their allegiance is complicated with their Religion then it is proper by such Laws to compel them to remain and continue in that Religion for in the Apostacy and Defection of such men the State hath a detriment as well as the Church and therefore the temporal sword may be drawn as well as the spiritual which is the case between those of the Romish perswasion and us their Laws work directly upon our Religion they draw blood meerly for that ours work directly upon their allegiance and punish only where pretence of Religion colours a Defection in allegiance But Christs end being meerly spiritual to constitute a Church Non venit Occurrere as he came not to meet man man was not so forward so he came not to compel man to deal upon any that was so backward for Venit vocare He came to call Now this calling implies a voice as well as a Word Veni vocare it is by the Word but nor by the Word read at home though that be a pious exercise nor by the word submitted to private interpretation but by the Word preached according to his Ordinance and under the Great Seal of his blessing upon his Ordinance So that preaching is this calling and therefore as if Christ do appear to any man in the power of a miracle or in a private inspiration yet he appears but in weakness as in an infancy till he speak till he bring a man to the hearing of his voice in a setled Church and in the Ordinance of preaching so how long soever Christ have dwelt in any State or any Church if he grow speechless he is departing if there be a discontinuing or slackning of preaching there is a danger of loosing Christ Adam was not made in Paradise but brought thither call'd thither the sons of Adam are not born in the Church but call'd thither by Baptism Non Nascimur sed re-nascimur Christiani August No man is born a Christian but call'd into that state by regeneration And therefore as the Consummation of our happiness is in that that we shall be call'd at last into the Kingdom of Glory in the Venite Benedicti Come ye blessed and enter into your Masters joy so is it a blessed Inchoation of that happiness that we are called into the Kingdom of Grace and made partakers of his Word and Sacraments and other Ordinances by the way And so you have his Action and Errand He came and came to call The next is the persons upon whom he works whom he calls Non Justos where we have first the Negative the Exclusive Non Justos Not the righteous In which Grego Nyssene is so tender G. Nyssen so compassionate so loath that this Negative should fall upon any man that any man should be excluded from possibility of salvation as that he carries it wholly upon Angels Christ took not the nature of Angels Christ came not to call Angels But this Exclusion falls upon men What men upon the righteous Who are they We have two Expositions both of Jesuites both good I mean the Expositions not the Jesuites they differ somewhat for though the Jesuites agree well enough too well in State-business in Courts how Kings shall be depos'd and how massacred how Kingdoms shall be deluded with Dispensations and how invaded with Forces they agree well enough yet in Schools and in Expositions Maldonat Mat. 18.12 they differ as well as others The first Maldonat he says That as in that parable where Christ says that the good shepherd left the ninety nine sheep that had kept their pastures and went to seek that one which was strayed he did not mean that there is but one sheep of a hundred that does go astray but that if that were the case he would go to seek that one so when Christ says here he came not to call the righteous he does not mean that there were any righteous but if the world were full of righteous men so that he might make up the number of his Elect and fill up the rooms of the fallen Angels out of them yet he would come to call sinners too Barradas The other Jesuite Barradas not altogether Barrabas he says Christ said Non Justos Not the righteous because if there had been any righteous he needed not to have come according to that of S. Aug. Si homo non periisset August filius hominis non venisset If Man had not fallen and lain irrecoverably under that fall the Son of God had not come to suffer the shame and the pain of the Cross so that they differ but in this If there had been any righteous Christ needed not to have come and though there had been righteous men yet he would have come but in this they and all agree Rom. 8.30 that there were none righteous None Why whom he predestinated those he called and were not they whom he predestinated and elected to salvation righteous Even the Elect themselves have not a constant righteousness in this world such a righteousness as does always denominate them so as that they can always say to their own conscience or so as the Church can always say of them This is a righteous man No nor so as that God who looks upon a sinner with the eyes of the Church and considers a sinner with the heart and sense of the Church and speaks of him with the tongue of the Church can say of him then when he is under unrepented sin This man is righteous howsoever if he look upon him in that Decree which lies in his bosom and by which he hath infallibly ordain'd him to salvation he may say so No man here though Elect hath an equal and constant righteousness nay no man hath any such righteousness of his own as can save him for howsoever it be made his by that Application or Imputation yet the righteousness that saves him is the very righteousness of Christ himself Hilarie S. Hilaries Question then hath a full Answer Erant quibus non erat necesse ut ventret Were there any that needed not Christs coming No there were none who then are these righteous we answer with S. Chrysost and S. Hiero. and S. Ambrose and all the stream of the Fathers They are Justi sua Justitia those who thought themselves righteous those who relyed upon their own righteousness those who mistook their righteousness as the Laodiceans did their riches they said They were rich and had need of nothing Apoc. 3.17 and they were wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked So these men being ignorant of Gods righteousness Rom. 10.3 and going about to establish a righteousness of their own have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God that is depend wholly upon the righteousness of Christ He calls it Suam their righteousness because they thought they had a righteousness of their own either in the faculties of Nature or in the exaltation of
grace is or when or how it enters for though the word of consecration alter the bread not to another thing but to another use and though they leave it bread yet they make it other bread yet the enunciation of those words doth not infuse nor imprint this grace which we speak of into that bread yet whosoever receives this sacrament worthily sees evidently an entrance and a growth of grace in himself But this evidence which we speaks of this manifestation is not only though especially in the sacraments but in other sacramental and ceremonial things which God as he speaks by his Church hath ordained as the cross in baptism and adoration at the sacrament I do not say I am far from saying adoration of the sacrament there is a fair distance and a spacious latitude between those two an adoring of God in a devout humiliation of the body in that holy action and an adoring the bread out of a false imagination that that bread is God A rectified man may be very humble and devout in that action and yet a great way on this side the superstition and Idolatry in the practise of the Roman Church in these sacramental and ritual and ceremonial things which are the bellows of devotion and the subsidies of religion and which were alwaies in all Churches there is a more evident manifestation and clearness in these things in the Christian Church then was amongst the Jews in the ceremonial parts of their religion because almost all ours have reference to that which is already done and accomplished and not to things of a future expectation as those of the Jews were So you know the passover of the Jews had a relation to their comming out of Egypt that was past thereby obvious to every mans apprehension every man that eat the pasover remembered their deliverance out of Egypt but then the passover had also relation to that lamb which was to redeem that world this was a future thing and this certainly very few amongst them understood or considered upon that occasion that as thy lamb is killed here so there shall be a lamb killed for all the world hereafter Now our actions in the Church do most respect things formerly done and so they awaken and work upon our memory which is an easier faculty to work upon then the understanding or the will Salvation is nearer us in these outward helps because their signification is clearer to us and more apprehensible by us being of things past Credidistis and accomplished already So then the Apostle might well say that salvation that is outward means of salvation was nearer that is more in number better in use clearer in evidence then it was before quando crediderunt when they believed which is the third and last term in this first acceptation of the word Salvation was brought into the world in the first promise of a Messias in the semen contract That the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head and it was brought nearer when this Missias was fixed in Abrahams race in semine tuo In thy seed shall all nations be blessed it was brought nearer then that when it was brought from Abrahams race to Davids family in solio tuo The scepter shall not depart from thee till he come and still nearer in Esaias virgo concipiet when so particular mark was set upon the Messias as that he should be the son of a virgin and yet nearer in Micheas tu Bethlem that Bethlem was design'd for the place of his birth and nearer in Daniels 70 weeks when the time was manifested And though it were nearer then all this when John Baptist came to say Repent for the Kingdome of God is at hand Mat. 3.2 yet it was truly very near nearest of all when Christ came to say Luc. 17.21 Behold the Kingdom of God is amongst you for all the rest were in the crediderunt he was nearer them because they believed he would come but then it was brought to the viderunt they saw he was come Joh. 20.29 Beati saies Christ Blessed are they that have believed and have not seen they had salvation brought nearer unto them by their believing but yet Christ speaks of another manner of blessedness conferred upon his Disciples Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear Mat. 13.16 for verily I say unto you that many Prophets Righteous men have desired to see the things which ye see and have not seen them To end this the belief of the Patriarks was blessedness Joh. 8.56 and it was a kind of seeing too for so Christ saies your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it but this was a seeing with the eye of faith which discovers future things but Christ prefers the blessedness of the Disciples because they saw things present and already done All our life is a passing bell but then was Simeon content his bell should ring out when his eyes had seen his salvtion In that especially doth St. John exalt the force of his argument quae vidimus 1 Joh. 1.1 That which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life that declare we unto you Here is then the inestimable prerogative of the Christian religion it is grounded so far upon things which were seen to be done it is brought so far from matter of faith to matter of fact from prophecy to history from what the Messias should do to what he hath done and that was their case to whom this Apostle spake these wodrs as we take them in the first acceptation salvation that is outward means of salvation in the Church is nearer that is more and better and clearer to you now that is when you have seen Christin the flesh then when you prefigured him in your law or sacrifices or sacraments or believed him in your Prophets Second part In a second sence we took these words of Christs second Advent or comming his comming to our heart in the working of his grace And so the Apostles words are directed to all Christians and not only to the new convertits of that nation and so these three terms salvation nearness and believing which we proposed to be considered in all the three acceptations of the words will have this signification Salvation is the inward means of salvation the working of the spirit that sets a seal to the eternal means the prope the nearness lies in this that this grace which is this salvation in this sense grows out of that which is in you already not out of any thing which is in you naturally but Gods first graces that are in you grows into more and more grace Grace does not grow out of nature for nature in the highest exaltation and rectifying thereof cannot produce grace Corn does not grow out of the earth it must be sowd but corn grows
them as a very lovely Song of one that hath a pleasant voyce and can play well on an Instrument for they hear thy words but they doe them not AS there lies alwayes upon Gods Minister a vae si non Wo be unto me if I preach not the Gospel if I apply not the comfortable promises of the Gospel to all that grone under the burden of their sins so there is Onus visionis which we finde mentioned in the Prophets it was a pain a burden to them to be put to the denunciation of Gods heavy judgements upon the people but yet those judgements they must denounce as well as propose those mercies wo be unto us if we bind not up the broken hearted but wo be unto us too if we break not that heart that is stubborn wo be unto us if we settle not establish not the timorous and trembling the scattered and fluid and distracted soul that cannot yet attain intirely and intensely and confidently and constantly to fix it self upon the Merits and Mercies of Christ Jesus but wo be unto us much more if we do not shake and shiver and throw down the refractory and rebellious soul whose incredulity will not admit the History and whose security in presumptuous sins will not admit the working and application of those Merits and Mercies which are proposed to him To this purpose therefore God makes his Ministers speculatores I have set thee for their watchman saies God to this Prophet that so they might see and discern the highest sins of the highest persons in the highest places they are not onely to look down towards the streets lanes and alleys and cellears and reprehend the abuses and excesses of persons of lower quality there all their service lies not below staires nor onely to look into the chamber and reprehend the wantonnesses and licentiousnesse of both sexes there nor onely unto the house top and tarras and reprehend the ambitious machinations and practises to get thither but still they are speculatores men placed upon a watch-tower to look higher then all this to look upon sins of a higher nature then these to note and reprehend those sins which are done so much more immediately towards God as they are done upon colour and pretence of Religion and upon that station upon the Execution of that Commission is our Prophet in this Text Thou art unto them a very lovely song c. for they shall heare thy words but they do them not Through this whole chapter he presents matter of that nature either of too confident or too diffident a behaviour towards God In the tenth verse he reprehends their diffidence and distrust in God This they say sayes the Prophet If our transgressions and our sins be upon us and we pine away in them how should we live How should you live sayes the Prophet thus you should live by hearing what the Lord of Life hath said As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked In the 25 verse he reprehends their confidence they say Abraham was one and he inherited this land we are many this land is given us for our inheritance but say unto them sayes God to the Prophet there You lift up your eyes to Idols and you shed blood and shall you possess the land Ye defile one anothers wife and ye stand upon the sword and shall ye possess the land We were but one and are many 't is true God hath testified his love in multiplying Inhabitants and in uniting Kingdomes but if there be a lifting up of eyes towards Idols a declination towards an Idolatrous Religion if there be a defiling of one anothers wife and then standing upon the sword that it must be matter of displeasure or of quarrel if one will not betray his wife or sister to the lust of the greatest person shall we possess the land shall we have a continuance of Gods blessing upon us we shall not And as he thus represents their over-confident behaviour towards God God is bound by his promise and therefore we may be secure And their over-diffident behaviour God hath begun to shew his anger upon us therefore there is no recovery he reprehends also that distemper which ordinarily accompanies this behaviour towards God that is an Expostulation and a Disputing with God and a censuring of his actions in the 20 ver they come to say The way of the Lord is not equal that is we know not how to deal with him we know not where to find him he promises Mercies and layes Afflictions upon us he threatens judgements upon the wicked and yet the wicked prosper most of all The ways of the Lord are equal But to this also God says by the Prophet I will judge every one of you after his own ways The ways of the Lord are unsearchable look ye to your own ways for according to them shall God judge you And then after these several reprehensions this watchman raises himself to the highest pinacle of all to discover the greatest sin of all treason within doors contemning of God in his own house and in his presence that is a coming to Church to hear the word of God preached a pretence of cheerfulness and alacrity in the outward service of God yea a true sense and feeling of a delight in hearing of the word and yet for all this an unprofitable barrenness and upon the whole matter a despiteful and a contumelious neglecting of Gods purpose and intention in his Ordinance for Our voice is unto them but as a song to an instrument they hear our words but they do them not Though then some Expositors take these words to be an increpation upon the people that they esteemed Gods ablest Ministers indued with the best parts to be but as musique as a jest as a song as an entertainment that they under-valued and disesteemed the whole service of God in the function of the Ministery and thought it either nothing or but matter of State and Government as a civil ordinance for civil order and no more yet I take this increpation to reach to a sin of another nature that the people should attribute reverence enough attention enough credit enough to the preacher and to his preachings but yet when all that is done nothing is done they should hear willingly but they do nothing of that which they had heard First then God for his own glory promises here Divisio that his Prophet his Minister shall be Tuba as is said in the beginning of this Chapter a Trumpet to awaken with terror But then he shall become Carmen musicum a musical and harmonious charmer to settle and compose the soul again in a reposed confidence and in a delight in God he shall be musicum carmen musick harmony to the soul in his matter he shall preach harmonious peace to the conscience and he shall be musicum carmen musick and harmony in his manner he
the people there was none with me The Angels then knew not this not all this not all the particulars of this The mystery of Christs Incarnation for the Redemption of Man the Angels knew it in generall for it was commune quoddam principium it was the generall mark to which all their service as they were ministring spirits was directed But for particulars as amongst the Prophets some of the later understood more then the former I understand more then the ancients Psal 119.100 sayes David and the Apostles understood more then the Prophets even of those things which they had prophesied Ephes 3.6 this Mystery in other ages was not made known as it is now revealed unto the holy Apostles so the Angels are come to know some things of Christ since Christ came in another manner then before Ephes 3.10 And this may be that which S. Paul intends when he sayes that he was made a Minister of the Gospel To the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdome of God And S. Peter also speaking of the administration of the Church 1 Pet. 1.12 expresses it so That the Angels desire to look into it Which is not onely that which S. Augustine sayes Aug. Innotuit a seculis per Ecclesiam Angelis That the Angels saw the mystery of the Christian Religion from before all beginnings and that by the Church Quia ipsa Ecclesia illis in Deo apparuit Because they saw in God the future Church from before all beginnings but even in the propagation and administration of the Church they see many things now which distinctly effectually experimentally as they do now they could not see before And so to this purpose Visus in nobis Christ is seen by the Angels in us and our conversation now Spectaculum sumus sayes the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.9 We are made a spectacle to men and angels The word is there Theatrum and so S. Hierom reads it Hierom. And therefore let us be careful to play those parts well which even the Angels desire to see well acted Let him that finds himself to be the honester man by thinking so think in the name of God that he hath a particular tutelar Angel that will do him no harm to think so And let him that thinks not so yet think that so far as conduces to the support of Gods children and to the joy of the Angels themselves and to the glory of God the Angels do see mens particular actions and then if thou wouldst not sollicite a womans chastity if her servant were by to testifie it nor calumniate an absent person in the Kings ear if his friends were by to testifie it if thou canst slumber in thy self that main consideration That the eye of God is always open and always upon thee yet have a little religious civility and holy respect even to those Angels that see thee That those Angels which see Christ Jesus now sate down in glory at the right hand of his Father all sweat wip'd from his Browes and all teares from his Eyes all his Stripes heal'd all his Blood stanch'd all his Wounds shut up and all his Beauty returned there when they look down hither to see the same Christ in thee may not see him scourged again wounded torn and mangled again in thy blasphemings nor crucified again in thy irreligious conversation Visus ab Angelis he was seen of the Angels in himself whilest he was here and he is seen in his Saints upon earth by Angels now and shall be so to the end of the world Which Saints he hath gathered from the Gentiles which is the next branch Praedicat Gentib Psal 85.10 Predicatus gentibus he was preached to the Gentiles Mercy and truth meet together says David every where in Gods proceedings they meet together but no where closer then in calling the Gentiles Jesus Christ was made a Minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God Rom. 15.8 wherein consisted that truth to confirm the promises made unto the fathers says the Apostle there and that 's to the Jews but was Christ a Minister of the Circumcision onely for that onely for the truth No Truth and Mercy meet together as it followes there and that the Gentiles might glorifie God for his mercy The Jewes were a holy Nation Gal. 2.15 that was their addition Gens Sancta but the addition of the Gentiles was peccatores sinners we are Jewes by nature and not of the Gentiles sinners sayes S. Paul He that touch'd the Jewes touch'd the apple of Gods eye And for their sakes God rebuk'd Kings and said Touch not mine Anoynted but upon the Gentiles not onely dereliction but indignation and consternation and devastation and extermination every where interminated inflicted every where and every where multiplied The Jewes had all kinde of assurance and ties upon God both Law and Custome they both prescribed in God and God had bound himself to them by particular conveyance by a conveyance written in their flesh Isa 49. in Circumcision and the counterpane written in his flesh I have graven thy name in the palmes of my hands Eph. 2.12 But for the Gentiles they had none of this assurance When they were without Christ sayes the Apostle having no hope that is no covenant to ground a hope upon ye were without God in this world To contemplate God himself and not in Christ is to be without God And then for Christ to be preached to such as these to make this Sun to set at noon to the Jewes rise at midnight to the Antipodes to the Gentiles this was such an abundant such a superabundant mercy as might seem almost to be above the bargain above the contract between Christ and his Father more then was conditioned and decreed for the price of his Blood and the reward of his Death for when God said I will declare my decree That is what I intended to give him which is expressed thus Psal 2. I will set him my King upon my holy hill of Sion which seemes to concern the Jewes onely God addes then Postula a me petition to me make a new suit to me dabo tibi gentes I will give thee not onely the Jewes but the Gentiles for thine inheritatnce And therefore laetentur gentes Psal 97.1 sayes David Let the Gentiles rejoyce and we in them that Christ hath asked us at his Fathers hand and received us And Laetentur insulae sayes that Prophet too Let the Islands rejoyce and we in them that he hath raised us out of the Sea out of the ocean sea that over-flowed all the world with ignorance and out of the Mediterranean Sea that hath flowed into so many other lands the sea of Rome the sea of Superstition There was then a great mercy in that Predicatus gentibus Creditus Mundo that he was preached to the Gentiles
then lastly The illusion upon this what a fearful state this shuts them up in That therefore their hearts are fully set in them to do evil And these three The perversness of colouring sins with Reasons and the impotency of making Gods mercy the Reason and the danger of obduration thereby will be the three parts in which we shall determine this Exercise Part I. First then in handling the perversness of assigning Reasons for sins we forbid no man the use of Reason in matters of Religion As S. August says Contra Scriptura nemo Christianus No man can pretend to be a Christian if he refuse to be tryed by the Scriptures And as he adds Contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus No man can pretend to love order and Peace if he refuse to be tryed by the Church so he adds also Contra Rationem nemo sobrius No man can pretend to be in his wits if he refuse to be tryed by Reason He that believes any thing because the Church presents it he hath Reason to assure him that this Authority of the Church is founded in the Scriptures He that believeth the Scriptures hath Reasons that govern and assure him that those Scriptures are the Word of God Mysteries of Religion are not the less believ'd and embrac'd by Faith because they are presented and induc'd and apprehended by Reason But this must not enthrone this must not exalt any mans Reason so far as that there should lie an Appeal from Gods Judgements to any mans reason that if he see no reason why God should proceed so and so he will not believe that to be Gods Judgement or not believe that Judgement of God to be just For of the secret purposes of God Mat. 11.26 we have an Example what to say given us by Christ himself Ita est quia complacuit It is so O Father because thy good pleasure was such All was in his own breast and bosome in his own good will and pleasure before he Decreed it And as his Decree it self so the wayes and Executions of his Decrees are often unsearchable for the purpose and for the reason thereof though for the matter of fact they may be manifest They that think themselves sharp-sighted and wise enough to search into those unreveal'd Decrees they who being but worms will look into Heaven and being the last of Creatures who were made will needs enquire what was done by God before God did any thing for creating the World In ultimam dementiam reverant says S. Chrysost They are fallen into a mischievous madness Et ferrum ignitum quod forcipe deberent digitus accipiunt They will needs take up red hot Irons with their bare fingers without tongs That which is in the Center which should rest and lie still in this peace That it is so because it is the will of God that it should be so they think to toss and tumble that up to the Circumference to the Light and Evidence of their Reason by their wrangling Disputations If then it be a presumpteous thing and a contempt against God to submit his Decrees to the Examination of humane reason it must be a high treason against the Majesty of God to find out a reason in him which should justifie our sins To conclude out of any thing which he does or leaves undone that either he doth not hate or cannot punish sinners For this destroys even the Nature of God and that which the Apostle lays for the foundation of all To believe that God is Heb. 11.6 and that he is a just Rewarder Adam's quia Mulier The woman whom thou gavest me gave me the Apple And Eve's quia Serpens Because the Serpent deceiv'd me and all such are poor and unallowable pleas which God would not admit For there is no Quia no Reason why any man at any time should do any sin God never permits any perplexity to fall upon us so as that we cannot avoyd one sin but by doing another or that we should think our self excusable by saying Quia inde minus malum There is less harm in a Concubine then in another wife Or Quia inde aliquod bonum That my incontinence hath produc'd a profitable man to the State or to the Church though a bastard much less to say Quia obdormivit Deus Tush God sees it not or cares not for it though he see it If thou ask then why thou should'st be bound to believe the Creation we say Quia unus Deus Because there can be but one God and if the World be eternal and so no Creature the World is God If thou ask why thou should'st be bound to believe Providence we say Quia Deus remunerator Because God is to give every man according to his merits If thou ask why thou should'st be bound to believe that when thou seest he doth not give every man according to his merits we say Quia inscrutabilia judicia ejus O how unsearchable are his Jugdements and his ways past finding out For thou art yet got no farther in measuring God but by thine own measure and thou hast found no other reason to lead thee to think that God doth not govern well but because he doth not govern so to thine understanding as thou shouldst if thou wert God So that thou dost not onely make thy weakness but thy wickedness that is thy hasty disposition to come to a present Revenge when any thing offends thee the Measure and the Model by which the frame of Gods Government should be erected and so thou comest to the worst distemper of all insanire cum ratione to go out of thy wits by having too much and to be mad with too much knowledge not to sin out of infirmity or tentation or heat of blood but to sin in cold blood and upon just reason and mature considerations and so deliberately and advisedly to continue to sin Part II. Now the particular reason which the perversness of these men produceth here in this Text is Because God is patient and long-suffering So he is so he will be still Their perversness shall not pervert his Nature his goodness As God bade the Prophet Osea do 1.2 he hath done himself Go says he and take to thee a wife of fornication and children of fornication so hath he taken us guilty of spiritual fornication But as in the fleshly fornications of an adulterous wife the husband is for the most part the last that hears of them so for our spiritual fornications such is the loathness the patience the longanimity of our good and gracious God that though he do know our sins as soon as they speak as soon as they are acted for that 's peccatum cum voco says S. Gregory A speaking sin when any sinful thought is produc'd into act yea before they speak as soon as they are conceiv'd yet he will not hear of our sins he takes no knowledge of them by punishing them till our brethren have
needed And that he might give full satisfaction even to Calumniators every way as he answer'd them out of Scriptures and out of Reason so because the Pharisees were States-men too and led by Precedents and Records he answers out of the tenour and letter of his Commission and Instructions which is that part of his answer that falls most directly into our Text Veni vocare I came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance First then venit he came he is come venit actu he came in promise often ratified before Venit Actu now there is no more room for John Baptist's question Tune ille Art thou he that should come or must we look for another For another coming of the same Messias we do look but not for another Messias we look for none after him no post-Messias we joyn none Saints nor Angels with him no sub-Messias no vice-Messias The Jews may as well call the history of the Floud Prophetical and ask when the world shall be drown'd according to that Prophecie or the history of their deliverance from Babylon Prophetical and ask when they shall return from thence to Jerusalem according to that Prophecie as seek for a Messias now amongst their Prophets so long after all things being perform'd in Christ which were prophesied of the Messias Christ hath so fully made Prophecie History Venit actu He is really personally actually come Venit sponte and then venit sponte he is come freely and of his own meer goodness How freely Come and not sent Yes he was sent God so loved the world as that he gave his onely begotten Son for it There was enough done to magnifie the mercy of the Father in sending him How freely then Come and not brought Yes he was brought The holy Ghost overshadowed the blessed virgin and so he was conceiv'd there was enough done to magnifie the goodness of the holy Ghost in bringing him He came to his prison he abhorr'd not the Virgins womb and not without a Mittimus he was sent He came to the Execution and not without a desire of Reprieve in his Transeat Calix If it be possible let this cup pass from me and yet venit sponte he came freely voluntarily of his own goodness No more then he could have been left out at the Creation and the world made without him could he have been sent into this world without his own hand to the Warrant or have been left out at the decree of his sending As when he was come no man could have taken away his soul if he had not laid it down so if we might so speak no God no person in the Trinity could have sent him if he had not been willing to come Venit actu he is come there 's our comfort venit sponte he came freely there 's his goodness And so you have the Action Venit He came The next is his Errand his Purpose what he came to do Vocare Venit vocare He came to call It is not vocatus That Christ came when we call'd upon him to come Man had no power no will no not a faculty to wish that Christ would have come Non occurrere till Christ did come and call him For it is not Veni occurrere That Christ came to meet them who were upon the way before Man had no pre-disposition in Nature to invite God to come to him August Quid peto ut venias in me qui non essem si non esses in me How should I pray at first that God would come into me when as I could not onely not have the spirit of prayer but not the spirit of life and being except God were in me already Where was I when Christ call'd me out of my Raggs nay out of my Ordure and wash'd me in the Sacramental water of Baptism and made me a Christian so Where was I when in the loyns of my sinful parents and in the unclean act of generation Christ call'd me into the Covenant and made me the childe of Christian parents Could I call upon him to do either of these for me Or if I may seem to have made any step towards Baptism because I was within the Covenant or towards the Covenant because I was of Christian parents yet where was I when God call'd me when I was not as though I had been in the Eternal Decree of my Election What said I for my self or what said any other for me then when neither I nor they had any being God is found of them that sought him not Non venit occurrere He came not to meet them who were of themselves set out before Non Cogere But then non venit cogere He came not to force and compel them who would not be brought into the way Christ saves no man against his will There is a word crept into the later School that deludes many a man they call it Irresistibility and they would have it mean that when God would have a man he will lay hold upon him by such a power of grace as no perversness of that man can possibly resist There is some truth in the thing soberly understood for the grace of God is more powerful then any resistance of any man or devil But leave the word where it was hatcht in the School and bring it not home not into practice for he that stays his conversion upon that God at one time or other will lay hold upon me by such a power of Grace as I shall not be able to resist may stay till Christ come again to preach to the spirits that are in prison 1 Pet. 3.19 Christ beats his Drum but he does not Press men Christ is serv'd with Voluntaries There is a Compelle intrare Luk. 14.23 A forcing of men to come in and fill the house and furnish the supper but that was an extraordinary commission and in a case of Necessity Our ordinary commission is Ite praedicate Go and preach the Gospel and bring men in so it is not Compelle intrare Force men to come in it is not Draw the Sword kindle the Fire winde up the Rack for when it was come to that Mat. 22.10 that men were forc'd to come in as that Parabolical story is reported in this Evangelist the house was fill'd and the supper was furnisht the Church was fill'd and the Communion-table frequented but it was with good and bad too for men that are forc'd to come hither they are not much the better in themselves nor we much the better assur'd of their Religion for that Force and violence pecuniary and bloudy Laws are not the right way to bring men to Religion in cases where there is nothing in consideration but Religion meerly 'T is true there is a Compellite Manere that hath all justice in it when men have been baptiz'd and bred in a Church and embrac'd the profession of a Religion so as that
providence any care of particular actions those which doubt whether the history of Christ be true or no those doubting men that conform themselves outwardly with us because that may be true that we profess for any thing they know there may be a Christ they might be the worse for any thing they know if they left him out they might prove worse and in the mean time they enjoy temporal peace benefit of the Laws by this outward profession of theirs those men that sacrifice to Christ Jesus onely ne noceat least if there be such a God they should lose him for want of a sacrifice that worship Christ Jesus with a reservation of the pretended God that if he prove God at last they have done their part if he do not yet they are never the worse these men who if they come to Church think themselves safe enough but they are deceived The Militant and the Triumphant Church is all one Church but above in the triumphant Church there are other Church-wardens than here though he come to do the outward acts of religion if he do it without a religious heart they know him to be a Recusant for all his coming to Church here he shall be excommunicate in the triumphant there He praises not God he prays not to God he worships him not whatsoever he does if he have not considered it debated it concluded it to be rightly done and necessarily done If he think any thing else better done this is not well done Jacob had concluded it out of the contemplation of his former and present state Exul first he had been banished from his Countrey I came over Jordan Herein he was a figure of Christ he received a blessing â—rom his father and presently he must go into banishment Christ received presents and adoration from the Magi of the east and presently he submits himself to a banishment in Egypt for the danger that Herod intended Christs Banishment as it could not be less then four years so it could not be more then seven Jacobs was twenty a banishment and a long banishment Banishment is the first punishment executed upon man he was banished out of Paradise and it is the last punishment that we shall be redeemed from when we shall be received intirely body and soul into our Countrey into heaven It is true our life in this world is not called a banishment any where in the Scripture but a pilgrimage a peregrination a travell but peregrinatio cum ignominia conjunctu exilium he that leaves his Countrey because he was ashamed or afraid to return to it or to stay in it is a banished man Briefly for Jacobs case here S. Bernard expresses it well in his own est commune exilium there is one banishment common to us all in corpore peregrinamur a duo we travell out of our Countrey at least but Accessit speciale quod me pene inpatientem reddit quod cogarvicere sine vohis This was a particular misery in his banishment that Jacob must live from his father and mother and from that Country where he was to have the fruits and effects of that blessing which he had got He came away then and he came away poor Baculus in baculo with a staff God expresses sometimes abundance and strength in baculo in that word Oftentimes he calls plenty by that name the staff of bread But Jacobs is no Metaphorical staff it is a real staff the companion and the support of a poor travelling man When Christ enjoyns his Apostles to an exact poverty for one journey which they were to dispatch quickly S. Matthew expresses his commandment thus possess no monies nor two coats nor a shoe nor a staff S. Mark expresses the same commandment thus take none of those with you except a staff onely The fathers go about to reconcile this by taking staff in both places figuratively that the staff forbidden in Matthew should be potestas puniendi the power of correcting which the Apostle speaks of Num quid vultis vemam in virga 1 Cor. 4.21 shall I come to you with a rod or in love And that the staff allowed in Mark is potestas consolandi Psal 25.4 the power of comforting which David speaks of Virga tua baculus tuus ipsa me consolata sunt Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me Christ spoke this but once but in his language the Syriack he spoke it in a word that hath two significations Shebat is both Baculus defensorius and Baculus sustentatorius A staff of sustentation and a staff of defence God that spoke in Christs Syriack spoke in the Evangelists Greek too and both belong to us and both the Evangelists intending the use of the staff and not the staff it self 3. Matthew in that word forbids any staff of violence or defence S. Mark allows a staff of sustentation and support and such a staff and no more had Jacob a staff to sustain him upon his way Hath this then been thy state with Jacob that thou hast not onely been without the staff of bread plenty and abundance of temporal blessings but without the staff of defence that when the world hath snarl'd and barked at thee and that thou wouldst justly have beaten a dog yet thou couldst not finde a staff thou hadst no means to right thy self yet he hath not left thee without a staff of support a staff to try how deep the waters be that thou art to wade through that is thy Christian constancy and thy Christian discretion use that staff aright and as Christ who sent his Apostles without any staff of defence once Luke 22.36 afterward gave them leave to carry swords so at his pleasure and in his measure he will make thy staff a sword by giving thee means to defend thy self and others over whom he will give thee charge and jurisdiction in exalting thee Suus But herein in doing so God assists thee with the staff of others with the favour and support of other men Jacob was first in Baculo and in suo nothing but a staff no staff but his own truly his own for we call other staffes ours Hos 4.12 which are not ours My people ask counsell of their stocks and their staff teacheth them that is they have made their own wisdom their own plots their own industry their staff upon which they should not relye so we trust to a broken staff of reed 2 Reg. 18.21 on which if a man lean it will go into his hand and peirce it when God hath given thee a staff of thine own a leading staff a competency a conveniency to lead thee through the difficulties and encombrances of this world if thou put a pike into thy staff murmuring at thine own envying superiours oppressing inferiours then this piked staff is not thy staff nor Gods staff but it is Baculus inimici hominis and the envious man in the Gospel is
exaltation That as man needed God and God would suffer for man so God should need man and man should suffer for God that after Gods general Commission fac hoc vives do this and thou shalt live I should receive and execute a new Commission Patere hoc vives abundantius suffer this and you shall have life and life more abundantly Joh. 10.10 as our Saviour speaks in the Gospel that when I shall ask my soul Davids question Psal 116.12 Quid retribuam what shall I render to the Lord I shall not rest in Davids answer Accipiam Calicem I will take the cup of salvation in applying his blood to my soul but proceed to an Effundam Calicem I will give God a Cup a cup of my blood that whereas to me the meanest of Gods servants it is honor enough to be believed for Gods sake God should be believed for my sake and his Gospel the better accepted because the feal of my blood is set to it that that dew which should water his plants the plants of his Paradise his Church should drop from my veines and that sea that red sea which should carry up his bark his Ark to the heavenly Jerusalem should flow from me This is that that poures joy even into my gladness and glory even into mine honor and peace even into my security that exaltes and improves every good thing Colos 1 24. Phil 2.17 every blessing that was in me before and makes even my creation glorious and my redemption precious and puts a farther value upon things inestimable before that I shall fulfil the sufferings of Christ in my flesh and that I shall be offerd up for his Church 1 Pet. 2.21 though not for the purchasing of it yet for the fencing of it though not by way of satisfaction as he was but by way of example and imitation as he was too Whether that be absolutely true or no which an Author of much curiosity in the Roman Church saies Pâ—rrecta in legem Not itio ultima that Inter tot millia millium amongst so many thousand thousands of Martyrs in the Primitive Church it cannot be said that ever one lack'd burial I know not whence he raises that certainly no Martyr ever lack'd a grave in the wounds of his Saviour no nor a tomb a monument a memorial in this life in that sense wherein our Saviour speaks in the Gospel That no man shall leave house Mar. 10.30 or Brother or wife for him but he shall receive an hundred fold in this life Christ does not mean he shall have a hundred houses or a hundred wives or a hundred Brethren but that that comfort which he lost in losing those things shall be multiplied to him in that proportion even in this life In which words of our Saviour as we see the dignity and reward of Martyrdome so we see the extent and latitude and compass of Martyrdome too that not only loss of life but loss of that which we love in this life not only the suffering of death but the suffering of Crosses in our life contracts the Name and entitles us to the reward of Martyrdome All Martyrdome is not a Smithfeild Martyrdome to burn for religion To suffer injuries and upon advantages offerd not to revenge those injuries is a Court Martyrdome To resist outward tentations from power and inward tentations from affections in matter of Judicature between party and party is a Westminster Martyrdome To seem no richer then they are not to make their states better when they make their private bargains with one another and to seem so rich as they are and not to make their states worse when they are call'd upon to contribute to publick services this is an Exchange-Martyrdome And there is a Chamber-Martyrdome a Bosome-Martyrdome too Habet pudicitia servata Martyrium suum Hierome Chastity is a dayly Martyrdome and so all fighting of the Lords battails all victory over the Lords Enemies in our own bowels all chearful bearing of Gods Crosses and all watchful crossing of our own immoderate desires is a Martyrdome acceptable to God and a true copy of our pattern Stephen so it be inanimated with that which was even the life and soul and price of all Stephens actions and passions that is fervent charity which is the last contemplation in which we propose him for your Example that as he you also may be just paymasters in discharging the debt which you owe the world in the signification of your Names and early Disciples and appliers of your selves to Christ Jesus and humble servants of his without inordinate ambition of high places and constant Martyrs 1 Cor. 15.31 in dying every day as the Apostles speaks and charitable intercessors and Advocates and Mediators to God even for your heaviest Enemies We have a story in the Ecclesiastical story of Nicephorus and Sapricius formerly great friends and after as great Enemies Charitas Nicephorus relented first and sued often for reconciliation to Sapricius but was still refused he was refused even upon that day when Sapricius being led out to execution as a Martyr for the Christian religion Nicephorus upon the way put himself in his way and upon his knees beg'd a reconciliation and obtained it not The effect of his uncharitableness was this Sapricius when he came to the stake recanted and renounced the christian religion and lost the crown of Martyrdome and Nicephorus who came forth upon another ocasion professed Christ and was receiv'd to the Coronation of Martyrdome Though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing saies the Apostle but if I have not charity I shall not be admitted to that Sacrifice to give my body to be burnt St. Augustine seems to have delighted himself with that saying for he saies it more then once Si Stephanus non orasset if St. Stephen had not praid for Saul the Church had had no Paul and may we not justly add to that If Stephen had not praid for Saul Heaven had had no Stephen or Stephen had had no Heaven suffering it self is but a stubborness and a rigid and stupid standing under an affliction it is not a humiliation a bending under Gods hand if it be not done in charity Stephen had a pattern and he is a pattern Christ was his and he is our Example ut hoc dicam tibi at te primo audivi saies St. Augustine in Stephen's person to Christ Lord thou taughtest me this prayer upon the cross receive it now from me as the Father receiv'd it from thee then He prayed for his enemies as for himself and thus much more earnestly for them then for himself that he prayed for himself standing and kneeling for them Stephen was the Plantiff and when he comes to his Nolo prosequi and to release what hath the Judg to say to the Defendant If a potent adversary oppress thee to ruine to death if
our family We have in the use of our Church a short and a larger Catechism both instruct the same things the same Religion but some capacities require the one and some the other God would catechise us in the knowledge of our mortality since we have devested our immortality he would have us understand our mortality since we have induced death upon our selves God would raise such a benefit to us out of death as that by the continual meditation thereof death might the less terrifie us and the less damnifie us First His Law alone does that office even his Common Law Morte morieris and stipendium peccati Mors est All have sinned and all must die And so his Statute Law too Heb. 9.27 Statutum est It is enacted it is appointed to man once to die And then as a Comment upon that Law he presents to us either his great Catechisms Isai 37.36 Sennacheribs Catechism in which we see almost Two hundred thousand Soldiers more by many then both sides arm and pay in these noiseful Wars of our Neighbors slain in one night 2 Chro. 13. or Jeroboams Catechism where Twelve hundred thousand being presented in the field more by many then all the Kings of Christendom arm and pay Five hundred thousand men chosen men and men of mighty valor as the Text qualifies them were slain upon one side in one day or Davids Catechism 2 Sam. 24. where Threescore and ten thousand were devoured of the Pestilence we know not in how few hours or this Egyptian Catechism of which we can make no conjecture because we know no number of their houses and there was not a house in which there was not one dead or God presents us his Catechism in the Primitive Church where every day may be written in Red Ink every day the Church celebrated Five hundred in some Copies Five thousand Martyrs every day that had writ down their names in their own blood for the Gospel of Christ Jesus or God presents us his Catechism in the later Roman Church where upon our attempt of the Reformation they boast to have slain in one day Seventy Millions in another Two hundred Millions of them that attempted and assisted the Reformation or else Gods presents his lesser Catechisms the several Funerals of our particular Friends in the Congregation or he abridges this Catechism of the Congregation to a less volume then that to the consideration of every particular peece of our own Family at home For so there is not a house in which there is not one dead Prov. 19.18 Have you not left a dead son at home whom you should have chastned whilest there was hope and have not Whom you should have beaten with the rod 23.13 to deliver his soul from Hell and have not Whom you should have made an Abel a Keeper of Sheep Gen. 4.2 or a Cain a Tiller of the Ground that is bestowed him bound him to some Occupation or Profession or Calling and have not You may believe God without an oath 1 Sam 3.13 but God hath sworn That because Eli restrained not the insolencies of his sons no sacrifice should purge his house for ever And scarce shall you finde in the whole Book of God any so vehement an intermination any judgment so vehemently imprinted as that upon Eli for not restraining the insolencies of his sons For in that case God says I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle That is he would inflict a sudden death upon the Father for his indulgence to his sons Have ye not left such a dead son dead in contumacy and in disobedience at home Have you not left a dead daughter at home A daughter whom you should have kept at home and have not but suffered with Dinah to go out to see the daughters of the land and so expose her self to dangerous tentations as Dinah did Have ye not left a dead servant at home Gen. 34.1 whom ye have made so perfect in deceiving of others as that now he is able to take out a new lesson of himself and deceive you Have you left no dead Inmates dead Sojourners dead Lodgers at home Of whom so they advance your profit you take no care how vicious in themselves they be or how dangerous to the State Deut. 31.12 Gather men and women and children and strangers within thy gate says God that they may all learn the Law of the Lord. If thy care spread not over all thy family whosoever is dead in thy family by thy negligence thou shalt answer the King that Subject that is the King of Heaven that Soul We have as we proposed to do surveyed this House in Egypt Part. 3. where the Text lays it and the House at home where we dwell there is a third House which we are this House of Clay and of Mud-walls our selves these bodies And is there none dead there not within us The House it self is ready to fall as soon as it is set up The next thing that we are to practise after we are born is to die The Timber of this House is but our Bones and My bones are waxen old says David and perchance not with age but as Job says His bones are full of the sins of his youth Ps 32.3 Job 20.11 Job 6.12 The lome-walls of this House are but this flesh and Our strength is not the strength of stones neither is our flesh brass and therefore Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm Jer. 17.5 The windows of this House are but our eyes and the light of mine eyes is gone from me says David and we know not how nor how soon Esai 59.10 The foundation is but our feet and besides that Our feet stumble at noon as the Prophet complains David found them so cold as that no art nor diligence could warm them And the roof and covering of this House is but this thatch of hair and it is denounc'd by more then one of the Prophets Esai 15.23 Jer. 48.37 That upon all heads shall fall baldness The House it self is always ready to fall but is there not also always some dead in this House in our selves Is not our first-born dead Our first-born says St. Augustin are the offspring of our beloved sin for we have some Concubine-sins and some one sin that we are married to Whatsoever we have begot upon that wife whatsoever we have got by that sin that 's our first-born and that 's dead How much the better soever we make account to live by it it is dead For as it was the mischievous invention of a Persecutor in the Primitive Church to tie living men to dead bodies and let them die so so men that tie the rest of their Estate to goods ill gotten do but invent a way to ruine and destroy all But that which is truly
hand it shall not reach me Et si pereant Though others perish I shall not perish or to this assurance Si peream peream If I perish by the good pleasure of God I shall be well content to perish so and to this also Et si peream non pereo Though I perish I do not perish though I die I do not die but as that piece of money which was but the money of a poor man being given in Subsidy becomes a part of the Royal Exchequer So this body which is but the body of a sinful man being given in Subsidy as a Contribution to the Glory of my God in the grave becomes a part of Gods Exchequer and when he opens it he shall issue out this money that is manifest it again cloth'd in his Glory that body which in me was but a piece of Copper money he shall make a Talent of Gold and which in me was but a grain of Wheat buried in the earth he shall multiply into many ears not of the same Wheat but of Angels food The Angels shall feed and rejoyce at my resurrection when they shall see me in my soul to have all that they have and in my body to have that that they have not A SERMON Preached at Lincolns-Inn Ascension-day 1622. SERMON XXIII Deut. 12.30 Take heed to thy self that thou be not snared by following them after they be destroyed from before thee and that thou inquire not after their gods saying How did those nations serve their gods even so will I do likewise WHen I consider our ascension in this life that which David speaks of Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord I see the Prophet adds there Psal 24.30 as another manner of expressing the same thing And who shall stand in that holy place Quis ascendet quis stabit A man does not ascend except he stand And such an ascension an ascension without a redescent Moses provides for here First they should ascend to an abolishing of all Idolatry And then they should stand in that state persevere in that station and perpetuate that ascension to themselves by shutting themselves up against any new reentries of that Idolatry which had been once happily banished from amongst them The inchoation of this ascension that step which is happily made in the abolishing of idolatry is in the beginning of this Chapter Ye shall utterly destroy all the places which is a vehement gradation and heightening of the commandment It is a destruction not a faint discontinuing of idolatry but destruction It is utter destruction not a defacing not a deferring of idolatry and it is the utter destruction of the very place not a seising the riches of the place nor a slight correction of the abuses of the place but the place it self and as is there expressed all the place not to leave the Devil one Chappel wherein the Nations had served their gods And the Holy Ghost proceeds in the next verse with this particular vehemency You shall overthrow their altars break their pillars burn their groves hew down their images and destroy their names But all this is but the inchoation of this ascension the first step in abolishing idolatry The consummation of it is in standing there and that 's in this Text Take heed to thy self c. Serm. 23. The words are an Inhibition and the persons are all they to whom God hath extended his favors so far as to deliver them from Idolatry formerly practised amongst them Divisio and to bring them to the sincere worship of his Name And for such persons we need not go far for we our selves are they God hath given us such a deliverance heretofore in the reformation of Religion so far we are ascended and so the Inhibition lies upon us that we slide not back again It hath two parts 1. The main matter of the Inhibition That we be not snared by Idolaters after they have been destroyed from before us And secondly two particular dangers whereby we may be snared First by following them Take heed you be not snared by them and then by an over-curious enquiring into their Religion Enquire not after their Gods c. And through the first the matter of the Inhibition we shall pass by these steps 1. That there is no security there is still danger though the Idolater be destroyed And secondly That there is therefore a diligence to be required Take heed to thy self And then thirdly That the danger from which this diligence must deliver us is a snare Take heed lest thou be snared And for the branches of the second part the snare of following them the snare of enquiring into their opinions it shall least incumber you to have them opened then when we come to handle them first we pass through the first part 1. Part. In that the first branch is That there is no security though the enemy be destroyed And there we are to consider first what amounts to a destruction what is called a destruction in this case God had promised the children of Israel that he would give all the inhabitants of the Land of Promise into their hands that he would abolish them destroy them and as his own phrase is cut them off Exod. 23.23 God performs all his promises was this performed to them did God destroy them all Truly it was very much that God did in this behalf He got great victories for them and by strange means One angel was able to destroy for them almost 200 thousand Assyrians in one night in Senacheribs Army 2 Kin. 19.35 This was a real execution by the hands of one who having Commission had truly Power to do it an Angel But he prevailed for them so too in another case only by an apparition of Angels when there was no blow strucken 2 Kin. 6.16 when Elisha's servant saw mountains full of Horses and Chariots of fire He prevailed for them by creatures of a much lower rank and weak in their nature Exod. 23.28 by Hornets He promises Moses that he would send Hornets before them and they should drive out the Inhabitants of the Land He prevails for them by creatures of a lower rank then they Jos 10.10 by creatures without life by stones The Lord discomfeited them by great stones from heaven He prevailed by that which is no creature no subsistence a sound only The Lord thundered with a great Thunder upon the Philistines and discomfeited them He took a lower way then this he employed nothing and yet did the work by imprinting a terror in their hearts 1 Sam. 7.10 Five of you shall chase a hundred and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight And a way lower then that 2 Kin. 6.17 he wrought not upon their mindes but upon their senses He smote a whole Army with blindness And he went further yet he did nothing at all upon them and yet wrought his purpose only
after Egyptian Onions again It is not enough that the State and the Church hath destroyed Idolatry so far as we said before still there are weeds still there are seeds And therefore Cave Take heed But yet it is but Take heed It is not take thought Afflict not thy self deject not thy self with ominous presages and prophetical melancholy thy God will overthrow this Religion and destroy this work which his right hand hath been a hundred years in repairing and scatter his corn which his right hand hath been a hundred years in purifying Come not to say It was but the passion and animosity of Luther It was but the ambition and singularity of Calvin that induc'd this Religion and now that that is spent the Religion melts like snow Take no such thought be not afraid that the truth of God shall or can perish It is not Take thought but it is much less Take arms Men may have false conceptions of preparations and ways laid towards a re-entry of Idolatry and men may have just and true reasons of or religious indignation to see so bad and so insolent uses made of those favours which are offered to persons of that profession but yet our inhibition is no further here but to take heed not to take arms not to come by violence not to slackness of Allegiance and Obedience It is but Take heed and but Take heed to thy self Pretend not thou who art but a private man to be an Overseer of the Publick or a Controller of him who by way of coaction is accountable to God only and neither to any great Officer at home nor to the whole body of the people there nor to any neighbour-Prince or State abroad Idolatry is destroyed but yet there is danger not to make thee take thought to suspect Gods Power or his Will to sustain his Cause not to take arms as if the Lord of Hosts needed Rebels but to take heed to watch plots of circumvention and to heed to thy self that is to all under thy charge for thy danger is not evident It is a snare Laqueus which is our last stop and step in this first part There is danger though the Idolaters be thus destroyed There is use of diligence if there be danger and the more if this danger be a snare Take heed that the Idolater do not kindle a Rebellion take heed that the Idolater do not sollicite an Invasion take heed of publick and general dangers These be Caveats for Princes but take heed of a snake take heed of a snare this appertains to every private man Psal 11.6 God studied plagues for Egypt 69.21 and they were strange plagues but that 's as great as any at least which David speaks of Pluet laqueos Upon the wicked God shall rain snares And after Mensa laqueus Their table shall become a snare before them And if God punish our negligence of his former favours so far as to rain snares even at our tables that almost at every table that we can come to we shall meet some that would ensnare us Is not this Caveat necessary in these times Take heed that thou be not snared David thought he had carried his complaint to the highest 64.65 when he said of his Enemies They commune of laying snares privily But now they do not plot privily but avow their mischiefs and speak so as we dare scarce confess that we heard them And that 's a shrewd snare when they dare speak more then we dare hear Will a man have taken up a snare from the earth Amos 3.5 and have taken nothing saith the Prophet Since they have laid their snares they will take some and thou mayest be one And therefore take heed of their snares There is a snare laid for thy son a perswasion to send him to foreign Universities they will say Not to change his Religion For Religion let him do as he shall see cause but there he shall be better taught and better bred then at home There is a share laid for thy servants what need they come to Church they have nothing to lose who will indite them who will persecute them And yet in due time such servants may do the Cause as much good as the Masters There is a snare laid for thy wife Her Religion say they doth not hinder her husbands preferment why should she refuse to apply her self to them We have used to speak proverbially of a Curtain Sermon as of a shrewd thing but a Curtain Mass a Curtain Requiem a snare in thy bed a snake in thy bosome is somewhat worse I know not what name we may give to such a womans husband but I am sure such a wife hath committed adultery Spiritual Adultery and that with her husbands knowledge call him what you will There is a snare for thy servant for thy son for thy wife and for thy fame too and how far soever thou wert from it they will have the world believe thou diedst a Papist If thy declination be towards profit if thy byas turn that way there is a snare in the likeness of a Chain of a Jewel a Pension If it be society and conversation there may be a snare in meeting more good company at Masses then at thy Parish Church If it be levity and affectation of new things there may be a snare of things so new in that Religion as that this Kingdom never saw them yet not then when this Kingdom was of that Religion For we had received the Reformation before the Council of Trent and before the growth of the Jesuits And if we should turn to them now we should be worse then we were before we receiv'd the Reformation and the Council of Trent and the Jesuits have made that Religion worse then it was Rom. 8.38 as St. Bernard says upon St. Pauls words Neither height nor depth nor life nor death shall separate us Minime tamen dicit nec nos ipsi The Apostle doth not say that we our selves and our own concupisences shall not separate us from God So though Excommunications have not Invasions have not Powder-Plots have not yet God knows what those snares may work upon us In laqueo suo comprehendantur Psal 9.16 says David Now laqueus is a snare as their malice intends it for us and laqueus is a halter as our Laws intend it for them and in laqueo suo as it 's theirs let them be taken Our good and great God in his power and mercy hath destroyed Idolatry but in his wisdom he hath left exercise for our diligence in some danger and that danger is a snare and therefore Take heed thou be not snared And so we have done with the first part Our second part consists of two branches 2. Part. of two ways of falling into this danger First by following them and then by inquiring into their Religion For the first the Original word which we translate following is Achareihem and it is
may make a Prayer a Libel if upon colour of preaching or praying against toleration of Religion or persecution for Religion he would insinuate that any such tolerations are prepared for us or such persecutions threatned against us But if for speaking the mysteries of your salvation plainly sincerely inelegantly inartificially for the Gold and not for the Fashion for the Matter and not for the Form Nanciscor populi gratiam my service may be acceptable to Gods people and available to their Edification Nonne Dei donum shall not I call this a great Blessing of God Beloved in him I must I do And therefore because I presume I speak to such I take to my self that which follows there in the same Father that he that speaks to such a people does not his duty if he consider not deliberately Quibus Quando Quantum loquatur both to whom and at what time and how much he is to speak I consider the persons and I consider that the greatest part by much are persons born since the Reformation of Religion since the death of Idolatry in this Land and therefore not naturaliz'd by Conversion by Transplantation from another Religion to this but born the natural children of this Church and therefore to such persons I need not lay hold upon any points of controverted Doctrine I consider also Quando the time and I consider that it is now in these days of Easter when the greatest part of this Auditory have or will renew their Hands to Christ Jesus in the Sacrament of his Body and his Blood that they will rather loose theirs then lack his and therefore towards persons who have testified that disposition in that seal I need not depart into any vehement or passionate Exhortations to constancy and perseverance as though there were occasion to doubt it And I consider lastly Quantum how much is necessary to be spoken to such a people so disposed and therefore farther then the custom and solemnity of this day and place lays an Obligation upon me I will not extend my self to an unnecessary length especially because that which shall be said by me and by my Brethren which come after and were worthy to come before me in this place is to be said to you again by another who alone takes as much pains as all we and all you too Hears all with as much patience as all you and is to speak of all with as much and more labour then all we Much therefore for your ease somewhat for his a little for mine own with such succinctness and brevity as may consist with clearness and perspicuity in such manner and method as may best enlighten your understandings and least encumber your memories I shall open unto you that light which God commanded out of darkness and that light by which he hath shin'd in our hearts and this light by which we shall have the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus Divisio Our parts therefore in these words must necessarily be three three Lights The first shows us our Creation the second our Vocation the third our Glorification In the first We who were but but what but nothing were made Creatures In the second we who were but Gentiles were made Christians In the third we who were but men shall be made saints In the first God took us when there was no world In the second God sustains us in an ill world In the third God shall crown us in a glorious and joyful world In the first God made us in the second God mends us in the third God shall perfect us First God commanded light out of darkness that man might see the Creature then he shin'd in our hearts that man might see himself at last he shall shine so in the face of Christ Jesus that man may see God and live and live as long as that God of light and life shall live himself Every one of these Parts will have divers Branches and it is time to enter into them In the first the Creation because this Text does not purposely and primarily deliver the Doctrine of the Creation not prove it not press it not enforce it but rather suppose it and then propose it by way of Example and Comparison for when the Apostles says God who commanded light out of darkness hath shin'd in our hearts he intimates therein these two Propositions first that the same God that does the one does the other too God perfects his works and then this Proposition also As God hath done the one he hath done the other God himself works by Patterns by Examples These two Propositions shall therefore be our two first Branches in this first Part. First Idem Deus the same God goes through his works and therefore let us never fear that God will be weary and then Sicut Deus as God hath done he will do again he works by pattern and so must we and then from these two we shall descend to our third Proposition Quid Deus what God is said to have done here and it is that he commanded light out of darkness In these three we shall determine this Part and for the Branches of the other two Parts our Vocation and our Glorification it will be a less burden to your memories to open them then when we come to handle the Parts themselves then altogether now Now we shall proceed in the Branches of the first Part. Part 1. Memb. 1. Idem Deus In this our first Consideration is Idem Deus the same our God goes through all Those divers Hereticks who thought there were two Gods for Cordon thought so and Marcion thought so too the Gnostiques thought so and the Maniches thought so too though they differ'd in their mistakings for errour is always manifold and multiform yet all their errours were upon this ground this root They could nor comprehend that the same God should be the God of Justice and the God of Mercy too a God that had an earnestness to punish sin and an easiness to pardon sin too Cordon who was first though he made two Gods yet he used them both reasonable well for with him Alter Bonus Alter Justus Iren. 1.28.29 one of his Gods is perfectly good merciful and the other though he be not so very good yet he is just Marcion who came after says worse because he could not discern the good purposes of God in inflicting Judgements nor the good use which good men make of his Corrections but thought all acts of his Justice to be calamitous and intolerable and naturally evil therefore with him Alter Bonus Alter Malus he that is the merciful God is his good God and he that is so just but just is an ill God Hence they came to call the God of the New Testament a good God because there was Copiosa Redemptio plentiful Redemption in the Gospel and the God of the Old Testament Malum Deum an ill God
every mans first-born-childe is his zeal to the Religion and Service of God As soon as we know that there is a Soul that Soul knows that there is a God and a Worship belonging to that God and this Worship is Religion And is not this first-born childe dead in many of us In him that is not stirr'd not mov'd not affected for his Religion his pulse is gone and that 's an ill sign In him that dares not speak for it not counsel not preach for it his Religion lies speechless and that 's an ill sign In him that feeds not Religion that gives nothing to the maintenance thereof his Religion is in a consumption In a word if his zeal be quenched his first-born is dead And so for these three Houses That in Egypt that at home that in our selves There is not a house in which there is not one dead Part 4. The fourth House falling under this survey is this House in which we are met now the house of God the Church and the ground wrapped up in the same consecration and in this house you have seen and seen in a lamentable abundance and seen with sad eyes that for many moneths there hath scarce been one day in which there hath not been one dead How should there be but multiplicity of deaths why should it be or be looked to be or thought to be otherwise The Master of the house Christ Jesus is dead before and now it is not so much a part of our punishment for the first Adam as an imitation of the second Adam to die death is not so much a part of our debt to Nature or Sin or Satan as a part of our conformity to him who died for us If death were in the nature of it meerly evil to us Christ would have redeemed us even from this death by his death But as the death of Christ Jesus is the Physick of mankinde so this natural death of the body is the application of that Physick to every particular man who only by death can be made capable of that glory which his death hath purchased for us This Physick all they whom God hath taken to him have taken and by his grace received life by it Their first-born is dead the body was made before the soul and that body is dead Rachel wept for her children and would not be comforted because they were not If these children and parents and friends and neighbours of ours were not if they were resolved into an absolute annihilation we could not be comforted in their behalf but Christ who says he is the Life lest we should think that to belong only to this life says also that he is the Resurrection We were contracted to Christ in our Election married to him in our Baptism in the Grave we are bedded with him and in the Resurrection estated and put into possession of his Kingdom And therefore because these words do not only affect us with that sad consideration That there is none of these houses in whieh there is not one dead but minister withall that consolation That there is none so dad but may have a Resurrection We shall pass another short survey over all these Houses Thus far we have survey'd these four Houses Egypt our families our selves and the Church as so many places of Infection so many temporal or spiritual Pesthouses into which our sins had heaped powder and Gods indignation had cast a match to kindle it But now the very phrase of the Text which is That in every house there was one dead There was invites us to a more particular consideration of Gods mercy in that howsoever it were it is not so now in which we shall look how far this beam of mercy shines out in every of these houses that it is not so now There is not one dead in every house now but the Infection Temporal and Spiritual Infection is so far ceased as that not only those that are alive do not die as before but those whom we called dead are not dead they are alive in their spirits in Abrahams bosome and they are alive in their very bodies in their contract and inherence in Christ Jesus in an infallible assurance of a joyful Resurrection Now in the survey of the first sort of houses of Egypt Egyptus herein we are interrupted Here they were dead and are dead still We see clearly enough Gods indignation upon them but we see neither of those beams of mercy either that there die no more or that we have the comfort of a joyful Resurrection in them who are dead For this fearful calamity of the death of their first-born wrought no more upon them but to bring them to that exclamation that vociferation that voice of despairful murmuring Omnes Moriemur We are all dead men v. 33. And they were mischievous Prophets upon themselves for proceeding in that sin which induc'd that calamity and the rest upon them they pursued the children of Israel through the Red-sea and perished in it and then they came not to die one in a house but as it is expressed in the Story and repeated in the Psalms Exod. 14.28 Psal 106.10 There remained not so much as one of them alive so that in their case there is no comfort in the first beam of mercy that this phrase They were dead or They did die should intimate That now they did not die now Gods correction had so wrought upon them as that God withdrew that correction from them for it pursued them and accompanied them to their final and total destruction And then for the other beam of mercy of transferring them which seemed dead in the eyes of the world to a better life by that hand of death to present happiness in their souls and to an assured resurrection to joy and glory in their bodies in the communion of Gods Saints Moses hath given us little hope in their behalf for thus he encourageth his Countreymen in that place The Egyptians whom you have seen this day Exod. 14.13 you shall see no more for ever No more in this world no more in the world to come Beloved as God empayl'd a Goshen in Egypt a place for the righteous amongst the wicked so there is an Egypt in every Goshen neasts of Snakes in the fairest Gardens and even in this City which in the sense of the Gospel we may call The Holy City as Christ called Jerusalem though she had multiplied transgressions The Holy City because she had not cast away his Law though she had disobeyed it So howsoever your sins have provoked God yet as you retain a zealous profession of the truth of his Religion I may in his name and do in the bowels of his mercy call you The Holy City even in this City no doubt but the hand of God fell upon thousands in this deadly infection who were no more affected with it then those Egyptians to cry out Omnes Moriemur We can