more unpardonable because he would not take example by his father but abused the long-suffering of God which should have called him to repentance The Latine Proverb Aemilius fecit plectitur Rutilius Aemilius committeth the trespasse and Rutilius was merced for it hath no place in Gods proceedings neither is there any ground of the Poets commination o Hor. l. 3. od 6. lib. 1. od 28. Negligis immeritis nocituram postmodo te natis fraudem committer◠fo rs debita jura vicesque superbae te maneant ipsum Delicta majorum immeritus lues Romane For God is so far from inflicting punishment upon one for the sins of another that he inflicteth no punishment upon any for his own sinne or sins be they never so many and grievous if he turne from his wicked wayes and cry for mercy in time for God desireth not the death of a sinner but of sinne he would not that we should dye in our sinnes but our sinnes in us If we spare not our sinnes but slay them with the sword of the Spirit God will spare us This is the effect of the Prophets answer the summe of this chapter and the contents of this verse in which more particularly we are to observe 1. The person I. 2. The action or affection desire 3. The object death 4. The subject the wicked 1. The person soveraigne God 2. The action or affection amiable delight 3. The object dreadfull deprivation of life 4. The subject guilty the wicked The words are uttered by a figurative interrogation in which there is more evidence and efficacy more life and convincing force For it is as if he had said Know ye not that I have no such desire or thinke ye that I have any desire or dare it enter into your thoughts that I take any pleasure at all in the death of a sinner When the interrogation is figurative the rule is that if the question be affirmative the answer to it must be negative but if the question be negative the answer must be affirmative For example Who is like unto the Lord the meaning is none is like unto the Lord. Whom have I in heaven but thee that is I have none in heaven but thee On the other side when the question is negative the answer must be affirmative as Are not the Angels ministring spirits that is the Angels are ministring spirits and Shall the Son of man find faith that is the Son of man shall not find faith Here then apply the rule and shape a negative answer to the first member being affirmative thus I have no desire that a sinner should dye and an affirmative answer to the negative member thus I have a desire that the wicked should returne and live and ye have the true meaning and naturall exposition of this verse Have I any desire that the wicked should dye 1. God is not said properly to have any thing 2. if he may be said to have any thing yet not desires 3. if he may be said to have a desire of any thing yet not of death 4. if he desire the death of any yet not of the wicked in his sinne Have I As the habits of the body are not the body so neither the habits of the soule are the soule it selfe Now whatsoever is in God is God for he is a simple act and his qualities or attributes are not re ipsâ distinct from his essence and therefore he cannot be said properly to have any thing but to be all things Any desire Desires as Plato defineth them are vela animi the sailes of the mind which move it no other wayes than the saile doth a ship Desire of honour is the saile which moveth the ambitious of pleasure is the saile which moveth the voluptuous of gaine is the saile which moveth the covetous Others define them spurres of the soule to prick us on forwards to such things as are most agreeable to our naturall inclination and deliberate purposes Hence it appeares that properly there can be no desires in God because desire is of something we want but God wanteth nothing Desires are meanes to stirre us up but God is immoveable as he is immutable If then he be said to desire any thing the speech is borrowed and to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in such sort as may agree with the nature of God and it importeth no more than God liketh or approveth such things That the wicked should dye A sinner may be said to dye two manner of wayes either as a sinner or as a man as a sinner he dyeth when his sinne dyeth in him and he liveth as a man he dyeth either when his body is severed from his soule which is the first death or when both body and soule are for ever severed from God which is the second death God desireth the death of a sinner in the first sense but no way in the latter he desireth that sinne should dye in us but neither that we should dye the first death in sin nor dye the second death for sinne He is the author of life p Job 7.20 preserver of mankind He is the q 1 Tim. 4.10 Saviour of all especially them that beleeve Hee would not that any should r 2 Pet. 3.9 perish but all should come to repentance If he should desire the death of a sinner as he should gain-say his owne word so he should desire against his owne nature For beeing is the nature of God Sum qui sum I am that I am but death is the not beeing of the creature No more than light can be the cause of darknesse can God who is life be the cause of death If he should desire the death of a sinner he should destroy his principall attributes of wisedome goodnesse and mercy Of wisdome for what wisedome can it be to marre his chiefest worke Of goodnesse for how can it stand with goodnesse to desire that which is in it selfe evill Of mercy for how can it stand with mercy to desire or take pleasure in the misery of his creature Doth he desire the death of man who gave man warning of it at the first and meanes to escape it if he would and after that by his voluntary transgression he was liable to the censure of death provided him a Redeemer to ransome him from death calleth all men by the Gospel to
to the cast of a Die for a matter of naught a toy a trifle a jussle a taking of the wall an affront a word Doe wee make so small reckoning of that which cost our Saviour his dearest hearts bloud 2. If Judges all those who sit upon life and death did enter into a serious consideration thereof they would not so easily as sometimes they doe cast away a thing that is so precious much lesse receive the price of bloud For if it be accounted and that deservedly a sinne of a deep die to buy and sell things dedicated to the service of God what punishment doe they deserve who buy and sell the living image of God It is reported of Augustus that he never pronounced a capitall sentence without fetching a deep sigh and of Titus the Emperour that hee willingly accepted of the Priests office that hee might never have his hand dipped in bloud and of Nero that when he was to set his hand to a capitall sentence he wished that he could not write Utinam literas nescirem therefore let those Judges think what answer they will make at Christs Tribunall who are so farre from Christian compassion and hearts griefe and sorrow when they are forced to cut off a member of Christ by the sword of justice that they sport themselves and breake jests and most inhumanely insult upon the poore prisoner whose necke lyeth at the stake If any sinne against our neighbour leave a deep staine in our conscience it is the bloudy sinne of cruelty Other sinnes may be hushed in the conscience and rocked asleep with a song of Gods mercy but this is reckoned in holy Scripture among those ſ Gen. 4.10 crying sins that never will be quiet till they have awaked Gods revenging justice This is a crimson sinne and I pray God it cleave not to their consciences who wear the scarlet robe If there be any such Judges I leave them to their Judge and briefly come to you Right Honourable c. with the short exhortation of the Apostle Put you on the t Colos 3.12 bowells of mercy and compassion and if ever the life of your brethren be in your hands make speciall reckoning of it in no wise rashly cast it away let it not goe out of your hands unlesse the law and justice violently wrest and extort it from you Assure your selves that it is a farre more honourable thing and will gaine you greater love and favour with God and reputation with men to u Cicer. pro Quint. de Aquil Mavult commemorare se cùm perdere potuerat pepercisse quà m cùm parcere potuerat perdidisse save a man whom yee might have cast away than to cast him away under any pretence whom yee might have saved 4. If a malefactour arraigned at the barre of justice should perceive by any speech gesture signe or token an inclination in the Judge to mercy how would he worke upon this advantage what suit what meanes would he make for his life how would he importune all his friends to intreat for him how would he fall down upon his knees beseech the Judge for the mercies of God to be good unto him Hoe all ye that have guilty consciences and are privie to your selves of many capitall crimes though peradventure no other can appeach you behold the Judge of all flesh makes an overture of mercy he bewrayeth more than a propension or inclination he discovereth a desire to save you why doe ye not make meanes unto him why do ye not appeale from the barre of his justice to his throne of grace why doe ye not flye from him as he is a terrible Judge to him as he is a mercifull Father Though by nature ye are the sonnes of wrath yet by grace ye are the adopted sonnes of the Father of mercy and God of all consolation who stretcheth out his armes all the day long unto us Let us turne to him yea though it be at the last houre of our death and he will turne to us let us repent us of our sinnes and he will repent him of his judgements let us retract our errours and he will reverse his sentence let us wash away our sinnes with our teares and he will blot out our sentence with his Sonnes bloud When * Dan. 5.5 Belshazzar saw the hand-writing against him on the wall his heart mis-gave him all his joynts trembled and his knees smote one against the other Beloved Christians there is a x Colos 2.14 hand-writing of ordinances against us all and if we see or minde it not it writeth more terrible things against us What shall wee doe to be rid of this feare Is there any means under heaven to take out the writing of God against us Yes beloved teares of repentance with faith in Christs blood maketh that aqua fortis that will fetch out even the hand-writing of God against us The Prophet recordeth it for a miraculous accident that the sun went back many degrees in the Dyall of y Esa 38.8 Ahaz Beloved our fervent prayers and penitent tears will work a greater miracle than this they will bring back again the z Mal. 4.2 Sun of righteousnesse after he is set in our soules God cannot sin Angels cannot repent onely man that sinneth is capable of repentance and shall wee not embrace that vertue which is onely ours Other vertues are remedies against speciall maladies of the soule as humility against pride hope against despaire courage against feare chastity against lust meeknesse against wrath faith against diffidence charity against covetousnesse but repentance is a soveraigne remedy against all the maladies of the minde Other vertues have their seasons as patience in adversity temperance in prosperity almes-deeds when our brothers necessity calleth upon our charity fasting when wee afflict our soules in time of plague or any other judgement of God but repentance is alwayes in season either for our grosser sinnes or for failing in our best actions if for no other cause yet wee are to repent for the insincerity and imperfection of our repentance I will end this my exhortation as the Prophet doth this chapter * Ezek. 18.30.31 Repent and turne your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not bee your ruine Cast away all your transgressions whereby yee have transgressed and make you new hearts and new spirits for why will yee die O ye house of Israel saith the Lord God wherefore turne your selves and live yee O Lord who desirest not that wee should die in our sinnes but our sinnes in us mortifie our fleshly members by the power of thy Sonnes death and renew us in the spirit of our mindes by the vertue of his resurrection that wee may die daily to the world but live to heaven die to sinne but live to righteousnesse die to our selves but live to thee Thou by the Prophet professest thy desire of our conversion say but the word and wee shall bee converted
that any one Divell should get possession of our hearts yet seven nay a legion may be cast out by fasting and prayer God forbid that any of us should be long sicke of any spirituall disease yet those that have been sicke unto death have been restored yea those that have been long dead have been raised God forbid that wee should forsake our heavenly Fathers house and in a strange countrey waste his goods and consume our portion yet after we have run riot and spent all the gifts of nature and goods of this life and lavished out our time the most precious treasure of all yet in the end if we come to our selves and looke homewards our heavenly Father will meet us and kill the fat calfe for uâ— Therefore if wee have grievously provoked Gods justice by presumption let us not more wrong his mercy by despaire but hope even above hope in him whose mercy is over all his workes Against the number and weight of all our sinnes let us lay the infinitenesse of Gods mercy and Christ his merits and the certainty of his promise confirmed by oath As I live I desire not the death of a sinner if hee returne he shall live Oh saith Saint a Bern. in Cant. Quis dabit capiti meo aquam oculis meis fontem lachrymarum ut praeveniam fletibus fletum stridorem dentium Bernard that mine eyes were springs of teares that by my weeping here I might prevent everlasting weeping and gnashing of teeth in hell What pitie is it that we should fret and grieve and disquiet our selves and others for the losse of a Jewell from our eare or a ring from our finger and should take no thought at all for the losse of the Jewels of Gods grace out of our soules We are overwhelmed as it were in a deluge of teares at the death of our friends who yet are alive to God though dead to this world but have we not a thousand times greater reason to open those floodgates of salt waters which nature hath set in our eyes for our selves who are dead to God though alive to the world St. b De laps Si quem de tuis chatis mortalitatis exitu perdidisses ingemisceres dolenter fleres facie incultâ veste mutatâ neglecto capillo vultu nubilo ore dejecto indicia moeroris ostenderes animam tuam miser perdidisti spiritualitèr mortuus es supervivere hic tibi ipse ambulans funus tuum portare caepisti non acritèr plangis non â—ugitèr ingemiscis Cyprian hath a sweet touch on this string If any of thy deare friends were taken away from thee by death thou wouldst sigh thou wouldst sob thou wouldst put on blacks thou wouldst hang doâ—ne thy head thou wouldst dis-figure thy face thou wouldst let thy haire hang carelesly about thine eares thou wouldst wring thy hands thou wouldst knock thy breast thou wouldst throw thy selfe downe upon the ground thou wouldst expresse sorrow in all her gestures and postures O wretched man that thou art thou hast lost thy soule thou art spiritually dead thou survivest thy selfe and carriest a dead corps about thee and dost thou not take on dost thou not fetch a deepe sigh hast thou not a compassionate teare for thy selfe wilt thou not be thy owne mourner especially considering that all thy weeping and howling for thy friend cannot fetch him backe againe or restore him to life whereas thy weeping for thy selfe in this vale of tears and seriously bewailing thy sinnes may and by Gods grace shall revive thy soule and recover all thy spirituall losses and that with advantage Experience teacheth us that the presentest remedie for a man that is stung in any part of his body by a Scorpion is to take the oile of Scorpions and therewith oft to annoint the place sinne is the Scorpion that stingeth our soules even to death if we apply nothing to it yet out of this Scorpion sinne it selfe and the sorrow for it an oile or water may be drawne of penitent teares wherewith if we annoint or wash our soules we shall kill the venome of sinne and allay the swelling of our conscience c Pind. od 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a most soveraigne water which will fetch a sinner againe to the life of grace though never so farre gone It is not Well water springing out of the bowels of the earth nor raine powred out of the clouds of passion but rather like a d Cyp de card Chris op De interioribus fontibus egrediuntur torrentes super omnes delicias lachrymis nectareis anima delectatuâ— non illos imbres procellosae tempestates deponunt ros matutinus est de coelestibus stillans quasi unctio spiritus mentem deliniens post affectio se abluit lachrymis baptizat dew falling from heaven which softeneth and moisteneth the heart and is dried up by the beames of the Sun of righteousnesse Have not I a desire that the wicked should turne from his wayes and live When a subject hath rebelled against his naturall Soveraigne or a servant grievously provoked his master or a sonne behaved himselfe ungraciously towards his father will the Prince sue to his subject or a master to his servant or a father to his sonne for a reconciliation Will not an equall that hath a quarrell with his equall hold it a great disgrace and disparagement to make any meanes that the quarrell may be taken up will he not keepe out at full distance and looke that the partie who as he conceiveth hath wronged him should make first towards him and seeke to him Yet such an affection God beareth to us that though we silly wormes of the earth swell and rise against him yet he seeketh to us he sendeth Embassadours to e 2 Cor. 5.19 20. treat of peace and intreate and beseech us to be reconciled unto God For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himselfe not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation Now then we are Embassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be reconciled unto God Stand not out my deare brethren resigne the strong holds of your carnall imaginations and affections deliver up your members that they may serve as weapons of righteousnesse and yeeld your selves to his mercy and yee shall live Turne and live Should a prisoner led to execution heare the Judge or Sheriffe call to him and say Turne backe put in sureties for thy good behaviour hereafter and live would he not suddenly leap out of his fetters embrace the condition and thanke the Judge or Sheriffe upon his knees And what think ye if God should send a Prophet to preach a Sermon of repentance to the divels and damned ghosts in hell and say Knock off your bolts shake off your fetters and turne to the Lord and live would not hell be emptied and rid before
the Prophet should have made an end of his exhortation This Sermon the Prophet Ezechiel now maketh unto us all here present f Ezek. 33.11 18.30.31 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that he turne from his wayes and live turne ye turne ye from your evill wayes for why will yee die Repent and turne your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not bee your destruction Cast away all your transgressions whereby yee have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye perish Shake off the shackles of your sinnes and quit the companie of the prisoners of death and gally-slaves of Satan put in sureties for your good behaviour hereafter turne to the Lord your God with all your heart and live yea live gloriously live happily live eternally which the Father of mercy grant for the merits of his Sonne through the grace of the Spirit To whom three persons and one God be ascribed all honour glorie praise and thankes now and for ever Amen THE DANGER OF RELAPSE THE LVI SERMON EZEK 18.24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall hee live All his righteousnesse that hee hath done shall not bee mentioned in his trespasse that hee hath trespassed and in his sin that hee hath sinned in them shall hee dye Right Honourable c. SAint Jerome maketh a profitable use of the a Gen. 28.12 And hee dreamed behold a ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the Angels of God ascending and descending on it Angels ascending and descending upon the ladder which Jacob saw in a dreame reaching from the earth to heaven The ladder hee will have to bee the whole frame of a godly life set upwards towards heaven whereupon the children of God who continually aspire to their inheritance that is above arise from the ground of humility and climbe by divine vertues as it were so many rounds one above another till Christ take them by the hand of their faith and receive them into heaven They are stiled Angels in regard of their b Phil. 3.20 heavenly conversation these Jacob saw continually ascending and descending upon that ladder viz. ascending by the motions of the spirit but descending through the weight of the flesh rising by the strength of grace but falling through the infirmity of nature and hereby saith that learned Father c Hieron ep 11. Videbat scalam per quam ascendebant Angeli descendebant ut nec peccator desperet salutem nec justus de suâ virtute securus sit wee are lessoned not to despaire of grace because Jacob saw Angels ascending as they fell so they rose nor yet presume of their owne strength for hee saw Angels descending also as they rose so they fell Presumption and desperation are two dangerous maladies not more opposite one to the other than to the health of the soule presumption overpriseth Gods mercy and undervalueth our sinnes and on the contrarie desperation overpriseth our sinnes and undervalueth Gods mercy both are most injurious to God the one derogateth from his mercy the other from his justice both band against hearty and speedy repentance the one opposing it as needlesse the other as bootlesse presumption saith thou maist repent at leasure gather the buds of sinfull pleasures before they wither repentance is not yet seasonable desperation saith the root of faith is withered it is now too late to repent The learned dispute whether of these two be the more pernicious and dangerous the answer is easie presumption is the more epidemicall desperation the more mortall disease Presumption like the Adder stingeth more but desperation like the Basiliske stings more deadly many meet with Adders which are almost found in all parts of the world but few with Basiliskes Presumption is more dangerous extensivè for it carrieth more to hell but desperation intensivè for those whom it seizeth upon it carrieth more forcibly and altogether irrecoverably thither and finall desperation never bringeth men to presumption but presumption bringeth men often to finall desperation To meete with these most pernicious evils God hath given us both the Law and the Gospel the Law to keepe us under in feare that wee rise not proudly and presumptuously against him and the Gospel to raise us up in hope that the weight of our sinnes sinke us not in despaire the threats of the one serve to draw and asswage the tumour of pride the promises of the other to heale the sores of wounded consciences and the Scripture as Saint Basil rightly calleth it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a common Apothecaries shop or physicke schoole wherein are remedies for all the diseases of the soule In these verses as in two boxes there are soveraigne recipes against both the maladies above named against the former to wit desperation vers 23. against the later viz. presumption v. 24. And it is not unworthy your observation that as in the beginning of the Spring when Serpents breed and peepe d Adrianus Chamierus in ep dedicat Eccles Gal. Pastor Sicut ineunte vere cùm primùm è terrae cuniculis prodeunt serpentes ad nocendum parati fraxinum adversus venenatos eorum morsus praesens remedium laturam educit out of their holes the Ash puts forth which is a present remedie against their stings and teeth so the holy Ghost in Scripture for the most part delivereth an antidote in or hard by those texts from whence libertines and carnall men sucke the poyson of presumption The texts are these God hath raised up an horne of salvation for us that we beeing delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare f Rom. 5.20 Where sinne abounded grace did much more abound g Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus * Gal. 5.13 We are called to liberty Now see an antidote in the verses following Lest any man should suck poyson from these words in the first text Serve him without feare it is added in the next words in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life Lest any man should abuse the second the Apostle within a verse putteth in a caveat What shall we say then shall we continue in sinne that grace may abound e Luk. 1.69 72 74. God forbid how shall wee that are dead to sin live any longer therein vers 1 2. Lest any should gather too farre upon that generall speech of the Apostle There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus h Luk. 1.75 there followes a restriction in the same verse who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit Lest any should stumble at those words of the same Apostle Ye are called to libertie he reacheth them a
there But Christ himselfe assureth us to the contrary not every one that saith Lord Lord z Mat. 7.21 shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but hee that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Doing and life working and salvation running and obtaining winning and wearing overcomming and reigning in holy Scripture follow one the other Wherefore the young man puts the question to our Saviour What a Mark 10.17 thing shall I doe that I may attaine evelasting life and the people likewise and the Publicans and the Souldiers to b Luk 3.10.12.14 S. John and the keepers of the prison to c Act. 16.30 Saint Paul and the Jewes in my text to Saint Peter and the rest of the Apostles What shall wee doe not What shall wee say or What shall wee beleeve but What shall wee doe This is the tenour of the Law Doe this and thou shalt live Whosoever doth these things shall never fall And the Gospel also carryeth the same tune full d Mat. 7.24 If ye know these things happie are yee of yee doe them Hee that heareth and doeth buildeth upon a rocke Not the hearers but the doers of the e James 1.22 Ezek. 1.8 Law shall bee justified Why are the Cherubims described with the hands of a man under their wings but to teach us that none shall see God who under the wings of faith and hope whereby they flâ—e to heaven have not the hand of charity to doe good workes As Darius used the Macedonian souldiers whom hee tooke prisoners so the divell doth those over whom hee hath any power hee cutts off their hands that they may be able to do no service The heathen Philosopher observed that of three of the best things in the world through the wickednesse of men three of the worst things proceeded and grew 1 Of vertue envie 2 Of truth hatred 3 Of familiarity contempt Wee Christians may adde a fourth viz. of the doctrine of free justification carnall liberty The catholike doctrine of justification by faith alone is the true Nectar of the soule so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it keepeth from death yet this sweetest Wine in the Spouses Flagons proves no better than Vinegar or rather poyson in their stomackes who turne grace into wantonnesse and liberty into licence fit Nectar acetum Et vaticam perfida vappa cadi But let no man adulterate the truth nor impose upon Christs mercy what it will not beare nor endeavour to sever faith from good workes lest hee sever his soule from life For though faith justifie our workes before God yet our workes justifie our faith before men though the just shall g Habac. 2.4 Rom. 1.17 live by his faith yet this his faith must live by h James 2.20 charity as never man any dyed with a living faith so never any man lived by a dead faith I grant when we have all done wee may nay wee must say i Luk. 17.10 Wee are unprofitable servants yet while we have time k Gal. 6.10 we must doe good unto all especially to those of the houshold of faith None may trust in their owne righteousnesse but on the contrary all ought to pray that they may be found in Christ l Phil. 3.9 not having their owne righteousnesse yet their righteousnesse must exceed the m Mat. 5.20 righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees or else they shall never enter into the kingdome of heaven It is evident unto all except they be blinde that the eye alone seeth in the body yet the eye which seeth is not alone in the body without the other senses the forefinger alone pointeth yet that finger is not alone on the hand the hammer alone striketh the bell yet the hammer which striketh is not alone in the clocke the heate alone in the fire burneth and not the light yet that heate is not alone without light the helme alone guideth the ship and not the tackling yet the helme is not alone nor without the tackling in a compound electuarie Rubarb alone purgeth choler yet the Rubarb is not alone there without other ingredients Thus wee are to conceive that though faith alone doth justifie yet that faith which justifieth is not alone but joyned with charity and good workes Many please themselves with a resemblance of Castor and Pollux two lights appearing on shippes sometimes severally sometimes joyntly If either appeareth by it selfe it presageth a storme if both together a suddaine calme yet with their good leave be it spoken this their simile is dissimile For those lights may be severed actually are often but justifying faith cannot be severed from charity nor charity from it Thus farre onely it holdeth that unlesse we have a sense and feeling of both in our soules we may well feare a storme S. Bernards distinction of via regni and causa regnandi cleareth the truth in this point Though good workes are not the cause why God crowneth us yet we must take them in our way to heaven or else we shall never come there It is as impious to deny the necessity as to maintaine the merit of good workes sed Cynthius aurem Vellit The time calleth mee off and therefore that it may not exclude mee I will conclude with it In this holy time of Lent three duties are required Prayer Fasting and Almes prayer is the bird of Paradise fasting and almes are her two wings the lighter is fasting but the stronger is almes use both to carry your prayers to heaven that you may bring from thence a blessing upon you through the merits and intercession of Jesus Christ Cui c. THE LAST OFFER OF PEACE A Sermon preached at a publike Fast THE LXX SERMON LUK 19.41 42. 41. And when he was come neere he beheld the City and wept over it 42. Saying If thou hadst knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes WHen the Romans fought a pitched field after the rankes of their prime Leaders and chiefe Souldiers which they called Principes had charged valiantly if the enemy still kept his ground the Triarii containing the whole shock of the army put on and upon their prowesse and valour depended the fortune of the day and chance if I may so speake of the bloudy die of war Whereupon it grew to be a proverb a Eras chil Res rediit ad Triarios it now stands upon the Triarii as if you would say it is now put to the last plunge And is it not so now my Christian brethren We have taken to us the proper weapons of Christians fasting prayers and teares to fight against the fearfull combinations of powerfull vigilant enemies The rank of our Principes the King himself the Princes Nobles and Peeres have already watered this field with their teares and put on with all their force of zealous praiers how far they have prevailed