exceed theirs of love and error he ingaged his sister the Lady Elsmore to joyn with him to procure her Lord to discharge M. Donne the place he held under his Lordship And although Sir George were remembred that Errors might be over-punisht and therefore was desired to forbeare till second considerations had cleered some scruples yet he was restlesse untill his suit was granted and the punishment executed The Lord Chancellor then at M. Donnes dismission protesting he thought him a Secretary fitter for a King then a Subject But this physick of M. Donnes dismission was not strong enough to purge out all Sir George his choler who was not satisfied till M. Donne and his Compupill in Cambridge that married him M. Samuel Brooke who was after D. in D. and Master of Trinity Colledge in that University and his brother M. Christopher Brook of Lincolns Inne who gave M. Donne his Wife and witnessed the Mariage were all committed to severall Prisons M. Donne was first inlarged who neither gave rest to his body his braine nor any friend in whom he might hope to have any interest untill he had procured the inlargement of his two imprisoned friends He was now at liberty but his dayes were still cloudie and being past this trouble others did still multiply for his Wife to her extreame sorrow was detained from him Genes 29. And though with Iacob he endured not a hard service for her yet he lost a good one and was forced to get possession of her by a long suit in Law which proved very chargeable and more troublesome It was not long but that Time and M. Donnes behaviour which when it would intice had a strange kind of irresistible art had so dispassioned his Father in Law That as the world had approved his Daughters choice so he also could not choose but see a more then ordinary merit in his new Sonne which melted him into so much remorse that he secretly laboured his sons restauration into his place using his owne and his sisters power but with no successe The Lord Chancellor replying That although he was unfainedly sorry for what he had done yet it stood not with his credit to discharge and re-admit servants at the request of passionate Petitioners Within a short time Sir George appeared to be so far reconciled as to wish their happinesse or say so And being asked for his paternal blessing did not deny it but refused to contribute any meanes that might conduce to their livelyhood M. Donnes Portion was the greatest part spent in many and chargeable travels the rest disburst in some few Books and deare bought experience he out of all imployment that might yeeld a support for himselfe and Wife who had been curiously and plentifully educated his nature generous and he accustomed to confer not to receive curtesies These and other considerations but chiefly that his deare Wife was to bear a part in his sufferings surrounded him with many and sad thoughts and some apparent apprehensions of want But his sorrow was lessened and his wants prevented by the seasonable curtesies of their noble Kinsman Sir Francis Wally of Pirford who intreated them to a co-habitation with him where they remained with very much freedome to themselves and equall content to him for many yeares And as their charge increased she had yearly a child so did his love and bounty With him they continued till his death a little before which time Sir Francis was so happy as to make a perfect reconciliation betwixt that good man Sir George More and his forsaken sonne and daughter Sir George then giving Bond to pay M. Donne 800 l. at a certain day as a Portion with his wife and to pay him for their maintenance 20. l. quarterly as the Interest of it untill the said Portion were paid Most of those yeares that he lived with Sir Francis he studied the Civil and Canon Lawes In which he acquired such a perfection as was judged to hold some proportion with many who had made that study the imployment of their whole life Sir Francis being dead and that happy family dissolved M. Donne tooke a house at Micham neere unto Croydon in Surrey where his wife and family remained constantly and for himselfe having occasions to be often in London he tooke lodgings neere unto White-hall where he was frequently visited by men of greatest learning and judgement in this Kingdome his company being loved and much desired by many of the Nobility of this Nation who used him in their counsels of greatest considerations Nor did our owne Nobility onely favour him but his acquaintance and friendship was usually sought for by most Ambassadors of forraigne Nations and by many other strangers whose learning or employment occasioned their stay in this Kingdome He was much importuned by friends to make his residence in London which he could not doe having setled his dear wife and children at Micham whither he often retired himselfe and then studied incessantly some Points of Controversie But at last the perswasion of friends was so powerfull as to cause the removall of himselfe and family to London where that honourable Gentleman Sir Robert Drury assigned him a very convenient house rent-free next his own in Drury-lane and was also a daily cherisher of his studies and such a friend as sympathiz'd with him and his in their joy and sorrow Divers of the Nobility were watchfull and solicitous to the King for some preferment for him His Majesty had formerly both knowne and much valued him and had given him some hopes of a State employment being much pleased that M. Donne attended him especially at his meales where there was usually many deep discourses of Learning and often friendly disputes of Religion betwixt the King and those Divines whose places required their attendance on his Majestie Particularly the Right Reverend Bishop Montague then Deane of the Chappel who was the publisher of the eloquent and learned Works of his Majestie and the most learned Doctor Andrewes then his Majesties Almoner and at his death Bishop of Winchester About this time grew many disputes in England that concerned the Oath of Supremacy and Allegeance in which the King had appeared and ingaged himselfe by his publique writings now extant And his Majestie occasionally talking with M. Donne concerning many of those Arguments urged by the Romanists apprehended such a validity and cleerenesse in his answers that he commanded him to state the Points and bring his Reasons to him in writing to which he presently applyed himselfe and within sixe weeks brought them to his Majestie fairely written under his owne hand as they be now printed in his Pseudo-Martyr When the King had read and considered that Book he perswaded M. Donne to enter into the Ministery to which he appeared and was un-inclinable apprehending it such was his mistaking modesty too weighty for his abilities But from that time though many friends mediated with his Majestie to prefer him to some civil
expresse himselfe Norah which is rather Reverendus Mal. 2.5 then Terribilis as that word is used I gave him life and peace for the feare wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my Name So that this Terriblenesse which we are called upon to professe of God is a Reverentiall a Majesticall not a Tyrannicall terriblenesse And therefore hee that conceives a God that hath made man of flesh and blood and yet exacts that purity of an Angel in that flesh A God that would provide himselfe no better glory then to damme man A God who lest hee should love man and be reconciled to man hath enwrapped him in an inevitable necessity of sinning A God who hath received enough and enough for the satisfaction of all men and yet not in consideration of their future sinnes but meerely because he hated them before they were sinners or before they were any thing hath made it impossible for the greatest part of men to have any benefit of that large satisfaction This is not such a Terriblenesse as arises out of his Works his Actions or his Scriptures for God hath never said never done any such thing as should make us lodge such conceptions of God in our selves or lay such imputations upon him The true feare of God is true wisedome It is true Joy Rejoice in trembling saith David Psal 2.11 There is no rejoycing without this feare there is no Riches without it Reverentia Ichovae The feare of the Lord is his treasure and that is the best treasure Thus farre we are to goe Heb. 12.28 Let us serve God with reverence and godly feare godly feare is but a Reverence it is not a Jealousie a suspition of God And let us doe it upon the reason that followes in the same place For our God is a consuming fire There is all his terriblenesse he is a consuming fire to his enemies but he is our God and God is love And therefore to conceive a cruell God a God that hated us even to damnation before we were as some who have departed from the sense and modesty of the Ancients have adventured to say or to conceive a God so cruell as that at our death or in our way he will afford us no assurance that hee is ours and we his but let us live and die in anxiety and torture of conscience in jealousie and suspition of his good purpose towards us in the salvation of our soules as those of the Romane Heresie teach to conceive such a God as from all eternity meant to damne me or such a God as would never make me know and be sure that I should bee saved this is not to professe God to be terrible in his works For his Actions are his works and his Scriptures are his works and God hath never done or said any thing to induce so terrible an opinion of him And so we have done with all those pieces which in our paraphrasticall distribution of the text at beginning did constitute our first our Historicall part Davids retrospect his commemoration of former blessings In which he proposes a duty a declaration of Gods goodnesse Dicite publish it speake of it He proposes Religious duties in that capacity as he is King Religion is the Kings care He proposes by way of Counsaile to all by way of Commandment to his owne Subjects And by a more powerfull way then either counsaile or Commandment that is by Example by doing that himselfe which he counsailes and commands others to doe Dicite Say speake It is a duty more then thinking and lesse then doing Every man is bound to speake for the advancement of Gods cause but when it comes to action that is not the private mans office but belongs to the publique or him who is the Publique David himselfe the King The duty is Commemoration Dicite Say speake but Dicite Deo Do this to God ascribe not your deliverances to your Armies and Navies by Sea or Land no nor to Saints in Heaven but to God onely Nor are ye called upon to contemplate God in his Essence or in his Decrees but in his works In his Actions in his Scriptures In both those you shall find him terrible that is Reverend majesticall though never tyrannicall nor cruell Passe we now according to our order laid downe at first to our second part the Propheticall part Davids prospect for the future and gather wee something from the particular branches of that Through the greatnesse of thy power thine enemies shall submit themselves unto thee In this our first consideration is that God himselfe hath enemies and then 2 Part. Habet Deus hostes how should we hope to be nay why would wee wish to be without them God had good that is Glory from his enemies And we may have good that is advantage in the way to glory by the exercise of our patience from enemies too Those for whom God had done most the Angels turned enemies first vex not thou thy selfe if those whom thou hast loved best hate thee deadliest There is a love in which it aggravates thy condemnation that thou art so much loved Does not God recompence that if there be such a hate as that thou art the better and that thy salvation is exalted for having beene hated And that profit the righteous have from enemies God loved us then when we were his enemies Rom. 5.10 and we frustrate his exemplar love to us if we love not enemies too The word Hostis which is a word of heavy signification and implies devastation and all the mischiefes of war is not read in all the New Testament Inimicus that is non amicus unfriendly is read there often very very often There is an enmity which may consist with Euangelicall charity but a hostility that carries in it a denotation of revenge of extirpation of annihilation that cannot This gives us some light how far we may and may not hate enemies God had enemies to whom he never returned The Angels that opposed him and that is because they oppose him still and are by their owne perversenesse incapable of reconciliation We were enemies to God too but being enemies Rom. 5.10 we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son As then actual reconciliation makes us actually friends so in differences which may be reconciled we should not be too severe enemies but maintaine in our selves a disposition of friendship but in those things which are in their nature irreconciliable we must be irreconciliable too There is an enmity which God himselfe hath made and made perpetuall Ponam inimicitias sayes God Gen. 3.15 God puts an enmity betweene the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the woman And those whom God joynes let no man sever those whom God severs let no man joyne The Schoole presents it well wee are to consider an enemy formally or materially that is that which makes him an enemy or that which makes him a man In that
still it was a future thing Christ is often called the Expectation of the world but it was all that while but an Expectation but a reversion of a future thing So God fed that old world with expectation of future things as that that very name by which God notified himself most to that people Exod. 3.14 in his commission by Moses to Pharaoh was a future name howsoever our Translations and Expositions run upon the present as though God had said Qui sum my name is I am yet in truth it is Qui ero my name is I shall be They had evidences enow that God was but God was pleased to establish in them an assurance that he would be so still and not only be so still as he was then but that hee would be so with them hereafter as he was never yet he would be Immanuel God with us so as that God and man should be one person It was then a faire assurance and a blessed comfort which the children of Israel had in that of Zechary Zech. 9.9 Ecce venit rex Rejoyce ye daughters of Sion and shout ye daughters of Ierusalem Behold thy King commeth riding unto thee upon an Asse But yet this assurance though delivered as in the present produced not those acclamations Mat. 21.9 and recognitions and Hosannaes and Hosanna in the highest to the Son of David as his personall and actuall and visible riding into Jerusalem upon Palme-Sunday did Amougst the Jews there was light enough to discern this future blessing this comming of Christ but they durst not open it nor publish it to others We see the Jews would dye in defence of any part of their Law were it but the Ceremoniall were it but for the not eating of Swines flesh what unsufferable torments suffered the seven brothers in the Maccabees for that But yet we never finde that any of them dyed or exposed themselves to the danger or to the dignity of Martyrdome for this Doctrine of the Messias this future comming of Christ Nay we finde that the Septuagint who first translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek for King Ptolome disguised divers places thereof and departed from the Originall rather then propose this future comming of the Son of God to the interpretation of the world A little Candle they had for themselves but they durst not light anothers Candle at it So also some of the more speculative Philosophers had got some beames of this light but because they saw it would not be beleeved De verarelg cap. 4. they let it alone they said little of it Hence is it that S. Augustine sayes si Platonici reviviscerent if Plato and his Disciples should rise from the dead and come now into our streets and see those great Congregations which thrust and throng every Sabbath and every day of holy convocation to the worship of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus Hoc fortasse dicerent This it is likely they would say sayes he Haec sunt quae populis persuadere non ausi consaetudini cessimus This is that religion which because it consisted so much in future things we durst not propose to the people but were fain to leave them to those present and sensible and visible things to which they had been accustomed before lest when we had shaked them in their old religion we should not be able to settle and establish them in the new And as in civill government a Tyranny is better then an Anarchy a hard King better then none so when we consider religions Idolatry is better then Atheisme and superstition better then profanenesse Not that the Idolater shall any more be saved then the Atheist but that the Idolater having been accustomed to some sense and worship of God of God in his estimation is therefore apter to receive religious impressions then the Atheist is In this then consists this second act of Christs mercy to us in this word veni I am actually really personally presentially come that those types and figures and sacrifices which represented Christ to the old world were not more visible to the eye more palpable to the hand more obvious to the very bodily senses that Christ himself hath been since to us Therefore S. Iohn does not only rest in that That which was from the beginning 1 John 1.1 Christ was alwayes in purpose in prophecy in promise nor in that That which we have heard the world heard of Christ long before they saw him but he proceeds to that That which we have seen and looked upon with our eyes and handled with our hands that declare we unto you So that we are now delivered from that jealousie that possessed those Septuagint those Translators that they durst not speak plain and delivered from that suspition that possessed Plato and his disciples that the people were incapable of that doctrine Wee know that Christ is come and we avow it and we preach it and we affirm that it is not onely as impious and irreligious a thing but as senslesse and as absurd a thing to deny that the Son of God hath redeemed the world as to deny that God hath created the world and that he is as formally and as gloriously a Martyr that dyes for this Article The Son of God is come as he that dyes for this There is a God And these two acts of his mercy enwrapped in this one word veni I came first that he who is alwayes present out of an abundant love to man studied a new way of comming and then that he who was but betrothed to the old world by way of promise is married to us by an actuall comming will be farther explicated to us in that which only remaines and constitutes our third and last part the end and purpose of his comming That they might have life and might have it more abundantly And though this last part put forth many handles wee can but take them by the hand and shake them by the hand that is open them and so leave them First then in this last part we consider the gift it self the treasure Life 3. Part. Vita That they might have life Now life is the character by which Christ specificates and denominates himselfe Life is his very name and that name by which he consummates all his other names I am the Way the Truth and the Life John 14.6 And therefore does Peter justly and bitterly upbraid the Jews with that Ye desired a murderer an enemy to life to be granted unto you and killed the Prince of Life Acts 3.14 It is an honour to any thing that it may be sworn by by vulgar and triviall things men might not sweare Jer. 5.7 How shall I pardon them this sayes God They have sworn by things that are not gods And therefore God who in so many places professes to sweare by himself and of whom the Apostle sayes Heb. 6.13 That because he could sweare by no greater he
accrues to us we shall see that though it be presented by Reason before and illustrated by Reason after yet the roote and foundation thereof is in Faith though Reason may chafe the wax yet Faith imprints the seale for the Resurrection is not a conclusion out of naturall Reason but it is an article of supernaturall Faith and though you assent to me now speaking of the Resurrection yet that is not out of my Logick nor out of my Rhetorique but out of that Character and Ordinance which God hath imprinted in me in the power and efficacy whereof I speak unto you as often as I speak out of this place As I say we determine our first part in this How the assurance of this Resurrection accrues to us so when we descend to our second part That is the consolation which we receive whilest we are In via here upon our way in this world out of the contemplation of that Resurrection to glory which we shall have In patria at home in heaven and how these two Resurrections are arguments and evidences of one another we shall look upon some correspondencies and resemblances between naturall death and spirituall death by sin and between the glorious Resurrection of the body and the gracious Resurrection of the soule that so having brought bodily death and bodily Resurrection and spirituall death and spirituall Resurrection by their comparison into your consideration you may anon depart somewhat the better edified in both and so enjoy your present Resurrection of the soule by Grace with more certainty and expect the future Resurrection of the body to glory with the more alacrity and chearfulnesse Though therefore we may hereafter take just occasion of entring into a war 1. Part. in vindicating and redeeming these words seased and seduced by our adversaries to testifie for their Purgatory yet this day being a day of peace and reconciliation with God and man we begin with peace with that wherein all agree That these words Else what shall they do that are baptized for dead If the dead rise not at all why are they baptized for dead must necessarily receive such an Exposition as must be an argument for the Resurrection This baptisme pro mortuis for dead must be such a baptisme as must prove that the Resurrection For that the Apostle repeats twice in these few words Else sayes he that is if there be no Resurrection why are men thus baptized And again if the dead rise not why are men thus baptized Indeed the whole Chapter is a continuall argument for the Resurrection from the beginning thereof to the 35. ver he handles the An sit whether there be a Resurrection or no For if that be denyed or doubted in the roote in the person of Christ whether he be risen or no the whole frame of our religion fals and every man will be apt and justly apt to ask that question which the Indian King asked when he had been catechized so far in the articles of our Christian religion as to come to the suffered and crucified and dead and buried impatient of proceeding any farther and so losing the consolation of the Resurrection he asked only Is your God dead and buried then let me return to the worship of the Sun for I am sure the Sun will not die If Christ be dead and buried that is continue in the state of death and of the grave without a Resurrection where shall a Christian look for life Therefore the Apostle handles and establishes that first that assurance A Resurrection there is From thence he raises and pursues a second question De modo But some man will say sayes he How are the dead raised up and with what body come they forth And in these questions De modo there is more exercise of reason and of discourse for many times The matter is matter of faith when the manner is not so but considerable and triable by reason Many times for the matter we are all bound and bound upon salvation to think alike But for the manner we may think diversly without forfeiture of salvation or impeachment of discretion For he is not presently an indiscreet man that differs in opinion from another man that is discreet in things that fall under opinion Absit superstito Geâ—son hoc est superflua religio sayes a moderate man of the Romane Church This is truly superstition to bring more under the necessity of being beleeved then God hath brought in his Scriptures superfluous religion sayes he is superstition Remove that and then as he addes there Contradictoria quorum utrumque probabile credi possunt Where two contrary opinions are both probable they may be embraced and beleeved by two men and those two be both learned and discreet and pious and zealous men And this consideration should keep men from that precipitation of imprinting the odious and scandalous names of Sects or Sectaries upon other men who may differ from them and from others with them in some opinions Probability leads me in my assent and I think thus Let me allow another man his probability too and let him think his way in things that are not fundamentall They that do not beleeve alike in all circumstances of the manner of the Resurrection may all by Gods goodnesse meet there and have their parts in the glory thereof if their own uncharitablenesse do not hinder them And he that may have been in the right opinion may sooner misse heaven then he that was in the wrong if he come uncharitably to condemne or contemne the other for in such cases humility and love of peace may in the sight of God excuse and recompence many errours and mistakings And after these of the Matter of the Manner of the Resurrection the Apostle proceeds to a third question of their state and condition whom Christ shall finde alive upon Earth at his second comming and of them he sayes onely this Ecce mysterium vobis dico Behold I tell you a mystery a secret we shall not all sleep that is not dye so as that we shall rest any time in the grave but we shall all be changed that is receive such an immutation as that we shall have a sudden dissolution of body and soul which is a true death and a sudden re-union of body and soule which is a true resurrection in an instant in the twinkling of an eye Thus carefull and thus particular is the Apostle that the knowledge of the resurrection might be derived unto us Now of these three questions which he raises and pursues first whether there be a Resurrection then what manner of Resurrection and then what kinde of Resu rrection they shall have that live to the day of Judgement our Text enters into the first For for the first That a resurrection there is the Apostle opens severall Topiques to prove it One is from our Head and Patterne and Example Christ Jesus For so he argues first If the dead be not raised
never spoken of the Resurrection to them they were likely to have heard of it from them to whom Christ had spoken of it It was Cleophas his question to Christ though he knew him not then to be so when they went together to Emaus Art thou onely a stranger in Ierusalem that is hast thou been at Jerusalem and is this Luke 24.16 The death of Christ strange to thee So may we say to any that professes Christianity Art thou in the Christian Church and is this The Resurrection of Christ strange to thee Are there any amongst us that thrust to Fore-noones and After-noones Sermons that pant after high and un-understandable Doctrines of the secret purposes of God and know not this the fundamentall points of Doctrine Even these womens ignorance though they were in the number of the Disciples of Christ makes us affraid that some such there may be and therefore blessed be they that have set on foote that blessed way of Catechizing that after great professions we may not be ignorant of small things These things these women might have learnt of others who were to instruct them Luke 24. â—â— But for their better assurance the Angell tells them here that Christ himself had told them of this before Remember sayes he how Christ spoke to you whilst he was with you in Galile We observe that Christ spoke to his Disciples of his Resurrection five times in the Gospell Now these women could not be present at any of the five but one which was the third Mat. 17.22 And before that it is evident that they had applied themselves to Christ and ministred unto him The Angell then remembers them what Christ said to them there Luke 24.6 It was this The Sonne of man must be delivered into the hands of sinfull men and Crucified and the third day rise againe And they remembred his words sayes the Text there Then they remembred them when they heard of them again but not till then Which gives me just occasion to note first the perverse tendernesse and the supercilious and fastidious delicacy of those men that can abide no repetitions nor indure to heare any thing which they have heard before when as even these things which Christ himself had preached to these women in Galile had been lost if this Angel had not preached them over again to them at Jerusalem Remember how he spake to you sayes he to them And why shouldst thou be loath to heare those things which thou hast heard before when till thou heardst them again thou didst not know that is not consider that ever thou hadst heard them So have we here also just occasion to note their impertinent curiosity who though the sense be never so well observed call every thing a salfification if the place be not rightly cyphard or the word exactly cited and magnifie one another for great Text men though they understand no Text because they cite Book and Chapter and Verse and Words aright whereas in this place the Angel referres the women to Christs words and they remember that Christ spake those words and yet if we compare the places Mat. 17.22 Luke 24.6 that where Christ speaks the words and that where the Angell repeats them though the sense be intirely the same yet the words are not altogether so Thus the Angell erects them in the consternation Remember what was promised that in three dayes he would rise The third day is come and he is risen as he said and that your senses may be exercised as well as your faith Come and see the place where the Lord lay Even the Angell calls Christ Lord Dominus Angeli Heb. 1.6 and his Lord for the Lord and the Angell calls him so is Lord of all of men and Angels When God brings his Soninto the world sayes the Apostle he sayes let all the Angels of God worship him And when God caries his Son out of the world by the way of the Crosse they have just cause to worship him too Colâ—â—â— 1.20 for By the blood of his Crosse are all things reconciled to God both things in earth and things in heaven Men and Angels Therefore did an Angel minister to Christ before he was Luke 1. Mat. 1. Luke 2. Mat. 4. Luke 22. Acts 1.10 in the Annunciation to his blessed Mother that he should be And an Angel to his imaginary Father Ioseph before he was born And a Quire of Angels to the Shepheards at his birth An Angel after his tentation And in his Agony and Bloody-sweat more Angels Angels at his last step at his Ascension and here at his Resurrection Angels minister unto him The Angels of heaven acknowledged Christ to be their Lord. In the beginning some of the Angels would be Similes Altissimo like to the most High But what a transcendent what a super-diabolicall what a prae-Luciferian pride is his that will be supra Altissimum 2 Thes 2.4 superiour to God That not only exalteth himselfe above all that is called God Kings are called Gods and this Arch-Monarch exalts himselfe above all Kings but above God literally and in that wherein God hath especially manifested himself to be God to us that is in prescribing us a Law how he will be obeyed for in dispensing with this Law and adding to and withdrawing from this law he exalts himself above God as our Law-giver And as it is also said there He exalteth himself and opposeth himselfe against God There is no trusting of such neighbours as are got above us in power This man of sin hath made himselfe superiour to God and then an enemy to God for God is Truth and he opposes him in that for he is heresie and falshood and God is Love and he opposes him in that for he is envy and hatred and malice and sedition and invasion and rebellion The Angell confesses Christ to be The Lord his Lord Dominus mortuus and he confesses him to be so then when he lay dead in the grave Come seethe place where the Lord lay A West Indian King having beene well wrought upon for his Conversion to the Christian Religion and having digested the former Articles when he came to that He was crucified dead and buried had no longer patience but said If your God be dead and buried leave me to my old god the Sunne for the Sunne will not dye But if he would have proceeded to the Article of the Resurrection hee should have seene that even then when hee lay dead hee was GOD still Then when hee was no Man hee was GOD still Nay then when hee was no man hee was God and Man in this true sense That though the body and soule were divorced from one another and that during that divorce he were no man for it is the union of body and soule that makes a man yet the Godhead was not divided from either of these constitutive parts of man body or soule Psal 22.7 1
in this Councel this Synedrion of Seventy had continued though with some variations to this time when S. Paul was now called before them Of this Councel of Seventy this Synedrion our blessed Saviour speaks when he sayes He that saies Raca that is declares his anger by any opprobrious words of defamation shall be subject to the Councel Of this Councel he speakes when he sayes Mat. 5.22 Iohn 10.17 for my sake they will deliver you up to the Councel And from this Councel it is not inconveniently thought that those messengers were sent which were sent to examine Iohn Baptist Iohn 1.19 whether he were the Messias or no for there it is said That Priests and Levites were sent and this Councell sayes Iosephus at first and for a long time consisted of such persons though after a third Order was taken in that is some principall men of the other Tribes To this Councel belonged the Conusance of all causes Ecclesiasticall and Civill and of all persons no Magistrate no Prophet was exempt from this Court. Before this Councel was Herod himselfe called for an execution done by his command which Ioseph l 14. c. 17. though it were done upon a notorious malefactor yet was done without due proceedings in law and therefore Herod called before this Councell for it But by the way this was not done when Herod was King as Baronius doth mischievously and seditiously infer and argue as though this Councel were above the King Herod at that time was very far from any imagination of being King His Father Antipater who then was alive having at that time no pretense to the Kingdome But Herod though young was then in a great place of Government and for a misdemeanor there was called before this Councel which had jurisdiction over all but the King For so in the Talmud it selfe the difference is expresly put Sacerdos magnus judicat judicatur The High Priest the greatest Prelate in the Clergy may have place in this Councel and may be called in question by this Councel Iudicat judicatur So Testimonium dicit de eo dicitur He may goe from the Bench and be a witnesse against any man and he may be put from the Bench and any mans witnesse be received against him But then of the King it is as expresly said of this Councel in that Talmud Nec judicat nec judicatur The King sits in Judgement upon no man lest his presence should intimidate an accused person or draw the other Judges from their own opinion to his Much lesse can the King be judged by any Nec testimonium dicit nec de eo dicitur The King descends not to be a witnes against any man neither can any man be a witnes against him It was therefore mischievously and seditiously and treacherously and trayterously and in one comprehensive word Papistically argued by Baronius That this Councel was above the King But above all other persons it was In some cases in the whole body of the Councel for Matters of Religion Innovations in poynts of doctrine Imputations upon great persons in the Church were not to be judged by any selected Committee but by the whole Councel the intire body the Seaventy Pecuniary matters and matters of defamation might be determined by a Committee of any three Matters that induced bodily punishments though it were but flagellation but a whipping matter not under a Committee of twenty three But so were all persons and all causes distributed as that that Court that Councel had conusance of all So that then S. Paul was before a competent and a proper Judge and therefore bound to answer Did he that That is our next disquisition and our second Consideration in this part His end his purpose in proceeding as he did His End was to dissolve the Councel for the present He saw a tumultuary proceeding for Finis as the Text sayes he was fain to cry out in the Councel before he could be heard He saw the President of the Councel Ver. 2. Ananias the high Priest so ill-affected towards him as that he commanded him extrajudicially to be smitten He saw a great part of his Judges and spectators amongst whom were the witnesses to be his declared enemies He saw that if he proceeded to a tryall then he perished infallibly irrecoverably and therefore desired to put off the tryall for that time He did not deny nor decline the jurisdiction of that Court He had no eye to any forraigne Prince nor Prelate There are amongst us that doe so that deny that they can be traytors though they commit treason because they are subjects to a forraine Bishop and not to their naturall King S. Paul did not so He did not calumniate nor traduce the proceedings of that Court nor put into the people ill opinions of their superiors by laying aspersions upon them There are that doe so S. Paul did not But his end and purpose was onely to put off the tryall for that time till he might be received to a more sober and calme and equitable hearing And this certainly was no ill end so his way were good What was that That is our next our third and last Consideration in this part His way was by a twofold Protestation Viae Pharisaei The first this Men and brethren I am a Pharisee The Pharisees were a sect amongst the Jews who are ordinarily conceived to have received their Name from Division from Separation from departing from that liberty which other men did take to a stricter forme of life Of which amongst many others S. Hierome gives us this evidence that the Pharisees would fringe their long robes with thornes that so they might cut and teare and mangle their heels and legs as they went in the sight of the people Outward mortification and austerity was a specious thing and of great estimation amongst the Jews you may see that in Iohn Baptist who was as much followed and admired for that as Christ for his Miracles though Iohn Baptist did no Miracles For extraordinary austerity is a continuall Miracle As S. Hierome sayes of Chastity Habet servata pudicitia martyrium suum Chastity is a continuall Martyrdome So to surrender a mans selfe to a continuall hunger and thirst and cold and watching and forbearing all which all others enjoy a continuall mortification is a continuall Miracle This made the Pharisees gracious and acceptable to the people Phil. 3.5 Act. 26.5 Therefore S. Paul doth not make his Protestation here onely so That he had been as touching the Law a Pharisee nor as he makes it in this book After the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee that is heretofore I did but now after his Conversion and after his Apostolicall Commission he makes it Men and brethren I am a Pharisee Beloved there are some things in which all Religions agree The worship of God The holinesse of life And therefore if when I study this
care is of the man and the soule is the man first a hedge about him and then about his house and about all that he had on every side Job 1.10 So day after day we shall finde arguments to establish our hearts in hope that the Lord hath compassed us and nothing shall breake in so as to take us from him but God shall say to us as to his former people Leva in circuitu oculos tuos Lift up thine eyes round about Esay 49.18 and behold which is one great comfort that he enables us to see and to know our enemies to discerne a tentation to be a tentation Omnes isti congregati sunt All these gather themselves together and come to thee which is another assistance that when we see our enemies multiply and that there is none that fighteth for us but onely thou O God we make a more present recourse to him But Vivo ego dicit Dominus As I live saith the Lord Velut ornamento vestieris thou shalt surely cloathe thee with them all as with an ornament and binde them on thee as a Bride doth which is the fulnesse of the mercy That as in another place he promises his children Panis vester sunt your enemies shall be your Bread Numb 14.9 you shall feed upon your enemies So here hee makes our enemies even our spirituall enemies our Cloathes and more then that our Jewels our Ornaments wee shall bee the stronger the warmer the richer by tribulations and tentations having overcome them as we shall if the Lord compasse us if he continue his watchfulnesse over us And that David sayes here first in the Churches behalfe God from the beginning carried a wall about his Church in that assurance Primitiva Mat. 16.18 Portae inferi The gates of hell shall not prevaile against it The Gentiles the Philosophers that were without the Church found a party Traitors Conspirators within The Heretiques and all these led and maintained by potent Princes that persecuted the Church The gates of hell were all opened and issued all her forces but Non praevaluerunt they never prevailed The Arians were sometimes more then the true Christians in all the world The Martyrians a sect that affected the name of Martyrdome could name more Martyrs then the true Church could but Evanuerunt yet they vanished The Emperours of Rome persecuted the Bishops of Rome to death yet when we looke upon the reckoning the Emperors died faster then Bishops Thou hast compassed me sayes the Primitive Church and so sayes the Reformed too Princes that hated one another have joyned in leagues against the Religion Reformata Princes that needed their Subjects have spent their Subjects by thousands in Massacres to extinguish the Religion Personall Assasinates Clandestine plots by poyson by fire by water have been multiplied against Princes that favour the Religion Inquisitions Confiscations Banishments Dishonours have overflowne them that professe the true Religion and yet the Lord compassing his Church she enjoyes a holy certainty arising out of these testimonies of his care that she shall never be forsaken And this may every good soule have too God comes to us without any purpose of departing from us againe Anima For the Spirit of life that God breated into man that departs from man in death but when God had assumed the nature of man the God-head never parted from that nature no not in death When Christ lay dead in the grave the God-head remained united to that body and that soule which were dis-united in themselves God was so united to man as that he was with man when man was not man in the state of death So when the Spirit of God hath invested compassed thy soule and made it his by those testimonies that Spirit establishes it in a kinde of assurance that he will never leave it Old Rome had as every City amongst the Heathen had certaine gods which they called their Tutelar gods gods that were affected to the preservation of that place But they durst never call upon those gods by their proper names for feare of losing them lest if their names should bee knowne by their enemies their enemies should winne away their gods from them by bestowing more cost or more devotion towards them then they themselves used So also is it said of them that when they had brought to Rome a forraigne god which they had taken in a conquered place Victory they cut the wings of their new god Victory lest he should flie from them againe This was a misery that they were not sure of their gods when they had them We are If he once come to us he never goes from us out of any variablenesse in himselfe but in us onely That promise reaches to the whole Church Esay 30.20 and to every particular soule Thy Teachers shall not bee removed into a corner any more but thine eye shall see thy Teachers which in the Originall as is appliably to our present purpose noted by Rabbi Moses is Non erunt Doctores tui alati Thy Teachers shall have no wings They shall never flie from thee and so the great Translation reads it Non avolabunt As their great god Victory could not flie from Rome so after this victory which God hath given his Church in the Reformation none of her Teachers should flie to or towards Rome Every way that God comes to us he comes with a purpose to stay and would imprint in us an assurance that he doth so and that Impression is this Compassing of thy soule with songs of deliverance in the signification and use of which word we shall in one word conclude all God hath given us this certitude Songs this faire assurance of his perpetuall residence with us in a word of a double signification The word is Ranan which signifies Joy exultation singing Lament 2.14 Psal 17.1 But it hath another sense too Arise Cry out in the night And Attend unto my cry which are voyces far from singing This God meanes therein That though he give us that comfort to sit and sing of our Deliverance yet hee would not have us fall asleepe with that musique but as when we contemplate his everlasting goodnesse wee celebrate that with a constant Joy so when we looke upon our owne weaknesse and unworthinesse we cry out Wretched men that wee are who shall deliver us from this body of death For though we have the Spirit of life in us we have a body of death upon us How loving soever my soule be it will not stay in a diseased body How loving soever the Spirit of life be it will not stay in a diseased soule My soule is loath to goe from my body but sicknesse and paine will drive it out so will sinne the Spirit of life from my soule God compasses us with Songs of Deliverance we are sure he would not leave us But he compasses us with Cries too we are afraid we are sure that we
all the glory ascribed And then that which fals within this commandement this Consideration is Opera ejus The works of God How terrible art thou in thy works It is not Decreta ejus Arcana ejus The secrets of his State the wayes of his government unrevealed Decrees but those things in which he hath manifested himselfe to man Opera his works Consider his works and consider them so as this commandement enjoynes that is How terrible God is in them Determine not your Consideration upon the worke it self for so you may think too lightly of it That it is but some naturall Accident or some imposture and false Miracle or illusion Or you may thinke of it with an amazement with a stupidity with a consternation when you consider not from whom the worke comes consider God in the worke And God so as that though he be terrible in that worke yet he is so terrible but so as the word of this Text expresses this terriblenesse which word is Norah and Norah is but Reverendus it is a terror of Reverence not a terror of Confusion that the Consideration of God in his works should possesse us withall And in those plaine and smooth paths wee shall walke through the first part The historicall part what God hath formerly done Say unto God how terrible art thou in thy works from thence we descend to the other The Propheticall part what upon our performance of this duty God will surely do in our behalfe he will subdue those enemies which because they are ours are his In multitudine virtutis In the greatnesse of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee Where we shall see first That even God himselfe hath enemies no man therefore can be free from them And then we shall see whom God cals enemies here Those who are enemies to his cause and to his friends All those if we will speake Davids language the Holy Ghosts language we must call Gods enemies And these enemies nothing can mollifie nothing can reduce but Power faire meanes and perswasion will not worke upon them Preaching Disputing will not doe it It must be Power and greatnesse of power and greatnesse of Gods Power The Law is Power and it is Gods Power All just Laws are from God One Act of this Power an occasionall executing of Laws at some few times against the enemies of Gods truth will not serve there must be a constant continuation of the execution thereof nor will that serve if that be done onely for worldly respects to raise money and not rather to draw them who are under those Laws to the right worship of God in the truth of his Religion And yet all that even all this This power this great power his power shall worke upon these his and our enemies is but this They shall submit themselves sayes the text but how Mentientur tibi as it is in the Originall and as you finde it in the Margin They shall dissemble they shall lie they shall yeeld a fained obedience they shall make as though they were good Subjects but not be so And yet even this Though their submission be but dissembled but counterfaited David puts amongst Gods blessings to a State and to a Church It is some blessing when Gods enemies dare not appeare and justifie themselves and their Cause as it is a heavy discouragement when they dare do that Though God doe not so far consummate their happinesse as that their enemies shall be truly reconciled or throughly rooted out yet he shall afford them so much happinesse as that they shall doe them no harme And Beloved this distribution of the text which I have given you is rather a Paraphrase then a Division and therefore the rest will rather be a Repetition then a Dilatation And I shall onely give some such note and marke upon every particular branch as may returne them and fix them in your memories and not enlarge my selfe far in any of them for I know the time will not admit it First then we remember you in the first branch of the first part that David 1 Part. Rex gubernat Ecclesiā in that Capacity as King institutes those Orders which the Church is to observe in the publique service of God For the King is King of men not of bodies onely but of soules too And of Christian men of us not onely as we worship one God but as we are to expresse that worship in the outward acts of Religion in the Church God hath called himselfe King and he hath called Kings Gods And when we looke upon the actions of Kings we determine not our selves in that person but in God working in that person As it is not I that doe any good 1 Cor. 15.10 but the grace of God in me So it is not the King that commands but the power of God in the King For as in a Commission from the King the King himselfe workes in his Commissioners and their just Act is the Kings Act So in the Kings lawfull working upon his Subjects God works the Kings acts are Gods acts That abstinence therefore and that forbearance which the Roman Church hath used from declaring whether the Laws of secular Magistrates do bind the Conscience or no that is whether a man sin in breaking a Temporall Law or no for though it have beene disputed in their books and though the Bishop of that Church were supplicated in the Trent Councell to declare it yet he would never be brought to it that abstinence I say of theirs though it give them one great advantage yet it gives us another For by keeping it still undetermined and undecided how far the Laws of temporall Princes doe binde us they keepe up that power which is so profitable to them that is To divide Kings and Subjects and maintaine jealousies betweene them because if the breach of any Law constitute a sin then enters the jurisdiction of Rome for that is the ground of their indirect power over Princes In ordine ad spiritualia that in any action which may conduce to sin they may meddle and direct and constraine temporall Princes That is their advantage in their forbearing to declare this doctrine And then our advantage is That this enervates and weakens nay destroyes and annibilates that ordinary argument That there must be alwayes a Visible Church in which every man may have cleare resolution and infallible satisfaction in all scruples that arise in him and that the Roman Church is that Seat and Throne of Infallibility For how does the Roman Church give any man infallible satisfaction whether these or these things grounded upon the temporall Laws of secular Princes be sins or no when as that Church hath not nor will not come to a determination in that point How shall they come to the Sacrament how shall they go out of the world with a cleare conscience when many things lye upon them which they know not nor can be informed
by their Confessors whether they he sins or no And thus it is in divers other points besides this They pretend to give satisfaction and peace in all cases and pretend to be the onely true Church for that and yet leave the conscience in ignorance and in distemper and distresse and distraction in many particulars The Law of the Prince is rooted in the power of God The roote of all is Order and the orderer of all is the King And what the good Kings of Judah and the religious Kings of the Primitive Christian Church did every King may nay should do For both the Tables are committed to him as well the first that concernes our religious duties to God as the other that concernes our Civill duties to men So is the Arke where those Tables are kept and so is the Temple where that Arke is kept all committed to him and he oversees the manner of the religious service of God And therefore it is that in the Schooles we call Sedition and Rebellion Sacriledge for though the trespasse seeme to be directed but upon a man yet in that man whose office and consequently his person is sacred God is opposed and violated And it is impiously said of a Jesuit I may easily be beleeved of that Jesuit Gretzer if any other might be excepted Non est Regum etiam veram doctrinam confirmare The King hath nothing to doe with Religion neither doth it belong to him to establish any forme of Religion in his Kingdome though it bee the right Religion and though it be but by way of Confirmation This then David Omnibus persuadet David as a King takes to be in his care in his office To rectifie and settle Religion that is the outward worship of God And this he intimates this he conveyes by way of counsaile and perswasion to all the world he would faine have all agree in one service of God Ver. 1. Therefore he enters the Psalme so Iubilate omnes terrae Rejoyce all ye lands Ver. 4. and Adoret te omnis terrae All the earth shall worship thee and againe Venite audite omnes Ver. 16. Come and heare all ye that feare God For as S. Cyprian sayes of Bishops That every Bishop is an universall Bishop That is must take into his care and contemplation not onely his owne particular Dioces but the whole Catholique Church So every Christian King is a King of the whole Christian world that is must study and take into his care not onely his own kingdome but all others too For it is not onely the municipall law of that kingdome by which he is bound to see his own subjects in all cases righted but in the whole law of Nations every King hath an interest My soule may be King that is reside principally in my heart or in my braine but it neglects not the remoter parts of my body David maintains Religion at home but he assists as much as he can the establishing of that Religion abroad too David endevours that perswades that every where but he will be sure of it at home Suis imperat There he enjoyns it there he commands it Dicite sayes he Say that is This you shall say you shall serve God thus We cannot provide that there shall be no Wolves in the world but we have provided that there shall be no Wolves in this kingdome Idolatry will be but there needs be none amongst us Idolaters were round about the children of Israel in the land of promise They could not make all those Proselytes but yet they kept their own station When the Arian heresie had so surrounded the world as that Vniversa fere Orientalis Ecclesia Almost all the Eastern Church Nicephor Vinc. Lyra. And Cuncti pene Latini Episcopi aut vi aut fraude decepti Almost all the Bishops of the Westerne Church were deceived or threatned out of their Religion into Arianisme Insomuch Hilar. that S. Hilarie gives a note of an hundred and five Bishops of note noted with that heresie When that one Bishop who will needs be all alone the Bishop of Rome Liberius so far subscribed to that heresie Hieron De Roma pont l. 4. c. 9. as S. Hieroms expresse words are that Bellarmine himselfe does not onely not deny it but finds himselfe bound and finds it hard for him to prove That though Liberius did outwardly professe himselfe to be an Arian yet in his heart he was none yet for all this impetuousnesse of this flood of this heresie Athanasius as Bishop excommunicated the Arians in his Dioces And Constantine as Emperor banished them out of his Dominions Athanasius would have been glad if no other Church Constantine would have been glad if no other State would have received them When they could not prevaile so far yet they did that which was possible and most proper to them they preserved the true worship of the true God in their own Jurisdiction David could not have done that if he had not had a true zeale to Gods truth Ipse facit quod jubâ—â— in his own heart And therefore as we have an intimation of his desire to reduce the whole world and a testimony of his earnestnesse towards his own Subjects so we have an assurance that in his own particular he was constantly established in this truth He cals to all Come and see the works of God And more particularly to all his O blesse our God yee people but he proposes himselfe to their consideration too Ver. 5. Ver. 8. Ver. 16. Psal 145.3 I will declare what he hath done for my soule Great is the Lord and greatly to be feared sayes this religious King in another Psalme And that is a Proclamation a Remonstrance to all the world He addes One generation shall declare thy works to another Ver. 4. Ver. 6. And that is a propagation to the ends of the world But all this is rooted in that which is personall and follows after I will speake of the glorious honour of thy Majesly And that is a protestation for his own particular And to the same purpose is that which follows in the next verse Men shall speake of the might of thy terrible acts They shall that is They should and I would all men would sayes David But whether they doe or no I will declare thy greatnesse sayes he there I will not be defective in my particular And David was to be trusted with a pious endevour amongst his Neighbours and with a pious care over all his own subjects as long as he nourished and declared so pious a disposition in his own person And truly it is an injurious it is a disloyall suspition and jealousie it is an ungodly fascination of our own happinesse to doubt of good effects abroad and of a blessed assurance at home as long as the zeale of Gods truth remains so constantly in his heart and flowes out so declaratorily in his actions
no inconvenience averts Christ and his Spirit from his sweet and gracious and comfortable visitations But yet this that is called here The Sea of Galile was not properly a Sea but according to the phrase of the Hebrews who call all great meetings of waters by that one name A Sea this which was indeed a lake of fresh water is called a Sea From the roote of Mount Libanus spring two Rivers Jor and Dan and those two meeting together joyning their waters joyne their names too and make that famous river Jordan a name so composed as perchance our River is Thamesis of Thame and Isis And this River Jordan falling into this flat makes this Lake of sixteene miles long and some sixe in breadth Which Lake being famous for fish though of ordinary kinds yet of an extraordinary taste and relish and then of extraordinary kinds too not found in other waters and famous because divers famous Cities did engirt it and become as a garland to it Capernaum and Chorazim and Bethsaida and Tiberias and Magdalo all celebrated in the Scriptures was yet much more famous for the often recourse which our Saviour who was of that Countrey made to it For this was the Sea where he amazed Peter with that great draught of fishes that brought him to say Exi à me Domine Depart from me O Lord for I am a sinfull man Luk. 5.8 This was the Sea where himselfe walked upon the waters Matt. 14.25.8.23 And where he rebuked the tempest And where he manifested his Almighty power many times And by this Lake this Sea dwelt Andrew and Peter and using the commodity of the place lived upon fishing in this Lake and in that act our Saviour found them and called them to his service Why them Why fishers First Christ having a greater a fairer Jerusalem to build then Davids was Cur Piscatores a greater Kingdome to establish then Juda's was a greater Temple to build then Solomons was having a greater work to raise yet he begun upon a lesse ground Hee is come from his twelve Tribes that afforded armies in swarmes to twelve persons twelve Apostles from his Iuda and Levi the foundations of State and Church to an Andrew and a Peter fisher-men sea-men and these men accustomed to that various and tempestuous Element to the Sea lesse capable of Offices of civility and sociablenesse then other men yet must be employed in religious offices to gather all Nations to one houshold of the faithfull and to constitute a Communion of Saints They were Sea-men fisher-men unlearned and indocil Why did Christ take them Not that thereby there was any scandall given or just occasion of that calumny of Iulian the Apostat That Christ found it easie to seduce and draw to his Sect such poore ignorant men as they were for Christ did receive persons eminent in learning Saul was so and of authority in the State Nicodemus was so and of wealth and ability Zacheus was so and so was Ioseph of Arimatliea But first he chose such men that when the world had considered their beginning their insufficiency then and how unproper they were for such an employment and yet seene that great work so farre and so fast advanced by so weake instruments they might ascribe all power to him and ever after come to him cheerfully upon any invitation how weake men soever he should send to them because hee had done so much by so weak instruments before To make his work in all ages after prosper the better he proceeded thus at first And then hee chose such men for another reason too To shew that how insufficient soever he received them yet he received them into such a Schoole such an University as should deliver them back into his Church made fit by him for the service thereof Christ needed not mans sufficiency he took insufficient men Christ excuses no mans insufficiency he made them sufficient His purpose then was that the worke should be ascribed to the Workman Nequid Instrumentis August not to the Instrument To himselfe not to them Nec quaesivit per Oratorem piscatorem He sent not out Orators Rhetoricians strong or faire-spoken men to work upon these fisher-men Sed de piscatore lucratus est Imperatorem By these fisher-men hee hath reduced all those Kings and Emperours and States which have embraced the Christian Religion these thousand and six hundred yeares When Samuel was sent with that generall Commission 1 Sam. 16.6 to anoint a sonne of Ishai King without any more particular instructions when hee came and Eliab was presented unto him Surely sayes Samuel 1 Sam. 30. noting the goodlinesse of his personage this is the Lords Anointed But the Lord said unto Samuel Looke not on his countenance nor the height of his stature for I have refused him for as it followeth there from Gods mouth God seeth not as man setth Man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord beholdeth the heart And so David in apparance lesse likely was chosen But if the Lords arme be not shortned let no man impute weaknesse to the Instrument For so when David himselfe was appointed by God to pursue the Amalekites the Amalekites that had burnt Ziklag and done such spoile upon Gods people as that the people began to speak of stoning David from whom they looked for defence Ver 6. when David had no kind of intelligence no ground to settle a conjecture upon which way he must pursue the Amalekites and yet pursue them he must in the way he findes a poore young fellow a famished sicke young man derelicted of his Master and left for dead in the march and by the meanes and conduct of this wretch David recovers the enemy recovers the spoile recovers his honour and the love of his people If the Lords arme bee not shortned let no man impute weaknesse to his Instrument But yet God will alwayes have so much weaknesse appeare in the Instrument as that their strength shall not be thought to be their owne When Pete and Iohn preached in the streets Acts 4.13 The people marvelled sayes the Text why for they had understood that they were unlearned But beholding also the man that was healed standing by they had nothing to say sayes that story The insufficiency of the Instrument makes a man wonder naturally but the accomplishing of some great worke brings them to a necessary acknowledgement of a greater power working in that weake Instrument For if those Apostles that preached Acts 8.10 had beene as learned men as Simon Magus as they did in him This man is the great power of God not that he had but that he was the power of God the people would have rested in the admiration of those persons and proceeded no farther It was their working of supernaturall things that convinced the world For all Pauls learning though hee were very learned never brought any of the Conjurers to burne his bookes or to renounce
Princes shall rule in judgement be to be understood of an Hezekias or a Iosias or any other good King which was to succeed and to induce vertuous times in the temporall State and government Or whether this were a prophecy of Christs time and of the exaltation of all vertues in the Christian Religion hath divided our Expositors in all those three Classes In all three though in all three some particular men are peremptory and vehement upon some one side absolutely excluding the other exposition as amongst our Authors in the Reformation one sayes Dubium non est It can admit no doubt Calvin but that this is to be understood of Hezekias and his reigne And yet another of the same side sayes too Heshusius Qui Rabbinos secuti They that adhere too much to the Jewish Rabbins and will needs interpret this prophecy of a temporall King obscure the purpose of the Holy Ghost and accommodate many things to a secular Prince which can hold in none but Christ himselfe yet I say though there be some peremptory there are in all the three Classes Ancients Romans Reformed moderate men that apply the prophecy both wayes and finde that it may very well subsist so That in a faire proportion all these blessings shall be in the reignes of those Hezekiasses and those Iosiasses those good Kings which God affords to his people But the multiplication the exaltation of all these blessings and vertues is with relation to the comming of Christ and the establishing of his Kingdome And this puts us if not to a necessity yet with conveniency to consider these words both wayes What this civill liberality is that is here made a blessing of a good Kings reigne And what this spirituall liberality is that is here made a testimony of Christs reigne and of his Gospel And therefore since we must passe twice thorough these words it is time to begin The liberall man deviseth liberall things and by liberall things he shall stand From these two armes of this tree that is from the civill and from the spirituall accommodation of these words be pleased to gather and lay up these particular fruits In each of these you shall taste first what this Liberality thus recommended is And secondly what this devising and studying of liberall things is And againe how this man is said to stand by liberall things The liberall man deviseth liberall things and by liberall things he shall stand And because in the course of this Prophecy in this Chapter we have the King named and then his Princes and after persons of lower quality and condition we shall consider these particulars This Liberality this Devising this Standing First in the first accommodation of the words In the King in his Princes or great persons the Magistrate and lastly in his people And in the second accommodation the spirituall sense we shall consider these three termes Liberality Devising Standing First in the King of Kings Christ Jesus And then in his Officers the Ministers of his Gospel And lastly in his people gathered by this Gospel In all which persons in both sorts Civill and Spirituall we shall see how the liberall man deviseth liberall things and how by liberall things he stands First then in our first part In the civill consideration of this vertue Liberality 1 Part. Liberality It is a communication of that which we have to other men and it is the best character of the best things that they are communicable diffusive Light was Gods first childe Light opened the wombe of the Chaos borne heire to the world and so does possesse the world and there is not so diffusive a thing nothing so communicative and self-giving as light is And then Gold is not onely valued above all things but is it selfe the value of all things The value of every thing is Thus much gold it is worth And no metall is so extensive as gold no metall enlarges it selfe to such an expansion such an attenuation as gold does nor spreads so much with so little substance Sight is the noblest and the powerfullest of our Senses All the rest Hearing onely excepted are determined in a very narrow distance And for Hearing Thunder is the farthest thing that we can heare and Thunder is but in the ayre but we see the host of Heaven the starres in the firmament All the good things that we can consider Light Sight Gold all are accompanied with a liberality of themselves and are so far good as they are dispensed and communicated to others for their goodnesse is in their use It is Virtus prolifica a generative a productive vertue a vertue that begets another vertue another vertue upon another man Thy liberality begets my gratitude and if there be an unthankfull barrennesse in me that thou have no children by me no thankfulnesse from me God shall raise thee the more children for my barrennesse Thy liberality shall be the more celebrated by all the world because I am unthankfull God hath given me a being and my liberall Benefactor hath given me such a better being as that without that even my first being had been but a paine and a burden unto me He that leaves treasure at his death left it in his life Then when he locked it up and forbad himselfe the use of it be left it He that locks up may be a good Jaylor but he that gives out is his Steward The saver may be Gods chest The giver is Gods right hand But the matter of our Liberality what we give is but the body of this vertue The soule of this Liberality that that inanimates it is the manner intended more in the next word He deviseth He studieth The liberall deviseth liberall things Here the Holy Ghosts word is Iagnatz Deviseth and Iagnatz carries evermore with it a denotation of Counsell and Deliberation and Conclusions upon premisses He Devises that is Considers what liberality is discourses with himselfe what liberall things are to be done And then upon this determines concludes that he will doe it and really actually does it Therefore in our first Translation the first since the Reformation we reade this Text thus The liberall man imagineth honest things Though the Translator have varied the word Liberall and Honest the Originall hath not It is the same word in both places Liberall man Liberall things but the Translator was pleased to let us see that if it be truly a liberall it is an honest action Therefore the liberall man must give that which is his own for els the receiver is but a receiver of stollen goods And the Curse of the oppressed may follow the gift not onely in his hands through which it passed but into his hands where it remains We have a convenient Embleme of Liberality in a Torch that wasts it selfe to enlighten others But for a Torch to set another mans house on fire to enlighten me were no good Embleme of Liberality But Liberality being made up of
B. C Expostulation with God how without sin 44. B. We may not excuse the inordinatenesse of all Expostulations of good men in the Scripture 132. C Nor come neere that excesse which we finde in some of them 155. C Of that in the widdow of Zareptha 218. A Against Extortion 94. A Against Extremities in matters of opinion 42. A. B. c. In Religion 326. D F FAith against implicite Faith 178. C. 411. C Faith and Reason how contiguous they are 178. B Faith how it is assisted by Reason 429. A. 612. A Of the imperfection that is in our Faith 818. D Faith and Works 78. E. 368. A. 567. D. E Our Workes more ours than our Faith 79. C. D. E. c. The Faith of others how profitable to us 105. D And how not 106. E Men not to deceive themselves with thinking that if they have Faith once they shall have it ever or have enough 819. B. C Fall sinne is a fall and how 186. D. 187. B. C. 462. D Against impossibility of falling from grace received 240. B. C Of Fame and getting a good name the necessity of it 680. A Fathers of the power of life and death which they had over their owne children 388. A How Jesuites slight the authority of the Fathers of the Church 489. C How they are to be followed 490. C Feare of the Feare of God 386. B The difference between fearefullnesse and Feare 387. B Servile and Filial Feare both good 386. D The Feare of God a blessed disease 466. B It constitutes the best assurance 694. C Not only a Feare but even a terror of God may fall upon the best men 70. A Festivalls the reason of their Institution in the Church 298. B Of applying particular Scriptures to particular Festivalls 423. D Filiation the markes of our spirituall Filiation lesse subject to errour than of our Temporall 338. E Fasting but thrice mentioned by David and he thrice derided for it 535. C The commendation and use of it ibid. D. E Finding of God the severall times of it 597. A Of Finding that which was lost 711. E The passage of the Usher in S. Augustine that found a bag of money and would not take so much as the tithe of it 712. A Fishers of men the Apostles why so called 734. E Flatterers how men may flatter the best men the very Angels yea and God himselfe 332. B Foliantes an Order in the Roman Church who only feed on roots and leaves 731. C Following Christ how we are to Follow in beleeving and in doing 731. E Against Forespeaking the Counsels or Actions of the State 535. E Foretelling of death the passage of the Monks of S. sidorus Monastery about it 473. C Forme of publike Prayer used amongst the very Gentiles 89. A And they had a particular Officer who made Prayers and Collects for them upon emergent occasions ibid. Which were received every five years ibid. Fortune and God how they consist together 711. C Freewill the obliquities of it from whence 283. D The power of it in our conversion 309. A. B Funerals of the duties belonging to them 196. A. 198. B Of the severall manner of them among severall nations 198. D Christian Funerals an evidence of Gods presence 826. B Fulnesse how in Christ and how in others of the Saints 3. C Three Fulnesses in Christ above others 4. A How Full all of us are of originall sin 2. E How Full God is of mercy 12. C Of Fulnesse without satisfaction and of satisfaction without Fulnesse 807. A Abraham why Full of yeares and yet not so old as Methusalem ibid. D Severall Fulnesses ibid. E G GEntiles and their salvation how prone the Fathers were in beleeving of it 261. D. 763. C Of the power of naturall reason in them and what many of the Fathers thought of it 314. C Of their multiplicity of Gods 378. B. 484. D. 502. E They durst not call their Tutelar Gods by their names 608. A Gentlenesse meeknesse and mildenesse the power of it both upon man and God 409. E. 410. A. B Glad God whether he be Glad that he is God 812. B Glorified bodies their Endowments applyed to the soule after her first resurrection 189. A. B. C Gloria Patri after every Psalme how ancient 88. C Glory against our feare of giving God too much Glory 58. E No Glory to God in destroying man only for his pleasure 85. B Glory what it is 88. A The light of Glory in heaven what 231. A All things we doe must be to the Glory of God 636. E Of the disparity and degrees of Glory in the Kingdome of heaven 742. D. 743. A. B. C Gluttony the effects and miseries of it 579. D God not to be loved in consideration of the Temporall Blessings he bestoweth upon us but for himselfe 750. C. D Foure wayes of knowing him 229. B God how present even in hell 226. D. E Seeing of God before us in our actions how necessary 169. E How we see him in a glasse 226. B How we are enemies to God 65. B All his wayes are goodnesse 66. E Severall positions motions and transitions ascribed to him 67. C How omnipresent with the Ubiquetary and the Stancarist 67. E Why he makes some poor others rich 84. E Glories not in destroying man till he finde cause 85. B Proposeth his glory to himselfe as the end of all his works 87. C. D. E All our wealth and honour to be ascribed to him 95. B Whether his Essence shall be seene in heaven 120. D. 230. D No evill from him 168. C Not the Author of sinne 368. E To be reverenced as a Father 388. C Of the reason of many Gods amongst the Gentiles 484. D God hates not any man but as a finner 628. C. D His mercy to all men 679. A. B The numberlesse number of Gods Benefits unto man 765. A Our Goods what care to be taken they be well gotten 83. A. 95. E They are abusively called Goods 168. D Goodnesse speciall in God 167. E. 168. A. B Golden Crowns of the Saints how forged in the Roman Church 743. D Gospell whether yet preached over all the world 363. D Why it is called in Scripture the Kingdome of God 472. A How compared to a net 736. C Grace against irresistible Grace 456. B Grace and Nature how they cooperate 649. D No consummative Grace in this life 735. B Graduall Psalmes which and why they are so called 653. E Great men not alwayes good and why 166. A But when good the more acceptable and their ill the more pardonable ibid. B. C The true end of Greatnesse 321. B. C. D Great men how dangerously obnoxious to their own servants 551 A Gretzer the Jesuite how injurious to the power of Kings in matters of Religion 698. D H AGainst making too much Haste either in Temporall or Spirituall Riches 520. D Hatred how it may consist with Charity 100 A Health Spirituall Health to
be preferred before that of the Body 110. C. 755. A What a Blessing the Bodily Health is 754. A. B. Hearing the Word against the neglect of it 331. A. B Against Hearing only 455. C Heart no inward part of man ascribed unto God beside the Heart 64. B Heaven the joyes of it 73. C. D. 223. A. B. C 266. A The Glory 682. A The Dotes or Endowments of the Saints of Heaven 266. B. 189. A. B. c. 824. C Heresie of the severall Heresies against the person of Christ 316. D Of that of the Photinians and Nativitarians 344. C Heretiques of severall wayes of dealing with them 355. C. D. 356. B. C. D Of History and returning the memory of man to things that are past and gone 290. B The Holy Ghost not so easily apprehended by the light of Reason as the other persons of the Trinity 318. C. D In the Procession especially ibid. E. 327. A. B. C 335. B The manner how he works upon man 322. C. D Three branches of sins against the Holy Ghost in the Schoole 349. E Refusing of lawfull Authority is sin against the Holy Ghost in St. Bernards judgement 350. B The power of the Holy Ghost in blowing where he lists 364. B. C His operations in meere morall men 365. A St. Paul beleeved of many to be the H. Ghost 461. E Holy Ghost only Dogmaticall the best men but Problematicall 658. A Hope how imperfect a Christian mans Hope is 820. A How a hatefull and a damnable Monosyllable 301. D Honour and Reputation which so many stand upon what it is 410. A Honey what is meant by it in Scripture 712. C Hospitalite the commendation and benefit of it 414. D. E. 415. A. B Houses of Progresse and standing Houses for God Heaven and the Church 747. B Humane learning how necessary to the making of a good Divine 562. A Hypocrisie the good use and benefit that may be made by it 297. E. 636. B Against the wicked practise of it 585. D I OF those Idaeas which are in God 667. E Against Idlenesse and lazinesse and taking of no Calling 45. D. 411. B Jehovah the right pronouncing of that Name the meanes whereby Christ did Miracles according to the calumniating Jewes 502. C Not pronounced till of late ibid. D Jesuites their uncharitablenesse even to their owne Authors in defaming and disgracing of them though their betters 50. A The pride of their Denomination from Jesus 687. D How boldly they depart from the Fathers and their Authority 740. B. C. 796. C D Their pride in taking upon them the name of Fathers 798. A Jesus of the name of Jesus 503. C How S. Paul delights himselfe in that Name 503. D. 688. A Jewes not one of them in all the world a Souldier 5. D Their opinion of Christs comming 21. C Their impious custome of anointing such as die with the blood of a Christian Infant ibid. Ignorance the severall Divisions and subdivisions of it in the Schoole 287. B. How full the most knowing men are of it ibid. C. D A learned Ignorance what 295. E Of the severall Imperfections in our Faith in our Hope and in our Charity 819.820 A. B. C. D Imprecations in Scripture are often only Prophecies 401. C Not allowed us D. but in some cases 555. E Against Impossibility of Falling 240. B Incarnation the mystery of it 16. C. D. 395. E. 396. A. D E Inconsideration the miseries of it 246. D. E. 247. A. 296. E. 297. B. C. D In case of Zeale the more pardonable ib. B Indignation for sinne how great it ought to be 542. C Of that Individuality wherein man is to bee considered 710. D Of that Infallibility with which the Holy Ghost proposeth his Dictates in the scripture and how farre it is from that possibility probability and verisimilitude of the Church of Rome 657. C Jnfidels of their right unto the things of this world 214. D Indulgencies the vanity the Church of Rome was growne to in preaching and extolling of them 773. B. C The multiplicity of them 788. A The Reformation arose from them ibid. D Indulgencies what they were in the Primitive Church 788. E. Against Ingratitude for mercies and Diliverances past 88. B. 577. E Why so seldome condemned in the scripture 550. A Injuries of patience in suffering them 410. A. B Innovations the difference between Innovations and Renovations 735. A Inquisition of torturing men in the Romish Inquisition and the uncertainty of such kinde of Tryalls 194.195 C. D Intentions the best mens best intentions usually misconstrued 344. E Instinct the difference between the Reason of Man and the instinct of Beast what it is and wherein it consisteth 227. B. C Inward speculations inward zeale inward prayer are not full performances of a Christian mans duty 700. B Jordan the River Jordan why so called 718. E Ioyes of Heaven of their eternity 73. C. D 223. A. B. C. 266. A. 340. D. 747. E Heaven represented in Joy and Glory 672. A Joy of the wicked which they have in this world counterfeit 635. C Of the Joy of the godly which they have in this world 671. E. 672. c. 673. A. B Cheerefulnesse and Joy commended 816. B Judging of other men condemned 128. D. 479. A In doubtfull cases we are ever to encline towards Charity 164. E There may be sinne in a charitable Iudging of some holy mens Actions 488. D Judgement of the day of Judgement and the uncertainty thereof 271. D Gods Judgements have not exactly the name of Punishments 544. C How unwilling God is to speak of or to come to Judgement 676. C Justificare to Justifie taken three severall wayes 366. C Neither Works nor Faith the cause of our Justification 367. E K KIngs the best forme of Government by Kings 51. B Our duty and debt unto them 91. C The Releiving of them more necessary than giving of Almes 92. A What Humility and Reverence in Subjects is due unto them ibid. D And afforded in the very Scripture ibid. Not only their substantiall but their circumstantiall and ceremoniall wants to be prevented by the Subjects Giving 100. E Their Crowne of Thornes 137. B Kings a particular ordinance of God and nothing resulting out of the tacite consent of the people 391. C The King to institute and order matters in the publique service of God 698. A He is Keeper of both the Tables D Against those disloyall jealousies and suspicions which the people have of the King and of his affection to Religion 699. D In matters of favour the King is one of the people saith the Law 754. C. D Kisses of their treacherous carnall and sacred uses 405.406 A. B. C Used of Kinsfolkes 407. C As a Recognition of Power D In comming and going E In religious reverence E In signe of concord 408. A Kneeling the necessitie of it in the time of prayer 72. E. 73. A Of the Kneeling at the Sacrament 115. D. 116. A. B. Knowledge of