have there is none no not Polagius himself that in plain terms ever durst deny He will … if pressed for shame acknowledge and subscribe unto the necessity of Grace in shew of words but as the manner of all Hereticks is he doth but equivocate making terms in themselves plain by secret reservation false and fraudulent that so he might have a back-door at a time of need whereat to deceive and abuse both himself and his reader For secretly within his own mind he desires Grace by quicquid gratis datur that by this means under the name of Grace he might hedge in free-will and abilities of Nature Nay if this fraud be detected he will come yet closer for he will not refuse to confess a necessity of true internal Grace such as the Gospel mentions the Grace of Christ and of his Holy Spirit and that it is the gift of God yea a special gift which all have not yet still he keeps this secret in the deep of his Heart that all might have it and that it is their own faults if they have it not since as he holds this Grace is given and withheld according to the merits or demerits of Men by a former good or evil use of their free will ut gratia sonaret meritum delitescret that so grace might sound in their words and yet they retain merit in their minds Such shift doth proud slime and dust make to magnifie the arm of flesh and so unwilling is it to give the true and whole glory unto God whose it is Yet this is not all Men have more subtilties to rob God or rather to deceive themselves Arminius and his followers the late Semi-pelagians step one Step farther and with the Catholick truth acknowledge not only a true and internal Grace but a liberal free and preventing Grace a Grace given not deserved But for all this he understands only such a Grace as is common to both to Elect and Reprobate upon the good or evil use whereof it is that Men become either For according to these Election doth not provide or prepare according to St. Austin any special Grace for particular Men but some particular men are specially elected upon foresight of their well-husbanding of that Grace which is common so that Man must still have the preheminence For however it be from Gods Grace that they have ability to obtain Salvation yet that they are saved when others who received the same Grace are not this must needs be not from his help but their own will An old rancid opinion long since broached by Faustus and Cassianus whose Books for this were condemned by Gelasius and a Council of seventy Bishops more for erroneous and Apocryphal and now lately again revived by Arminius and others who are not the Authors and Inventors but only strenuous Advocates requiring a relief after Judgment of a dead and rotten a damned and long since condemned Heresie So that it is a good judgment of a Reverend Bishop Faustum Cassianum quasi per Metempsyohosin in Arminio Bertio revixisse That the Souls of Faustus and Cassianus do as it were live again in Arminius and Bertius they do so justly jump and conspire with their Doctrine of universal Grace and Election upon foresight than which no opinion can be more injurious unto God or more grossly and demonstratively false in it self For however it retains the name it perverts the end and destroys the very Nature of Election causing that Predestination which the Apostle unto the Ephesians tells us was ordained in laudem gloriae gratiae suae to the praise of the glory of his Grace to serve and tend only unto the honour of our own propension and will since he that reigns in Heaven hath no more whereof to thank God than he that lies burning in Hell because from equal Grace they have wrought out these their unequal fortunes And therefore say St. Paul what he will Salvation is rather of him that willeth and runneth that believeth and worketh than of God that sheweth mercy whereas it is not neither doth it less pervert the End than the Nature thereof converting the cause into the effect and the effect into the cause making Election a consequent of Faith and Repentance when these are the true fruits of Election which is the well-head of Grace and all the rest of Gods favours and our good deeds but streams issuing from that Fountain who have all obtained mercy with St. Paul not because we were but that we should be faithful Non vos me elegistis for you have not chosen me but I have chosen you saith our Saviour and have ordained you for what that you should go and bring forth and that your fruit should remain for I have ordained I that do both begin and perfect the good deed that do work in you both to will and to do do work in you also to do and to persevere and that by my free Election and absolute decree Ego posui for I have ordained that you go and bring forth fruit and that that fruit remain It were an endless work and a bootless expence of Travel to heap up places of Scripture for the enforcing of this point they are every where obvious the Glory of Gods grace through a free and undeserved Election being a main branch of the Gospel and therefore often inserted but by St. Paul purposely disputed and proved in a set discourse wherein these new oppugners are so directly confuted as if the Holy Ghost had especially looked on them when he spake by his mouth for there is no other intent or purpose in that place but to demonstrate that the Adoption of the Sons of God doth not depend upon the carnal Generation of Abraham as the Jews conceived nor yet upon our own or our Forefathers works but simply upon the Eudochie the meer good will and pleasure of God This he makes manifest in all in a Type under the names of two Jacob and Esau Brethren equal in all things only unequal in the favour of God both begotten by the same parents and both born at the same birth on either side no advantage by blood and as little in quality they had done neither good nor evil nor could do at that time wherein notwithstanding that the purpose of God might be known to stand according to Election it was said I have loved Jacob and hated Esau No difference in the Persons and yet a different respect of God who is no respecter of persons which moves the Apostle to a strange interrogation but natural unto the place Nunquid iniquitas apud Deum what then is there iniquity with God God forbid but how doth he answer it doth he with these reply that though they had then done neither good nor evil yet God elected the one and rejected the other upon foresight of the good and evil which they afterwards would do This had been an acute and brief answer Quis iftum acutissimum
Israel words of great compassion and learn to condemn our selves and our own sins in the evil we suffer when it doth strike Thou hast destroyed thy self And to bless and adore God for all the good we either do or receive when in special mercy it doth not strike but in me is thy help O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but c. But Israel is a word that wants not ambiguities for all are not Israel that are of Israel There are Israelites of the seed and Israelites of the Faith of Abraham There are Sons of flesh and Sons of the promise and Israel is the Church of God the womb that conceives and bears both Duoe Gentes in utero It is Rebekahs womb in which Jacob and Esau and in them two mighty Nations do contend and strive It is the Net in the Gospel that contains things both good and bad The Fold that hath Sheep and Goats The Field that hath Tares and Wheat The Barn-floor that hath Wheat and Chaff So then to collect the sum and substance of those points which this Scripture doth especially present unto consideration Here are first two sorts of people the Good and the Bad Elect and Reprobate implied in Israel Secondly the two several Ends of those two sorts Life and Death Destruction and Salvation for the help here may be none other than help from destruction and that can be nothing else than Salvation and so some Translations render it And lastly the two several causes of those ends God and Man God of life Man of death God the cause of Salvation unto the Elect and the Reprobate the cause of destruction unto themselves whereby neither those that are saved may sacrifice unto their own Nets nor they which perish lay any blame on his decrees these being no less deprived of all excuse than those bereaved of all boasting O Israel thou hast c. That these words may have a true and litteral understanding of Calamities and Deliverances incident unto this present life that which immediately goes before in the precedent verse I will meet them as a Bear bereaved of her whelps c. will not suffer any Man to doubt But that they are only and principally meant of such and not of eternal destruction and Salvation in them that which follows will permit no man to believe I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeem them from death O death I will be thy plague O grave I will be thy destruction words that do not carry a sound of momentany affliction And therefore this illustrious promise or Prophecy or both by the Apostle to the Corinthians is repeated and worthily appropriated unto him who is the Saviour of Body and Soul and hath redeemed us from first and second both Corporal and Eternal death The more deservedly is Pâ—scator otherwise a Learned and Industrious Pastor to be blamed who in a late and negligent tract of Predestination having so ordered the state of Reprobation as he saw God thereby must needs become the first Author and Procurer of his Creatures endless destruction lest this place here Oh Israel thou hast destroyed thy self should cross his intent or hinder his building replies that it is meant of such destruction only as pertains unto the present World as if there were not one and the same cause of destruction in both nay as if it were more prejudicial unto God and his Justice to be the absolute cause of slight and short troubles here than of perpetual and everlasting sorrows in Hell hereafter It is strange he should rather seek an answer than acknowledge the truth of so excellent a sentence A sentence that is indeed the very line and level whereby himself and every one else must direct and square all his propositions that concern those eternal appointments and decrees of a just and merciful God It is the best if not the only Star and Card and Compass too on which the weak age of reason must continually fix it self whilst it Steers in this dangerous Navigation in this immense and bottomless Sea of Predestination in which Abyssus Abyssum invocat one Deep calls upon another Deep upon Deep and Rock upon Rock so thick that in seeking to avoid the one unless this Golden Rule be our direction we shall be sure to strike and split upon the other as many that have sailed before us have done whose Bark and burthen should never have perished had this notable Saying sate Pilot at the Helm by whose shipwrack we may learn wisdom to beware For some of the first and best Reformers of the Roman Superstition justly displeased at the Pelagian freedom of the Papist whereby Man is made the first mover unto his own good striving with all their might to bear up from this Charybdis fell foul upon Sylla on the other side and instead of Pelagian liberty brought in more than Manichean necessity whereby God is as far intitled unto Mans ill Both in extreams and both extreamly to be blamed the former being not able fully to say In thee is our Salvation unto God the latter Thou hast destroyed thy self unto Man Arminius of late an Acute Dutchman steps forth to reform these Reformers whose main Errour notwithstanding which he should have condemned especially he is found especially to imitate fleying where he should but sheer and flying from one extream to another when the truth lies between both For as they upon a worthy dislike of a conditional Election upon foreseen merits through heat or ignorance come to maintain an absolute Reprobation so he out of his as worthy dislike of this Iron and Adamantine decree of absolute Reprobation without demerits fell back again unto conditional Election In both both of them equally erring the truth lying equally distant from both so as it is not easie to judge Election upon good works being derogatory to the freeness of Gods mercy and Reprobation without evil unto the Truth of his Justice whether contains the greater impiety The one gives too much unto Man in the work of Salvation The other too much unto God in the means of damnation My Text convinceth both the former in the latter part and the latter in the former O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help And as in Errours so are their portions not much unequal in Truth For Arminius election upon foresight and his Adversaries absolute reprobation are not more false than their absolute Election and his Reprobation upon foresight are as I conceive it apparently true which is not the least reason that they which are brethren and friends in all other points sweetly conspiring against the common Enemy should with such violent affections enter into this Civil War amongst themselves For there is no stronger nourishment unto mutual perswasion than when either side shall behold some demonstrative truths in his own and as gross and palpable errours in the others opinion It can hardly chuse but beget prejudice and
sensum Apostolo defuisse non miretur Who can chuse but wonder the Apostle should not see this subtilty saith St. Austin For had he known it to have been so eodem modo solveret istam quaestionem he would soon have answered the question immo nullam quam solvi opus esset faceret quaestionem Nay he had then never made any such question that should need an answer For there had not remained so much as any shew of injustice where Love or Hatred doth proceed according to good or evil deserts But now that there should be a different judgment where there is no difference in merit there cannot but seem a just occasion of making the demand Nunquid iniquitas Whereunto leaving this vain gloss as directly contrary unto his purpose he reduceth all unto the meer will of God I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion An answer sounding to this effect That since both were equally conceived in original sin deserved his Justice his Love unto one was an act of Mercy and in Mercy there is no cause of his will but his will nor of his Mercy but his Mercy I will have mercy c. And then quis nisi insipiens Deum iniquum putet sive judicium poenale ingerat digno sive misericordiam praestet indigno Because as before was noted though the one obtain free favour yet the other receives no injury By which answer he doth at once free God from all injustice towards the Reprobate and withal withdraws all merit from the Elect who have that Name and Grace for no other cause but only because he had a will to shew Mercy special Mercy unto them which he did not unto others to whom notwithstanding they were of themselves in all things equal and with whom they were in like sort obnoxious unto the revenge and power of Justice False therefore and vain and very derogatory unto the goodness of that God in whom is our help are their conceipts that build Election upon a foreseen good or evil use of a general and sufficient Grace to the prejudice of that which is special and particular For however we deny not but rather piously believe that his Providence doth sufficiently help all those whom his mercy doth vouchsase to call yet withal we acknowledge it to be such an help as whereâ— withal God when he looked down from Heaven saw there was none did good no not one A help therefore which in effect doth not give Salvation but takes away excuse and seems not so much to justify them as to make their Condemnation more just who notwithstanding that they might not all perish and that he might yet shew his Mercy of his infinite goodness freely elected some to such special Grace whereby they should not perish a Grace effectual receiving the rest unto endless punishment for abusing that which was sufficient So that God doth not only give such Grace whereby we may be able to do and then elect us for doing what we were able but contrarily foreseeing that we would not do what we were able with that sufficient Grace to do of his absolute Mercy did decree to give us such powerful and efficacious Grace whereby we certainly should do what otherwise without this special help he knew we should not For had not he by this means as the Scripture testifies reserved unto himself a Remnant notwithstanding the former Grace we had been all as Sodom and perished as Gomorrha And therefore Reliqui mihi saith God unto Elias It is not there are or there remains unto me but I have reserved unto my self seven thousand which never bowed the knee unto Baal And from this Reliqui they are termed Reliquiae secundùm electionem gratiae salvae factae sunt A Remnant only are saved according to the Election of Grace And if of Grace surely not of foreseen works yea so far is God from respecting the will or work of Man in the dispensation of his Grace as he sometimes denies that help unto those that would use it well which notwithstanding he offers and exhibits unto others that he knew before would reject it Had those great works saith our Saviour upbraiding the Jews been done in Tyre and Sidon they had repented in Sackcloth and Ashes Lo how God ploughs the Sand and scatters his good seed upon the dry and barren hearts of the Jews fitter for salt and in the mean time withholds it from another soil that would have fructified and brought forth the fruit of Repentance unto eternal life What shall we say unto this Two things occur which I only am willing to answer saith St. Austin in the like case and are very fit for this nunquid iniquitas apud Deum And O alâ—itudo divitiaerum An Interrogation and an exclamation the one out of the ninth and the other out of the eleventh to the Râ—m And both joined tend unto this That being assured there is no injustice with God we should not search the cause but admire the depth of his Wisdom whose judgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out For he often treads on water that leaves no path or impression behind He walks upon the great deep saith Daâ—id and his footsteps are not known And whom this will not satisfy I must advise with the same Father Quaerat doctiorer seâ—b caveat nè inoeniat praesumptiores Let him seek those that are more learned but take heed he doth not meet with those that are too presumptuous Such surely as these conditional Electioners are who as if they were fore runners of the second coming of Christ endued with the Spirit of Elias have cast down every Hill and filled up every Valley made whatsoever seemed crooked streight and whatsoever was rough smooth and plain and by this means they though but lambs can easily wade where those Elephants the Fathers of the Primitive Church found such Pits and Pools as they were glad to swim For what is there in their Doctrine not easie and even obvious and open if God hath diversly determined of none but such as are of divers and different merits what room then is there left for O altitudo For they that give a cause of Election take away all cause of the Apostles exclamation because none do admire an effect but they that are ignorant of the cause as here all must needs be when of those that have one and same cause there is not one and the same regard but the one is justly exposed unto hatred the other vouchsafed love without all cause at least that we can search out and inquire The head of Nilus may be sooner found than the Spring and Fountain of Election the eye of the Eagle that looks on the Sun cannot discover it because it remains in his bosom that dwells in inaccessible light And yet notwithstanding we do not make the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 irrational For
piety and of the rejection of others upon the fore-fight of the evil they were afterwards to commit But St. Austin rejecting this opinion and doubtless worthily thinks and proves that the Apostle speaks here of the Election of some unto life and the preterition of others without any regard either of the one or the others good or evil that should be personal Both opinions agree in this that the place concerns the Election and rejection of particular persons And yet there are not wanting learned men that conceive these Verses in a proper and literal sense chiefly to intend only external and temporary blessings of this life but typically under them to shadow the free and undeserved Salvation of the faithful and the abjection of those that believe not and that therefore the types are not to be extended farther than to shew that our Justification is of meer grace and favour no way descending either from carnal generation or legal Justice Of this threefold interpretation which is the most genuine and proper unto the Text would require a longer disquisition at this time it shall be sufficient to shew that absolute Reprobation doth follow from neither Of the former and the latter there is no doubt all the difficulty is of St. Austins opinion between both from whence notwithstanding we shall not be enforced so to decree an absolute reprobation if we so interpret his words as we make him speak something more indeed than the Antients do but nothing contrary that is if by a conditional science we reconcile both opinions and then the mind of the Apostle will be thus Before any absolute prevision and without any regard of Jacobs merits I loved Jacob and decreed to confer upon him such and such a measure of grace as I saw would certainly bring him to salvation And again I hated Esau that is I did not so particularly love him but decreed to give him only such grace as might argue a good and sincere intent of his good in me and in it self sufficient for him though through his fault I know it would be ineffectual And though I foresaw that if I should afford him this mercy he would abuse it yet I did not destine unto him any other grace but for the manifestation of my Justice did Decree Eternally to punish those evil ways of his which through the former grace he might and ought to have avoided And both these without any respect of merit for he may dispense his free mercy as himself pleseth And according to this last interpretation to hate after the Hebrew manner imports no more than not so specially to love minus aware or alteri posthabere to love less or not so much to esteem and regard So Leah in the xxxix of Gen. 31. is said be hated of Jacob that is in respect to Rachel whom he loved more dearly something neglected so our Saviour Christ saies Luke iv 26. If any come unto me and hate not his Father and Mother and Children and brethren yea and his own Soul he cannot be my Disciple Not that Christ in the Gospel doth now command men to hate what in the Law yea and in Nature he hath taught them to honour and love but to shew that when the question shall be between these and God these and our Religion we are to prefer the last to leave all be they never so near and dear unto us and follow Christ and therefore instead of hating when the same point is preached in St. Matthews Gospel x. 37 Qui amaverit patrem aut matrem plus quam me aut filium filiam super me non est me dignus He that loveth Father or Mother more than me and he that loveth Son or Daughter above me is not worthy of me And that this kind of hatred as it is taken for less love doth well agree with St. Austins Doctrine appears by that which he elsewhere speaks of Esau whom he doth acknowledge God did not so hate but he vouchsafed him means whereby he might have been saved Noluit Esau non cucurrit sed si voluisset cucurrisset Dei adjutorio pervenisset Esau would not and so he ran not but if he would and had ran by the help of God he should have obtained Qui etiam velle currere vocando praestaret nisi vocatione contempta reprobus fieret who by his vocation would have wrought in him both to will and to run but that by contemning the call he became reprobate And the whole Church of Lyons as well as St. Austin is of the same judgment affirming in the cause of ... de scalius the predestination whom though she defend as far as she well might and as Hinciomarus than thought and others still think in some things farther too yet in this she leaves him affirming I say that Gods reprobation that is this hatred here doth subject she says not Esau only but no man else unto any unavoidable necessity of destruction neither doth she only say this but she says 't is Blasphemy for any else to say the contrary Si quis neget esse apud Deum Praescientiam praedestinationem manifeste insidelis est Si quis dicit quod praescientia praedestinatio ejus atiquem compellat ut malus sit aliud esse non possit horribiliter blasphemat If any man deny prescience and Predestination of God it is manifest infidelity And if any affirm that this prescience or Predestination of his doth enforce or necessitate any man for that she says before she means by enforcing unto evil so that he could not be otherwise it is horrible Blasphemy No marvel therefore that the Valentin Council did detest it with a Curse or rather cursed it with all detestation as another Synod also had done before Aliquos ad malum praedestinatos esse videlicet ut quasi aliud esse non possent non solum non credimus sed etiam si sint qui tantum malum credere velint cum omni detestatione sicut Arausica Synodus illis Anathema dicimus vidâ— Voss. pag. 75â— But for my part I shall be so far from laying this Curse upon such as I rather desire God to bless them with the knowledge and confession of their error And by this time the truth and equity of this Accusation or increpation of God I say not against Ammon and Amalek de extraneis judicabit Deus for of those that are without God will judge we may not but against Israel against the Church of God against those that are called unto the Knowledge and profession of the truth think is evident and clear enough O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self If it be not there is yet one fresh argument more and strong enough before your eyes more fully to prove it If any man die either by hereditary or contracted Diseases that hath a medicine before him able to cure both he may well praise the good will of his Physician but can justly blame none
as thy soul liveth so frequent amongst the holy men under the Law is to be received for they sware not by the soul alone but by that God whose image and likness it is for so it is to be understood As thy soul liveth by the power and providence of him that first made it to his likeness and doth still preseve it by his mercy The Third and last is when a man names a Creature in an Oath not as swearing by it but as exposing it by way of imprecation unto the judgment of that God who is the true witness of his speech which is the execratory Oath touched in the beginning so when a man swears by his own Soul it is not meant as if that were called to the record of that he speaks but as pledging and pawning unto God the welfare and Salvation of it upon the truth of his speech And therefore he that swears by his Soul doth in abbrevation say no other than what St. Paul did in plain and full terms I call God to record upon my Soul for that is the meaning of it and both the meaning and example are strong proofs that it cannot be simply understood Now that other of Joseph by the life of Pharaoh may be understood both these ways for either he calls that God to witness whose judgment by the ministry of Pharaoh was executed upon Earth or else by way of imprecation he doth upon the truth of the speech appignorate unto God the health and safety of Pharaoh as a thing of all other most dear unto him The Master of the Sentences is for the first and others for the latter both may be good but this in the Text the more probable So then there may be divers forms wherein the Creature is named and yet the Oath made only by the Creator for he doth still swear by him that swears by any excellent work or mercy of his with reference to him in which sort he that says as thy Soul liveth doth at the same time and in the same words swear as my Text requires At the Lord liveth for the full sense and meaning is as the Lord liveth by whom thy Soul hath life And though peradventure it may be better when just occasion doth require an Oath to make it clearly and expressly in the Name of the Lord yet the interpretation of our Saviour and the examples of so many holy men do forbid us utterly to condemn all such as do but implicitely call him to record under his Creatures And sure if they want not other necessary conditions of an Oath they will hardly be believed for this the form will free it self if they want not the right manner and matter if they be performed in truth judgment and righteousness the qualities and inseparable companions of a lawful Oath which now come to be considered in their order and first of the first Jurabis in Veritate Thou shalt swear The Lord liveth in Truth From the Form we come unto the Matter and having seen in whose Name an Oath is to be made we are now to consider with what Conditions it is to be qualified And they are but three in all whereof Truth hath the first place and most deservedly since nothing is so opposite to the very nature and essence of an Oath as falshood for the Person whose name in an Oath is assumed is the God of truth the end for which an Oath it self was ordained is the confirmation of truth and the perjurer by dishonouring that and frustrating this abuseth both oftentimes to the hurt and damage of his Neighbour but ever unto the great prejudice of his Creator And therefore the Egyptians saith Diodorus Siculus did ever punish the perjurer with death whereof they esteemed him twice worthy ut qui pietatem in deos violaret fidem inter homines tolleret maximum Societatis vinculum as one that did both violate his piety to God and his faith to men the greatest bond of Society But to omit these injurious effects of a false Oath unto man as depriving him sometimes of his Credit good name and reputation and sometimes even of his Goods and Life too do but only see and consider how impious it is against God and how infinitely he sins that shall call him who is not only true but truth it self to testify his falshoods and so as far as in him is make him a Lyar like himself for as Estius says in lib. 2. sent dist 39. 5 6. Qui falsum jurat quantum in se est Deum facit vel mendacem vel ignorantem he that swears falsly as much as in him lies makes God either ignorant or a liar Falshood is ever vile and odious in it self but when it is fastened upon God when we teach our own Inventions those spurious brats and bastards of our own Brain to call him Father it must needs be detestable For we cloath him with the Attribute of the Devil who is properly a liar and the Father of lies Job viii And therefore even we our selves though we be all liars yet we cannot endure to hear it and when we do nothing can satisfie but his blood that tells us so though never so truly How then may we think and with what indignation will God receive it when they are so unjustly pinned and stuck upon him who hates a lie more than we can love our selves And with what severity may we imagin he will revenge it what reward will he give unto such a false Tongue but sharp Arrows and hot burning Coles at the least even those Arrows in Job the Arrows of Gods wrath the venom whereof drink up the spirits of him in whom they stick and those Coles or rather Flames of St. John for all liars saith he shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. xxi 8. And if all Liars have a part then how great a portion will be assigned to the Perjurers for if God will not hold him guiltless that useth his holy Name but vainly how shall his guilt multiply and his Sin become exceeding sinful that doth abuse it falsly and if he will destroy those that do but speak out their lies as it is in the v. Psalm Thou shalt destroy those that speak Leasing how great shall their destruction be that fear not to swear them out and uphold them by the holiness of his name Certainly so great as I think the depth and bottom of Hell doth not know any greater for I assure my self that neither the Idolatrous Gentile nor the unbelieving A theist shall lie lower in that Pit of everlasting horror than the contemptuous Perjurer for the one doth worship no God the other a false God but this makes a false witness of the true God his Sin is Infidelity the others Idolatry but this man's is not without blasphemy which is worse than either for it may worthily be esteemed a less Crime to acknowledge any thing for God
shall they be reconciled surely no way so well as by looking unto their different intentions from whence it will appear that St. Paul removes works all works from being the things that do justifie and St. James requires them only as conditions and qualifications upon which we are justified For the purpose of St. Paul is by the breach of the Law to demonstrate the necessity of the Gospel that that only is the power of God unto Salvation for since all the world stands culpable before God it follows of necessity that either we must perish without remedy or else be justified by a Gospel of mercy which he well terms the justification of faith in meer opposition to works all works even faith it self as the things which may be thought to justify Now St. James intent is only to vindicate this wholsom and necessary Doctrine from the abuse of Heretical Spirits whose evil words had at once corrupted both St. Pauls meaning and their own good manners affirming that since works could not justifie no works were necessary and therefore it mattered little to observe the Law it was enough only to believe the Gospel Against these dissolute Epicures this Apostle as St. Augustin observes wholly directs his dispute the purpose whereof is not to place justification in the works of the Law for in many things saith he we offend all and if but in one yet are we guilty of the whole but only to shew that unless the works of the Law though formerly broken do come at length to accompany our faith we can never be justified by any grace of the Gospel So then if we divide rightly according to these intents we must distinguish of a twofold justification by Innocence and by Pardon for it must be either by works or by mercy a legal justification or an Evangelical And of two sorts of works subservient unto these several justifications and of two sorts of ways by which they do justify Works of Perfection and perpetual perfection that inherently justifie and formally in strictness of Law but are excluded by St. Paul as no where found in any and works of Renovation after the breach of the Law required by St. James in every one that expect the justification of the Gospel Those works perfectly keep the Law and never break it These keep the Law sincerely but after it is broken They justifie therefore in themselves and by their own worth These not so but because found in none but sinners prepare only and qualifie for the justification of Christ They justifie these obtain justification That strictly the justification of works this properly the justification of faith which is their fountain And faith alone alone without these may justifie yea cannot justifie with them for such works evacuate faith as not needing it which is St. Pauls doctrine But faith alone without these cannot justifie yea without them is not faith not a true and a living faith which is St. James his assertion And in this Reconcilation doth appear the reconciliation and opposition too of both Law and Gospel Faith and works how they conspire and meet how they jar and refuse to mingle For the justification of the Law evacuates Christ who then died in vain as St. Paul speaks For there needs no Saviour where there is no sin And the justification of Christ disanulls again that of the Law as arguing it to be broken yea and the condemnation of the Law too notwithstanding the breach So they contradict and dissolve one another But what the Gospel excludes by remission of sins it closeth withal again by the manner of remitting Never pardoning offences till they be first forsaken and men return again to the observance of the Law nor yet continuing that pardon longer than they shall continue to observe it saying unto none but the penitent Thy sins are forgiventhee nor yet unto them without saying also Sin no more lest a worse thing happen unto thee So the terms stand thus No condemnation from the Law though broken whensoever we return to observe it and until we do observe it no grace or mercy by the Gospel and so they meet and are reconciled For so far the Gospel doth establish the Law yea and farther for it not only requires but gives grace for the performance of that it doth require even the observance of the Law And this reconciliation St. Paul himself the great urger of the opposition every where doth acknowledge for they are his own words not the hearers but the doers of the law shall be justified And that the law is done by faith is evident for faith worketh by love and love is the fulfilling of the law So the Apostles are both met St. James requires Faith and Works St. Paul a working Faith working by love and that even all the Commandments of God not so as to justifie in themselves but only to qualify for the justification of Christ. The Commandments therefore are no freewill offering at pleasure no voluntary duty of gratitude only but a duty necessary unto our justification here and eternal wellfare if any be necessary For this is the whole duty of mâ—n Why but yet for there is no end of wrangling though this wrangle shall end all though a duty now and a necessary yet since the Gospel affords a Mediator were it never so due the debt we hope may be paid by another that is our Surety and that surety is Christ who hath exactly kept the Law and is made unto us Wisdom Justice Sanctification and Redemption so saith the Apostle But no surety in this kind That which is the duty of Man is every Man 's own duty and must be performed in his own Person True indeed it is Christ our Lord fulfilled the Law exactly but that we may break it in our selves and yet at the same time fulfil it in him that is our Mediator this I take it is not so true The Apostle saith indeed that he accounted all things loss and dung too that he might be found in Christ not having his own righteousness which is of the Law but the righteousness which is of God by faith Yea farther that God made him to be sin for us that knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him but yet this righteousness of God is not to be taken for Gods own righteousness but only as he said in the former place for the righteousness which is of God by Faith which righteousness includes both justification which is imputative and sanctification which is inherent but yet neither in St. Paul's sence is our own because not of the Law but of grace and mercy by the faith of Christ. Be it then that Christ is made unto us Justice and Sanctification both yea Wisdom and Redemption also yet not all after one and the same manner Wisdom he is made because he hath revealed his Fathers will Redemption because he hath appointed a day to vindicate his Children
ambitions If the greater Peers among the people instead of being Gods and common Fathers unto their Country prove Wolves unto their brethren and like Pikes grow great and vast by eating up the Fry that is round about them donec Serpens serpentem devorans fiat Draco If instead of benign and benevolent Stars they shall be of a sowr and Saturnian Aspect only blasting whatsoever comes within the sphere of their activity or else but of a Mercurian concurring influence good with the good and bad with the bad not as justice but as affection and faction shall lead them then no marvel if mighty men come at length to be mightily tormented But if these Noble Persons shall be truly Noble indeed and as God hath termed them Gods and Fathers unto their Country If like Job they shall deliver the poor and such as have none to help from those that are too mighty for them break the jawes of the wicked and pluck the spoil out of their teeth until the blessing of them that are ready to perish come upon them for it If the Prince that is supream be not a disturber like Nimrod but rather as Solomon Princeps pacis a King of peace nourishing his people like David with a perfect and upright heart and ruling them prudently with all his power If his moderation be known unto all and his Piety unto God and goodness no less exemplary than his Virtue then undoubtedly both he and they and all such Mighty men in this great day shall be as mightily honoured when he that hath made you Rulers of his people set you here in the seats of Justice as on the throne of David shall then advance you higher take you up even upon his own throne in the Clouds as being in the number of those Saints that shall be Assessors there and with Christ as the Apostle tells us to judge the world whilst those mighty and glorious Monarchs that once so much troubled the earth and other Princes Great men and Favorites of the world shall now stand like poor worms beneath you at the Bar nudo latere palpitantes sententian◠aeternae mortis expectantes naked and quaking as St. Hierome speaks under the sentence of eternal death Where now are all their Dignities and Titles their Pomp and former Splendor how is it vanished Alas all these things accompany none any farther than the grave but their works these follow after unto judgment where according to their works they shall be now rewarded which is our last point And then be shall reward every man secundùm opera sua according to his works This as it is the latter part of my Text so is it the most substantial but withal the most troublesome for here we seem to meet with nothing but difficulties There are but three words in it And whether we look on the opera which is the main or the sua that adheres or the secundùm that hath reference unto both Objections we shall find and some of them difficult enough even in all three Set the Accent first upon the opera for that as I said is the main and we shall no sooner do it but the objection is instantly emergent for if Men shall be now judged with precise respect unto their works since none are so wicked but have some good deeds nor any so righteous but have many sins how should it come to pass that either any should escape Condemnation or if some do why should not all escape it for all are sinners But this knot may well be dissolved without any great labour For though works at that day shall be judged of as good or evil precisely according unto that Law which they have transgressed yet the men whose they are shall be sentenced for these works not according to the law but with reference and respect unto the conditions of the Gospel for God shall then judge the secrets of all hearts saith St. Paul secundùm evangelium meum according to my Gospel And according to the Gospel the same works are not always of the same condition with reference to reward and punishment but according to the repentance of the person or his falling from it do receive ever a new qualification The Schools therefore do accordingly distinguish of opera mortua and mortifera viva and mortificata and rediviva too of dead works and deadly of living and mortified and reviviscent also Works morally good but not done with any Pious or Spiritual intention they account dead works as lyable neither to reward nor punishment Works morally and mortally evil these are mortisera deadly Works that draw death and destruction after them works of Faith and Charity in the converted Soul these are opera viva living works and such as have title unto life everlasting but both these latter may be mortified and both after mortification revive again when the sinner repents him of his Sins all his former wickedness is forgotten and when the penitent man returns again to his Sins none of his former righteousness shall then be remembred And as men do ebb or flow in their true repentance so their sins or their good deeds do either revive or mortifie and the mortification of the one is the reviving ever of the other And for this reason saith our Saviour in the Revelation Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to render unto every man not as his works but in the singular as his work shall be For according unto this one work of repentance either his sin or his righteousness hath the predominance and shall be accordingly rewarded by him who will now reward every man in this sence according to his works But yet since this Judgment proceeds in mercy and according to the Gospel why are we not said to be rewarded according to our Faith rather than according to our works As though works where the Gospel is revealed were of any validity without Faith or Faith any way rewardable farther than it is operative and fruitful in works But besides this is a day of universal reckoning not confined within the precise latitude of that revelation every man without exception must now come to his account and what every one is bound to account for according to that and to that only he shall be sentenced New the Gospel of Christ hath not been revealed unto all but the notions of good and evil are implanted in Nature and men are to be judged of and accepted too according to what they have not according to what they have not as our Saviour speaketh And therefore the Faith of the Jew was not required of the Gentile neither yet the Faith of the Christian at the hands of the Jew The Law of Nature indeed binds all but positive Laws those only to whom they are given And thus much seems to be both Law and Gospel That no man give an account but for the Talents that were delivered him For God is no such
Belial God and Baal is most insufferable yea more than the clear rejection of him Utinamcalidus esses aut frigidus I would you were hot or cold saith the Lord to some in the Revelations As if since they were not throughly hot he had rather by much they were utterly cold than in that faint temper between both fit for nought but evomition as is there threatned for the indignation of God riseth at nothing so much as when Men neither so cold as to contemn Religion nor yet so hot as to forsake their sins present him with a cooler mixture of both Better therefore be a pure Gentile or a graceless sinner than a compounded and perfunctory Christian worse than either and harder to be cured his mediocrity being grown venerable unto the world and himself under the shew and title of calmness and moderation For which cause that may be verified of these our Saviour said of others Publicans and harlots shall sooner enter the kingdom of heaven If we mean to find entrance there it may not be by the formal and falsehearted seeking seek the Lord and you shall find him but if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul otherwise instead of finding a Kingdom we may chance to fall upon a curse Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently Seek ye therefore first with all Industry and with all speed too that it may be the first thing you seek every way first in time as well as in intention Death is uncertain and delays are dangerous whilst we take farther day unto our selves enlarging our time as the rich Fool did his Barns God oftentimes derides us as he did him Stulte hac nocte Thou Fool this night shall thy soul be taken from thee And who in his own particular knows the length and date of this his day who can tell how many hours there are in it or how many of them are spent already How soon that now that henceforth of obstruction and blindness may come upon him and refusing to cleanse his Soul whilst the Spirit like that Angel in the Pool of Bethesda is moving the waters how suddenly he may fall under that fearful Sentence of the same Spirit in the Revelation He that is filthy let him be filthy still If that Fig-tree were cursed even before the time of fruit in comparison was come before the Gospel was throughly published may not those that have lived long under the bright beams and Sun-shine of it and still bring forth nought but leaves of shew and formality have just cause to fear every moment the approach and probation of that final and fatal doom Never fruit grow on thee more Whilst Men in their presumption are sporting themselves and grieving God with their sins God in his wrath in the mean while may be swearing they shall never enter into his rest Undoubtedly did the rays of true wisdom and divine pierce into the Soul had the heart any true impression of future things or of the vanity of the present did Men taste and relish the good gift of God and the powers of the world to come they would not permit any quiet to their Spirits or peace unto their Souls till their Souls had made and gained peace with their God and freed themselves from such uncertainties This is the Haven of our Rest and Heaven upon Earth and we that see it may well say unto our Souls better than he did say but saw it not O quid agis anima meâ— fortiter occupa portum what dost thou O my Soul the Port is before thee steer away before Sea and Wind manfully foul weather is behind thee make haste to escape the stormy Wind and Tempest And however there should chance not to be any for there may be room for misericordia Domini inter pontem fontem He hath not shut up life nor the gate of his mercy upon any yet it will concern wise men to fear the worst that is more likely and prevent it whilst they have time to work the work of the Lord whilst it is yet high day before that dreadful and terrible night approach wherein no man can work To defer it to the eleventh hour to the evening and twilight were a presumption too full of boldness especially since our Sun may set at noon and our light go out in the midst of our life For we are but dust as our Fathers were and the Spirit of the Lord will not always strive with us Let us therefore laying aside all delays be resolute and vigilant attending speedily to open when it pleaseth him to knock when he calls instantly to answer Lo I come when he says seek ye my face to echo immediately thy face Lord will I seek So seeking his face in holiness here you may be sure to see it in glory hereafter In the mean time that God who hath added all things else plentifully unto you all abundantly unto one continue and multiply his favours unto all but principally and above all unto that one For since it is one of the last services your Majesty before your journey is to receive from this place I would not willingly leave it without one word of apprecation For though I may not bless yet I may pray God almighty whom you seek and serve hath blessed you ever hitherto and may his faithfulness and truth be your shield and protection ever hereafter He that went with Abraham in his Journey be with you in yours Let him lead you forth in peace and to the joy of all hearts return you again in safety May he carry you from Crown unto Crown from one Kingdome to another upon earth and having ministred all things else unto you according to your hearts desire here may he at last and let that be late minister an entrance unto you also abundantly into his own Kingdom this Kingdom of God Whereunto the same God of his infinite mercy vouchsafe to bring us all for and in the meritorious blood of his dearly beloved Son and our most blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen Laus Deo in aeternum A PREPARATION FOR THE Holy COMMUNION SERMON VIII Upon 1 COR. XI 28. But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. THE holy but fearful Sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord as it is the highest and noblest Institution the Christian Religion hath so is it to be approached unto with the greatest reverence and regard For as it affords inestimable comfort to the worthy participant so not less danger and terrour to the unworthy Receiver He that takes it must know he takes a powerful medicine that will work one way or other either cure or kill prove wholsom Physick or deadly poyson As the patient is prepared so it works this way or that even either life or death For the blood which is received if it do not wash and cleanse it willâ— certainly stain
the collection of a Father Ubi voluptas partum non antecessit neque dolor subsecutus est She who felt no delight in the conception suffered rightly as little pain in the birth saith Greg. Nyss. orat de Christi resurrect Nec in conceptione sine pudore nec in parturitione cum dolore unstained in her conception and unpained in her parturition saith St. Austin Serm. 14 de Nativ and in my understanding rightly for what labour or sorrow could he bring in his birth that left her a perfect Virgin that bare him And therefore in this regard also who shall declare c. So many wonders are there in his birth and yet it is not a much less wonder he made choice of such a place to manifest all these wonders in In Bethlem an obscure and little Village in a poor and mean Inn of that Village in the meanest and basest place of that Inn the Stable This was the great Chamberâ— the stately Mansion hung with Arras weaved by Spiders and paved with the filth of other Beasts wherein this great Monarch the mighty King of Glory was pleased to be born and together with himself to produce so many miracles into the World The very place wherein he had only littier for a Bed a Manger for his Cradle an Oxe and an Ass for his attendants being as great a miracle as the rest And as the basest place so did he make choice of the obscurest time A time indeed famous for an universal peace spread upon the face of the Earth but in it he picked out the lowest and utmost extremities time hath the last age of the world the lowest period of the year the deepest and darkest point of the night And so in both regards verè recubuit in novissimo loco he truly sate him down in the nethermost room and at his first entrance into the world trod the world and all worldly pomp and glory under foot that his very birth might preach contempt both of it and all the vanities it hath unto sinful Man for whole sakes he vouchsafed not to abhor I say not now the Virgins womb but the durty cratch and filth of the Stable And in either respect who shall declare c. or who shall declare the infinite love he shewed in it unto miserable Men for whose advancement the King of Glory was pleased to abase himself so low Surely as the great Gregory in his Morals Deo tantò magìs homo debitor fuit quantò pro illo Deus etiam indigna suscepit The more unworthy things God undertook for us the more ever are we bound unto God and therefore let every Soul truly and effectually say with St. Bernard quantò pro me vilior tantò mihi charior by how much the viler he hath made himself for me the dearer ever shall he be unto me Thus every circumstance of his production is wonderful and cannot but declare how every way undeclarable his generation is But yet that we may more perfectly behold it we must â—aâ—e our conâ—â—â—eratâ—on â—igâ—er from the circumstances to the substance and effects of this mighty work And indeed in these regards who shall declare his generation For it is the best and greatest and wisest work the Almighty ever wrought and doth more fully manifest his infinite power wisdom and goodness yea and justice too than all the rest of his creatures or all the rest of his operations in them First then for the power and omnipotence of God how unutterably is it here shown more than in any or all other things else the Incarnation of God being a greater work than the Creation of the whole World He made indeed at the beginning Men and Beasts Plants and Elements Sun and Moon Heavens Stars and Angels excellent works and wonders of his power but yet when the word was made flesh he made and wrought a greater wonder than them all Much power was shown in knitting and combining jarring and discordant Elements peaceably in one body more in the conjunction personal of this material body with an immaterial spirit but incomparably most of all in the hypostatical union of created Body and Spirit with the uncreated divinity of the Godhead it self For howbeit to make Man of dust and dust of nothing argues an infinite power yet that infinite is much more conspicuous when this Man is made God and that God which made him made Man himself And the reason is because that in making of Man or any other creature the infinity of power is not manifested in the effect which cannot be but finite because created but in the manner of creating it of nothing and the ability every of creating it of some other greater and more excellent So God might have made a larger world than this and creatures of other kinds and in every kind of richer essence and higher perfections And when he had done so might do so again and again yea and after that might yet still and perpetually do so For an effect of finite and limited perfection may be infinitely multiplied by an omnipotent power but can never grow infinite in it self and because it cannot grow infinite is infinitely capable of further perfection But here the infinity of power is not only in the manner of working but discernable after a sort in the work it self And God hath now produced an effect even commensurable with his power and uncapable of farther perfection substantial an effect whereunto nothing can be added that may advance it higher or make it greater silly Man being made and become the great God whom all other both Men and Angels must worship for ever So here is in a manner an infinite effect and so the expression as firm as may be of an infinite power not that the humanity is infinite for then it should be the divinity but that both are so united as they make but one person which is infinite From whence it follows that as Christ the God is truly Man so Christ the Man is truly God and therefore to be adored both God and Man And what more infinite production of an infinite power is there imaginable than the making of a creature so one as he is and is to be adored as one with the Creator blessed for evermore For who then shall declare the power of his conception Secondly the wisdom of the Almighty which though like his mercy it be over all his works is yet more conspicuous here and shines brighter than in the Sun or any other operation of his hands had we eyes to discern or wisdom enough of our own to behold it For in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge saith the Apostle The treasures that is the wealth and riches the abundance of the Divine Wisdom are all in him but like veins and mines they are hid in him in him are hid all the treasures and we cannot fully discern them now yet unless we be stark blind we may discern enough for our
satisfaction He is the eternal wisdom of the Father and indeed none but the Fathers wisdom could have found out a way to shew mercy unto Man and yet give full satisfaction unto his own justice For Justice and Mercy Man offending were as it were at variance either pretending who should have him Justice demands him to be given to her for revenge Mercy opposeth and with all her might pretends for a pardon both strugling in the bowels of the Almighty that dearly affects both Justice proposeth but few only two arguments but they are powerful The first urgeth the Almighty with his own verity and truth Thou hast spoken the word the day that thou eatest thou shalt die the death And with thee there is no shadow of change therefore thou must not alter the thing that is gone out of thy lips The second with a precedent drawn from his former actions The Angels sinned and thou didst not spare them why be alike then unto all For why shouldest thou afford earthly men that favour which thou deniedst unto Celestial Spirits of far more excellent Nature But now Mercy on the other side cries out pitifully with that cry in the Psalm wherefore hast thou made all men for nought what though thou hast said the word it was but the word of legislation and thou art Lord of the Law the supream Lawgiver and therefore maist dispense with the Law which thou givest and in doing so thou dost but remit thine own right thou wrongest none other which therefore is without all wrong to thy Justice And for the Angels they were but some of them not all the Angels that sinned and they sinned willingly and wilfully of their own accord and without a Tempter their sin remaining in themselves not propagated to others and therefore they perished worthily in thy wrath and I made no intercession for them But Man was deceived and seduced by the subtlety of the Serpent his sin besides not cleaving to himself alone but passing forth upon all his posterity that pass from him And shall the whole generation and kind who sinned not of their own will but by being in his loins be eternally destroyed for one and that anothers transgression It is sufficient that Justice hath triumphed in those evil Spirits let me have my victory now in these Good reason there should be some regard had of me as well as of her she is thy Daughter indeed yet she is but thy Daughter-in-law I am thy natural it is thy nature and property to have Mercy and compassion Thus these two the very favourites and darlings of the Divinity contend together and who or what wit shall decide the controversy or give both content when they have contrary demands Herein then shines the infinite wisdom of God that in so difficult a case and perplext as Damascen terms it could discover a way find out an issue that should give full satisfaction unto either and not only so but manifest the glory of the rest of his Attributes of his power wisdom goodness and all and all at once and in one action by informing a piece of our clay and contriving himself and his whole Divinity into a trunk of Earth that so one person might be made of both A person on whom Justice might take her full revenge that Mercy afterwards might be shown unto the offender that so both death might be inflicted as the one urged and a pardon granted as the other intreated For being Man he could die and being God his temporary death could satisfy for an eternal And being God and Man he could dye and with conquest having satiated revenge rise again from the dead and proclaim life and grace unto the whole world So by the infinite wisdom of this work all strife ends and both are well pleased Mercy and Truth are met together Righteousness and Peace do kiss each other Yea so great is the wisdom of it that the blessed Angels themselves desire to pry into it profoundly Sure it exceeds the natural understanding of the wise and subtle Lucifer himself who for all his wit and cunning was clearly deceived and foil'd in this mystery whereby he was drawn on to bite at that heel which he little dreamt would crush his head even whilst he bit it For supposing to swallow the humanity which he saw he was suddenly choaked with the divinity which he could not comprehend So wisely God by Man restored Man and vanquisht Satan in theself-same nature he had conquered before And therefore who shall declare the wisdom of his generation But above all either power or wisdom the wonderful love and goodness of the Lord in this act shown unto the whole world especially unto wretched Man may well drink up admiration and confound the understanding of both Man and Angel For what an astonishing consideration would it be could we consider it as it deserves that such vile worms and wretches as we should receive such high and undeserved favour from that God whom we had so grievously offended and having offended never notwithstanding so much as sought or regarded That he for all this should seek us yea and assume our nature and become as one of us that he might the better find us That instead of hurling such rebellious sinners into the depth of Hell as they well deserved he descended from his own glory in the highest Heavens and took on him the infirmity and baseness of our earth that he might carry it thither and into that glory from whence he descended O the infinite goodness of this God to undergoe the wretchedness of Man that Man might be assumed to the blessedness of God that sinful Man to the blessedness of that God against whom he sinned and delighted only to sin O Lord saith David what is man that thou didst so regard him or the son of man that thou didst so visit him Surely homo est res nihili Man is a thing of nought of no worth no value yet such the eternal Son of God vouchsafed to become that he might advance this thing of nought far above all Principalities and Powers and Crown him with Worship and Glory Neither did he by this act glorify that particular humanity alone which he assumed but the benefit shall redound though not in that manner nor yet so fully yet in a marvellous degree unto all others that shall but glorify him for in him they shall be made partakers too even of the Divine Nature 1 Pet. 1 4. He was anointed indeed with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows not alone then anointed but above and more abundantly than any others As that precious Oyntment which was poured forth on Aarons head so Divine honours and graces by this union descended upon His which it most plentifully drenched but drencht not it alone for of his fulness we have all received and therefore it trickles down upon his beard and all men living that shall adhere unto him and not so only but from
shall perceive the better and receive too the sooner for though it be powerful all do not always receive it if we be observant of the circumstances of this spiritual in the mind which for the quality of time place and person doth much resemble that other humane birth in the flesh For as then he was born in the night so still is he usually begotten in the nightly and silent meditations of the Soul When all things were in quiet silence and the night in her swift course then the Almighty word left the Royal Throne and leapt down from Heaven saith the Author in the book of Wisdom And sure then especially when all things are quiet and silent when the works and toils cares and labours of the day are laid aside and the Soul in sweet contemplation of the vanity of all her travel under the Sun then I say especially is Divine Wisdom preparing the place for the Son of God who though he leave not Heaven and his throne there yet by his spirit doth he vouchsafe to descend and live and dwell in this earth of ours for ever And as in the deep of night so for the most part is he born still in the depth of Winter For in the Summer and sun-shine of prosperity we are all apt to forget God and regard but little what he speaks unto us but in the cold and bitter storms of Winter when our Bark is tossed in a tempestuous Sea of afflictions then like other Mariners we can quickly pour out vows leave our canns and carouses and betake our selves to Supplication and Prayers and can attentively hearken also what the Lord God will say concerning our Souls Only take heed of the 3d. circumstance in this point and though he came in the last age of the world yet be sure not to defer thy entertaining of him till the last age of thy life For however he be sometimes and it may be usually as yet born spiritually in that point of Mans days as he was then of the world yet it cannot be safe yet it must be more than foolish to presume of it For we well know how frail we are and God knows how suddenly we shall be swept away in our sins when we would give the whole world if we had it for but one hour of that time we so foolishly neglected and may not have Remember therefore thy Creator in the days of thy youth before the eveil day come and give attentive consideration to the counsel of the Wiseman Defer not to do well and put not off from day to day for suddenly shall the wrath of the Lord come forth and in security thou shalt be destroyed But lastly and above all be most assured that as then so he will still be born in no other time but a time of peace Peace there was in the whole world when he was born in it and we must cease from wars and envies and hatreds and have peace every one with his Brother or he will never be born in us It was the Song and Anthem at his birth sung by Angels Glory be to God on high in earth peace good will towards men He is the great peacemaker that came of purpose to establish an everlasting peace between God and Man but on this condition that Man shall first be at peace with Man otherwise not to expect it from God of whom he may not so much as beg mercy for his offences but as himself remits the trespasses of others O take heed therefore flatter not thy self but search narrowly and be sure to strip all wrath and revenge from thine heart or be most assured Christ will never dwell and inhabit there who cannot but hate the very place where such odious and hateful sins make their abode Sins that bind all the rest of our iniquities on our Souls yea make whatsoever else is good sinful unto us Whereof so long as thou art guilty thou dost but curse thy self when thou prayest and damn thy own Soul when thou receivest This for the time see now how well the other circumstances agree which concern the place of his birth and especially the person of whom he was born For born he was not of any ordinary Woman at a venture but of a pure and chast Virgin and so will he still be both born and bred in a clean and unpolluted Soul Into a defiled heart full of noisom lusts and sordid affections he will not enter they must be first purged out and all the stains and pollutions of them washed away and cleansed in a bath of penitential tears then he will descend thither be born there and instead of those natural corruptions fill the place with all divine and supernatural Graces and so not find but make the Soul a Virgin by being begotten in it A Virgin full of virtue which he will espouse and marry unto himself for ever But yet of all virtues he most affects humility in her the first and laft of virtues the first begining and last consummation of whatsoever is virtuous For without it the Soul is not capable of virtue and had she never so many would spoil all by growing proud of the virtues which she hath And therefore as he was born of a Virgin so would he be born in no other but a Stable the meanest place and lowest in the house to shew us the condition of the mind the humility and lowliness of the spirit where he still is and ever will be spiritually brought forth For as the covetous Soul is but a Barn the Epicure's a Kitchen the Drunkard 's a Cellar the Ambitious a Chamber of State so the low and regardless Stable may well signify the humble spirit that both is and esteems it self a wretched sinner Not then in the Barn of Misers nor in the Kitchin of Belly-gods not in the Cellar of Winebibbers not in the great Chamber of Pride and Prodigals but in the despised Stable of humble and dejected spirits there is he there will he and no where else ever be born And every Soul wherein he is so born may be bold to say with the blessed Virgin that first saw him for thou regardest the lowliness of thy hand-maiden But yet humility is not more acceptable to him than worldly cares and covetousness displeasing than which nothing can more hinder his conception and generation in our Souls For God and Mammon cannot dwell together And for this cause as in a Stable so he would be born in an Inn For an Inn is domus populi free and open unto all comers and so must the Soul be wherein he will be the second time born free and generous holding nothing as it were in private and proper to it self but open and ready to communicate all things to those that want and are distressed and no less freely than the other for money And the sooner because he knows the world it self is but an Inn where we do not inhabit but lodge for a
did secure him out of that danger and deep distress wherewith he was environed on every side and wherewith he was inclosed shut up and surrounded as in a Prison And out of this Prison Educ animam redeem deliver bring forth my Soul But besides the literal the holy Scripture it cannot be denied especially the old Testament and the Psalms more than any else doth every where abound with many other both moral and mystical sences for as St. Paul hath it omnia contingebant illis in figura all things happened unto them under the Law in a figure and are for examples unto us on whom the ends of the world are come Their very Histories were Prophecies and their actions predictions saith St. Austin and as when words signify actions there ariseth the historical sence so when those actions again are instead of words to signify other several operations from thence doth emerge the mystical interpretation For which reason it is that the Fathers and learned Writers of our own and former ages have given unto this place such variety of expositions and that not by way only of accommodation but as the proper and intended meaning of the Spirit that endited it justly taking that for the Souls Prison which doth any way either naturally or morally straiten or oppress the Soul or restrain the freedom and liberty of it in her operations And therefore every faithful Christian under what distress soever whether of outward afflictions or inward and inherent sins whether of bodily infirmities or worldly troubles and cares whether meaning any or all and every of them he may truly say with David Bring my Soul è custodia out of the inclosure and custody of this miserable Prison for though David peradventure did not himself actually behold all those meanings when he prayed yet the Holy Ghost which did dictate to him might easily forethink and intend unto more senses than the wits of men can according to the analogy of faith find out or discover And as this first part is something troubled with diversity of Interpretations so the latter part is become much more difficult through variety of readings Here it is Which thing if thou shalt grant me then shall the Righteous resort unto my company as if it were promissory and votive In the rest it seems rather assertory and positive The Righteous shall compass me about for thou shalt deal bountifully with me so our new Translation Then shall the Righteous come about me when thou hast been good or beneficial unto me so Junius and Tremelius render it Me expectant Justi donec reâ—ribuas mihi The Righteous wait and expect till thou dost reward me with deliverance so the vulgar edition Yet all seem to agree in this that upon his deliverance the Righteous shall compass him about and he either to them or they with him shall praise and magnify the name of the Lord by whom he was delivered But this help these divers readings will afford us it will make the Text more appliable unto the several expositions the Antients have given us So having opened the passage and a little cleared the sence of the Text we may now go on without offence to the divisions of it wherein we shall not need to labour much it requires neither Art nor Industry Nature hath already done it to our hands It runs forth of its own accord into two Branches and no mans eye so weak but he may see them of himself Prayer and Praise Prayer for deliverance Praise and thanksgiving when he hath obtained it in the one ye may behold the devotion in the other the gratitude of his Soul Deliver my Soul out of Prison see the Prayer That I may give thanks unto thy name see the Praise And yet you see not all of the praise neither Praise his name he may do in his own heart and within himself and that is but private praise but this is not enough he will have it publick too his good heart is already filled but to think of his deliverance and he presently meditates where he may vent it and no where so well as in the Ears of the righteous who will soon flock about him to rejoyce in his mercy and gladly bear a part in his song of thanksgiving among them therefore he will pour it forth that the voyce of honour and praise as from a full Quire may ascend into the Ears of the Lord his deliverer Which thing if thou wilt grant me then c. But because it will be more convenient for us to end with the Prayer we will begin first with this last the Praise and it will agree well with the order of nature for indeed every Mans praise should be first in his resolution before he offer to open his mouth in his prayer Offer unto God thanksgiving saith David and pay thy vows unto the most High and then call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee as if no Man might expect deliverance in that day the day of trouble unless he first resolve on and vow thanksgiving unto the most High And indeed thus far we can go with the Prophet we are all apt enough to promise and vow many thankful returns unto the Lord when our Souls are in sorrow and his afflictions lie heavy upon us but for performing of these promises and paying of these vows afterwards there is the difficulty and there we leave him Under our burthens and distresses especially if great and pressing it is almost every Mans vow O if the Lord will but deliver me now free me but this time we will do this and that and marvellous things then but the hand of the Lord is no sooner removed the prison of our afflictions broken up and our Souls brought forth in safety but all is instantly forgotten as if it had never been We are now well and at liberty and have no need we think of the Lord when we have he shall hear of us again in the mean time pay vows he that list it is enough for us to smile in our sleeves as if we had over-reacht the Lord and cheated him out of a deliverance with fair language But God will not fail to reach home one time or other unto such false hypocrisie for Hypocrites they are and no better and for such they are esteemed and stiled by God himself though they promised nothing but what at that time they truly meant to perform When God slew the Israelites saith David then they returned and inquired early after God they remembred that God was their rock and the high God their redeemer and no question but all this with true devotion yet because upon the deliverance they fell back like their forefathers starting aside as a broken bow the Prophet presently subjoins Nevertheless they did but flatter with their lips and dissemble with their double tongue for their heart was not right in them neither were they stedfast in his Covenant not stedfast and