washed in my own tears and either out of compunction for my self or compassion for others I passe through this world as through a valley of tears where tears settle and swell and when I passe out of this world I leave their eyes whose hands close mine full of tears too can these persons this Image of God this God himself this glorious God and this vessell of earth this earth it self this inglorious worm of the earth meet without disparagement They doe meet and make a mariage because I am not a body onely but a body and s oul there is a mariage and Christ maries me As by the Law a man might mary a captive woman in the Warres if he shaved her head and pared her nails and changed her clothes so my Saviour having fought for my soul fought to blood to death to the death of the Crosse for her having studied my soul so much as to write all those Epistles which are in the New Testament to my soul having presented my soule with his own picture that I can see his face in all his temporall blessings having shaved her head in abating her pride and pared her nails in contracting her greedy desires and changed her clothes not to fashion her self after this world my soul being thus fitted by himself Christ Jesus hath maried my soul maried her to all the three intendments mentioned in the secular mariage first in ustionem against burning That whether I burn my self in the fires of tentation by exposing my self to occasions of tentation or be reserved to be burnt by others in the fires of persecution and martyrdome whether the fires of ambition or envy or lust or the everlasting fires of hell offer at me in an apprehension of the judgements of God yet as the Spirit of God shall wipe all tears from mine eyes so the tears of Christ Jesus shall extinguish all fires in my heart and so it is a mariage In ustionem a remedy against burning It is so too In prolificationem for children first vae soli woe unto that single soul that is not maried to Christ that is not come into the way of having issue by him that is not incorporated in the Christian Church and in the true Church but is yet in the wildernesse of Idolatry amongst the Gentiles or in the Labyrinth of superstition amongst the Papists vae soli woe unto that single man that is not maried unto Christ in the Sacraments of the Church and vae sterili woe unto them that are barren after this spirituall mariage for that is a great curse in the Prophet Ieremy Scribe virum istum sterilem write this man childlesse that implied all calamities upon him And assoon as Christ had laid that curse upon the Fig-tree Let no fruit grow upon thee for ever presently the whole tree withered no fruit no leafes neither nor body left To be incorporated in the body of Christ Jesus and bring forth no fruits worthy of that profession is a wofull state too Vae soli woe unto the Gentiles not maried unto Christ and vae sterili woe unto inconsiderate Christians that think not upon their calling that conceive not by Christ but there is a vae praegnanti too wo unto them that are with child and are never delivered that have good conceptions religious dispositions holy desires to the advancement of Gods truth but for some collaterall respects dare not utter them nor bring them to their birth to any effect The purpose of his mariage to us is to have children by us and this is his abundant and his present fecundity that working now by me in you in one instant he hath children in me and grand children by me He hath maried me in ustionem and in prolem against burning and for children but can he have any use of me in adjutorium for a helper Surely if I be able to feed him and clothe him and harbour him and Christ would not condemne men at the last day for not doing these if man could not doe them I am able to help him too Great persons can help him over sea convey the name of Christ where it hath not been preached yet and they can help him home again restore his name and his truth where superstition with violence hath disseised him And they can help him at home defend his truth there against all machinations to displant and dispossesse him Great men can help him thus and every man can help him to a better place in his own heart and his own actions then he hath had there and to be so helped in me and helped by me to have his glory thereby advanced Christ hath maried my soul And he hath maried it in aeternum for ever which is the third and last Circumstance in this spirituall as it was in the secular mariage And here the aeternum is enlarged in the secular mariage it was an eternity considered onely in this life but this eternity is not begun in this world but from all eternity in the Book of life in Gods eternall Decree for my election there Christ was maried to my soul. Christ was never in minority never under years there was never any time when he was not as ancient as the Ancient of Days as old as his Father But when my soul was in a strange minority infinite millions of millions of generations before my soul was a soul did Christ mary my soul in his eternall Decree So it was eternall it had no beginning Neither doth he interrupt â—his by giving me any occasion of jealousie by the way but loves my soul as though there were no other soul and would have done and suffered all that he did for me alone if there had been no name but mine in the Book of life And as he hath maried me to him in aeternum for ever before all beginnings and in aeternum for ever without any interruptions so I know that whom he loves he loves to the end and that he hath given me not a presumptuous impossibility but a modest infallibility that no sin of mine shall divorce or separate me from him for that which ends the secular mariage ends not the spirituall not death for my death does not take me from that husband but that husband being by his Father preferr'd to higher titles and greater glory in another state I doe but goe by death where he is become a King to have my part in that glory and in those additions which he hath received there And this hath led us to our third and last mariage our eternall mariage in the triumphant Church And in this third mariage the persons are the Lamb and my soul The mariage of the Lamb is come and blessed are they that are called to the mariage Supper of the Lamb says S. Iohn speaking of our state in the generall Resurrection That Lamb that was brought to the slaughter and opened not his mouth
company in the reformation of Religion A miracle scarce lesse then the first propagation thereof in the primitive Church In how few yeares did God make the number of learned â—riters the number of persons of all qualities the number of Kings in whose Dominions the reformed Religion was exercised equall to the number of them who adhered to the Roman Church And yet thou must not depart from this contemplation till thou have made thy self an argument of all this till thou have concluded out of this that God hath made love to thy soule thy weake soule thy sick and foule and sinfull soule That he hath written to thee in all his Scriptures sent Ambassage to thee in all his preachers presented thee in all his temporall and spirituall blessings That he hath come to thee even in actions of uncle annesse in actions of unfaithfulnesse towards men in actions of distrustfulnesse towards God and hath checked thy conscience and delivered thee from some sins even then when thou wast ready to commit them as all the rest That that God who is but one in himselfe is yet three persons That those three who were all-sufficient to themselves would yet make more make Angels make man make a Christ make him a Spouse a Church and first propagate that by so weake men in so hard a doctrine and in so short a space over all the world and then reforme that Church againe so soone to such a heighth as these I say are to all the world so be thou thy self and Gods exceeding goodnesse to thee an argument That that God who hath shewed himself so loath to lose thee is certainly loath to lose any other soule but as he communicates himself to us all here so he would have us all partake of his joy and glory hereafter he that fils his Militant Church thus would not have his Triumphant Church empty So far we consider the accessiblenesse the communicablenesse the conversation of our good and gracious God to us in the generall There is a more speciall manner intimated even in the first word of our Text After this After what After he had seene the servants of God sealed sealed This seale seales the contract betweene God and Man And then consider how generall this seale is First God sealed us in imprinting his Image in our soules and in the powers thereof at our creation and so every man hath this seale and he hath it as soone as he hath a soule The wax the matter is in his conception the seale the forme is in his quickning in his inanimation as in Adam the waxe was that red earth which he was made of the seale was that soule that breath of life which God breathed into him Where the Organs of the body are so indisposed as that this soule cannot exercise her faculties in that man as in naturall Idiots or otherwise there there is a curtaine drawn over this Image but yet there this Image is the Image of God is in the most naturall Idiot as well as in the wisest of men worldly men draw other pictures over this picture other images over this image The wanton man may paint beauty the ambitious may paint honour the covetous wealth and so deface this image but yet there this image is and even in hell it selfe it will be in him that goes down into hell uri potest in gehenna non exuri sayes St. Bernard The image of God may burne in hell but as long as the soule remaines that image remaines there too And then thou who wouldest not burne their picture that loved thee wilt thou betray the picture of the Maker thy Saviour thy Sanctifier to the torments of hell Amongst the manifold and perpetuall interpretations of that article He descended into hell this is a new one that thou senâ—est him to hell in thy soule Christ had his Consummatum est from the Iewes he was able to say at last All is finished concerning them shall he never have a Consummatum est from thee never be at an end with thee Never if his Image must burne eternally in thy soule when thou art dead for everlasting generations Thus then we were sealed all sealed all had his image in our creation in the faculties of our soules But then we were all sealed againe sealed in our very flesh our mortall flesh when the image of the invisible God Christ Iesus the onely Sonne of God tooke our nature for as the Tyrant wished that all mankinde were but one body that he might behead all mankinde at a blow so God tooke into his mercie all mankinde in one person As intirely as all mankinde was in Adam all mankinde was in Christ and as the seale of the Serpent is in all by originall sinne so the seale of God Christ Iesus is on us all by his assuming our nature Christ Jesus tooke our souls and our bodies our whole nature and as no Leper no person how infectiously soever he be diseased in his body can say surely Christ never tooke this body this Leprosie this pestilence this rottennesse so no Leprous soule must say Christ never tooke this pride this adultery this murder upon himself he sealed us all in soule and body when he tooke both and though both dye the soule in sin daily the body in sicknesse perchance this day yet he shall afford a resurrection to both to the soule here to the body hereafter for his seale is upon both These two seales then hath God set upon us all his Image in our soules at our making his Image that is his Sonne upon our bodies and soules in his incarnation And both these seales he hath set upon us then when neither we our selves nor any body else knew of it He sets another seale upon us when though we know not of it yet the world the congregation does in the Sacrament of Baptisme when the seale of his Crosse is a testimony not that Christ was borne as the former seale was but that also he dyed for us there we receive that seale upon the forehead that we should conforme our selves to him who is so sealed to us And after all these seales he offers us another and another seale Set me as a seale upon thy heart and as a seale upon thine arme says Christ to all us in the person of the spouse in the Heart by a constant faith in the Arme by a declaratory works for then are we sealed and delivered and witnessed that 's our full evidence then have we made sure our salvation when the works of a holy life doe daily refresh the contract made with God there at our Baptisme and testifie to the Church that we doe carefully remember what the Church promised in our behalfe at that time for otherwise beloved without this seale upon the arme that is a stedfast proceeding in the works of a holy life we may have received many of the other seales and yet deface
are nearest and clearest glasses for thee to see thy self in and such is this glasse which God hath proposed to thee in this house And therefore change the word of the Text in a letter or two from Egredimini to Ingredimini never go forth to see but Go in and see a Solomon crowned with his mothers crown c. And when you shall find that hand that had signed to one of you a Patent for Title to another for Pension to another for Pardon to another for Dispensation Dead That hand that settled Possessions by his Seale in the Keeper and rectified Honours by the sword in his Marshall and distributed relief to the Poore in his Almoner and Health to the Diseased by his immediate Touch Dead That Hand that ballanced his own three Kingdomes so equally as that none of them complained of one another nor of him and carried the Keyes of all the Christian world and locked up and let out Armies in their due season Dead how poore how faint how pale how momentany how transitory how empty how frivolous how Dead things must you necessarily thinke Titles and Possessions and Favours and all when you see that Hand which was the hand of Destinie of Christian Destinie of the Almighty God lie dead It was not so hard a hand when we touched it last nor so cold a hand when we kissed it last That hand which was wont to wipe all teares from all our eyes doth now but presse and squeaze us as so many spunges filled one with one another with another cause of teares Teares that can have no other banke to bound them but the declared and manifested will of God For till our teares flow to that Heighth that they might be called a murmuring against the declared will of God it is against our Allegiance it is Disloyaltie to give our teares any stop any termination any measure It was a great part of Annaes prayse That she departed not from the Temple day nor night visit Gods Temple often in the day meet him in his owne House and depart not from his Temples The dead bodies of his Saints are his Temples still even at midnight at midnight remember them who resolve into dust and make them thy glasses to see thy self in Looke now especially upon him whom God hath presented to thee now and with as much cheerfulnesse as ever thou heardst him say Remember my Favours or remember my Commandements heare him say now with the wise man Remember my Iudgement for thine also shall be so yesterday for me and to day for thee He doth not say to morrow but to Day for thee Looke upon him as a beame of that Sunne as an abridgement of that Solomon in the Text for every Christian truely reconciled to God and signed with his hand in the Absolution and sealed with his bloud in the Sacrament and this was his case is a beame and an abridgement of Christ himselfe Behold him therefore Crowned with the Crown that his Mother gives him His Mother The Earth In anâ—ient times when they used to reward Souldiers with particular kinds of Crowns there was a great dignity in Corona graminea in a Crown of Grasse That denoted a Conquest or a Defence of that land He that hath but Coronam Gramineam a turfe of grasse in a Church yard hath a Crown from his Mother and even in that buriall taketh seisure of the Resurrection as by a turfe of grasse men give seisure of land He is crowned in the day of his Marriage for though it be a day of Divorce of us from him and of Divorce of his body from his soul yet neither of these Divorces breake the Marriage His soule is married to him that made it and his body and soul shall meet again and all we both then in that Glory where we shall acknowledge that there is no way to this Marriage but this Divorce nor to Life but by Death And lastly he is Crowned in the day of the gladnesse of his heart He leaveth that heart which was accustomed to the halfe joyes of the earth in the earth and he hath enlarged his heart to a greater capacity of Joy and Glory and God hath filled it according to that new capacity And therefore to end all with the Apostles words I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleepe that ye sorrow not as others that have no hope for if ye beleeve that Iesus died and rose again even so them also which sleepe in him will God bring with him But when you have performed this Ingredimini that you have gone in and mourned upon him and performed the Egredimini you have gone forth and laid his Sacred body in Consecrated Dust and come then to another Egredimini to a going forth in many severall wayes some to the service of their new Master and some to the enjoying of their Fortunes conferred by their old some to the raising of new Hopes â— some to the burying of old and all some to new and busie endeavours in Court some to contented retirings in the Countrey let none of us goe so farre from him or from one another in any of our wayes but that all we that have served him may meet once a day the first time we see the Sunne in the eares of almighty God with humble and hearty prayer that he will be pleased to hasten that day in which it shall be an addition even to the joy of that place as perfect as it is and as infinite as it is to see that face againe and to see those eyes open there which we have seen closed here Amen SERMON XXXIIII LUKE â—â—â—â— Father forgive them for they know not what they do THe word of God is either the co-eternall and co-essentiall Sonne our Saviour which tooke flesh Verbum Caro factum est or it is the spirit of his mouth by which we live and not by bread onely And so in a large acceptation every truth is the word of God for truth is uniforme and irrepugnant and indivisible as God Omne verum est omni vero consentiens More strictly the word of God is that which God hath uttered either in writing as twice in the Tables to Moses or by ministery of Angels or Prophets in words or by the unborne in action as in Iohn Baptists exultation within his mother or by new-borne from the mouths of babes and sucklings or by things unreasonable as in Balaams Asse or insensible as in the whole booke of such creatures The heavens declare the glory of God c. But nothing is more properly the word of God to us then that which God himself speakes in those Organs and Instruments which himself hath assumed for his chiefest worke our redemption For in creation God spoke but in redemption he did and more he suffered And of that kinde are these words God in his chosen man-hood saith Father forgive them for they know not what they do
bowells When Christ is disseised and dispossest his truth profligated and thrown out of a nation that professed it before when Christ is wounded by the blasphemies of others and crucified by thee in thy relapses to repented sinnes wilt thou not say to Them to Thy selfe in the behalfe of Christ why persecute yee me Wilt thou not make Christs case thine as hee made thine his Art not thou the bowells of Christ If not and thou art not if thou have not this sense of his suffering thou hast no interest in his death by thy Baptisme nor in his Resurrection by thy feeble halfe repentances But in the duty of a child as thou art a servant in the simplicity of a child as thou hast sucked from him in the interest and inheritance of a child as thou art the Son of his bowells in all these capacities and with all these we have done God calls thee come ye children and that is our next step the Action Come Passing thus from the Persons to the action Venite Come we must aske first what this comming is The whole mystery of our redemption is expressed by the Apostle in this word venit that Christ Iesus is come into the world All that thou hast to do is to come to and to meet him Where is he At home in his own house in the Church Which is his house which is his Church That to thee in which he hath given thee thy Baptisme if that do still afford thee as much as is necessary for thy salvation Come thither to the participation of his ordinances to the exercises of Religion there The gates of heaven shall be opened to you at last in that word Venite benedicti come ye blessed the way to those gates is opened to you now in the same word Venite filii come ye children come Christ can come and does often into thy bed-chamber in the visitation of his private Spirit but here he calls thee out into the congregation into the communion of Saints And then the Church celebrates Christs coming in the flesh a moneth before he comes in four Sundays of Advent before Christmas When thou comest to meet him in the Congregation come not occasionally come not casually not indifferently not collaterally come not as to an entertainment a show a spectacle or company come solemly with preparation with meditation He shall have the lesse profit by the prayer of the Congregation that hath not been at his private prayer before he came Much of the mystery of our Religion lay in the venturus that Christ was to come all that the law and Prophets undertooke for was that venturus that Christ was to come but the consummation of all the end of the law and the Prophets is in the venit he is come Do not clogge thy coming with future conditions and contingencies thou wilt come if thou canst wake if thou canst rise if thou canst be ready if thou like the company the weather the man We finde one man who was brought in his bed to Christ but it was but one Come come actually come earnestly come early come often and come to meet him Christ Jesus and no body else Christ is come into the world and therefore thou needest not goe out of the world to meet him He doth not call thee from thy Calling but in thy Calling The Dove went up and down from the Arke and to the Arke and yet was not disappointed of her Oliveleafe Thou maiest come to this place at due times and maiest doe the businesses of the world in other places too and still keep thy Olive thy peace of Conscience If no Hereticall recusancy thou dost like the Doctrine no schismaticall recusancy thou dost like the Discipline no lasie recusancy thou forbearest not because thou canst not sit at thine ease no proud recusancie that the company is not good enough for thee if none of these detain thee thou maist be here even when thou art not here God may accept thy desire as in many cases thou maist be away when thou art here as in particular thou art if being here thou do not hearken to that which is said here for that is added to the coming and follows in a third consideration after the capacity Children and the Action Come The disposition Hearken Come ye children hearken Upon those words of David Conturbata sunt ossa mea St. Basil faith well Habet anima ossa sua The soul hath bones as well as the body And in this Anatomy and dissection of the soul as the bones of the soul are the constant and strong resolutions thereof and as the seeing of the soul is understanding The eyes of your understanding being opened so the Hearing of the soul is hearkning in these religious exercises we doe not htar except we hearken for hearkning is the hearing of the soul. Some men draw some reasons out of some stories of some credit to imprint a belief of extasie and raptures That the body remaining upon the floore or in the bed the soul may be gone out to the contemplation of heavenly things But it were a strange and a perverse extasie that the body being here at a religious exercise and in a religious posture the soul should be gone out to the contemplation and pursuit of the pleasures or profits of this world You come hither but to your own funeralls if you bring nothing hither but your bodies you come but to be enterred to be laid in the earth if the ends of your comming be earthly respects prayse and opinion and observation of men you come to be Canonized to grow Saints if your souls be here and by grace here alwayes diffused grow up to a sanctification Bonus es Domine animae quaerenti te Thou art good O Lord to that soul that seeks thee It is St. Augustines note that it is put in the singular Animae to that soul Though many come few come to him A man may thread Sermons by half dozens a day and place his merit in the nūber a man may have been all day in the perfume and incense of preaching and yet have receivd none of the savor of life unto life Some things an Ape can do as wel as a Man some things an Hypocrite as wel as a Saint We cannot see now whether thy soul be here now or no but to morrow hereafter in the course of thy life they which are near thee know whether thy former faults be mended or no know whether thy soul use to be at Sermons as well as thy body uses to go to Sermons Faith comes by hearing saith the Apostle but it is by that hearing of the soul Hearkning Considering And then as the soul is infused by God but diffused over the whole body so there is a Man so Faith is infused from God but diffused into our works and so there is a Saint Practise is the Incarnation of Faith Faith
in families are therein truly learned fathers of the Church A good father at home is a S â—ugustin and a S. Ambrose in himself and such a Thomas may have governed a 〈◊〉 as shall by way of example teach children and childrens children more to this purpose then any Thomas Aquinas can Since therefore these noble persons have so good a glasse to dresse themselves in the usefull as the powerfull example of Parents I shall the lesse need to apply my selfe to them for their particular instructions but may have leave to extend my selfe upon considerations more general and such as may be applyable to all who have or shall embrace that honourable state or shall any way assist at the solemnizing thereof that they may all make this union of Mariage a Type or a remembrancer of their union with God in Heaven That as our Genesis is our Exodus our proceeding into the world is a step out of the world so every Gospell may be a Revelation unto us All good tydings which is the name of Gospel all that ministers any joy to us here may reveal and manifest to us an Interest in the joy and glory of heaven and that our admission to a Mariage here may be our invitation to the Mariage Supper of the Lamb there where in the Resurrection we shall neither mary nor be given in mariage but shall be as the Angels of God in heaven These words our blessed Saviour spake to the Sadduces who not believing the Resurrection of the Dead put him a Case that one woman hath had seven husbands and then whose wife of those seven should she be in the Resurrection they would needs suppose and prefume that there could be no Resurrection of the body but that there must be to all purposes a Bodily use of the Body too and then the question had been pertinent whose wife of the seven shall she be But Christ shews them their errour in the weaknesse of the foundation she shall be none of their wives for In the Resurrection they neither mary c. The words give us this latitude when Christ sayes In the Resurrection they mary not c. The words give us this latitude when Christ sayes In the Resurrection they mary not c. from thence flowes out this concession this proposition too Till the Resurrection they shall mary and be given in mariage no inhibition to be laid upon persons no imputation no aspersion upon the state of mariage And when Christ saies Then they are as the Angels of God in heaven from this flowes this concession this proposition also Till then we must not look for this Angelicall state but as in all other states and conditions of life so in all mariages there will be some encumbrances betwixt all maried persons there will arise some unkindnesses some mis-interpretations or some too quick interpretations may sometimes sprinkle a little sournesse and spread a little a thin a dilute and washy cloud upon them Then they mary not till then they may then their state shall be perfect as the Angels till then it shall not These are our branches and the fruits that grow upon them we shall pull in passing and present them as we gather them First then Christ establishes a Resurrection A Resurrection there shall be for that makes up Gods circle The Body of Man was the first point that the foot of Gods Compasse was upon First he created the body of Adam and then he carries his Compasse round and shuts up where he began he ends with the Body of man againe in the glorification thereof in the Resurrection God is Alpha and Omega first and last And his Alpha and Omega his first and last work is the Body of man too Of the Immortality of the soule there is not an expresse article of the Creed for that last article of The life everlasting is rather de proemio poena what the soule shall suffer or what the soule shall enjoy being presumed to be Immortall then that it is said to be Immortall in that article That article may and does presuppose an Immortality but it does not constitute an Immortality in our soule for there would be a life everlasting in heaven and we were bound to beleeve it as we were bound to beleeve a God in heaven though our soules were not immortall There are so many evidences of the immortality of the soule even to a naturall mans reason that it required not an Article of the Creed to fix this notion of the Immortality of the soule But the Resurrection of the Body is discernible by no other light but that of Faith nor could be fixed by any lesse assurance then an Article of the Creed Where be all the splinters of that Bone which a shot hath shivered and scattered in the Ayre Where be all the Atoms of that flesh which a Corrasive hath eat away or a Consumption hath breath'd and exhal'd away from our arms and other Limbs In what wrinkle in what furrow in what bowel of the earth ly all the graines of the ashes of a body burnt a thousand years since In what corner in what ventricle of the sea lies all the jelly of a Body drowned in the generall flood What cohaerence what sympathy what dependence maintaines any relation any correspondence between that arm that was lost in Europe and that legge that was lost in Afrique or Asia scores of yeers between One humour of our dead body produces worms and those worms suck and exhaust all other humour and then all dies and all dries and molders into dust and that dust is blowen into the River that puddled water tumbled into the sea and that ebs and flows in infinite revolutions and still still God knows in what Cabinet every seed-Pearle lies in what part of the world every graine of every mans dust lies and sibilat populum suum as his Prophet speaks in another case he whispers he hisses he beckens for the 〈◊〉 of his Saints and in the twinckling of an eye that body that was fcattered over all the elements is sate down at the right hand of God in a glorious resurrection A Dâ—opsie hath extended me to an enormous corpulency and unwieldinesse a Consumption hath attenuated me to a feeble macilency and leannesse and God raises me a body such as it should have been if these infirmities had not interven'd and deformed it David could goe no further in his book of Psalms but to that Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord ye saies he ye that have breath praise ye the Lord and that ends the book But that my Dead body should come to praise the Lord this is that New Song which I shall learne and sing in heaven when not onely my soule shall magnify the Lord and my Spirit rejoyce in God my Saviour but I shall have mine old eies and eares and tongue and knees and receive such glory in my body
in your private and publique devotions will ye not fast for this kingdome in cutting off superfluities will ye not fight for this kingdome in resisting suggestions will ye not take Counsaile for this kingdome in consulting with religious friends will ye not give subsidies for this kingdome in relieving their necessities for whom God hath made you his stewards weigh and measure your selves and spend that be negligent of that which is least and worst in you Is your soule lesse then your body because it is in it How easily lies a letter in a Boxe which if it were unfolded would cover that Boxe unfold your soule and you shall see that it reaches to heaven from thence it came and thither it should pretend whereas the body is but from that earth and for that earth upon which it is now which is but a short and an inglorious progresse To contract this the soule is larger then the body and the glory and the joyes of heaven larger then the honours and the pleasures of this world what are seventy years to that latitude of continuing as long as the Ancient of dayes what is it to have spent our time with the great ones of this time when when the Angels shall come and say that Time shall be no more we shall have no beeing with him who is yesterday and to day and the same for ever we see how ordinarily ships goe many leagues out of their direct way to fetch the winde Spiritus spirat ubi vult sayes Christ the spirit blowes where he will and as the Angel took Habakkâ—k by the haire and placed him where he would this winde the spirit of God can take thee at last by thy gray haires and place thee in a good station then Spirat ubi vult he blowes where he will and spirat ubi vis he blowes where thou wilt too if thou beest appliable to his inspirations They are but hollow places that returne Ecchoes last syllables It is but a hollownesse of heart to answer God at last Be but as liberall of thy body in thy mortifications as in thy excesse and licentiousnesse and thou shalt in some measure have followed Gods example for the publique to pretermit the private for the larger and better to leave the narrower and worser respects To proceed when we made that observation that God pretermitted the private for the publique we noted that God did not say non bonum Homini It was not good for man to be alone man might have done well enough in that state so as his solitarinesse might have been supplied with a farther creation of more men In making the inventaries of those goods which man possesseth in the world we see a great Author says In possessionibus sunt amici inimici not onely our friends but even our enemies are part of our goods and we may raise as much profit from these as from those It may be as good a lesson to a mans sonne Study that enemy as Observe that friend As David says propitius fuisti ulciscens Thou heardst them ô Lord our God and wast favour able unto them and didst punish all their inventions it was part of his mercy part of his favour that he did correct them So we may say to our enemy I owe you my watchfulnesse upon my selfe and you have given me all the goodnesse that I have for you have calumniated all my indifferent actions and that kept me from committing enormous ill ones And if then our enemies be in possessionibus to be inventaried amongst our goods might not man have been abundantly rich in friends without this addition of a woman Quanto congruentius says S. Augustine how much more conveniently might two friends live together then a man and a woman God doth not then say non bonum homini man got not so much by the bargaine especially if we consider how that wife carried her selfe towards him but that for his particular he had been better aloneâ— nor he does not say now non bonum hunc hominem esse solum It is not good for any man to be alone for Qui potest capere capiat says Christ he that is able to receive it let him receive it What That some make themselves Eunuchs for the kingdome of heaven that is the better to un-entangle themselves from those impediments which hinder them in the way to heaven they abstaine from mariage and let them that can receive it receive it Now certainly few try whether they can receive this or no. Few strive few fast few pray for the gift of continency few are content with that incontinency which they have but are sorry they can expresse no more incontinency There is a use of mariage now which God never thought of in the first institution of mariage that it is a remedy against burning The two maine uses of mariage which are propagation of Children and mutuall assistance were intended by God at the present at first but the third is a remedy against that which was not then for then there was no inordinatenesse no irregularity in the affections of man And experience hath taught us now that those climates which are in reputation hottest are not uninhabitable they may be dwelt in for all their heat Even now in the corruption of our nature the clime is not so hot as that every one must of necessity mary There may be fire in the house and yet the house not on fire there may be a distemper of heate and yet no necessity to let blood The Roman Church injures us when they say that we prefer mariage before virginity and they injure the whole state of Christianity when they oppose mariage and chastity as though they were incompatible and might not consist together They may for mariage is honourable and the bed undefiled and therefore it may be so S. Augustine observes in mariage Bonuam fidei a triall of one anothers truth and that 's good And bonum prolis a lawfull meanes of propagation and that 's good and bonum Sacramenti a mysticall representation of that union of two natures in Christ and of him to us and to his Church and that 's good too So that there are divers degrees of good in mariage But yet for all these goodnesses God does not say non bonum it is not good for any man to be alone but Qui capere potest capiat according to Christs comment upon his Fathers text He that can containe and continue alone let him doe so But though God do not say non homini It is not good for the man that he be alone nor quemvis hominem it is not good for every man to be alone yet considering his generall purpose upon all the world by man he sayes non bonum for that end it is not good that man should be alone because those purposes of God could not consist with that solitude of man In that production and in that survay
reuniting of body and soule in a blessed Resurrection Ite Surgite depart so as you may desire to rise Depart with an In manus tuas and with a Veni Domiâ—e Iesu with a willing surrendring of your soules and a cheerfull meeting of the Lord Jesus For else all hope of profit and permanent Rest is lost for as Saint Hierome interprets these very words Here we are taught that there is no rest in this life Sed quasiâ—â—â— mortuis resurgentes ad sublime tendere ambulare post Daminum Iesum we depart when we depart from sin and we rise when we raise our selves to a conformity with Christ And not onely after his example but after his person that is to hasten thither whither he is gone to prepare us a Room For this Rest in the Text though it may be understood of the Land of Promise and of the Church and of the Arke and of the Sabbath for if we had time to pursue them we might make good use of all these acceptations yet we accept Chrysostâ—me's acceptation best Requies est ipse Christus our rest is Christ himselfe Not onely that rest that is in Christ peace of conscience in him but that Rest that Christ is in eternall rest in his kingdome There remaineth a Rest to the people of God besides that inchoation of Rest which the godly have here there remains a fuller Rest. Iesus is entred into his Rest sayes the Apostle there his Rest was not here in this world and Let us study to enter into thatâ— Rest sayes he for no other can accomplish our peace It is righteousnesse with God is recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you which are troubled Rest but when in this world no when the Lord Iesus shall sheâ— himselfe from heaven with his mighty Angels then comes your Rest for for the grave the body lies still but it is not a Rest because it is not sensible of that lying still In heaven the body shall rest rest in the sense of that glory This Rest then is not here Not onely not Here at this Here was taken in the first interpretation Here in the Earth but not Here in the second interpretation not in Repentance it selfe for all the Rest of this life even the spirituall Rest is rather a Truce then a peace rather a Cessation then an end of the war For when these words I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians Every one shall fight against his brother and every one against his neighbour City against City and Kingdome against Kingdome may be interpreted and are so interpreted of the time of the Gospell of Christ Jesus when Christ himselfe says Nolite putare quod venerim mittere pacem in terrâ Never think that I came to settle peace or Rest in this world Nay when Christ sayes None of them that were bidden shall come to his supper and that may be verified of any Congregation none of us that are call'd now shall come to that Rest a Man may be at a security in an opinion of Rest and be far from it A man may be neerer Rest in a troubled Conscience then in a secure Here we have often Resurrections that is purposes to depart from sin but they are such Resurrections as were at the time of Christs Resurrection when as the strongest opinion is Resurrexerunt iterum morituri Many of the dead rose but they died again we rise from our sins here but here we fall again Monumenta aperta sunt it is Saint Hierome's note The graves were opened presently upon Christs death but yet the bodies did not arise till Christs Resurrection The godly have an opening of their graves they see some light some of their weight some of their Earth is taken from them but a Resurrection to enter into the City to follow the Lamb to come into an established security that they have not till they be united to Christ in heaven Here we are still subject to relapses and to looking back Memento uxoris Lâ—t Ipsa in loco manet transeuntes monet Shee is fixed to a place that she might settle those that are not fix'd Vt quid in statuam salis conversa si non homines ut sapiant condiat to teach us the danger of looking back till we be fix'd she is fix'd When the Prophetâ— Eliahâ— was at the dore of Desperation an Angell touch'd him and said Vp and eat and there was bread and water provided and he did eat but he slept again and we have some of these excitations and we come and eat and drink even the body and bloud of Christ but we sleep again we doe not perfect the work Our Rest Here then is never without a fear of losing it This is our best state To fear leâ—t at any time by forsaking the promise of entring into his rest we should seem to be depriv'd The Apostle disputes not neither doe I whether we can be depriv'd or no but he assures us that we may fall back so far as that to the Church and to our own Consciences we may seem to be depriv'd and that 's argument enough that here is no Rest. To end all though there be no Rest in all this world no not in our sanctification here yet this being a Consolation there must be rest some where And it is In superna Civitate unde amicus non exit quâ inimicus non intrat In that City in that Hierusalem where there shall never enter any man whom we doe not love nor any goe from us whom we doe love Which though we have not yet yet we shall have for upon those words because I live ye shall live also Saint Augustine sayes that because his Resurrection was to follow so soon Christ takes the present word because I doe live But because their life was not to be had here he says Vivetis you shall live in heaven not Vivitis for here we doe not live So as in Adam we all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive says the Apostle All our deaths are here present now now we dy our quickning is reserv'd for heaven that 's future And therefore let us attend that Rest as patiently as we doe the things of this world and not doubt of it therefore because we see it not yet even in this world we consider invisible things more then visible Vidimus pelagus non autem mercedem The Merchant sees the tempestuous Sea when he does not see the commodities which he goes for Videmus terram non autem messem The Husbandman sees the Earth and his labour when he sees no harvest and for these hopes that there will be a gain to the Merchant and a harvest to the Labourer Naturae fidimus we rely upon Creatures for our Resurrection fide usâ—orem habemus Coranatum Not Nature not Sea
gate into Heaven in thy selfe If thou beest not sensible of others mens poverties and distresses yet Miserere animae tuae have mercy on thine own soule thou hast a poor guest an Inmate a sojourner within these mudwals this corrupt body of thine be mercifull and compassionate to that Soule cloath that Soul which is stripp'd and left naked of all her originall righteousnesse feed that Soule which thou hast starv'd purge that Soule which thou hast infected warm and thaw that Soul which thou hast frozen with indevotion coole and quench that Soul which thou hast inflamed with licentiousness Miserere animae tuae begin with thine own Soule be charitable to thy self first and thou wilt remember that God hath made of one bloud all Mankind and thou wilt find out thy selfe in every other poor Man and thou wilt find Christ Jesus himselfe in them all Now of those divers gates which God opens in this life those divers exercises of charity the particular which we are occasion'd to speak of here is not the cloathing nor feeding of Christ but the housing of him The providing Christ a house a dwelling whether this were the very place where Solomons Temple was after built is perplexedly and perchance impertinently controverted by many but howsoever here was the house of God and here was the gate of Heaven It is true God may be devoutly worshipped any where In omni loco dominationis ejus benedic anima mea Domino In all places of his dominion my Soule shall praise the Lord sayes David It is not only a concurring of men a meeting of so many bodies that makes a Church If thy soule and body be met together an humble preparation of the mind and a reverent disposition of the body if thy knees be bent to the earth thy hands and eyes lifted up to heaven if thy tongue pray and praise and thine ears hearken to his answer if all thy senses and powers and faculties be met with one unanime purpose to worship thy God thou art to this intendment a Church thou art a Congregation here are two or three met together in his name and he is in the midst of them though thou be alone in thy chamber The Church of God should be built upon a Rock and yet Iob had his Church upon a Dunghill The bed is a scene and an embleme of wantonnesse and yet Hezekiah had his Church in his Bed The Church is to be placed upon the top of a Hill and yet the Prophet Ieremy had his Church in Luto in a miry Dungeon Constancy and setlednesse belongs to the Church and yet Ionah had his Church in the Whales belly The Lyon that roares and seeks whom he may devour is an enemy to this Church and yet Daniel had his Church in the Lions den Aquae quietudinum the waters of rest in the Psalme were a figure of the Church and yet the three children had their Church in the fiery furnace Liberty life appertaine to the Church and yet Peter Paul had their Church in prison and the thiefe had his Church upon the Crosse. Every particular man is himselfe Templum Spiritus sancti a Temple of the holy Ghost yea Solvite templum hoc destroy this body by death and corruption in the grave yet there shall be Festum encaeniorum a renuing a reedifying of all those Temples in the generall Resurrection when we shall rise againe not onely as so many Christians but as so many Christian Churches to glorifie the Apostle and High-priest of our profession Christ Jesus in that eternall Sabbath In omni loco domiâ—ationis ejus Every person every place is fit to glorifie God in God is not tyed to any place not by essence Implet continendo implet God fills every place and fills it by containing that place in himselfe but he is tyed by his promise to a manifestation of himselfe by working in some certain places Though God were long before he required or admitted a sumptuous Temple for Solomons Temple was not built in almost five hundred years after their returne out of Egypt though God were content to accept their worship and their sacrifices at the Tabernacle which was a transitory and moveable Temple yet at last he was so carefull of his house as that himselfe gave the modell and platforme of it and when it was built and after repaired again he was so jealous of appropriating and confining all his solemne worship to that particular place as that he permitted that long schisme and dissention between the Samaritans and the Iews onely about the place of the worship of God They differed not in other things but whether in Mount Sion or in Mount Garizim And the feast of the dedication of this Temple which was yearly celebrated received so much honor as that Christ himselfe vouchsafed to be personally present at that solemnity though it were a feast of the institution of the Church and not of God immediatly as their other festivalls were yet Christ forbore not to observe it upon that pretence that it was but the Church that had appointed it to be observed So that as in all times God had manifested and exhibited himselfe in some particular places more then other in the Pillar in the wildernesse and in the Tabernacle and in the poole which the Angell troubled so did Christ himselfe by his owne presence ceremoniously justifie and authorise this dedication of places consecrated to Gods outward worship not onely once but anniversarily by a yearly celebration thereof To descend from this great Temple at Jerusalem to which God had annexed his solemne and publique worship the lesser Synagogues and Chappell 's of the Iews in other places were ever esteemed great testimonies of the sanctity and piety of the founders for Christ accepts of that reason which was presented to him in the behalfe of the Centurion He is worthy that thou shouldst do this for him for he loveth our Nation And how hath he testified it He hath built us a Synagogue He was but a stranger to them and yet he furthered and advanced the service of God amongst them of whose body he was no member This was that Centurions commendation Et quanto commedatior qui adificat Ecclesiam How much more commendation deserve they that build a Church for Christian service And therefore the first Christians made so much haste to the expressing of their devotion that even in the Apostles time for all their poverty and persecution they were come to have Churches as most of the Fathers and some of our later Expositors understand these words Have ye not houses to eate and drinke or doe ye despise the Church of God to be spoken not of the Church as it is a Congregation but of the Church as it is a Material building Yea if we may beleeve some authors that are pretended to be very ancient there was one Church dedicated to the memory
one person in him My flesh shall no more be none of mine then Christ shall not be man as well as God SERMON XV. Preached at Lincolns Inne 1 COR. 15. 50. Now this I say Brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God SAint Gregory hath delivered this story That Eutychius who was Bishop of Constantinople having written a book of the Resurrection and therein maintained that errour That the body of Christ had not that our bodies in the Resurrection should not have any of the qualities of a naturall body but that those bodies were in subtilitatem redacta so rarifyed so refined so attenâ—ated and reduced to a thinnesse and subtlenesse that they were aery bodies and not bodies of flesh and blood This error made a great noise and raised a great dust till the Emperour to avoid scandall which for the most part arises out of publick conferences was pleased to hear Eutychius and Gregory dispute this point privately before himself and a small company And that upon conference the Emperour was so well satisfyed that hee commanded Eutychius his books to bee burnt That after this both Gregory and Eutychius fell sicke but Eutychius dyed and dyed with this protestation In hâc carne in this flesh taking up the flesh of his hand in the presence of them that were there in this flesh I acknowledge that I and all men shall arise at the day of Judgement Now the principall place of Scripture which in his book and in that conference Eutychius stood upon was this Text these words of Saint Paul This I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God And the directest answer that Gregory gave to it was Caro secundum culpam non regnabit sed Caro secundum naturam sinfull flesh shall not but naturall flesh that is flesh indued with all qualities of flesh all such qualities as imply no defect no corruption for there was flesh before there was sin such flesh and such blood shall inherit the Kingdome of God As there have been more Heresies about the Humanity of Christ then about his Divinity so there have been more heresies about the Resurrection of his body and consequently of ours then about any other particular article that concerns his Humiliation or Exaltation Simon Magus strook deepest at first to the root That there was no Resurrection at all The Gnosticks who took their name from knowledge as though they knew all and no body else any thing which is a pride transferr'd through all Heretickes for as that sect in the Roman Church which call themselves Ignorantes and seem to pretend to no knowledge doe yet believe that they know a better way to heaven then all other men doe so that sect amongst them which called themselves Nullanos Nothings thought themselves greater in the Kingdome of God then either of the other two sects of diminution the Minorits or the Minims did These Gnosticks acknowledged a Resurrection but they said it was of the soul onely and not of the body for they thought that the soul lay dead at least in a dead sleep till the Resurrection Those Heretickes that are called the Arabians did as the Gnosticks did affirm a temporary death of the soul as well as of the body but then they allowed a Resurrection to both soul and body after that death which the Gnostickes did not but to the soul onely Hymeneus and Philetus of whom Saint Paul speakes they restrained the Resurrection to the soule but then they restrained this Resurrection of the soule to this life and that in those who were baptized the Resurrection was accomplished already Eutychius whom wee mentioned before enlarged the Resurrection to the body as well as to the soul but enlarged the qualities of the body so far as that it was scarce a body The Armenian hereticks said that it was not onely Corpus humâ—num but Corpus masculinum That all should rise in the perfecter sex and none as women Origen allowed a Resurrection and allowed the Body to be a naturall body but the contracted the time he said that when we rose we should enjoy the benefits of the resurrection even in bodily pleasures for a thousand years and then be annihilated or absorpted and swallowed up into the nature and essence of God himselfe for it will be hard to state Origens opinion in this point Origen was not herein well understood in his owne time not doe we understand him now for the most part but by his accusers and those that have written against him Divers of these Heretiques for the maintenance of their severall heresies perverted this Scripture Flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdome of God and that occasioned those Fathers who opposed those heresies so diverse from one another to interpret these words diversly according to the heresie they opposed All agree that they are an argument for the resurrection though they seem at first to oppose it For this Chapter hath three generall parts first Resurrectionem esse that there shall be a Resurrection which the Apostle proves by many and various arguments to the thirty fifth verse And then Quati corpore the body shall rise but some will say How are the dead raised and with what body doe they come in that thirty fifth verse And lastly Quid de superstitibus what shall become of them who shall be found alive at the day We shall all be changed verse fifty one Now this text is the knot and corollary or all the second part concerning the qualities of the bodies in the resurrection Now says the Apostle now that I have said enough to prove that a resurrection there is now now that I have said enough what kind of bodies shall arise now I show you as much in the Negative as I have done in the Affirmative now I teach you what to avoid as well as I have done what to affect now this I say brethren that flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdome of God Now though those words be primarily principally intended of the last Resurrection yet in a secondary respect they are appliable in themselves and very often applied by the ancients to the first Resurrection our resurrection in this life Tertullian hath intimated and presented both together elegantly when he says of God Nobis arrhabonem spiritus reliquit arrhabonem à nobis accepit God hath given us his earnest and a pawn from him upon earth in giving us the holy Ghost and he hath received our earnest and a pawn from us into heaven by receiving our nature in the body of Christ Jesus there Flesh and bloud when it is conformed to the flesh and bloud of Christ now glorified and made like his by our resurrectien may inherite the kingdome of God in heaven Yea flesh and bloud being conformed to Christ by the sanctification of the holy Ghost here in this world may inherit the kingdome of God here upon earth for God hath a
heart Let a man be zealous and fervent in reprehension of sin and there flies out an arrow that gives him the wound of a Puritan Let a man be zealous of the house of God and say any thing by way of moderation for the repairing of the ruines of that house and making up the differences of the Church of God and there flies out an arrow that gives him the wound of a Papist One shoots East and another West but both these arrows meet in him that means well to defame him And this is the first misery in these arrows these tentations Quia alienae they are shot from others they are not in our own quiver not in our own government Another quality that tentations receive from the holy Ghosts Metaphore of arrows is Quia veloces because this captivity to sin comes so swiftly so impetuously upon us Consider it first in our making In the generation of our parents we were conceiv'd in sin that is they sinn'd in that action so we were conceiv'd in sinne in their sin And in our selves we were submitted to sin in that very act of generation because then we became in part the subject of Originall sin Yet there was no arrow shot into us then there was no sinne in that substance of which we were made for if there had been sin in that substance that substance might be damn'd though God should never infuse a soul into it and that cannot be said well then God whose goodnesse and wisdome will have that substance to become a Man he creates a soul for it or creates a soul in it I dispute not that he sends a light or hee kindles a light in that lanthorn and here 's no arrow shot neither here 's no sin in that soul that God creates for there God should create something that were evill and that cannot be said Here 's no arrow shot from the body no sin in the body alone None from the soul no sin in the soul alone And yet the union of this soul and body is so accompanied with Gods malediction for our first transgression that in the instant of that union of life as certainly as that body must die so certainly the whole Man must be guilty of Originall sin No man can tell me out of what Quiver yet here is an arrow comes so swiftly as that in the very first minute of our life in our quickning in our mothers womb wee become guilty of Adams sin done 6000 years before and subject to all those arrows Hunger Labour Grief Sicknesse and Death which have been shot after it This is the fearfull swiftnesse of this arrow that God himself cannot get before it In the first minute that my soul is infus'd the Image of God is imprinted in my soul so forward is God in my behalf and so early does he visit me But yet Originall sin is there as soon as that Image of God is there My soul is capable of God as soon as it is capable of sin and though sin doe not get the start of God God does not get the start of sin neither Powers that dwell so far asunder as Heaven and Hell God and the Devill meet in an instant in my soul in the minute of my quickning and the Image of God and the Image of Adam Originall sin enter into me at once in one and the same act So swift is this arrow Originall sin from which all arrows of subsequent tentations are shot as that God who comes to my first minute of life cannot come before death And then a third and last danger which we noted in our tentations as they are represented by the holy Ghost in this Metaphore of arrows is that they are vix visibiles hardly discernible 'T is true that tentations doe not light upon us as bullets that we cannot see them till we feel them An arrow comes not altogether so but an arrow comes so as that it is not discern'd except we consider which way it comes and watch it all the way An arrow that findes a man asleep does not wake him first and wound him after A tentation that findes a man negligent possesses him before be sees it In gravtssimis criminibus confinia virtutum ladunt This is it that undoes us that vertues and vices are contiguous and borderers upon one another and very often we can hardly tell to which action the name of vice and to which the name of vertue appertains Many times that which comes within an inch of a noble action fals under the infamy of an odious treason At many executions half the company will call a man an Heretique and half a Martyr How often an excesse makes a naturall affection an unnaturall disorder Vtinam aut sororem non amasset Hamon aut non vindicasset Absolon Hamon lov'd his sister Tamar but a little too well Absolon hated his brothers incest but a little too ill Though love be good and hate be good respectively yet says S. Ambrose I would neither that love nor that hate had gone so far The contract between Ionathan and David was If I say The arrow on this side of thee all is wel If I say The arrow is beyond thee thou art in an ill case If the arrow the tentation be yet on this side of thee if it have not lighted upon thee thou art well God hath directed thy face to it and thou may'st if thou wilt continue thy diligence watch it and avoid it But if the arrow be beyond thee and thou have cast it at thy back in a forgetfulnesse in a security of thy sin thy case is dangerous In all these respects are these arrows these infirmities deriv'd from the sin of Adam dangerous as they are alienae in the hand of others as they are veloces swift in seising us and as they are vix visibiles hardly discern'd to be such And these considerations fell within this first branch of this second part Thine arrows tentations as they are arrows stick fast in me These dangers are in them as they are sagittae arrows and would be so if they were but single arrows any one tentation would endanger us any one tribulation would encumber us but they are plurall arrows and many arrows A man is not safe because one arrow hath mist him nor though he be free from one sin In the execution of Achan all Israel threw stones at him and stoned him If Achan had had some brother or cousin amongst them that would have flung over or short or weakly what good had that done him when he must stand the mark for all the rest All Israel must stone him A little disposition towards some one vertue may keep thee from some one tentation Thou mayst think it pity to corrupt a chast soul and forbear soliciting her pity to oppresse a submitting wretch and forbear to vex him and yet practise and that with hunger and thirst other sins or
prison an other story of unwieldy flesh about our souls and if wee give our selves as much mortification as our body needs we live a life of fridays and see no Sabbath we make up our years of Lents and see no other Easters and whereas God meant us Paradise we make all the world a wildernesse Sin hath cast a curse upon all the creatures of the world they are all worse then they were at first and yet we dare not receive so much blessing as is left in the creature we dare not eat or drink and enjoy them The daughters of Gods quiver and the sons of his quiver the arrows of tentation and the arrows of tribulation doe so stick in us that as he lives miserably that lives in sicknes and he as miserably that lives in physick so plenty is a misery and mortiâ—ication is a misery too plenty if we consider it in the effects is a disease a continuall sicknes for it breeds diseases And mortification if we should consider it without the effects is a disease too a continuall hunger and fasting and if we consider it at best and in the effects mortification is but a continuall physick which is misery enough They stick and they stick fast altè infixae every syllable aggravates our misery Now for the most part experimentally we know not whether they stick fast or no for we never goe about to pull them out these arrows these tentations come and welcome we are so far from offering to pull them out that we fix them faster and faster in us we assist our tentations yea we take preparatives and fomentations we supple our selves by provocations lest our flesh should be of proof against these arrows that death may enter the surer and the deeper into us by them And he that does in some measure soberly and religiously goe about to draw out these arrows yet never consummates never perfects his own work He pulls back the arrow a little way and he sees blood and he feels spirit to goe out with it and he lets it alone He forbears his sinfull companions a little while and he feels a melancholy take hold of him the spirit and life of his life decays and he falls to those companions again Perchance he rushes out the arrow with a sudden and a resolved vehemence and he leaves the head in his body He forces a divorce from that sinne he removes himself out of distance of that tentation and yet he surfets upon cold meat upon the sinfull remembrance of former sins which is a dangerous rumination and an unwholesome chawing of the cud It is not an ill derivation of repentance that poenitere is poenam tenere that 's true repentance when we continue in those means which may advance our repentance When Ioash the King of Israel came to visit Elisha upon his sick bed and to consult with him about his war Elisha bids the King smite the ground and he smites it thrice and ceases Then the man of God was angry and said Thou shouldst have smitten five or sixe times and so thou shouldst have smitten thine enemies till thou hadst consumed them Now how much hast thou to doe that hast not pull'd at this arrow at all yet Thou must pull thrice and more before thou get it out Thou must doe and leave undone many things before thou deliver thy selfe of that arrow that sinne that transports thee One of these arrows was shot into Saint Paul himselfe and it stuck and stuck fast whether an arrow of tentation or an arrow of tribulation the Fathers cannot tell And therefore wee doe now not inconveniently all our way in this exercise mingle these two considerations of tentation and tribulation Howsoever Saint Paul pull'd thrice at this arrow and could not get it out I besought the Lord thrice says he that it might depart from mee But yet Ioash his thrice striking of the ground brought him some victory Saint Pauls thrice praying brought him in that provision of Grace which God cals sufficient for him Once pulling at these arrows a slight consideration of thy sins will doe no good Do it thrice testifie some true desire by such a diligence Doe it now as thou sitt'st doe it again at the Table doe it again in thy bed Doe it thrice doe it in thy purpose do it in thine actions doe it in thy constancy Doe it thrice within the wals of thy flesh in thy self within the wals of thy house in thy family and in a holy and exemplar conversation abroad and God will accomplish thy work which is his work in thee And though the arrow be not utterly pull'd out yet it shall not fester it shall not gangrene Thou shalt not be cut off from the body of Christ in his Church here nor in the Triumphant Church hereafter how fast soever these arrows did stick upon thee before God did not refuse Israel for her wounds and bruises and putrefying sores though from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head but because those wounds were not closed nor bound up nor suppled with ointments therefore he refused her God shall not refuse any soul because it hath been shot with these arrows Alas God himself hath set us up for a mark says Iob and so says Ieremy against these arrows But that soul that can pour out flouds of tears for the losse or for the absence or for the unkindnes or imagination of an unkindness of a friend mis-beloved beloved a wrong way and not afford one drop one tear to wash the wounds of these arrows that soul that can squeaze the wound of Christ Jesus and spit out his bloud in these blasphemous execrations shed no drop of this bloud upon the wounds of these arrows that soul and only that soul that refuses a cure does God refuse not because they fell upon it and stook and stook fast and stook long but because they never never went about to pull them out never resisted a tentation never lamented a transgression never repented a recidivation Now this is more put home to us in the next addition Infixae mihi they stick and stick fast in mee that is in all mee That that sin must be sav'd or damn'd That 's not the soul alone nor body alone but all the whole man God is the God of Abraham as he is the God of the living Therefore Abraham is alive And Abraham is not alive if his body be not alive Alive actually in the person of Christ alive in an infallible assurance of a particular resurrection Whatsoever belongs to thee belongs to thy body and soul and these arrows stick fast in thee In both Consider it in both in things belonging to the body and to the soul We need clothing Baptisme is Gods Wardrobe there Induimur Christo In Baptisme we put on Christ there we are invested apparell'd in Christ And there comes an arrow that cuts off half our garment as
receiving an inestimable benefit at the hands of God which was the first reason of kneeling then And because the Priest is then in the act of prayer in their behalfe that that may preserve them in body and soule unto eternall life But they are suffered to go one in kneeling in adoration of that bread which they take to be God We deny not that there are Traditions nor that there must be ceremonies but that matters of faith should depend of these or be made of these that we deny and that they should be made equall to Scriptures for with that especially doth Tertullian reproch the Heretiques that being pressed with Scriptures they fled to Traditions as things equall or superiour to the word of God I am loth to depart from Tertullian both because he is every where a Patheticall expresser of himselfe and in this point above himselfe Nobis curiositate opus non est post Iesum Christum nec Inquisitione post Evangelium Have we seen that face of Christ Jesus here upon earth which Angels desired to see and would we see a better face Traditions perfecter then the word Have we read the four Evangelists and would we have a better Library Traditions fuller then the word Cum credimusâ— nihil desideramus ultra credere when I beleeve God in Christ dead and risen againe according to the Scriptures I have nothing else to beleeve Hoc enim prius credimus non esse quod ultra credere debeamus This is the first Article of my Faith that I am bound to beleeve nothing but articles of faith in an equall necessity to them Will we be content to be well and thank God when we are well Hilary tells us when we are well Bene habet quod iis quae scripta sunt contentus sis then thou art well when thou satisfiest thy self with those things which God hath vouchsafed to manifest in the Scriptures Si aliquis aliis verbis quà m quibus à Deo dictum est demonstrare velit if any man will speake a new language otherwise then God hath spoken and present new Scriptures as he does that makes traditions equall to them Aut ipse non intelligit aut legentibus non intelligendum relinquit either he understands not himself or I may very well be content not to understand him if I understand God without him The Fathers abound in this opposing of Traditions when out of those traditions our adversaries argue an insufficiency in the Scriptures Solus Christus audiendus says Saint Cyprian we hearken to none but Christ nec debemus attendere quid aliquis ante nos faciendum putarit neither are we to consider what any man before us thought fit to be done sed quid qui ante emnes est fecerit but what he who is before all them did Christ Iesus and his Apostles who were not onely the primitive but the pre-primitive Church did and appointed to be done In this treading down of our grasse then in the Roman Church first by their supine Ignorance and barbarisme and then by traditions of which some are pestilently iufectious and destroy good words some cover it so as that not being declared to the people in their signification they are uselesse to them no Babylon could exceed the Italian Babylon Rome in treading down their grasse Their oppression was as great in the other In troubling their water My sheep drink that which you have troubled When the Lord is our shepherd he leadeth us ad aquas quietudinum to the waters of rest of quietnesse of these in the plurall quietudinum quietness of body and quietness of Conscience too The endowments of heaven are Ioy and Glory joy and glory are the two Elements the two Hemispheres of Heaven And of this Joy and this Glory of heaven we have the best earnest that this world can give if we have rest satisfaction and acquiescence in our religion for our beleefe and for our life and actions peace of Conscience And where the Lord is our shepherd he leads us and ad aquas quietudinum to the waters of rest multiplyed rest all kind of rest But the shepherds in our text troubled the waters and more then so for we have just cause to note the double signification of this word which we translate Trouble and to transfer the two significations to the two Sacraments as they are exhibited in the Roman Babylon The word is Mirpas and it denotes not onely Conturbationem a troubling a mudding but Obturationem too an interception a stopping as the Septuagint translates it Prov. 35. and in these two significations of the word a troubling and a stopping of the waters hath the Roman Church exercised her tyranny and her malignity in the two Sacraments For in the Sacrament of Baptisme they had troubled the water with additions of Oile and salt and spittle and exorcismes But in the other Sacrament of they came Ad obturationem to a stopping to an intercision to an interruption of the water the water of life Aquae quietudinum the water of rest to our souls and peace to our consciences in withholding the Cup of salvation the bloud of Christ Jesus from us So that if thou come to Davids holy expostulation Quid retribuam what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me And pursue it to Davids holy resolution Accipiam Calicem I will take the Cup of salvation you shall be told Sir you must take Orders first or you cannot take that Cup. But water is as common as Aire And as that Element Aire in our spirituall food that is preaching which is Spiritus Domini the breath of God is common to all Iâ—e praedicate omni Creaturae goe preach the Gospell to every Creature so is this water of life in the Sacrament common to all Bibite ex eo omnes Drink yee all of this and thereby doe the names of Communion and participation accrew to it because all have an interest in it This is that bloud of which Saint Chrysostome says Hic sanguis facit ut Imago Dei in nobis floreat That we have the Image of God in our souls we have by the benefit of the same nature by which we have our souls There cannot be a humane soule without the Image of God in it But ut floreat that this Image appear to us and be continually refreshed in us ut non Languescat animae nobilitas that this holy noblenesse of the soule doe not languish not degenerate in us we have by the benefit of this bloud of Christ Iesus the seale of our absolution in that blessed and glorious Sacrament And that bloud they deny us This is that bloud of which they can make as much as they will with a thought with an intention so as they pretend a power of changing a whole vintage at once all the wine of all the nations in the world into the bloud of Christ if the Priest have an intention to
have I heard our Church condemned abroad for opinions which our Church never held And how often have I heard forein Churches exalted and magnified at home for some things in the observation of the Sabbath and in the administration of the Sacrament which indeed those Churches doe not hold nor practise Take heed what you heare And that ill which you heare of your own Church at home by Gods abundant goodnesse to it is not true And I would all that good which you heare of Churches abroad were true but I must but wish that it were so and pray that it may be so and praise God for those good degrees towards it which they have attained But no Church in the world gives us occasion of emulation towards them or of undervaluing Gods blessings upon ours And therefore as to us who pretend an ambassage from him if we make our selves unworthy of that employment God shall say What hast thou to doe to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant into thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee So to them that hearken greedily after defamations of the persons and actions of his Church God shall say Why takest thou mine Ordinance into thy construction or my servants into thy consideration since thou hatest my yoake and proposest to thy selfe no other end in defaming others then a licentious liberty and an uncontrolled impunity in thy selfe As you are Christians God hath given you a Royall Priesthood be so Noble be so Holy as to take heed what you heare of State and Church and of those persons whom God hath called Gods in both those firmaments And for conclusion of all Take heed what you heare of yourselves Men speake to you and God speakes to you and the Devill does speake to you too Take heed what you hear of all three In all three the words look two ways for in them there is both a Videte and a Cavete first see that you doe heare them and then take heed what you heare from them Men will speake and they will speake of you Men will discourse and you must be their subject Men will declame and you must be their Theme And truely you should desire to be so As onely man can speake so onely man can desire to be spoken of If gold could speake if gold could wish gold would not be content to lie in the darke in the mine but would desire to come abroad to entertain Armies or to erect or endow Civill or Ecclesiasticall buildings He that desires to Print a book should much more desire to be a book to do some such exemplar things as men might read and relate and profit by He that hath done nothing worth the speaking of hath not kept the world in reparations for his Tenement and his Terme Videte see that you doe hear That you doe give occasion to be spoken of that you doe deserve the praise the thankes the testimony the approbation of the good men of your own times for that shall deliver you over fairely to posterity But then Cavete Take heed what you hear that you suffer not these approbations to swerve or swell into flattery for it is better to hear the Rebuke of the wise then to heare the songs of fools says the wise King And when the flatterer speaks thee faire says he beleeve him not for there are seven abominations in his heart And by the way the Holy Ghost at any time had as lieve say seventy millions as seven for seven is the holy Ghosts Cyphar of infinite There are infinite abominations in the flatterers heart And of these flatterers these waspes that swarme in all sweet and warme places and have a better outside◠then the Bee the Waspe hath a better shape and a better shape and a better appearance then the Bee but a sharper and a stronger sting and at last no hony of these no authors of any books of the Bible have warned us so much and armed us so well as those two Royall Authors those two great Kings David and Solomon In likelyhood because they as such had been most offered at by them and could best give a true character of them as David does Their words are smoother then butter but warre is in their hearts and softer then oile and yet they are naked swords Videte Cavete see that you do hear that you give good men occasion to speak well of you But take heed what you hear that you encourage not a flatterer by your over easie acceptation of his praises Man speakes and God speakes too and first Videte see that you do heare him for as he that fears God fears nothing else so he that hears God hears nothing else that can terrifie him Ab Auditione mala non timebit says David a good man shall not be afraid of evill tydings for his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. A rumor shall come one year says Ieremy and next year another rumor new inventions from Satan for new intimidations but still he is at home for he dwells in God Videte see that you heare him But then Cavete take heed what you heare even from God himself that you mistake not what God says for as all Gods pardons have an Ita quòd se bene gerat He whom God pardons for that that is past is bound to the good behaviour for the future so all Gods promises have a Si audiertis si volueritis if I hearken if I obey I shall eat the good things of the land otherwise I shall sterve body and soule There is a Vives proposed to me I may conceive justly an infallibility of eternall life but still it is fac hoc vives this I must doe and then I shall live otherwise moriar and morte moriar I shall dy both ways body and soule There is not much asked of Ioshua but something there is It is but a Tantummodo hoc onely this but a Tantummodo hoc an onely this there is Onely be thou valiant and of a good courage forsake not the cause of God and God will never forsake thee There is not much asked of Iairus for the resuscitation of his dead daughter but something there is it is Tantummodo hoc but onely this but an onely this there is Tantummodo crede non metuas doe not mistrust Christ doe not disable Christ from doing a miracle in thy behalfe by not beleeving as in one place where he came it is said that Christ could not doe much by reason of their unbeleefe Heare God there where God speaks to thee and then thou shalt heare that that he speakes to thee Above in heaven in his decrees he speakes to himselfe to the Trinity In the Church and in the execution of those decrees he speakes to thee Climbe not up to the search of unsearchable things to the finding out of investigable things as Tertullian speakes
expounded dilated by Orators The Father of Orators testifies Nihil tam perspicuum there is nothing so evident as that there is a soveraigne power that made and governes all Dost thou love learning as it is contracted brought to a quintessence wrought to a spirit by Philosophers the eldest of all them in that whole book Quod Deus latens simul patens est testifies all that and nothing but that that as there is nothing so dark so there is nothing so cleare nothing so remote nothing so neare us as God Dost thou love learning as it is sweetned and set to musique by Poets the King of the Poets testifies the same Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet that is a great an universall spirit that moves a generall soule that inanimates and agitates every peece of this world But Saint Paul is a more powerfull Orator then Cicero and he says The invisible things of God are seen by things which are made and thereby man is made inexcuseable Moses is an ancienter Philosopher then Trismegistus and his picture of God is the Creation of the world David is a better Poet then Virgil and with David Coeli enarrant the heavens declare the glory of God The power of oratory in the force of peâ—swasion the strength of conclusions in the pressing of Philosophy the harmony of Poetry in the sweetnesse of composition never met in any man so fully as in the Prophet Esay nor in the Prophet Esay more then where he says Levate Oculos Lift up your eyes on high and behold who hath created these things behold them therefore to know that they are created and to know who is their creator All other authors we distinguish by tomes by parts by volumes but who knowes the volumes of this Author how many volumes of Spheares involve one another how many tomes of Gods Creatures there are Hast thou not room hast thou not money hast thou not understanding hast thou not leasure for great volumes for the bookes of heaven for the Mathematiques nor for the books of Courts the Politiques take but the Georgiques the consideration of the Earth a farme a garden nay seven foot of earth a grave and that will be book enough Goel lower every worme in the grave lower every weed upon the grave is an abridgement of all nay lock up all doores and windowes see nothing but thy selfe nay let thy selfe be locked up in a close prison that thou canst not see thy selfe and doe but feel thy pulse let thy pulse be intermitted or stupefied that thou feel not that doe but thinke and a worme a weed thy selfe thy pulse thy thought are all testimonies that All this All and all the parts thereof are opus a work made and opus ejus his work made by God He that made a Clock or an Organ will be sure to ingrave his Me fecit such a man made me he that builds a faire house takes it ill if a passenger will not aske whose house is it he that bred up his Sonne to a capacity of noble employments looks that the world should say he had a wise and an honourable Father Can any man look upon the frame of this world and not say there is a powerfull upon the administration of this world and not say there is a wise and a just hand over it Thus is the object 't is but Illud the world but such a world as may well justifie Saint Hieromes translation who renders it Illum not onely that every man may see it the work the world but may see him God in that work That 's the object not onely the work but the workman God in the work and the meanes is that man may see it that is by that spectacle he may see God what of God how much of God Is it his essence For that the resolution of the School is sufficient Nulla visio naturalis in terris no man can see God in this world and live but no man can see God in the next world and dye there visio is beatitudo sight is salvation Yet Nulla visio corporalis in Coelis These bodily eyes even then when they are glorified shall not see the Essence of God our mortal eyes do not see bodies here they see no substance they see onely quantities and dimensions our glorified bodily eyes shall see the glory shed out of God but the very essence of God those glorified bodily eyes shall not see but the eyes of our soul shall be so enlightned as that they shal see God Sicuti est even in his essence which the best illumined most sanctified men are very far from in this life Now the sight of God in this text is the knowledge of God to see God is but to know that there is a God And can man as a naturall man doe that See God so as to know that there is a God Can hee doe it Nay can he chuse but doe it The question hath divided the School those two great and well known families of the School whom we call Thomists and Scotists the first say that this proposition Deus est is per se nota evident in it selfe and the others deny that But yet they differ but thus far that Thomas thinks that it is so evident that man cannot chuse but know it though he resist it The other thinks in it selfe it is but so evident as that a man may know it if he imploy his naturall faculties without going any farther thus much indeed thus little they differ Now the holy Ghost is the God of Peace and doth so far reconcile these two in this text as that first in our reading it is That man may see God and that Scotus does not deny but in the Originall in the Hebrew it is Casu and Casu is viderunt not every man may but every man hath seen God Though it goe not absolutely so far as Thomas every man must no man can chuse but see God yet it goes so far further then Scotus who ends in every man may as that it says every man hath seen God So that our labour never lies in this to prove to any man that he may see God but onely to remember him that he hath seen God not to make him beleeve that there is a God but to make him see that he does beleeve it Quid habes quod non accepisti And hast thou received any thing and not seen not known him that gave it Who hath infused comfort into thee into thy distresses Thine own Morall constancy Who infused that Who hath imprinted terrors in thee A dampe in thine owne heart Who imprinted it Sweare to me now that thou beleevest not in God and before midnight thou wilt tell God that thou dost Miserable distemper not to see God in the light and see him in the darke not to see him at noon and see him fearfully at
what ground he sayes or does or suffers that which he suffers and does and sayes Howsoever he pretend the honour of God in his testimony yet if the thing be materially false false in it self though true in his opinion or formally false true in it self but not known to be so to him that testifies it both ways he is an incompetent witnesse And this takes away the honour of having been witnesses for Christ and the consolation and style of Martyrs both from them who upon such evidence as can give no assurance that is traedi tions of men have grounded their faith in God and from them who take their light in corners and conventicles and not from the City set upon the top of a hill the Church of God Those Roman Priests who have given their lives those Separatists which have taken a voluntary banishment are not competent witnesses for the glory of God for a witnesse must know and qui testatur de scientia testetur de modo scientiae sayes the Law He that will prove any thing by his knowledge must prove how he came by that knowledge The Papist hath not the knowledge of his Doctrine from any Scripture the Separatist hath not the knowledge of his Discipline from any precedent any example in the primitive Church How farre then is that wretched and sinfull man from giving any testimony or glory to Christ in his life who never comes to the knowledge and consideration why he was sent into this life who is so farre from doing his errand that he knowes not what his errand was not whether he received any errand or no. But as though that God who for infinite millions of ages delighted himself in himself and was sufficient in himself and yet at last did bestow six dayes labour for the creation and provision of man as though that God who when man was sowr'd in the lumpe poysoned in the fountaine withered in the roote in the loins of Adam would then ingage his Sonne his beloved Sonne his onely Sonne to be man by a temporary life and to be no man by a violent and a shamefull death as though that God who when he was pleased to come to a creation might have left out thee amongst privations amongst nothings or might have shut thee up in the close prison of a bare being and no more as he hath done earth and stones or if he would have given thee life might have left thee a Toad or if he would have given thee a humane soule might have left thee a heathen without any knowledge of God or if he had afforded thee a Religion might have left thee a Iew or though he had made thee a Christian might have left thee a Papist as though that God that hath done so much more in breeding thee in his true Church had done all this for nothing thou passest thorough this world like a flash like a lightning whose beginning or end no body knowes like an Ignis fatuus in the aire which does not onely not give light for any use but not so much as portend or signifie any thing and thou passest out of the world as thy hand passes out of a basin of water which may bee somewhat the fouler for thy washing in it but retaines no other impression of thy having been there and so does the world for thy life in it When God placed Adam in the world he bad him fill it and subdue it and rule it and when he placed him in paradise he bad him dresse and keepe paradise and when he sent his children into the over-flowing Laud of promise he bad them fight and destroy the Idolaters to every body some task some errand for his glory And thou comest from him into this world as though he had said nothing unto thee but Go and do as you see cause Go and do as you see other men do Thou knowest not that is considerest not what thou wast sent to doe what thou shouldest have done but thou knowest much lesse what thou hast done The light of nature hath taught thee to hide thy sinnes from other men and thou hast been so diligent in that as that thou hast hid them from thy self and canst not finde them in thine owne conscience if at any time the Spirit of God would burne them up or the blood of Christ Jesus wash them out thou canst not finde them out so as that a Sermon or Sacrament can work upon them Perchance thou canst tell when was the first time or where was the first place that thou didst commit such or such a sinne but as a man can remember when he began to spell but not when he began to reade perfectly when he began to joyne his letters but not when he began to write perfectly so thou remembrest when thou wentest timorously and bashfully about sinne at first and now perchance art ashamed of that shamefastnesse and sorry thou beganst no sooner Poore bankrupt that hast sinned out thy soule so profusely so lavishly that thou darest not cast up thine accounts thou darest not aske thy selfe whether thou have any soule left how farre art thou from giving any testimony to Christ that darest not testifie to thy selfe nor heare thy conscience take knowledge of thy transgressions but haddest rather sleepe out thy daies or drinke out thy daies then leave one minute for compunction to lay hold on and doest not sinne alwaies for the love of that sinne but for feare of a holy sorrow if thou shouldest not fill up thy time with that sinne God cannot be mocked saith the Apostle nor God cannot be blinded He seeth all the way and at thy last gaspe he will make thee see too through the multiplying Glasse the Spectacle of Desperation Canst thou hope that that God that seeth this darke Earth through all the vaults and arches of the severall spheares of Heaven that seeth thy body through all thy stone walls and seeth thy soul through that which is darker then all those thy corrupt flesh canst thou hope that that God can be blinded with drawing a curtain between thy sinne and him when he is all eye canst thou hope to put out that eye with putting out a candle when he hath planted legions of Angels about thee canst thou hope that thou hast taken away all Intelligence if thou have corrupted or silenced or sent away a servant O bestow as much labour as thou hast done to finde corners for sin to finde out those sinnes in those corners where thou hast hid them As Princes giveâ— pardons by their own hands but send Judges to execute Justice come to him for mercy in the acknowledgement of thy sinnes and stay not till his Justice come to thee when he makes inquisition for blood and doe not think that if thou feel now at this presentâ— a little tendernesse in thy heart a little melting in thy bowels a little dew in thine eyes that if thou beest come to know that thou art a
man whom he hath not made him able to relieve So then no more being needfull to be said of the persons the poor nor of the Act showing of mercy to the poor there remaines no more in this last part but according to our way all the way to consider the origination and latitude of this last word Cahad this honouring of God The word does properly signifie Augere ampliare To enlarge God to amplifie to dilate God to make infinite God shall I dare to say more God certainely God to more then he was before O who can expresse this abundant this superabundant largenesse of Gods goodnesse to man that there is a power put into mans hands to enlarge God to dilate to propagate to amplifie God himselfe I will multiply this people says God and they shall not be few I will glorifie them and they shall not be small there 's the word of our text God enables me to glorifie him to amplifie him to encrease him by my mercy my almes For this is not onely that encrease that Saint Hierom intends that he that hath pity on the poor Foeneratur Domino he lends upon use to the Lord for this though it be an encrease is but an encrease to himselfe but he that showes mercy to the poore encreases God says our text dilates enlarges God How Corpus aptasti mihi when Christ comes into the world says Saint Paul he says to his Father Thou hast prepared and fitted a body for me That was his naturall body that body which he assumed in the bowels of the blessed Virgin They that pretend to enlarge this body by multiplication by making millions of these bodies in the Sacraments by the way of Transubstantiation they doe not honour this body whose honour is to sit in the same dimensions and circumscriptions at the right hand of God But then as at his comming into this world God had fitted him a body so in the world he had fitted himselfe another body a Mysticall body a Church purchased with his bloud Now this body this Mysticall body I feed I enlarge I dilate and amplifie by my mercy and my charity For as God says to Ierusalem Thou wast in thy bloud thou wast not salted nor swadled no eye pityed thee but thou wast cast out into the open field and I loved thee I washed thee I apparelled and adorned thee prosperataes in regnum I never gave thee over till I saw thee an established kingdome so may all those Saints of God say to God himselfe to the Sonne of God invested in this body this mysticall body the Church thou was cast out into the open field all the world persecuted thee and then we gave thee suck with our bloud we clothed thee with our bodies we built thee houses and adorned and endowed those houses to thine honour prosperatus es in regnum we never gave over spending and doing and suffering for thy glory till thou hadst an established kingdome over all the earth And so thou thy body thy mysticall body the Church is honoured that is amplified dilated enlarged by our mercy Magnificat Anima mea Dominum was the exultation of the blessed Virgin My soule doth magnifie the Lord. When the meditations of my heart digested into writing or preaching or any other declaration of Gods glory carry or advance the knowledge of God in other men then My soule doth magnifie the Lord enlarge dilate amplifie God But when I relieve any poor wretch of the houshold of the faithfull with mine almes then my mercy magnifies the Lord occasions him that receives to magnifie the Lord by this thanksgiving and them that see it to magnifie the Lord by their imitation in the like works of mercy And so far doe these two elegant words chosen here by the holy Ghost carry our meditation in the first Canan God makes the charitable man partaker of his own highest power mercy and in the other Cabad God enables us by this mercy to honour him so far as to dilate to enlarge to amplifie him that is that body which he in his Sonne hath invested by purchase his Church We have done If you will but claspe up all this in your owne bosomes if you will but lay it to your owne hearts you may goe A poorer thing is not in the world nor a sicker which you may remember to have been one signification of this word poore then thine own soule And therefore the Chalde paraphrase renders this text thus He that oppresses the poore reproaches his owne soule for his owne soule is as poore as any whom he can oppresse To a begger that needs and askes but bodily things thou wilt say Alasse poore soule and wilt thou never say Alasse poore soule to thy self that needest spirituall things If thy affections thy pleasures thy delights beg of thee and importune thee so farre to bestow upon them say unto them I have those that are nearer me then you Wife and Children and I must not empoverith them to give unto you I must not sterve my family to feed my pleasures But if this Wife and Children begge and importune so farre say unto them too I have one that is nearer me then all you a soule and I must not endanger that to satisfie you I must not provide Ioyntures and Portions with the damnifying with the damning of mine owne soule It is a miserable Alchimy and extracting of spirits that stills away the spirit the soule it selfe and a poore Philosophers Stone that is made with the coales of Hell-fire a lamentable purchase when the soule is payed for the land And therefore show mercy to this soule Doe not oppresse this soule not by Violence which was the first signification of this word Oppression Doe not violate doe not smother not strangle not suffocate the good motions of Gods Spirit in theeâ— for it is but a wofull victory to triumphe over thine owne conscience and but a servile greatnesse to be able to silence that Oppresse not thy soule by Fraud which was the second signification of this word Oppression Defraud not thy soul of the benefit of Gods Ordinances frequent these exercises come hither And be not here like Gideons fleece dry when all about it was wet parched in a remorselesnesse when all the Congregation about thee is melted into holy tears Be not as Gideons fleece dry when all else is wet nor as that fleece wet when all about it was dry Be not jealous of God stand not here as a person unconcerned disinteressed as though those gracious promises which God is pleased to shed down upon the whole Congregation from this place appertained not to thee but that all those Judgements denounced here over which they that stand by thee are able by a faithfull and cheerfull laying hold of Gods offers though they stand guilty of the same sinnes that thou doest to lift up their heads must still necessarily overflow and surround thee
Jesus before whose face I stand now and before whose face I shall not be able to stand amongst the righteous at the last day if I lie now and make this Pulpit my Shop to vent sophisticate Wares In the presence of you a holy part I hope of the Militant Church of which I am In the presence of the whole Triumphant Church of which by him by whom I am that I am I hope to bee In the presence of the Head of the whole Church who is All in all I and I thinke I have the Spirit of God I am sure I have not resisted it in this point I and I may bee allowed to know something in Civill affaires I am sure I have not been stupefied in this point doe deliver that which upon the truth of a Morall man and a Christian man and a Church man beleeve to be true That hee who is the Breath of our nostrils is in his heart as farre from submitting us to that Idolatry and superstition which did heretofore oppresse us as his immediate Predecessor whose memory is justly precious to you was Their wayes may bee divers and yet their end the same that is The glory of God And to a higher Comparison then to her I know not how to carry it As then the Breath of our nostrils our breath is his that is our speech first in containing it not to speak in his diminution then in uttering it amongst men to interpret fairly and loially his proceedings and then in uttering it to God in such prayers for the continuing thereof as imply a thankfull acknowledgement of the present blessings spirituall and temporall which we enjoy now by him So farre Breath is speech but Breath is life too and so our life is his How willingly his Subjects would give their lives for him I make no doubt but hee doubts not This is argument enough for their propensenesse and readinesse to give their lives for his honour or for the possessions of his children That though not contra voluntatem not against his will yet Praeter voluntatem without any Declaration of his will or pleasure by any Command they have been as ready voluntarily as if a Presse had commanded them But these ways which his wisdome hath chosen for the procuring of peace have kept off much occasion of triall of that how willingly his Subjects would have given their lives for him Yet their lives are his who is the breath of their nostrils And therefore though they doe not leave them for him let them lead them for him though they bee not called to die for him let them live so as that may bee for him to live peaceably to live honestly to live industriously is to live for him for the sinnes of the people endanger the Prince as much as his owne When that shall bee required at your hand then die for him In the meane time live for him live so as your living doe not kindle Gods anger against him and that is a good Confession and acknowledgement That hee is the breath of your nostrils That your life is his As then the breath of our nostrils is expressed by this word in this Text Ruach spiritus speech and life so it is his When the breath of life was first breathed into man there is called by another word Neshamah and that is the soule the immortall soule And is the King the breath of that life Is hee the soule of his Subjects so as that their soules are his so as that they must sinne towards men in doing unjust actions or sinne towards God in forsaking and dishonouring him if the King will have them If I had the honour to aske this question in his royall presence I know he would bee the first man that would say No No your souls are not mine so And as hee is a most perfect Text-man in the Booke of God and by the way I should not easily feare his being a Papist that is a good Text-man I know hee would cite Daniel saying Though our God doe not deliver us yet know O King that we will not worship thy Gods And I know hee would cite S. Peter We ought to obey God rather then men And he would cite Christ himself Feare not them for the soule that cannot hurt the soule He claimes not your souls so It is Ruach here it is not Neshamah your life is his your soule is not his in that sense But yet beloved these two words are promiscuously used in the Scriptures Ruach is often the soule Neshamah is often the temporall life And thus farre the one as well as the other is the Kings That hee must answer for your soules so they are his for hee is not a King of bodies but a King of men bodies and soules nor a King of men onely but of Christian men so your Religion so your soules are his his that is appertaining to his care and his account And therefore though you owe no obedience to any power under heaven so as to decline you from the true God or the true worship of that God and the fundamentall things thereof yet in those things which are in their nature but circumstantiall and may therefore according to times and places and persons admit alterations in those things though they bee things appertaining to Religion submit your selves to his directions for here the two words meet Ruach and Neshamah your lives are his and your souls are his too His end being to advance Gods truth he is to be trusted much in matters of indifferent nature by the way He is the word of our Text Spiritus as Spiritus is the Holy Ghost so farre by accommodation as that he is Gods instrument to convey blessings upon us and as spiritus is our breath of speech and as it is our life and as it is our soule too so farre as that in those temporall things which concern spirituall as Times of meeting and much of the manner of proceeding when we are met we are to receive directions from him So he is the breath of our nostrils our speech our lives our soules in that limited sense are his But then did those subjects of his And I charge none but his subjects with this plot for I judge not them who are without from whom God deliverd us this day did they think so of him That he was the breath of our nostrils If the breath be soure if it bee tainted and corrupt as they would needs thinke in this case is it good Physick for an ill breath to cut off the head or to suffocate it to smother to strangle to murder that man Hee is the breath of their nostrils They owe him their speech their thanks their prayers and how have these children of fooles made him their song and their by-word How have these Drunkards men drunke with the Babylonian Cup made Libels against him How have those Seminatores verborum word-scatterers defamed him even with
tentations to sin He shall eat up my dust so as that it shall fly into mine eys that is so work upon my carnall affections as that they shall not make me blinde nor unable to discern that it is he that works It is said of one kinde of Serpent that because they know by an instinct they have that their skin is good for the use of man for the falling sickness out of Envy they hide their skin when they cast it The Serpent is loth we should have any benefit by him but we have even his tentations arm us and the very falling exalts us when after a sin of infirmity we come to a true and scrutiny of our conscience So he hath nothing to eat but our dust and he eats up our dust so as that he contributes to our glory by his malice The Whale was Ionas Pilot The Crows were Elias caters The Lions were Daniels sentinels The Viper was Pauls advocate it pleaded for him brought the beholders in an instant from extreme to extreme from crying out that Paul was a murderer to cry that he was a god Though at any time the Serpent having brought me to a sin cry out Thou art a murderer that is bring me to a desperate sense of having murdred mine own soul yet in that darkness I shal see light by a present repentance effectual application of the merits of my Savior I shall make the Serpent see I am a God thus far a God that by my adhering to Christ I am made partaker of the Divine Nature For that which S. Chrysost. says of Baptism is true too in the second Baptism Repentance Deposui terram coelum indui then I may say to the Serpent Your meat is dust and I was dust but Deposui terram I have shak'd off my dust by true repentance for I have shak'd off my self and am a new creature and am not now meat for your Table Iam terra non sum sed sal says the same Father I am not now unsavoury dust but I am salt And Sal ex aqua vento says he Salt is made of water and winde I am made up of the water of Baptism of the water of Repentance of the water that accompanies the blood of Christ Jesus and of that winde that blows where it list and hath been pleased to blow upon me the Spirit of God the Holy Ghost and I am no longer meat for the Serpent for Dust must he eat all the days of his life I am a branch of that Vine Christ is the Vine and we are the branches I am a leafe of that Rose of Sharon and of that Lilly of the valleys I am a plant in the Orchard of Pomegranats and that Orchard of Pomegranats is the Church I am a drop of that dew that dew that lay upon the head of Christ. And this Vine and this Rose and Lilly and Pomegranats of Paradise and this Dew of heaven are not Dust And dust must thou eate all the dayes of thy life So then the Prophecy of Esay fulfils it self That when Christ shall reign powerfully over us The wolf and the lamb shall feed together Saul and Ananias shall meet in a house as S. Hierome expounds that and Ananias not be afraid of a Persecutor The Lion shall eate straw like the Bullock says that Prophet in that place Tradent se rusticitati Scripturarum says the same Father The strongest understandings shall content themselves with the homelinesse of the Scriptures and feed upon plain places and not study new dishes by subtilties and perplexities and then Dust shall be the Serpents meat says the Prophet there The power of Satan shall reach but to the body and touch a soul wrapt up in Christ. But then it is Totâ vitâ all his life His diet is impaired but it is not taken away He eats but dust but he shall not lack that as long as hee lives And how long lives the Serpent this Serpent The life of this Serpent is to seduce man to practise upon man to prevaile upon man as farre and as long as man is dust And therefore wee are not onely his dust whilst wee live all which time we serve in our carnall affections for him to feed upon but when we are dead we are his dust still Man was made in that state as that he should not resolve to dust but should have passed from this world to the next without corruption or resolution of the body That which God said to Adam Dust thou art belonged to all from the beginning he and all we were to be of dust in his best integrity but that which God adds there in terram revertêris dust thou art and to it thou shalt returne that the Serpent brought in that was induced upon man by him and his tentation So that when we are living dust here he eats us and when we are dead dust too in the grave he feeds upon us because it proceeds from him both that we die and that we are detained in the state of exinanition and ingloriousnesse in the dust of the earth and not translated immediately to the joyes of heaven as but for him we should have been But as though he do feed upon our living dust that is induce sicknesses and hunger and labour and cold and paine upon our bodies here God raises even that dust out of his hands and redeemes it from his jaws in affording us a deliverance or a â—â—â—â—itution from those bodily calamities here as he did abundantly to his servant and our example Iob so though he feed upon our dead dust and detain our bodies in the disconsolate state of the grave yet as the Godhead the divine nature did not depart from the body of Christ when it lay dead in the grave so neither doth the love and power of God depart from the body of a Christian though resolved to dust in the grave but in his due time shall recollect that dust and recompact that body and reunite that soul in everlasting joy and glory And till then the Serpent lives till the Judgement Satan hath power upon that part of man and that 's the Serpents life first to practise our death and then to hold us in the state of the dead Till then we attend with hope and with prayers Gods holy pleasure upon us and then begins the unchangeable state in our life in body and soul together then we beginne to live and then ends the Serpents life that is his earnest practise upon us in our life and his faint triumph in continuing over our dust That time the time of the generall Resurrection being not yet come the devills thought themselves wronged and complained that Christ came before the time to torment them and therefore Christ yeelded so much to their importunity as to give them leave to enter into the swine And therefore let not us murmur
expressed that David determined himself or declared his choice of any of the three Hee might conceive a hope that God would forbear all three As when another Prophet Nathan had told him The childe shall surely die yet David said for all that determined assurance Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live and he fasted a fast and mourned and prayed for the childes life Beloved no commination of God is unconditioned or irrevocable But in this case David intimates some kinde of election Let me fall into the hands of the Lord for his mercies are exceeding great and not into the hands of men Susanna when shee was surprised and in a straight too though of another kind she resolves that it is better for her to fall into the hands of men let men defame her let men accuse her condemn her execute her rather then sin in the sight of God and so fall into his hands So that if wee compare offences wee were better offend all the Princes of the earth then offend God because he is able to cast body and soul into hell fire But when the offence is done for the punishment which follows God forgives a treason sooner then thy neighbour will a trespasse God seales thee a Quietus est in the bloud of his Son sooner then a Creditor will renue a bond or withdraw an Action and a Scandalum magnatum will lie longer upon thee here then a blasphemâ— against God in that Court. And therefore as it is one degree of good husbandry in ill husbands to bring all their debts into one hand so doest thou husband thy afflictions well if thou put them all upon thy debts to God and leave out the consideration of Instruments And he shall deale with thee as hee did with David there that plague which was threatned for three days he will end in one In that trouble which if men had had their will upon thee would have consumed thee thou shalt stand unconsumed For if a man wound thee it is not in his power though hee be never so sorry for it whether that wound shall kill thee or no but if the Lord wound thee to death he is the life he can redeem thee from death and if hee doe not he is thy resurrection and recompenses thee with another and a better life And so lies our first comfort that it is Ejus His The Lords And a second is that it is In virga ejus In his rod. Iob would fain have come to a cessation of arms before hee came to a treaty with God Let the Lord take away his rod from me sayes he and let not his fear terrifie me Them would I speak As long as his rod was upon him and his fears terrified him it was otherwise he durst not But truly his feares should not terrifie us though his rod be upon us for herein lies our comfort That all Gods rods are bound up with that mercy which accompanied that rod that God threatned David to exercise upon his son Solemon If he commit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men I will let him fall into the hands of men This was heavy Therefore it is eased with that Cordiall But my mercy shall not depart away from him as I took it from Saul But for this mercy the oppressions of men were mercilesse But all Gods rods are bound up with this mercy and therein lies our comfort And for the rods of other men O my people be not afraid of the Assyrian says God Why blessed Lord shalâ— the Assyrian doe thy people no harm yes says God there He shall smite them with a rod and he shall lift up his staffe against them Some harm he shall doe He shall smite them with a rod And he shall threaten more offer at more he shall lift up his staffe where then is the peoples reliefe and comfort In this The Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him God shall appear in that notion of power The Lord of Hosts and he shall encounter his enemies and the enemies of his friends with a scourge upon them against their rod upon us Gods own rods are bound up in mercy they end in mercy And for the rods of other men God cuts them in pieces and their owners with his sword Gods owne rods even towards his owne Children are sometimes as that rod which he put into Moses hand was chang'd into Serpents Gods owne rods have sometimes a sting and a bitternesse in them but then they are chang'd from their owne nature Naturally Gods roddes towards us are gentle and harmlesse When Gods rod in Moses hand was changed to a Serpent it did no harme that did but devoure the other Serpents when Gods rods are heaviest upon us if they devoure other rods that is enable us to put off the consideration of the malice and oppression of other Men and all displeasure towards them and lay all upon God for our sinnes these serpentine rods have wrought a good effect When Moses his Rod was a Serpent yet it return'd quickly to a Rod againe how bitter so ever Gods corrections be they returne soone to their naturall sweetnesse and though the correction continue the bitternesse does not with this Rod Moses tam'd the Sea and divided that but he drowned none in that Sea but the Aegyptians Gods rod will cut and divide between thy soule and spirit but he will destroy nothing in thee not thy Morality not thy Christianity but onely thine owne Aegyptians thy Persecutors thy concupiscencies But all this while we have but deduced a comfort out of thy Word Quia Virga though that be a rod but this is a comfort Quia Virga therefore because that is a Rod for this word which is here a Rod is also in other places of Scriptures an Instrument not of correction but direction Feed thy sheep with thy Rod saies God and there it is a Pastorall Rod the direction of the Church Virga rectitudinis virgaregni tui saies David The Scepter of thy kingdome is a right Scepter and there its a royall rod the protection of the state so that all comforts that are deriv'd upon us by the direction of the Church and by the protection of the State are recommended to us and conferr'd upon us in this His Rod. Nor is it onely a Rod of comfort by implication and consequence but expresly and literally it is so Though I should walke thorough the valley of the shadow of death I will feare no evill Thy rod and thy staffe they comfort me He had not onely a comfort though he had the rod but he had not had so much comfort except he had had it we have not so good evidence of the joyes of the next life except we have the sorrowes of this The discomfort then lies not in this That the affliction is ejus his the Lords
to Damnation by being conceived in sinne as the eldest man nay he is as old a Sinner as the eldest man that is nay as the eldest man that ever was for he sinn'd in Adam and though conceived but this night sinn'd 6000 yeares agoe In young Men vanity begets excesse excesse licentiousnesse licentiousnesse envy hatred quarrels murders so that here is generation upon generation here are risen Grandfather and Great-grandfather-sinnes quickly a forward generation And then they grow suddainly to be habits and they come to prescribe in us Prescription is when there is no memory to the contrary and we cannot remember when that sinfull custome begun in us yea our sinnes come to be reverenced in us and by us our sinnes contract a majestie and a state and they grow sacred to us we dare not trouble a sinne we dare not displace it nor displease it we dare not dispute the prerogative of our sinne but we come to thinke it a kinde of sedition a kinde of innovation and a troubling of the state if we begin to question our Conscience or change that security of sinne which we sleepe in and we thinke it an easier Reformation to repent a sinne once a yeare at Easter when we must needs Receive then to watch a sinne every Day There is scarce any sinne but that in that place of the Apostle to the Galatians it comes within the name of workes of the flesh for though he names divers sinnes which are litterally and properly workes of the flesh as Adultery fornication uncleannesse wantonnesse yet those sinnes that are against a mans owne selfe as Gluttony and Drunkennesse those that are against other men as Contentions and Murders those that are directed upon new Gods as Idolatry those that are Contracts with the Devil as Witchcraft those that are offences to the Church as Heresy are all called by Saint Paul in that place workes of the flesh So that the object of this Spirituall Circumcision is all that concernes the flesh the world the Devil or God or man or the Church in every one of these we may finde somewhat to circumcise But because abundance and superfluity begets these workes of the flesh for though vve carry the Serpent about us yet he does not sting nor hisse till he be warme As long as poverty and vvretchednesse freezes our Concupiscences they are not so violent therefore spirituall Circumcision is vvell expressed by Saint Bernard Moralis Circumcisio est victum vestitum habentem esse contentum A cutting off of these superfluities is this morall that is this spirituall Circumcision Novv for some understanding of these superfluities vve must consider that sometimes a poore man that hath no superfluity in his estate is yet vvastfull in his minde and puts himselfe to superfluous expences in his diet in his apparell and in all things of outvvard shevv and ostentation And on the other side a covetous man that hath a superfluous estate yet starves him selfe and denies himselfe all conveniences for this life Here 's a superfluous confidence in the one that he cannot vvant though he throvv avvay money and here 's a superfluous feare in the other that he shall vvant if he give himselfe bread and here 's vvorke for this spirituall Circumcision on both sides But then the Circumcision is not necessarily to be applied to the riches of the rich man so as that every rich man must necessarily cast away his riches a Godly man may be rich nor necessarily applied so to all outward expences of the free and liberall minded man as that he should shut up dores and weare ragges for a Godly man may fare in his diet and appeare in his garments according to that Degree which he holds in that state But the superfluity is and consequently the Circumcision is to be in the Affection in our Confidence that whatsoever we wast by one meanes or other we shall have more or in our diffidence that if we lay not up all we shall never have enough These be the inordinate affections that must be Circumcised But how for that 's intended in this part We need enquire no farther for the meanes of this spirituall Circumcision then to the very word which the Holy Ghost hath chosen for Circumcision here which is Mul and Namal for that word hath in other places of Scripture three significations that expresse much of the manner how this Circumcision is to be wrought It signifies Purgare to purge to discharge the Conscience and that is by Confession of our sinnes It signifies Mundare to cleanse and purify the Conscience and that is by Contrition and Detestation of that sinne And it signifies Succidere to cut downe to weed and root out whatsoever remaines in our possession that is unjustly got and that is by Destitution Now for the first of these the purging the proper use and working of purging Physick is not that that Medicine pierces into those parts of the Body where the peccant humour lies and from which parts Nature of her selfe is not able to expell it the substance of the Medicine does not goe thither but the Physick lies still and draws those peccant humours together and being then so come to an unsupportable Masse and burden Nature her selfe and their owne waight expels them out Now that which Nature does in a naturall body Grace does in a regenerate soule for Grace is the nature and the life of a regenerate man As therefore the bodily Physick goes not to that part of the body that is affected we must not stay till out Spirituall Physick the Iudgements of God worke upon that particular sinne that transports us That God should weaken me with a violent sicknesse before I will purge my selfe of my licentiousnesse Or strike me with poverty and losse of my stocke before I will purge my selfe of my usury or lay me flat with disgraces and dis-favours of great Persons before I will purge my selfe of my Ambition or evict my land from me by some false title that God in his just Judgement may give way to to punish my sinnes before I will purge my selfe of my oppression and racking of Tenants But before these violent Medicines come if thou canst take Gods ordinary Physick administred in the Word and Sacraments if thou canst but endure that qualme of calling thy selfe to an account and an examination if thou canst draw all thy sinnes together and present them to thine owne Conscience then their owne waight will finde a vent and thou wilt utter them in a full and free Confession to thy God and that is Circumcision as Circumcision consists in the purging of the Conscience to be mov'd upon hearing the Word preached and the denouncing of his Iudgements in his Ordinance before those Judgements surprize thee to recollect thy sinnes in thine owne memory and poure them out in a true Confession The next step in this Circumcision as they are intimated in that word which the Holy
reads those words speaking of the Christian Church here It is the house of all them who do as it were rejoyce who come nearest to true joy And so when the Lord turned againe the Captivity of Sion Facti sumus sicut consolati We were as it were comforted Quare sicut sayes that Father Why is it so modified with that diminution as it were Quia hic etiam in Sanctis non perfecta consolatio Because sayes he in this world even the Saints themselves have no perfect joy Where the Apostle compares the sorrow and the joy of this world then the Quasi lyes upon the sorrows side it is but a halfe sorrow Quasi tristes We are as it were sorrowfull but indeed rejoycing but compare the best ioy of this world with the next and the Quasi will fall upon the ioy of the world For though we be sealed with the holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance and this is the Tropique of Joy the farthest that Spirituall Joy goes in this Zodique in this world yet this carries us no farther but Vt ex arrabone aestimetur haereditas That by the proportion of the earnest we might value the whole bargaine For what a bargaine would we presume that man to have that would give 20000 l. for earnest what is the Joy of heaven hereafter if the earnest of it here be the Seale of the holy Ghost God proceeds with us as we do with other men Operariis in Saeculo cibus in opere merces in fine datur In this world we give labourers meat and drink by the way but wages at the end of their work God affords us refreshing here but joy hereafter The best Seale is the holy Ghost and the best matter that the holy Ghost seales in is in blood in the dignity of Martyrdome and even for that for Martyrdome we have a rule in the Apostle Rejoyce in as much as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings That as he suffered for you so you suffer for him but in what contemplation That when his glory shall be revealed ye may be made glad with exceeding Joy not with exceeding Joy till then For till then the Joyes of Heaven may be exceeded in the addition of the body There is the rule and the example is Christ himself Who for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse in contemplation of the Propterea exaltatus that therefore he should be exalted above all in heaven Rejoyce and be glad why for great is your reward but where in heaven And therefore Ask and you shall receive Pray and you shall have answer but what answer but what answer That your joy shall be full It shall be in heaven For Quis sic delectat quam ille qui fecit omnia quae delectant In whom can we fully rejoyce but him who made all things in which we rejoyce by the way In thy Name shall we rejoyce all the day says David Si in nomine suo non tota die St. Augustine says not that to any particular person nor any particular calling but to any man to every man Any Prince any Counsellor any Prelate any Generall any Discoverer any that goes in any way of joy and glory Si nomine suo non tota die If they rejoyce in their own names their own wisdome their own strength they shall not rejoyce all the day but they shall be benighted with darke sadnesse before their dayes end And their sunne shall set at noon too as the Prophet Amos speaks And therefore that shall be Christs expressing of that joy at the last day Enter into thy Master Ioy and leave the joy of Servants though of good Servants behind thee for thou shalt have a better Joy then that Thy Masters Ioy. It is time to end but as long as the glasse hath a gaspe as long as I have one I would breathe in this ayre in this perfume in this breath of heaven the contemplation of this Joy Blessed is that man qui scit jubilationem says David that knowes the joyfull sound For Nullo modo beatus nisi scias unde gaudeas For though we be bound to rejoyce alwayes it is not a blessed joy if we do not know upon what it be grounded or if it be not upon everlasting blessednesse Comedite amici says Christ bibite inebriamini Eat and drink and be filled Joy in this life Vbi in sudore vescimur where grief is mingled with joy is called meat says Saint Bernard and Christ cals his friends to eat in the first word Potus in future says he Joy in the next life where it passes down without any difficulty without any opposition is called drink and Christ calls his friends to drink but the overflowing the Ebriet as animae that is reserved to the last time when our bodies as well as our souls shall enter into the participation of it Where when wee shall love every one as well as our selves and so have that Joy of our owne salvation multiplied by that number wee shall have that Joy so many times over as there shall bee soules saved because wee love them as our selves how infinitely shall this Joy be enlarged in loving God so far above our selves and all them Wee have but this to add Heaven is called by many pretious names Lifeâ— Simply and absolutely there is no life but that And Kingdome Simply absolutely there is no Kingdom that is not subordinate to that And Sabbaâ—uÌ„ex Sabbate A Sabbath flowing into a Sabbath a perpetuall Sabbath but the Name that should enamour us most is that that it is Satietas gaudâ—orum fulnesse of Joy Fulnesse that needeth no addition Fulnesse that admitteth no leake And then though in the Schoole we place Blessednesse in visione in the sight of God yet the first thing that this sight of God shall produce in us for that shall produce the Reformation of the Image of God in us and it shall produce our glorifying of God but the first thing that the seeing of God shall produce in us is Joy The measure of our seeing of God is the measure of Joy See him here in his Blessings and you shall ioy in those blessings here and when you come to see him Sicuti est in his Essence then you shall have this Joy in Essence and in fulnesse of which God of his goodnesse give us such an earnest here as may binde to us that inheritance hereafter which his Sonne our Saviour Christ Jesus hath purchased for us with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood Amen FINIS 51. 1. Psal. 128. 3. ◠〈◊〉 Egerton 〈◊〉 Chancellor grandfatheâ— to the Bridâ— Divisio 1 Part. Resurrectio Zech. 10. 8. Psal. 150. 6. Non nubent Luke 20. 35. Gen. 2. 23. Mat. 17. 3. Luke 7. 15. Acts 9. 41. Gen. 15. 1â— Deut. 32. 50. Luke 1. 41. Luke 16. 23.
my selfe as that in that body so glorifyed by God I also shall glorify him So very a body so perfectly a body shall we have there as that Mahomet and his followers could not consist in those heavenly functions of the body in glorifying God but mis-imagine a feasting and banqueting and all carnall pleasures of the body in heaven too But there Christ stoppes A Resurrection there shall be but in the Resurrection we shall not mary c. They shall not mary because they shall have none of the uses of mariage not as mariage is physicke against inordinate affections for every soule shall be a Consort in itselfe and never out of tune not as mariage is ordained for mutuall helpe of one another for God himself shall be intirely in every soul And what can that soul lack that hath all God Not as mariage is a second and a suppletory eternity in the continuation and propagation of Children for they shall have the first Eternity individuall eternity in themselves Therefore does S. Luke assigne that reason why they shall not mary Because they cannot dy Because they have an eternity in themselves they need not supply any defect by a propagation of children But yet though Christ exclude that of which there is clearely no use in Heaven Mariage because they need no physick no mutuall help no supply of children yet he excludes not our knowing or our loving of one another upon former knowledge in this world in the next Christ does not say expressely we shall yet neither does he say that we shall not know one another there Neither can we say we shall not because we know not how we should Adam who was asleep when Eve was made and neither saw nor felt any thing that God had done knew Eve upon the very first sight to be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh By what light knew he this And in the transfiguration of Christ Peter and James and John knew Moses and Elias and by what light knew they them whom they had never seen Nor can we or they or any be imagined to have any degree of knowledge of persons or actions though but occasionally and transeuntly in this life which we shall not have inherently and permanently in the next In the Types of the generall Resurrection which were particular Resuscitations of the dead in this world the Dead were restored to the knowledge of their friends when Christ raised the sonne of the widow of Naim he delivered him to his Mother when Peter raised Tabitha he called the Saints and the Widows and presented her alive unto them So God saies to Abraham Ibis ad patres thou shalt goe to thy fathers he should know that they were his fathers so to Moses Iungeris populis tuis Thou shalt dy and be gathered to thy people as Aaron thy brother dyed and was gathered to his people Iohn Baptist had a knowledge of Christ though they were both in their mothers wombes and Dives of Lazarus though in Hell and it is not easily told by what light these saw these Whatsoever conduces to Gods glory or our happinesse we shall certainly know in heaven And he that in a rectifyed conscience beleeves that it does so may piously beleeve that he shall know them there In things of this nature where no direct place of Scripture binds up thy faith beleeve so as most exalts thine own Devotion yet with this Caution too not to condemn uncharitably and peremptorily those that beleeve otherwise A Resurrection there shall be In the Resurrection there shall be no Mariage because it conduces to no end but if it conduce to Gods glory and my happinesse as it may piously be beleeved it does to know them there whom I knew here I shall know them Now from this In the Resurrection they mary not flows this also Till the Resurrection they doe they may they shall mary Nay in Gods first purpose and institution They must For God said It is not good that the man should be alone Every man is a naturall body every congregation is a politik body The whole world is a Catholik an universall body For the sustentation and aliment of the naturall body Man God hath given Meat for the Politik for societies God hath given Industry and severall callings and for the Catholik body for the sustentation and reparation of the world God hath given Mariage They that scatter themselves in various lusts commit wast and shall undergoe at last a heavy condemnation upon that Action of wast in their souls as they shal feel it before in their bodies which they have wasted They that mary not do not keep the world in reparation And the common law the law of nature and the generall law of God bindes man in generall to that reparation of the world to Mariage for Continency is Privilegtum a Privilege that is Privata lex when it is given it becomes a law too for he to whom God gives the gift of Continency is bound by it it is Privata lex a Law an Obligation upon that particular man And then Privilegium is Privatio Legis it is a dispensation upon that Law which without that privilege and dispensation would binde him so that all those who have not this privilege this dispensation this continency by immediate gift from God or other medicinall Disciplines and Mortifications which Disciplines and Mortifications every state and condition of life is not bound to exercise because such Mortifications as would overcome their Concupiscences would also overcome all their naturall strength and make them unable to doe the works of their callings all such are bound by the generall law to mary For from Nature and her Law we have that voice ut gignamus geniti Man is borne into the world that others might be born from him And from Gods generall Law we have that voice Crescite Multiplicamini Therefore God plac'd man here that he might repair and furnish the world He is gone at Common Law that maries not Not but that he may have reliefe but it is onely in Conscience and by way of Equity and as in Chancery that is If in a rectified Conscience he know that he should be the lesse disposed to religious Offices for mariage he does well to abstaine otherwise he must remember that the world is one Body and Mariage the aliment that the world is one Building and Mariage the Reparation Therefore the Emperor Augustus did not onely encrease the rewards and privileges which former Laws had given to maried persons but he laid particular penalties upon them that liv'd unmaryed And though that State seem to have countenanced single life because they afforded dignities to certaine Vestall Virgins yet the number of those Vestals was small not above six and then the dignities and privileges which those Vestals had were no other but that they were made equall in the state to maryed
a sense a mysterious signification of the union of the soule with Christ when both persons professe the Christian Religion in generall there arises some signification of that spirituall union But when they both professe Christ in one forme in one Church in one Religion and that the right then as by the Civill Contract there is an union of their estates and persons so as that they two are made one so by this Sacramentall this mysterious union these two thus made one between themselves are also made one with Christ himself by the Civill union common to all people they are made Eadem caro The same flesh with one another By this mysterious this Sacramentall this significative union they are made Idem Spiritus cum Domino The same Spirit with the Lord. And therefore though in the Resurrection they shall not mary because then all the severall uses of mariage cease yet till the Resurrection that is as long as this world lasts for the sustentation of the world which is one Body and Mariage the food and aliment thereof for the reparation of the world which is one Building and Mariage the supply thereof to maintaine a second eternity in the succession of children and to illustrate this union of our soules to Christ we may and in some Cases must marry We are come in our order proposed at first to our second Part Erimus sicut Angeli we shall be as the Angels of God in heaven where we consider first what we are compared to those Angels And then in what that Comparison lies wherein we shall be like those Angels And lastly the Proposition that flowes out of this proposition In the Resurrection we shall be like them Till the Resurrection we shall not and therefore in the meane time we must not looke for Angelicall perfections but beare with one anothers infirmities Now when we would tell you what those Angels of God in heaven to which we are compared are we can come no nearer telling you that then by telling you we cannot tell The Angels may be content with that Negative expressing since we can express God himselfe in no clearer termes nor in termes expressing more Dignity then in saying we cannot expresse him Onely the Angels themselves know one another and one good point in which we shall be like them then shall be that then we shall know what they are we know they are Spirits in Nature but what the nature of a spirit is we know not we know they are Angels in office appointed to execute Gods will upon us but How a spirit should execute those bodily actions that Angels doe in their owne motion and in the transportation of other things we know not we know they are Creatures but whether created with this world as all our later men incline to think or long before as all the Greeke and some of the Latin Fathers thought we know not we know that for their number ◠and for their faculties also there may be one Angel for every man but whether there be so or no because not onely amongst the Fathers but even in the Reformed Churches in both sub-divisions Lutheran and Calvinist great men deny it and as great affirme it we know not we know the Angels know they understand but whether by that way which we call in the Schoole Cognitionem Matutinam by seeing all in God or that which we call Verspertinam by a clearer manifestation of the species of things to them then to us we know not we know they are distinguished into Orders the Apostle tells us so but what or how many their Orders are since S. Gregory and S. Bernard differ from that Designe of their nine orders which S. Denis the Areopagite had given before in placing of those nine and Athanasius addes more to those nine we know not But we are content to say with S. Augustine Esse firmissimè credo quaenam sint nescio that there are distinct orders of Angels assuredly I beleeve but what they are I cannot tell Dicant qui possunt si tamen probare possunt quod dicunt saies that Father Let them tell you that can so they be able to prove that they tell you true They are Creatures that have not so much of a Body as flesh is as froth is as a vapor is as a sigh is and yet with a touch they shall molder a rocke into lesse Atomes then the sand that it stands upon and a milstone into smaller flower then it grinds They are Creatures made and yet not a minute elder now then when they were first made if they were made before all measure of time began nor if they were made in the beginning of Time and be now six thousand yeares old have they one wrinckle of Age in their face or one sobbe of wearinesse in their lungs They are primogeniti Dei Gods eldest sonnes They are super-elementary meteors they hang between the nature of God and the nature of man and are of middle Condition And if we may offencelessely expresse it so they are anigmata Divina The Riddles of Heaven and the perplexities of speculation But this is but till the Resurrection Then we shall be like them and know them by that assimilation We end this branch with this consideration If by being like the Angels we shall know the Angels we are more then like ourselves we are our selves why doe we not know our selves Why did not Adam know that he had a Body that might have been preserved in an immortality and yet submitted his body and mine and thine and theirs who by this union are to be made one and all that by Gods goodnesse shall be derived from them to certaine to inevitable Death Why doe not we know our owne Immortality that dwells in us still for all Adams fall and ours in him that immortality which we cannot devest but must live for ever whether we will or no To know this immortality is to make this immortality which otherwise is the heaviest part of our Curse a Blessing unto us by providing to live in Immortall happinesse whereas now we doe so little know our selves as that if my soule could aske one of those Wormes which my dead body shall produce Will you change with me that worme would say No for you are like to live eternally in torment for my part I can live no longer then the putrid moisture of your body will give me leave and therefore I will not change nay would the Devill himselfe change with a damned soule I cannot tell As we argue conveniently that the Devil is tormented more then man because the Devill fel from God without any other Tempter then himselfe but man had a Tempter so may it be not inconveniently argued too that man may be more tormented then he because man continued and relapsed in his rebellions to God after so many pardons offered and accepted which the Devill never had Howsoever otherwise their torments
doth nothing so like a subject as when he puts himselfe to the pain to consider the profit and the safety of his Subjects and such a subjection is that of a Husband who is bound to study his wife and rectify all her infirmites Her infirmities he must bear but not her sins if he bear them they become his own The pattern the example goes not so far Christ maried himself to our Nature and he bare all our infirmities hunger and wearinesse and sadnesse and death actually in his own person but so he contracted no sin in himselfe nor encouraged us to proceed in sin Christ was Salvator corporis A Saviour of his body of the Church to which he maried himselfe but it is a tyranny and a devastation of the body to whom we mary our selves if we love them so much as that we love their Sin too suffer them to goe on in that or if we love them so little as to make their sin our way to profit or preferment by prostituting them and abandoning them to the solicitation of others still we must love them so as that this love be a subjection not a neglecting to let them doe what they will nor a tyrannizing to make them doe what we will You must love them then first Quia vestrae because they are yours As we said at first God loves Couples He suffers not our body to be alone nor our soule alone but he maries them together when that 's done to remedy the vae soli left this Man should be alone he maries him to a help meet for himâ— and to avoid fornication that is if fornication cannot be avoided otherwise Every Man is to have his wife and every woman her own husband When the love comes to exceed these bounds that it departs à vestris from a Man 's own wife and settles upon another though he may think he discharges himselfe of some of his subjection which he was in before yet he becomes much more subject subject to houshold and forain Iealousies subject to ill grounded quarrels subject to blasphemous protestations to treacherous misuse of a confident friend to ignoble an unworthy disguises to base satisfactions subject lastly either to a clamorous Conscience or that which is worse slavery to a sear'd and obdurate and stupefied Conscience and to that Curse which is the heavier because it hath a kind of scorn in it Be not deceived as though we were coâ—sened of our souls Be not deceived for no adulterer shal enter into the kingdom of heaven All other things that are ours we may be the better for leaving Vade vende which Christ said to the yong Man that seemed to desire perfection reached to all his goods Goe and sell them sayes Christ and thou shalt follow me the better But there is no selling nor giving nor lending nor borrowing of wives we must love them Quia nostrae because they are ours and if that be not a ty and obligation strong enough that they are Nostrae ours we must love them Quia nos because they are our selves for no man yet ever hated his own flesh We must love them then Quia nostrae because they are ours those whom God hath given us and Quia uxores because they are our wives Saint Paul does not bid us love them here Quanquam uxores but Quia not though they be but because they are our wives Saint Paul never thought of that indisposition of that disaffection of that impotency that a Man should come to hate her whom he could love well enough but that she is his wife Were it not a strange distemper if upon consideration of my soule finding it to have some seeds of good dispositions in it some compassion of the miseries of others some inclination of the glory of God some possibility some interest in the kingdome of heaven I should say of this soule that I would fast and pray and give and suffer any thing for the salvation of this Soule if it were not mine own soule if it were any bodies else and now abandon it to eternall destruction because it is mine own If no Man have felt this barbarous inhumanity towards his owne soul I pray God no man have felt it towards his own wife neither That he loves her the lesse for being his own wife For we must love them not Quanquam says Saint Paul though she be so That was a Caution which the Apostle never thought he needed but Quia because in the sight of God and all the Triumphant Church we have bound our selves that we would do so Here Mariages are sometimes clandestine and witnesses dye and in that case no Man can bind me to love herâ— Quia uxâ—r because she is my wife because it lyes not in proofe that she is so Here sometimes things come to light which were concealed before and a Mariage proves no Mariage Decepta est Ecclesia The Church was deceived and the poor woman loses her plea Quia uxâ—r because she is his wife for it fals out that she is not so but if thou have maried her in the presence of God and all the Court and Quire of heaven what wilt thou doe to make away all these witnesses who shall be of thy Councell to assign an Error in Gods judgement whom wilt thoubribe to embezill the Records of heaven It is much that thou are able to doe in heaven Thou art able by thy sins to blot thy name out of the book of life but thou are not able to blot thy wifes name out of the Records of heaven but there remains still the Quia uxâ—r because she is thy wife And this Quia uxâ—r is Quaâ—diu uxâ—r since thou art bound to love her because she is thy wife it must be as long as she is so You may have heard of that quinquâ—nnium Neronis The worst tyran that ever was was the best Emperour that ever was for five years the most corrupt husbands may have been good at first but that love may have been for other respects satisfaction of parents establishing of hopes and sometimes Ignorance of evill that ill company had not taught them ill conditions it comes not to be Quia uxor because she is thy wife to be the love which is commanded in this text till it bring some subjection some burthen Till we love her then when we would not love her except she were our wife we are not sure that we love her Quia uxor that is for that and for no other respect How long that is how long she is thy wife never ask wrangling Controverters that make Gypsie-knots of Mariages ask thy Conscience and that will tell thee that thou wast maried till death should depart you If thy mariage were made by the Dâ—vill upon dishonest Conditions the Devill may break it by sin if it were made by God Gods way of breaking of Mariages is onely by death It is then a Subjection and it is
such a subjection as is a love and such a love as is upon a Reason for love is not alwayes so This is Quiauxor because our wife and that implies these three uses God hath given Man a wife Ad adjutorium ad sobolem ad medicinam for a Help for Children and for a Remedy and Physick Now the first Society and encrease we love naturally we would not be banish'd we would not be robb'd we would not be alone we would not be poor Society and encrease every Man loves but doth any Man love Physick he takes it for necessity but does he love it Husbands therefore are to love wives Ad Sobolem as the Mothers of their Children Ad adjutorium as the comforters of their lives but for that which is Ad medicinam for physick to avoid burning to avoid fornication that 's not the subject of our love our love is not to be placed upon that for so it is a love Quia mulier because she is a woman and not Quia uxor because she is my wife A Man may be a drunkard at home with his own wine and never goe out to Taverns A man may be an adulâ—erer in his wives bosome though he seek not strange women We come now to the other part the pattern of this love which is Christ Jesus we are commanded to be holy and pure as our Father is holy and pure but that 's a proportion of which we are incapable And therefore we have another Commandement from Christ Discite à me learn of me there is no more looked for but that we should still be Scholars and learners how to love we can never love so much as he hath lov'd It is still Discite still something to be learnt and added and this something is Quia mitis learn of me make me your pattern because I am meek and gentle not suspitious not forward not hard to be reconcil'd not apt to discomfort my spouse my Church not with a sullen silence for I speak to her alwayes in my Word not apt to leave her unprovided of apparell and decent ornaments for I have allow'd her such Ceremonies as conduce to edification not apt to pinch her in her diet she hath her two Courses the first and the second Sacrament And whensoever she comes to a spirituall hunger and thirst under the heat and weight of sin she knowes how and where there is plentifull refreshing and satisfaction to be had in the absolution of sinne Herein consists the substance of the Comparison Husbands love your wives as Christ did his Church that is expresse your loves in a gentle behaviour towards them and in a carefull providence of Conveniencies for them The comparison goes no farther but the love of Christ to his Church goes farther In which we consider first Quid factum what Christ did for his spouse for his Church It were pity to make too much hast in considering so delightfull a thing as the expressing of the love of Christ Jesus to his Church It were pity to ride away so fast from so pleasant so various a prospect where we may behold our Saviour in the Act of his liberality Giving in the matter of his liberality Giving himselfe and in the poor exchange that he took a few Contrite hearts a few broken spirits a few lame and blind and leprous sinners to make to himselfe and his Spirit a Church a house to dwell in no more but these and glad if he can get these First then Ille dedit He gave it was his own act as it was he that gave up the ghost he that laid down his soule and he that took it again for no power of Man had the power or disposition of his life It was an insolent and arrogant question in Pilate to Christ Nescis quia potestatem habcâ— Knowest not thou that I have power to Crucifie thee and have power to loose thee If Pilate thought that his power extended to Christ yet Tua damnaris sententia qui potestate latroneâ— absâ—lvis autorem vitae interficis His own words and actions condemned him when having power to condemn and absolve he would condemn the Innocent and absolve the guilty A good Judge does nothing sayes he Doâ—â—estice proposito voluntatis according to a resolution taken at home Nihil meditatum deme defert he brings not his judgement from his chamber to the bench but he takes it there according to the Evidence If pilate thought he had power his Conscience told him he misused that power but Christ tels him he could have none Nisi datum desuper Except it had been given him from above that is except Christ had given him power over himselfe for Christ speaks not in that place of Pilates generall power and Jurisdiction for so also all power is Desuper from above but for this particular power that Pilate boasts to have over him Christ tels him that he could have none over him except himselfe had submitted himselfe to it So before this passage with Pilat Iudâ—s had delivered Christ and there arose a sect of Heretiques Iudaists that magnified this act of Iudes and said that we were beholden to him for the hastning of our salvation because when he was come to the knowledge that God had decreed the Crucifying of Christ for Mankind Iudas took compassion of Mankind and hastned their Redemption by delivering up of Christ to the Iewes But Iudas had no such good purpose in his hast though our Iesus permitted Iudas to doe it and to doe it quickly when he said Quod facis fac citò For out of that ground in the Schooles Missia in divinis â—st movâ— operacio in Creatura When any person of the Trinity is said to be sent that onely denotes an extraordinary manner of working of that person Saint Augustine sayes truly that as Christ Misit seipsum he sent himself and Sanitificavit seipsum he sanctified himselfe so tradidit seipsum Iudas could not have given him if he had not given himselfe Pilate could not give him Iudas could not give him nay if we could consider severall wils in the severall Persons of the Trinity we might be bold to say That the Father could not have given him if he had not given himselfe We consider the unexpressible mercy of the Father in that he would accept any satisfaction at all for all our Sinnes We consider the unexpressible working of the Holy Ghost that brings this satisfaction and our soules together for without that without the application of the Holy Ghost we are as far from Christ's love now as we were from the Father 's before Christ suffered But the unexpressible and unconceiveable love of Christ is in this that there was in him a willingnesse a propensnesse a forwardnesse to give himselfe to make this great peace and reconciliation between God and Man It was himselfe that gave himselfe Nothing enclined him nothing wrought upon him but his own goodnesse
It was then his Deed and it was his gift it was his Deed of gift and it hath all the formalities and circumstances that belong to that for here is a seale in his blood and here is a delivering pregnantly implied in this word which is not onely Dedit he gave but Tradidit he delivered First Dedit he gave himselfe for us to his Father in that eternall Decree by which he was Agnus occisus ab origine mundi The Lamb slain from the beginning of the world And then Tradidit he delivered possession of himselfe to Death and to all humane infirmities when he took our Nature upon him and became one of us Yea this word implies a further operativenesse and working upon himself then all this for the word which the Apostle uses here for Christ giving of himselfe is the same word which the Evangelists use still for Iudas betraying of him so that Christ did not onely give himselfe to the will of the Father in the eternall Decree nor onely deliver himselfe to the power of death in his Incarnation but he offered he exhibited he exposed we may say he betrayed himselfe to his enemies and all this for worse enemies to the Iewes that Crucified him once for us that make finne our sport and so make the Crucifying of the Lord of life a Recreation It was a gift then free and absolute Hee keeps us not in fear of Resumption of ever taking himselfe from the Church again nay he hath left himself no power of Revocation I am with you sayes he to the end of the world To particular men he comes he knocks and he enters and he stays and hesups and yet for their unworthinesse goes away again but with the Church he is usque ad consummationem till the end It is a permanent gift Dedit and Dedit seipsum It was he that did it That which he did was to give and that which he gave was himselfe Now since the Holy Ghost that is the God of unity and peace hath told us at once that the satisfaction for our sins is Christ himselfe and hath told us no more Christ entirely Christ altogether let us not divide and mangle Christ or tear his Church in pieces by froward and frivolous difputations whether Christ gave his divinity for us or his humanity whether the divine Nature or the humane Nature redeemed us for neither his divinity nor his humanity is Ipse He himselfe and Dedit seipsum He gave himselfe Let us not subdivide him into lesse pieces then those God and Man and enquire contentiously whether he suffered in soul as well as in body the pains of Hâ—ll as well as the sting of Death the Holy-Ghost hath presented him unite and knit together For neither soul nor body was Ipse He himselfe and Dedit seipsum He gave himselfe let us least of all shred Christ Iesus into lesse scruples and atoms then these Soul and body and dispute whether consisting of both it were his active or his passive obedience that redeemed us whether it were his death and passion onely or his innocency and fulfilling of the Law too let us onely take Christ himselfe for onely that is said he gave himselfe It must be an Innocent person and this Innocent person must die for us seperate the Innocency and the Death and it is not Ipse it is not Christ himselfe and Dedit seipsum it was himselfe Let us abstain from all such curiosities which are all but forc'd dishes of hot brains and not sound meat that is from all perverse wranglings whether God or Man redeemed us and then whether this God and Man suffered in soule or in body and then whether this person consisting of soule and body redeemed us by his action or by his passion onely for as there are spirituall wickednesses so there are spirituall wantonnesses and unlawfull and dangerous dallyings with mysteries of Divinity Money that is changed into small pieces is easily lost gold that is beat out into leaf-gold cannot be coyned nor made currant money we know the Heathens lost the true God in a thrust they made so many false gods of every particular quality and attribute of God that they scattered him and evacuated him to an utter vanishing so doth true and sound and nourishing Divinity vanish away in those impertinent Questions All that the wit of Man adds to the Word of God is all quicksilver and it evaporates easily Beloved Custodi Depositum sayes the Apostle keep that which God hath revealed to thee for that God himselfe cals thy Talent it hath weight and substance in it Depart not from thy old gold leave not thy Catechism-divinity for all the School-divinity in the world when we have all what would we have more if we know that Christ hath given himselfe for us that we are redeemed and not redeemed with corruptible things but with the precious blood of Christ Jesus we care for no other knowledge but that Christ and Christ crucified for us for this is another and a more peculiar and profitable giving of himselfe for thee when he gives himselfe to thee that is when he gives thee a sense and apprehension and application of the gift to thy self that Christ hath given himselfe to thy selfe We are come now to his exchange what Christ had for himselfe when he gave himselfe And he had a Church So this Apostle which in this place writes to the Ephesians when he preached personally to the Ephesians he told them so too The Church is that Quam acquisivit sanguine suo which he purchased with his bloud Here Christ bought a Church but I would there were no worse Simony then this Christ received no profit from the Church and yet he gave himselfe for it and he stayes with it to the end of the world Here is no such Non-residency as that the Church is left unserved other men give enough for their Church but they withraw themselves and necessary provision And if we consider this Church that Christ bought and paid so dearly for it was rather an Hospitall then a Church A place where the blind might recover sight that is Men borne in Paganisme or Superstition might see the true God truly worshipped and where the lame might be established that is those that Halted between two Religions might be rectified in the truth where the Deaf might receive so quicke a hearing as that they might discerne Musique in his Thunder in all his fearefull threatnings that is mercy in his Judgments which are still accompanied with conditions of repentance and they might finde Thunder in his Musique in all his promises that is threatnings of Judgements in our misuse of his mercies Where the hereditary Leper the new borne Child into whose marrow his fathers transgression cleaves in originall sinne and he that hath enwrapped Implicatos morbos one disease in another in Actuall sinnes might not onely come if he would but be intreated to come yea
before his Gospell was written principally and purposely against the opposers of Christs humanity but occasionally also in defence of his divine nature too Because there is Solutio Iesu a dissolving of Jesus a taking of Jesus in peeces a dividing of his Natures or of his Offices which overthrowes all the testimonies of these six great witnesses when Christ said Solvite templum hoc destroy dissolve this temple and in three dayes I will raise it he spoke that but of his naturall body there was Solutio corporis Christs body and soule were parted but there was not Solutio Iesu the divine nature parted not from the humane no not in death but adhered to and accompanied the soule even in hell and accompanied the body in the grave And therefore says the Apostle Omnis spiritus qui solvit Iesum ex deo non est for so Irenaeus and Saint Augustine and Saint Cyrill with the Grecians read those words That spirit which receives not Jesus intirely which dissolves Jesus and breakes him in peeces that spirit is not of God All this then is the subject of this testimony first that Christ Jesus is come in the flesh there is a Recognition of his humane nature And then that this Jesus is the sonne of God there is a subscription to his divine nature he that separates these and thereby makes him not able or not willing to satisfie for Man he that separates his Nature or he that separates the worke of the Redemption and says Christ suffered for us onely as Man and not as God or he that separates the manner of the worke and says that the passive obedience of Christ onely redeemed us without any respect at all to his active obedience onely as he died and nothing as he died innocently or he that separates the perfection and consummation of the worke from his worke and findes something to be done by Man himselfe meritorious to salvation or he that separates the Prince and the Subject Christ and his members by nourishing Controversies in Religion when they might be well reconciled or he that separates himselfe from the body of the Church and from the communion of Saints for the fashion of the garments for the variety of indifferent Ceremonies all these do Solvere Iesum they slacken they dissolve that Jesus whose bones God provided for that they should not be broken whose flesh God provided for that it should not see Corruption and whose garments God provided that they should not bee divided There are other luxations other dislocations of Jesus when we displace him for any worldly respect and prefer preforment before him there are other woundings of Jesus in blasphemous oathes and exerations there are other maimings of Jesus in pretending to serve him intirely and yet retaine one particular beloved sinne still there are other rackings and extendings of Jesus when we delay him and his patience to our death-bed when we stretch the string so farre that it cracks there that is appoint him to come then and he comes not there are other dissolutions of Jesus when men will melt him and powre him out and mold him up in a waser Cake or a peece of bread there are other annihilations of Jesus when Men will make him and his Sacraments to be nothing but bare signes but all these will be avoided by us if we be gained by the testimony of these six witnesses to hold fast that integrity that intirensse of Jesus which is here delivered to us by this Apostle In which we beleeve first Iâ—sum a Saviour which implies his love and his will to save us and then we beleeve Christum the anointed that is God and man able and willing to doe this great worke and that he is anointed and sealed for that purpose and this implies the decree the contract and bargaine of acceptation by the Father that Pactum salis that eternall covenant which seasons all by which that which he meant to doe as he was Iesus should be done as he was Christ. And then as the intirenesse of Jesus is expressed in the verse before the text we beleeve Quod venit that as all this might be done if the Father and Sonne would agree as all this must be done because they had agreed it so all this was done Quâ—a venit because this Jesus is already come and that for the father intirenesse for the perfection and consummation and declaration of all venit per aquam sanguinem He came by water and bloud Which words Saint Bernard understands to imply but a difference between the comming of Christ and the comming of Moses who was drawen out of the water and therefore called by that name of Moses But before Moses came to be a leader of the people he passed through bloud too through the bloud of the Egyptian whom he slew and much more when he established all their bloudy sacrifices so that Mases came not onely by water Neither was the first Testament ordained without bloud Others understand the words onely to put a difference between Iohn Baptist and Christ because Iohn Baptist is still said to baptize with waterâ— Because he should be declared to Israel therefore am I come baptizing with water but yet Iohn Baptists baptisme had not onely a relation to bloud but a demonstration of it when still he pointed to the Lambe Ecce Agnus for that Lambe was slâ—ine from the beginning of the world So that Christ which was this Lambe came by water and bloud when he came in the risuall types and figures of Moses and when he came in the baptisme of Iohn for in the Law of Moses there was so frequent use of water as that we reckon above fifty severall Immunditi as uncleannesses which might receive their expiation by washing without being put to their bloudy sacrifies for them And then there was so frequent use of bloud that almost all things are by the Law purged with bloud and without shedding of bloud is no Remission But this was such water and such bloud as could not perfect the worke but therefore was to be renewed every day The water that Jesus comes by is such a water as he that arinketh of it shall thirst no more nay there shall spring up in him a well of water that is his example shall worke to the satisfaction of others we doe not say to a satisfaction for others And then this is that bloud that perfected the whole worke at once By his own bloud entred he once into the holy place and obtained eternall Redemption for us So that Christ came by water and bloud according to the old ablutions and old sacrifices when he wept when he sweat when he powred out bloud pretious incorruptible inestimable bloud at so many channels as he did all the while that he was upon the altar sacrificing himselfe in his passion But after the immolation of this sacrifice after his Consummatum est when Christ
aquarum by the power of waters many waters and in this verse this witnesse is delivered in the plurall spirit and waters and so waters in that signification which signification they have often in the Scriptures that is affliction and tribulation be good testimonies that our Lord Jesus doth visit us though the waters of Coâ—trition and repentant teares be another good testimony of that too yet that water which testifies the presence of Jesus so as that it doth always infallibly bring Jesus with it for the Sacraments are never without Grace whether it be accepted or no there it is â— That water which is made equall with the preaching of the Word so farre as to be a fellow-witnesse with the Spirit that is onely the Sacrament of baptisme without which in the ordinary dispensation of God no soule can be surer that Jesus is come to him then if he had never heard the Word preached he mistakes the spirit the first witnesse if he refuse the water the second The third witnesse upon earth is bloud and that is briefly the Communion of the body and bloud of Iesus in the Lords Supper But how is that bloud upon earth I am not ashamed to confesse that I know not how but the bloud of Christ is a witnesse upon earth in the Sacrament and therefore upon the earth it is Now this Witnesse being made equall with the other two with preaching and with baptisme it is as necessary that he that will have an assuranceâ— that Iesus is come into him doe receive this Sacrament as that he doe heare Sermâ—nâ— and that he be baptized An over vehement urging of this necessity brought in an erroneous custome in the Primitive Church That they would give the Sacrament of the body of Christ to Children as soon as they were baptized yea and to dead man too But because this Sacrament is accompanied with precepts which can belong onely to Men of understanding for they must doe it in Remembrance and they must discerne the Lords body therefore the necessity lies onely upon such as are come to those graces and to that understanding For they that take it and doe not discerne it not know what they do they take it dangerously But else for them to whom this Sacrament belongs if they take it not their hearing of Sermons and their baptisme doth them no good for what good can they have done them if they have not prepared themselves for it And therefore as the Religion of the Church holds a stubborne Recusant at the table at the Communion bord as farre from her as a Recusant at the Pew that is a Non-communicant as ill as a not commer or a not hearer so I doubt not but the wisdome of the state weighs them in the same balance For these three agree in one says the text that is first they meet in one Man and then they testifie the same thing that is Integritatem Iesu that Iesus is come to him in outward Meanes to save his soule If his conscience find not this testimony all these availe him nothing If we remaine vessells of anger and of dishonour still we are under the Vae vâ—bis Hypocritis woe unto you Hypocrites that make cleane onely the outside of your cuppes and Platters That baptize and wash your owne and your childrens bodies but not their mindes with instructions When we shall come to say Docuisti in plateis we have heard thee preach in our streets we have continued our hearing of thy Word when we say Manducavimus coram te we have eate in thy presence at thy table yea Manducavimus tâ— we have eaten thee thy selfe yet for all this outward show of these three witnesses of Spirit and Water and bloud Preaching and Baptisme and Communion we shall heare that fearfull disclaiming from Christ Jesus Nescio vos I know not whence you are But these witnesses he will always heare if they testifie for us that Jesus is come unto us for the Gospell and the preaching thereof is as the deed that conveys Iesus unto us the water the baptisme is as the Seale that assures it and the bloud the Sacrament is the delivery of Christ into us and this is Integritas Iesu the entire and full possession of him To this purpose therefore as we have found a Trinity in heaven and a Trinity in earth so we must make it up a Trinity of Trinities and finde a third Trinity in our selves God created one Trinity in us the observation and the enumeration is Saint Bernards which are those three faculties of our soule the reason the memory the will That Trinity in us by another Trinity too by suggestion towards sin by delight in sinne by consent to sinne is fallen into a third Trinity The memory into a weaknesse that that comprehends not God it glorifies him not for benefits received The reasen to a blindnesse that that discernes not what is true and the will to a perversnesse that that wishes not what 's good But the goodnesse of God by these three witnesses on earth regenerates and reestablishes a new Trinity in us faith and hope and charity Thus farre that devout Man carries it And if this new Trinity faith and hope and charity witnesse to us Integritatem Christi all the worke of Christ If my faith testifie to me that Christ is sealed to my soule and my hope testifie that at the Resurection I shall have a perfect fruition in soule and body of that glory which he purchased for every beleever and my charity testifies to the world that I labour to make sure that salvation by a good life then there 's a Trinity of Trinities and the six are made nine witnesses There are three in heaven that testifie that this is done for all Mankinde Three in the Church that testifie this may be done for me and three in my soule that testifie that all this is applied to me and then the verdict and the Judgement must necessarily goe for me And beloved this Judgement will be grounded upon this intirenesse of Jesus and therefore let me dismisse you with this note That Integritas is in continuitate not in contignitate It is not the touching upon a thing nor the comming neare to a thing that makes it intire a fagot where the sticks touch a peece of cloth where the threds touch is not intire To come as neare Christ as we can conveniently to trie how neare we can bring two Religions together this is not to preserve Integritatem Iesu In a word Intirenesse excludes deficiency and redundancy and discontinuance we preserve not intirenesse if we preserve not the dignity of Christ in his Church and in his discipline and that excludes the defective Separatist we doe not preserve that entirenesse if we admit traditions and additions of Men in an equality to the word of God and that excludes the redundant Papist neither doe we preserve the entirenesse if we admit a discontinuance
there is ablutiâ— pedum a washing of our feet of our steps and walkes in this world and that 's by repentance sealed in the other Sacrament and properly that is for actuall sinnes Thirdly in this ablution there is an Ego lavi there is a washing and I my selfe doe something towards this cleansing of my selfe And fourthly it is Lavi it is I have washed not Lavabo it is not I will wash it is already done it is not put off to mine age nor to my death bed but Lavi I have washed And lastly it is Pedes meas I have washed mine owne feet for if by my teaching I cleanse others and remaine by my bad life in foule ways my selfe I am not within this text Lavi pedes meos I have not washed my feet But if we have sincerely performed the first part we shall performe the other too Quomodo we shall come into a religious detestation and indignation of falling into the same foulenesse againe To passe then through all these for of all these that 's true which Saint Basil says of all words in the Scriptures Habent minutissime particulae suae mysteria Every word hath force and use as in Pearle every seed Pearle is as medicinall as the greatest so there is a restorative nature in every word of the Scriptures and in every word the soule findes a rise and help for her devotion To begin with the first the necessity of washing consider us in our first beginning Concepti in peccatis our Mothers conceived us in sin and being wrapped up in uncleannesse there can any Man bring a cleane thing out of filthinesse There is not one for as we were planted in our Mothers wombe in conception so we were transplanted from thence into this world in our Baptisme Nascimur filii â—rae for we are by nature the children of wrath as well as others And as in the bringing forth and bringing up of the best and most precious and most delicate plants Men employ most dung so the greatest persons where the spirit and grace of God doth not allay that intemperance which naturally arises out of abundance and provocation and out of vanity and ambitious glory in outward oftentations there is more dung more uncleannesse more sinne in the conception and birth of their children then of meaner and poorer parents It is a degree of uncleannesse to fixe our thoughts too earnestly upon the uncleannesse of our conception and of our birth when wee call that a testimony of a right comming if we come into the world with our head forward in a head-long precipitation and when we take no other testimony of our being alive but that we were heard cry and for an earnest and a Prophecy that we shall be viri sanguinum et dâ—losi bloudy and deceitfull Men false and treacherous to the murdering of our owne soules we come into this world as the Egyptians went out of it swallowed and smothered in a red sea Pueri sanguinum infirmi weake and bloudy infants at our birth But to carry our thoughts from materiall to sptrituall uncleannesses In peccatâ— concepti we were conceived in sinne but who can tell us how That flesh in our mothers wombe which we are having no sinne in it selfe for that masse of flesh could not be damned if there never came a soule into it and that soule which comes into that flesh from Godâ— having no sinne in it neither for God creates nothing infected with sinne neither should that soule be damned if it came not into that body The body being without sinne and the soule being without sinne yet in the first minute that this body and soule meet and are united we become in that instant guilty of Adams sinne committed six thousand years before Such is our sinne and uncleannesse in Originall sinne as the subtillest Man in the Schooles is never able to tell us how or when we contracted that sinne but all have it And therefore if there be any any any-where of that generation that are pure in their owne eyes and yet are not washed from their filthinesse as Solomon speakes Erubesce vas stercorum says good Saint Bernard If it be a vessell of gold it is but a vessell of excrements if it be a bed of curious plants it is but a bed of dung as their tombes hereafter shall be but glorious covers of rotten carcasses so their bodies are now but pampered covers of rotten soules Erubescat vas stercorum let that vessell of uncleannesse that barrell of dung confesse a necessity of washing and seeke that and rejoyce in that for thus farre that is to the pollution of Originall sinne in peccato concepti and nasâ—imur filii iraâ— wee are conceived in sinne first and then we are borne the children of wrath But where 's our remedy Why for this for this originall uncleannesse is the water of Baptisme Opâ—rtet nos renasci we must be borne againe we must There is a necessity of Baptisme As we are the children of Christian parents we have Ius ad rem a right to the Covenant we may claime baptisme the Church cannot deny it us And as we are baptized in the Christian Church we have Ius in re a right in the Covenant and all the benefits thereof all the promises of the Gospell we are sure that we are conceived in sinne and sure that we are borne children of wrath but not sure that we are cleansed or reconciled to God by any other meanes then that which he hath ordained Baptisme The Spirit of God moved first upon the water and the spirit of life grew first in the water Primus liquor quod viveret edidit The first living creatures in the first creation were in the waters and the first breath of spirituall life came to us from the water of baptisme In the Temple there was Mare aeneum a brasen sea In the Church there is Mare aureum a golden sea which is Baptisterium the font in which we discharge our selves of all our first uncleannesses of all the guiltinesse of Originall sinne but because we contract new uncleannesses by our uncleane ways here therefore there must bee Ablutio pedum a washing of our feet of our ways of our actions which is our second branch Cecidimus in lutum super acervum lapidum says Saint Bernard we fell by Adams fall into the durt but from that we are washed in baptisme but we fell upon a heape of sharpe stones too and we feel those wounds and those bruises all our lives after Impingimus meridie we stumble at noone day In the brightest light of the Gospell in the brightest light of grace in the best strength of Repentance and our resolutions to the contrary yet we stumble and fall againe Duo nobis pedes says that Father Natura Consâ—eâ—â—do we stand says he upon two feet Nature and Custome and we are lame of one foot hereditarily
we draw a corrupt Nature from our parents and we have lamed the other foot by crooked and perverse customes Now as God provided a liquor in his Church for Originall sinne the water of Baptisme so hath he provided another for those actuall sinnes that is the bloud of his owne body in the other Sacrament In which Sacrament besides the naturall union that Christ hath taken our Nature and the Mysticall union that Christ hath taken us into the body of his Church by a spirituall union when we apply faithfully his Merits to our soules and by a Sacramentall union when we receive the visible seales thereof worthily we are so washed in his bloud as that we stand in the sight of his Father as cleane and innocent as himselfe both because he and we are thereby become one body and because the garment of his righteousnesse covers us all But for a preparation of this washing in the bloud of Christ in that Sacrament Christ commended to his Apostles and in them to all the world by his practise and by his precept too ablutionem pedam a washing of their feet before they came to that Sacrament he washed their feet And in that exemplary action of his his washing of their feet he powred water into a Bason says the text Aqua spiritus sanctus pelvis Ecclesia These preparatory waters are the gift of the holy Ghost the working of his grace in repentance but pelvis Ecclesia the bason is the Church that is these graces are distributed and dispensed to us in his institution and ordinance in the Church No Man can wash himselfe at first by Baptisme no Man can baptize himselfe no Man can wash in the second liquor no Man that is but a Man can administer the other Sacrament to himselfe Pelvis ecclesia the Church is the bason and Gods Minister in the Church washes in both these cases And in this ablutione pedum in the preparatory washing of our feet by a survey of all our sinfull actions and repentance of them no Man can absolve himselfe but pelvis ecclesia the bason of this water of absolution is in the Church and in the Minister thereof First then this washing of the feet which prepares us for the great washing in the bloud of Christ requires a stripping of them a laying of them naked covering of the feet in the Scriptures is a phrase that denotes a foule and an uncleane action Saul was said to cover his feet in the Cave and Eglon was said to cover his feet in his Parler and we know the uncleane action that is intended here but for this cleane action for washing our feet we must discover all our sinfull steps in a free and open confession to almighty God This may be that which Solomon calls sound wisdome My sonne keep sound wisdome and discretion There is not a more silly folly then to thinke to hide any sinfull action from God Nor sounder wisdome then to discover them to him by an humble and penitent confession This is sound wisdome and then discretion is to wash and discerne and debate and examine all our future actions and all the circumstances that by this spirit of discretion we may see where the sting and venome of every particular action lies My sonne keep sound wisdome and discretion says he And then shalt thou walke in thy way safely and thy foot shall not stumble If thy discretion be not strong enough if thou canst not always discerne what is and what is not sinne he shall give his Angells charge over thee that thou dash not thy foot against a stone and that 's good security and if all these faile though thou doe fall thou shalt not be utterly cast downe for the Lord shall uphold thee with his hand says David God shall give that Man that loves this found wisdome humble confession of sinnes past this spirituall discretion the spirit of discerning spirits that is power to discerne a tentation and to overcome it confesse that which is past with true sorrow that is sound wisdome and God shall enlighten thee for the future and that 's holy discretion The washing of our feet then being a cleane and pure and sincere examination of all our actions we are to wash all the instruments of our actions in repentance Lavanda facies we are to wash our face as Ioseph did after he had wept before he looked upon his brethren againe If we have murmured and mourned for any crosse that God hath laid upon us we must returne to a cheerfull countenance towards him in embracing whatsoever he found best for us we must wash our Intestina our bowels as it is after commanded in the law when our bowels which should melt at the relation and contemplation and application of the passion of our Saviour doe melt at the apprehension or expectation or fruition of any sinfull delight Lavanda intestina we must wash those bowells Lavanda vestimenta we must wash our clothes when we apparell and palliate our sinnes with excuses of our owne infirmity or of the example of greater Men these clothes must be washed these excuses Lavanda currus arma as Ahabs chariot and armour were washed If the power of our birth or of our place or of our favour have armed us against the power of the law or against the clamour of Men justly incensed Lavandi currus these chariots and armes this greatnesse must be washed Lavanda retia what Nets soever we have fished with by what meanes soever we raise or sustaine our fortune Lavanda retia These nets must be washed Saint Bernard hath drawn a great deale of this heavenly water together for the washing of all when he presents as he cals it Martyrium sine sanguine triplex a threefold Martyrdome all without bloud and that is Largitas in paupertate a bountifull disposition even in a low fortune parcitas in ubertate a frugall disposition in a full fortune and Castitas in Iuventute a pure and chaste disposition in the years and places of tentation These are Martyrdomes without bloud but not without the water that washes our feet This is sound wisdome and discretion to strip and lay open our feet our sinfull actions by Confession To cover them and wrap them up by precaution from new uncleannesse and then to tye and bind up all safe by participation of the bloud of Christ Jesus in the Sacrament for that 's the seale of all And Christ in the washing of his disciples feet tooke a towell to dry them as well as water to wash them so when he hath brought us to this washing of our feet to a serious consideration of our actions and to repentant teares for them Absterget omnem lachrymam he will wipe all teares from our eyes all teares of confusion towards Men or of diffidence towards him Absterget omnem lachrymam and deliver us over to a setled peace of
conscience There is a washing then absolutely generally necessary the water of Baptisme and a washing occasionally necessary because we fall into actuall sinnes the bloud of our Saviour in the Sacrament and there is a washing between these preparatory to the last washing the water of Contrite and repentant teares in opening our selves to God and shutting up of our selves against future tentations of the two first the two Sacraments sons in Ecclesia the whole spring and river is in the Church there is no baptisme no bloud of Christ but in the Church And of this later which is most properly ablutio pedum the washing of the feet that is teares shed in repentance of our sinfull lives of this water there is Pelvis in Ecclesia the Bason is in the Church for our best repentance though this repentance be at home in our owne hearts doth yet receive a Seale from the absolution of Gods Ministers in the Church But yet though there be no cleansing but from the spirit of God no ordinary working of Gods spirit but in the Church and his ordinances there yet we our selves are not so left out in this work but that the spouse here and every carefull soule here says truly Ego lavi I my selfe have washed my feet which is our third branch It is said often in Philosophy Nihil in intellectu quod non prius in sensu till some sense apprehend a thing the Iudgment cannot debate it nor discourse it It may well be said in Divinity too Nihil in gratia quod non prius in natura there is nothing in grace that was not first in nature so farre as that grace always finds nature and naturall faculties to work on though that nature be not disposed to the receiving of grace when it comes yet that nature and those faculties which may be so disposed by grace are there before that grace comes And the grace of God doth not work this cleansing but where there is a sweet and souple and tractable and ductile disposition wrought in that soule This disposition is no cause why God gives his grace for there is no cause but his own meer and unmeasurable goodnesse But yet without such a disposition God would not give that and therefore let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse says the Apostle There is something which we ourselves may doe A Man that had powred out himselfe in a vehement and corrupt solicitation of the chastity of any woman if he found himselfe surprized by the presence of a husband or a father he could give over in the midst of a protestation A Man that had set one foot into a house of dangerous provocations if he saw â— bill of the plague upon the doore he could goe backe A Man that had drawne his sword to rob a passenger if he saw a hue and cry come could give over that and all this is upon the Ego lavi I have washed without use of grace his owne naturall reason declines him from that sinne then How long shall we make this bad use of this true doctrine that because we cannot doe enough for our salvation therefore we will doe nothing Shall I see any Man shut out of heaven that did what he could upon earth Thou that canst mourne for any worldly losse mourne for thy sinne Thou that lovest meetings of company for society and conversation love the meeting of the Saints of God in the Congregation and communion of Saints Thou that lovest the Rhetorique the Musique the wit the sharpnesse the eloquence the elegancy of other authors love even those things in the Scriptures in the word of God where they abound more then in other authors Put but thy affections out of their ordinary sinfull way and then Lavasti pedes thou hast washed thy feet and God will take thy work in hand and raise a building farre beyond the compasse and comprehension of thy foundation that which the soule began but in good nature shall be perfected in grace But doe it quickly for the glory of this soule here was in the Lavi It is not Lavabo that she had already not that she would wash her feet since thou art come to know thy naturall uncleannesse and baptisme for that and thine actuall uncleannesse and that for that there is a River that brings thee into the maine Sea the water of repentance leads thee to the bottomelesse Sea of the bloud of thy Saviour in the Sacrament continue not in thy foulenesse in confidence that all shall be drowned in that at last whensoever thou wilt come to it It was a common but an erroneous practise even in the Primitive Church to defer their baptisme till they were old because an opinion prevailed upon them that baptisme discharged them of all sinnes they used to be baptized then when they were past sinning that so they might passe out of this world in that innocency which their baptisme imprinted in them And out of this custome Men grew to be the more carelesse all their lives because all was done at once in baptisme But says Saint Augustine in that case and it was his owne case It were uncharitably said Vulneretur amplius that if we saw a Man welter in his bloud and wounded in divers places it were uncharitably said Vulneretur amplius give him two or three wounds more for the Surgeon is not come yet It is uncharitably said to thine owne soule Vulneretur amplius take thy pleasure in sinne yet when I come to receive the Sacrament I will repent altogether doe not thinke to put off all to the washing weeke all thy sinnes all thy repentance to Easter and the Sacrament then There may be a washing then and no drying thou maist come to weep the teares of desperation to seek mercy with teares and not find it teares for worldly losses teares for sinne teares for bodily anguish may overflow thee then and whereas Gods goodnesse to those that are his is ut abstergat omnem Lachrymam to wipe all teares from their eyes absterget nullam Lachrymam he may leave all unwiped upon thee he may leave thy soule to sinke and to shipwracke under this tempest and inundation and current of divers tides teares of all kinds and ease of none for those of whom it is said Deus absterget omnem lachrymam God shall wipe all teares from their eyes are they Qui laverunt Stolas as we see there who have already washed their long robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lambe who have already by teares of repentance become worthy receivers of the seale of reconciliation in the Sacrament of his body and bloud To them God shall wipe all teares from their eyes but to the unrepentant sinner he shall multiply teares from teares for the losse of a horse or of a house to teares for the losse of a soule and wipe no teare from his eyes But yet though this Lavi exclude the Lavabo as it
for the Law is in thy heart nor to sin wisely and so to escape witnesses for the testimony is in thy Conscience nor to sin providently and thriftily and cheaply and compound for the penalty and stall the fine for thy soule that is the price is indivisible and perishes entirely and eternally at one payment and yet ten thousand thousand times over and over Thou canst not say Thou wilt sin that sin and no more or so far in that sin and no farther If thou fall from an high place thou maist fall through thick clouds and through moist clouds but yet through nothing that can sustain thee but thou fall'st to the earth If thou fall from the grace of God thou maist passe through dark Clouds oppression of heart and through moist Clouds some compunction some remorsefull tears but yet of thy selfe thou hast nothing to take hold of till thou come to that bottome which will embrace thee cruelly to the bottomlesse bottome of Hell it selfe Our dignity and our greatest height is in our interest in God and in the world and in our selves and we fall from all either non utendâ— or abutendo either by neglecting God or by over-valuing the world our greatest â—all of all is into Idolatry and yet Idolatry is an ordinary fall for tot habemus Deas recentes quot habemus vitia As many habituall sins as we embrace so many Idols we worship If all sins could not be call'd so Idols yet for those sins which possesse us most ordinarily and most strongly we have good warrant to call them so which sins are Licentiousnesse in our youth and Covâ—tousnesse in our age and voluptuousnesse in our middle time For for Licentiousnesse Idolatry and that are so often call'd by one anothers names in the Scriptures as many times we cannot tell when the Propehts mean spirituall Adultery and when Carnall when they mean Idolatry and when Fornication For Covetousnesse that is expresly called Idolatry by the Apostle and so is voluptuousnesse too in those men whose belly is their God We fall then into that desperate precipitation of Idolatry by 〈◊〉 when by fornication we profane the temple of the Holy Ghost and make even his temple our bodies a Stewes And we fall into Idolatry by Covetousnesse when we come to be tam putidi minutÃque animi of so narrow and contracted a soule and of so sick and dead and buried and putrefied a soule as to lock up our soule in a Cabinet where we lock up our money to ty our soul in the corner of a handkerchiefe where we ty our money to imprison our soule in the imprisonment of those things Quae te ad gloriam â—â—bvecturâ—e the dispensation and distribution whereof would carry thy soul to eternall glory And when by our voluptuousnesse we raise the prices of necessary things Et eorum vulnera qui à Deo flagris caeduntur adangemus and thereby scourge them with deeper lashes of famine whom God hath scourged with poverty before we fall into Idolatry by voluptuousnesse Numismatis inscriptiones inspicuis non Christi in sratre thou takest a pleasure to look upon the figures and Images of Kings in their severall coyns and thou despisest thine own Image in thy poore brother and Gods Image in thy ruinous and defaced soule and in his Temple thy body demolished by thy Licentiousnesse and by all these Idolatries This is the fall when we fall so farre into those sins which have naturally a tyranny in them and that that sinne becomes an Idoll to us which fall of ours God intimates unto us and rebukes us for by so mild a way as to bid us rise from it Now when God bids us rise as the Apostle sayes Be not deceived Non irridetur Deus God cannot be mocked by any man so we may boldly say Be not afraid Non irridet Deus God mocks no man God comes not to a miserable bedrid man as a man would come in scorn to a prisoner and bid him shake off his fetters or to a man in a Consumption and bid him grow strong when God bids us arise he tels us we are able to rise God bad Moses goe to Pharaoh Moses said he was Incircumcisus labiis heavy and slow of tongue but he did not deny but he had a tongue God bade him goe and I will be with thy mouth sayes he He does not say I will be thy mouth but thou hast a mouth and I will be with thy Mouth It was Gods presence that made that mouth serviceable and usefull but it was Moses mouth Moses had a mouth of his own we have faculties and powers of our own to be employed in Gods service So when God employed Ieremy the Prophet sayes O Lord God behold I cannot speak for I am a child but God replies say not thou I am a child for whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speake When God bids thee rise from thy sin say not thou it is too late or that thou art bedrid in the custome of thy sin and so canst not rise when he bids thee rise he enables thee to rise and thou maist rise by the power of that will which onely his mercy and his grace hath created in thee for as God conveyes a rebuke in that counsaile Surgite arise so he conveyes a power in it too when he bids thee rise he enables thee to rise That which we are to doe then is to rise to leave our bed our sleep of Sin Saint Augustine takes knowledge of three wayes by which he escaped sins first occasionis substractione and that 's the safest way not to come within distance of a tentation secondly resistendi data virtute That the love and the fear of God imprinted in him made him strong enough for the sin Can I love God and love this person thus thus that my love to it should draw away my love from God Can I feare God and fear any Man who can have power but over my body so as for feare of him to renounce my God or the truth or my Religion Or affectionis sanitate that his affections had by a good diet by a continuall feeding upon the Contemplation of God such a degree of health and good temper as that some sins he did naturally detest and though he had not wanted opportunity and had wanted particular grace yet he had been safe enough from them But for this help this detestation of some particular sins that will not hold out We have seen men infinitely prodigall grow infinitely Covetous at last For the other way the assistance of particular grace that we must not presume upon for he that opens himselfe to a tentation upon presumption of grace to preserve him forfaits by that even that grace which he had And therefore there is no safe way but occasionis substractio the forbearing of those places and that Conversation which ministers occasion of tentation to
from death a man might in some sort be said to be immortall for that minute but Man is never so Nunquam ei vicinius est posse vivere quà m posse mori That proposition is never truer This man may live to morrow then this proposition is This man may dy this minute Though then shortnesse of life be a malediction to the wicked The bloudy and deceitfull men shall not live halfe their dayes there 's the sentence the Judgement the Rule And they were cut down before their time there 's the execution the example God hath threatned God hath inflicted shortnesse of dayes to the wicked yet the Curse consists in their indisposition in their over-loving of this world in their terrors concerning the next world and not meerly in the shortnesse of life for this Ite depart out of this world is part of the Consolation I have a Reversion upon my friend and though I wish it not yet I am glad if he die Men that have inheritances after their fathers are glad when they dye though not glad that they die yet glad when they die I have a greater after the death of this body and shall I be loath to come to that Yet it is not so a Consolation as that we should by any means be occasions to hasten our own death Multi Innocentes ab aliis occiduntur à seipso nemo Many men get by the malice of others if thereby they dy the sooner for they are the sooner at home and dy innocently but no man dies innocently that dies by his own hand or by his own hast We may not doe it never we may not wish it alwayes nor easily Before a perfect Reconciliation with God it is dangerous to wish death David apprehended it so I said O my God take me not away in the midst of my dayes In an over tender sense and impatience of our own Calamities it is dangerous to desire death too Very holy men have transgressed on that hand Elias in his persecution came inconsiderately to desire that he might die It is enough ô Lord take away my soule He would tell God how much was enough And so sayes Iob My soule chuseth rather to be strangled and to die then to be in my bones He must have that that his soule chuses But to omit many cases wherein it is not good nor safe to wish Death certainly when it is done primarily in respect of God for his glory and then for the respect which is of our selves it is onely to enjoy the sight and union of God and that also with a Conditionall submission to his will and a tacite and humble reservation of all his purposes we may think David's thought and speak David's words My soule thirsteth for God even for the living God when shall I come and appeare before the presence of my Living God Saint Paul had David's example for it when he comes to his Cupio dissolvi to desire to be dissolved And Saint Augustine had both their examples when he sayes so affectionately Eia Domine videam ut hîc moriar O my God let me see thee in this life that I may die the death of the Righteous dy to sin moriar ut te videam let me dy absolutely that I may see thee essentially Here we may be in his Presence we see his state there we are in his Bedchamber and see his eternall and glorious Rest. The Rule is good given by the same Father Non injustum est justo optare mortem A righteous man may righteously desire deathâ— Si Deus non dederit injustum erit non tolerare vitam amarissimam but if God affords not that ease he must not refuse a laborious life So that this departing is not a going before we be call'd Christ himselfe stay'd for his ascension till he was taken up But when these comes a Lazare veni foras that God calls us from this putrefaction which we think life let us be not onely obedient but glad to depart For without such an Ite there is no such Surgite as is intended here without this departing there is no good rising without a joyfull Transmigration no joyfull Resurrection He that is loth to depart is afraid to rise againe and he that is afraid of the Resurrection had rather there were none and he that had rather there were none aâ—t â—aecitate aut animosâ—tate says S. Augustine either he will make himselfe beleeve that there is none or if he cannot overcome his Conscience so absolutely he will make the world beleeve that he beleeves there is none and truly to lose our sense of the Resurrection is as heavy a losse as of any one point of Religion It is the knot of all and hath this priviledge above all that though those Joyes of heaven which we shall possesse immediately after our death be infinite yet even to these infinite Joyes the Resurrection given an addition and enlarges even that which was infinite And therefore is Iob so passionately desirous that this doctrine of the Resurrection might be imparted to all imprinted in all Oh that my words more now written Oh that they were written in a book and graven with an Iron pen in lead and stone for ever what is all this that Iob recommends with so much devotion to all I am sure that my Redeemer liveth and be shall stand the last on Earth and though after my skin wormes destroy this body yet I shall see God in my flesh whom I my selfe shall see and mine eyes shall behold and none either for me This doctrine of the Resurrection had Iob so vehement and so early a care of Neither could the malicious and pestilent inventions of man no not of Satan himselfe abolish this doctrine of the Resurrection for as Saint Hierome observes from Adrian's time to Constantin's for 180 yeares in the place of Christs birth they had set up an Idoll a statue of Adonis In the place of his Crucifying they had set up an Idoll of Venus and in the place of his Resurrection they had erected a Iâ—â—pâ—ter in opinion that these Idolatrous provisions of theirs would have abolish'd the Mysteries of our Religion but they have outliv'd all them and shall outlive all the world eternally beyond all Generations And therefore doth Saint Ambrose apply well and usefully to our Death and Resurrection to our departing and rising these words Come my people enter then into thy Chambers and shut thy dores after thee Hide thy selfe for a very little while untill the Indignation passeover thee that is Goe quietly to your graves attend your Resurrection till God have executed his purpose upon the wicked of this world Murmur not to admit the dissolution of body and soul upon your death-beds nor the resolution and putrefaction of the body alone in your graves till God be pleased to repaire all in a full consummation and
of Saint Iohn and another by Saint Marke to the memory of Saint Peter whilest yet both Saint John and Saint Peter were alive Howsoever it is certaine that the purest and most innocent times even the infancy of the Primitive Church found this double way of expressing their devotion in this particular of building Churches first that they built them onely to the honour and glory of God without giving him any partner and then they built them for the conserving of the memory of those blessed servants of God who had sealed their profession with their bloud and at whose Tombs God had done such Miracles as these times needed for the propagation of his Church They built their Churches principally for the glory of God but yet they added the names of some of his blessed servants and Martyrs for so says he who as he was Peters successor so he is the most sensible feeler and most earnest and powerfull promover and expresser of the dignities of Saint Peter of all the Fathers speaking of Saint Peters Church Beato Petri Basilica quae uni Deo vero vivo dicata est Saint Peters Church is dedicated to the onely living God They are things compatible enough to beare the name of a Saint and yet to be dedicated to God There the bodies of the blessed Martyrs did peacefully attend their glorification There the Histories of the Martyrs were recited and proposed to the Congregation for their example and imitation There the names of the Martyrs were inserted into the publique prayers and liturgies by way of presenting the thanks of the Congregation to God for having raised so profitable men in the Church and there the Church did present their prayers to God for those Martyrs that God would hasten their glory and finall consummation in reuniting their bodies and soules in a joyfull resurrection But yet though this divers mention were made of the Saints of God in the house of God Non Martyres ipsi sed Deus â—orum nobis est Deus onely God and not those Martyrs is our God we and they serve all one Master we dwell all in one house in which God hath appointed us severall services Those who have done their days work God hath given them their wages and hath given them leave to goe to bed they have laid down their bodies in peace to sleep there till the Sunne rise againe till the Sunne of grace and glory Christ Iesus appeare in judgment we that are yet left to work and to watch we must goe forward in the services of God in his house with that moderation and that equality as that we worship onely our Master but yet despise not our fellow servants that are gone before us That we give to no person the glory of God but that we give God the more glory for having raised such servants That we acknowledge the Church to be the house onely of God and that we admit no Saint no Martyr to be a lointenant with him but yet that their memory may be an encouragement yea and a seale to us that that peace and glory which they possesse belongs also unto us in reversion and that therefore we may cheerfully gratulate their present happinesse by a devout commemoration of them with such a temper and evennesse as that we neither dishonor God by attributing to them that which is inseparably his nor dishonor them in taking away that which is theirs in removing their Names out of the Collects and prayers of the Church or their Monuments and memorialls out of the body of the Church for those respects to them the first Christian founders of Churches did admit in those pure times when Illa obsequia ornamenta memoriarum nâ—n sacrificia mortuorum when those devotions in their names were onely commemorations of the dead not sacrifices to the dead as they are made now in the Romane Church when Bellarmine will needs falsifie Chrysostome to read Adoramus monumenta in stead of Adornamus and to make that which was but an Adorning an adoring of the Tombes of the Martyrs This then was in all times a religious work an acceptable testimony of devotion to build God a house to contribute something to his outward glory The goodnesse and greatnesse of which work appears evidently and shines gloriously even in those severall names by which the Church was called and styled in the writings and monuments of the Ancient Fathers and the Ecclesiastique story It may serve to our edification at least and to the axalting of our devotion to consider some few of them First then the Church was called Ecclesia that is a company a Congregation That whereas from the time of Iohn Baptist the kingdome of heaven suffers violence and every violent Man that is every earnest and zealous and spiritually valiant Man may take hold of it we may be much more sure of doing so in the Congregation Quando agâ—â—ine factâ— Deum obsidemus when in the whole body we Muster our forces and besiege God For here in the congregation not onely the kingdome of heaven is fallen into our hands The kingdome of heaven is amongst you as Christ says but the King of heaven is fallen into our hands When two or three are gathered together in my Name I will be in the midst of you not onely in the midst of us to encourage us but in the midst of us to be taken by us to be bound by us by those hands those covenants those contracts those rich and sweet promises which he hath made and ratified unto us in his Gospell A second name of the Church 〈◊〉 in use was Dominicum The Lords possession It is absolutely it is intirely his And therefore as to shorten and contract the possession and inheritance of God the Church so much as to confine the Church onely within the obedience of Rome as the Donatists imprisoned it in Afrique or to change the Landmarks of Gods possession and inheritance which is the Church either to set up new works of outward prosperity or of personall and Locall succession of Bishops or to remove the old and true marks which are the Word and Sacraments as this is Injuria Dominico mystico a wrong to the mysticall body of Christ the Church so is it Injuria Dominico materiali an injury to the Materiall body of Christ sacrilegiously to dilapidate to despoile or to demolish the possession of the Church and so farre to remove the marks of Gods inheritance as to mingle that amongst your temporall revenues that God may never have nor ever distinguish his owne part againe And then to passe faster over these names It is called Domus Dei Gods dwelling house Now his most glorious Creatures are but vehicula Dei they are but chariots which convey God and bring him to our sight The Tabernacle it selfe was but Mobilis domus and Ecclesia portatilis a house without a foundation a running a progresse house but
of Scripture and then we shall shut up this inquisition with a unanime consent so unanime as I can remember but one that denies it and he but faintly that in this text the doctrine of the resurrection is established In the second part the doctrine it selfe comprised in the words of the text And though after my skin wormes destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God we shall see first that the Saints of God themselves are not priviledged from the common corruption and dissolution of the body After that curse upon the Serpent super pectus gradieris upon thy belly shalt thou goe we shall as soon see a Serpent goe upright and not craule as after that Judgment In pulverem revertêris to dust thou shalt returne see a man that shall not see death and corruption in death Corruption upon our skin says the text our outward beauty corruption upon our body our whole strength and constitution And this corruption not a green palenesse not a yellow jaundise not a blue lividnesse not a black morpheu upon our skin not a bony leannesse not a sweaty faintnesse not an ungratious decrepitnesse upon our body but a destruction a destruction to both After my skin my body shall be destroyed Though not destroyed by being resolved to ashes in the fire perchance I shall not be burnt not destroyed by being washed to slime in the sea perchance I shall not be drowned but destroyed contemptibly by those whom I breed and feed by wormes After my skin wormes shall destroy my body And thus farre our case is equall one event to the good and bad wormes shall destroy all in them all And farther then this their case is equall too for they shall both rise againe from this destruction But in this lies the future glory in this lies the present comfort of the Saints of God that after all this so that this is not my last act to dye nor my last scene to lie in the grave nor my last exit to goe out of the grave after says Iob And indefinitely After I know not how soone nor how late I presse not into Gods secrets for that but after all this Ego I I that speak now and shall not speak then silenced in the grave I that see now and shall not see then ego videbo I shall see I shall have a new faculty videbo Deam I shall see God I shall have a new object and In carne I shall see him in the flesh I shall have a new organ and a new medium and In carne mea that flesh shall be my flesh I shall have a new propriety in that flesh this flesh which I have now is not mine but the wormes but that flesh shall be so mine as I shall never devest it more but in my flesh I shall see God for ever In the first part then which is an inquiry whether this text concerne the Resurrection or no we take knowledge of a Crediderunt and of a Credunt in the Iews that the Iews did beleeve a Resurrection and that they doe beleeve it still That they doe so now appears out of the doctrine of their Talmud where we find that onely the Iews shall rise againe but all the Gentiles shall perish body and soule together as Korah Dathan and Abiram were swallowed all at once body and soule into hell And to this purpose for the first part thereof that the Iews shall rise they abuse that place of Esay Thy dead men shall live awake and sing yee that dwell in the dust And for the second part that the Gentiles shall not rise they apply the words of the same Prophet before They are dead they shall not live they are deceased they shall not rise The Iews onely say they shall rise but not all they but onely the righteous amongst them And to that purpose they abuse that place of the Prophet Zachary two parts shall be cut off and dye but the third shall be left therein and I will bring that third part through the fire and will refine them as silver is refined and try them as gold is tried The Iews onely of all men the good Iews onely of all Iews and of these good Iews onely they who were buried in the land of promise shall have this present and immediate resurrection And to that purpose they force that place in Genesis where Iacob upon his death-bed advised his sonne Ioseph to bury him in Canaan and not in Egypt and to that purpose they detort also that place of Ieremy where the Prophet lays that curse upon Pashur That he should dye in Babylon and be buried there For though the Iews doe not absolutely say that all that are buried out of Canaan shall be without a resurrection yet they say that even those good and righteous Iews which are not buried in that great Churchyard the land of promise must at the day of judgment be brought through the hollow parts of the earth into the land of promise at that time and onely in that place receive their resurrection wheresoever they were buried But yet though none but Iews none but righteous Iews none but righteous Iews in that place must be partakers of the Resurrection yet still a Resurrection there is in their doctrine It is so now it was so always We see in that time when Christ walked upon the earth when he came to the raising of Lazarus and said to his sister Martha Thy brother shall rise againe she replies to Christ Alas I know he shall rise againe at the Resurrection of the last day I make no doubt of that we all know that So also when Christ put forth that parable that in placing of benefits we should rather choose such persons as were able to make no recompense he gives that reason Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just The Resurrection was a vulgar doctrine well knowne to the Iews then and always For even Herod when Christ preached and did miracles was apt to say Iohn Baptist is risen from the dead And when it is said of those two great Apostles the loving and the beloved Apostle Peter and Iohn that as yet they knew not the Scripture that Christ must rise from the dead this argues no more but that as Peters compassion before Christs death made him disswade Christ from going up to Ierusalem to suffer so their extreme passion after Christs death made them the lesse attentively to consider those particular Scriptures which spoke of the Resurrection For the Iews in generall much more they had always an apprehension and an acknowledgment of the Resurrection of the dead By what light they saw this and how they came to this knowledge is our next consideration Had they this by the common notions of other men out of naturall Reason Melanothon who is no bold nor rash nor dangerous expressor of himselfe says
death But upon that part of the sentence In pulverem reverteris To dust thou shalt return there is no Non obstante though thou turn to God thou must turn into the grave for hee that redeem'd thee from the other death redeem'd not himself from this Carry this consideration to the last minute of the world when we that remain shall bee caught up in the clouds yet even that last fire may be our fever those clouds our winding sheets that rapture our dissolution and so with Saint Augustine most of the ancients most of the latter men think that there shall be a sudden dissolution of body and soul which is death and a sudden re-uniting of both which is resurrection in that instant Quis Homeo is Davids question What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Let us adde Quis Deoram What god is he amongst the Gentiles that hath not seen death Which of their three hundred Iupiters which of their thousands of other gods have not seen death Mortibus morjuntur we may adde to that double death in Gods mouth another death The gods of the Gentiles have dyed thrice In body in soul and in fame for though they have been glorified with a Deification nor one of all those old gods is at this day worshipt in any part of the world but all those temporary and transitory Gods are worn out and dead in all senses Those gods who were but men fall under Davids question Quis Home And that man who was truly God fals under it too Christ Jesus He saw death though he saw not the death of this text Corruption And if we consider the effusion of his precious blood the contusion of his sacred flesh the extention of those sinews and ligaments which tyed heaven and earth together in a reconciliation the departing of that Intelligence from that sphear of that high Priest from that Temple of that Dove from that Arke of that soul from that body that dissolution which as an ordinary man he should have had in the grave but that the decree of God declar'd in the infallibility of the manifold prophesies preserv'd him from it had been but a slumber in respect of these tortures which he did suffer The Godhead staid with him in the grave and so he did not corrupt but though our souls be gone up to God our bodies shall Corruption in the skin says Iob In the outward beauty These be the Records of velim these be the parchmins the endictments and the evidences that shall condemn many of us at the last day our own skins we have the book of God the Law written in our own hearts we have the image of God imprinted in our own souls wee have the character and seal of God stamped in us in our baptism and all this is bound up in this velim in this parchmin in this skin of ours and we neglect book and image and character and feal and all for the covering It is not a clear case if we consider the originall words properly That Iesabel did paint and yet all translators and expositors have taken a just occasion out of the ambiguity of those words to cry down that abomination of painting It is not a clear case if we consider the propriety of the words That Absolon was hanged by the hair of the head and yet the Fathers and others have made use of that indifferency and verisimilitude to explode that abomination of cherishing and curling haire to the enveagling and ensnaring and entangling of others Iudicium patietur aeternum says Saint Hierome Thou art guilty of a murder though no body die Quia vinum attulisti si faisset qui bibisset Thou hast poyson'd a cup if any would drink thou hast prepar'd a tentation if any would swallow it Tertullian thought he had done enough when he had writ his book De Habitu muliâ—bri against the excesse of women in clothes but he was fain to adde another with more vehemence De cultu foeminarum that went beyond their clothes to their skin And he concludes Illud ambitionis crimen there 's vain-glory in their excesse of clothes but Hoc prostitutionis there 's prostitution in drawing the eye to the skin Pliny says that when their thin silke stuffes were first invented at Rome Excogitatum ad faeminas denudandas It was but an invention that women might go naked in clothes for their skins might bee seen through those clothes those thinne stuffes Our women are not so carefull but they expose their nakednesse professedly and paint it to cast bird-lime for the passengers eye Beloved good dyet makes the best Complexion and a good Conscience is a continuall feast A cheerfull heart makes the best blood and peace with God is the true cheerfulnesse of heart Thy Saviour neglected his skin so much as that at last hee scarse had any all was torn with the whips and scourges and thy skin shall come to that absolute corruption as that though a hundred years after thou art buryed one may find thy bones and say this was a tall man this was a strong man yet we shall soon be past saying upon any relique of thy skinne This was a fair man Corruption seises the skinne all outward beauty quickly and so it does the body the whole frame and constitution which is another consideration After my skinne my Body If the whole body were an eye or an ear where were the body says Saint Paul but when of the whole body there is neither eye nor ear nor any member left where is the body And what should an eye do there where there is nothing to be seen but loathsomnesse or a nose there where there is nothing to be smelt but putrefaction or an ear where in the grave they doe not praise God Doth not that body that boasted but yesterday of that priviledge above all creatures that it onely could goe upright lie to day as flat upon the earth as the body of a horse or of a dogge And doth it not to morrow lose his other priviledge of looking up to heaven Is it not farther remov'd from the eye of heaven the Sunne then any dogge or horse by being cover'd with the earth which they are not Painters have presented to us with some horrour the sâ—cleton the frame of the bones of a mans body but the state of a body in the dissolution of the grave no pencil can present to us Between that excrementall jelly that thy body is made of at first and that jelly which thy body dissolves to at last there is not so noysome so putrid a thing in nature This skinne this outward beauty this body this whole constitution must be destroy'd says Iobâ— in the next place The word is well chosen by which all this is expressed in this text Nakaph which is a word of as heavy a signification to expresse an utter abolition and annihilation as perchance can be
found in all the Scriptures Tremellius hath mollifyed it in his translation there it is but Confodere to pierce And yet it is such a piercing such a sapping such an undermining such a demolishing of a fort of Castle as may justly remove us from any high valuation or any great confidence in that skinne and in that body upon which this Confoderint must fall But in the great Bible it is Contriverint Thy skinne and thy body shall be ground away trod away upon the ground Aske where that iron is that is ground off of a knife or axe Aske that marble that is worn off of the threshold in the Church-porch by continuall treading and with that iron and with that marble thou mayst finde thy Fathers skinne and body Contrita sunt The knife the marble the skinne the body are ground away trod away they are destroy'd who knows the revolutions of dust Dust upon the Kings high-way and dust upon the Kings grave are both or neither Dust Royall and may change places who knows the revolutions of dust Even in the dead body of Christ Jesus himself one dram of the decree of his Father one sheet one sentence of the prediction of the Prophets preserv'd his body from corruption and incineration more then all Iosephs new tombs and fine linnen and great proportion of spices could have done O who can expresse this inexpreffible mystery The foul of Christ Jesus which took no harm by him contracted no Originall sin in coming to him was guilty of no more sin when it went out then when it came from the breath and bosome of God yet this soul left this body in death And the Divinity the Godhead incomparably better then that soul which soul was incomparably better then all the Saints and Angels in heaven that Divinity that God-head did not forsake the body though it were dead If we might compare things infinite in themselves it was nothing so much that God did assume mans nature as that God did still cleave to that man then when he was no man in the separation of body and soul in the grave But full we from incomprehensible mysteries for there is mortification enough and mortification is vivification and aedification in this obvious consideration skinne and body beauty and substance must be destroy'd And Destroyed by wormes which is another descent in this humiliation and exâ—anition of man in death After my skinne wormes shall destroy this body I will not insist long upon this because it is not in the Originall In the Originall there is no mention of wormes But because in other places of Iob there is They shal lye down alike in the dust and the worms shall cover them The womb shal forget them and the worm shal feed sweetly on them because the word Destroying is presented in that form number Contriverint when they shall destroy they and no other persons no other creatures named both our later translations for indeed our first translation hath no mention of wormes and so very many others even Tremellâ—s that adheres most to the letter of the Hebrew have filled up this place with that addition Destroyed by worms It makes the destruction the more contemptible Thou that wouldest not admit the beames of the Sunne upon thy skinne and yet hast admitted the pollutions of sinne Thou that wouldst not admit the breath of the ayre upon thy skinne and yet hast admitted the spirit of lust and unchast solicitations to breath upon thee in execrable oathes and blasphemies to vicious purposes Thou whose body hath as farre as it can putrefyed and corrupted even the body of thy Saviour in an unworthy receiving thereof in this skinne in this body must be the food of worms the prey of destroying worms After a low birth thou mayst passe an honourable life after a sentence of an ignominious death thou mayst have an honourable end But in the grave canst thou make these worms silke worms They were bold and early worms that eat up Herod before he dyed They are bold and everlasting worms which after thy skinne and body is destroyed shall remain as long as God remains in an eternall gnawing of thy conscience long long after the destroying of skinne and body by bodily worms Thus farre then to the destroying of skinne and body by worms all men are equall Thus farre all 's Common law and no Prerogative so is it also in the next step too The Resurrection is common to all The prerogative lies not in the Rising but in the rising to the fruition of the sight of God in which consideration the first beam of comfort is the Postquam After all this destruction before by worms ruinous misery before but there is something else to be done upon me after God leaves no state without comfort God leaves some inhabitants of the earth under longer nights then others but none under an everlasting night and those whom he leaves under those long nights he recompenses with as long days after I were miserable if there were not an Antequam in my behalfe if before I had done well or ill actually in this world God had not wrapped me up in his good purpose upon me And I were miserable againe if there were not a Postquam in my behalfe If after my sinne had cast me into the grave there were not a lowd trumpet to call me up and a gracious countenance to looke upon me when I were risen Nay let my life have been as religious as the infirmities of this life can admit yet If in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable For for the worldly things of this life first the children of God have them in the least proportions of any and besides that those children of God which have them in larger proportion do yet make the least use of them of any others because the children of the world are not so tender conscienced nor so much afraid lest those worldly things should become snares and occasions of tentation to them if they open themselves to a full enjoying thereof as the children of God are And therefore after my wanting of many worldly things after a penurious life and after my not daring to use those things that I have so freely as others doe after that holy and conscientious forbearing of those things that other men afford themselves after my leaving all these absolutely behind me here and my skin and body in destruction in the grace After all there remaines something else for me After but how long after That 's next When Christ was in the body of that flesh which we are in now sinne onely excepted he said in that state that he was in then Of that day and houre no man knoweth not the Angels not the Sonne Then in that state he excludes himselfe And when Christ was risen againe in an uncorruptible body he said even to his nearest followers Non est
vestruâ—â— it is not for you to know times and seasons Before in his state of mortality 〈…〉 ignor antibus he pretended to know no more of this then they that knew nothing After when he had invested immortality per sui exceptionem says that Father he excepts none but himselfe all the rest even the Apostles were left ignorant thereof For this non est vestrum it is not for you is part of the last sentence that ever Christ spake to them If it be a convenient answer to say Christ knew it not as man how bold is that man that will pretend to know it And if it be a convenient interpretation of Christs words that he knew it not that is knew it not so as that he might tell it them how indiscreet are they who though they may seem to know it will publish it For thereby they fill other men with scruples and vexations and they open themselves to scorne and reproach when their predictions prove false as Saint Augustine observed in his time and every age hath given examples since of confident men that have failed in these conjectures It is a poore pretence to say this intimation this impression of a certaine time prepares men with better dispositions For they have so often been found false that it rather weakens the credit of the thing it selfe In the old world they knew exactly the time of the destruction of the world that there should be an hundred twenty years before the flood came And yet upon how few did that prediction though from the mouth of God himselfe work to repentance Naâ—â— found grace in Gods eyes but it was not because he mended his life upon that prediction but he was grations in Gods sight before At the day of our death we write Pridiâ—râ—surrâ—ctioniâ— the day before the resurrection It is Vigilia resurectionis Our Easter Eve Adveniat regnum tuum possesse my soule of thy kingdome then And Fiâ—â— voluntas tua my body shall arise after but how soon after or how late after thy will bee done then by thy selfe and thy will bee knowne till then to thy selfe We passe on As in Massa damnata the whole lump of mankind is under the condemnation of Adams sinne and yet the good purpose of God severs some men from that condemnation so at the resurrection all shall rise but not all to glory But amongst them that doe Ego says Iob I shall I as I am the same man made up of the samebody and the same soule Shall I imagine a difficulty in my body because I have lost an Arme in the East and a leg in the West because I have left some bloud in the North and some bones in the South Doe but remember with what ease you have sate in the chaire casting an account and made a shilling on one hand a pound on the other or five shillings below ten above because all these lay easily within your reach Consider how much lesse all this earth is to him that sits in heaven and spans all this world and reunites in an instant armes and legs bloud and bones in what corners so ever they be scattered The greater work may seem to be in reducing the soul That that soule which sped so ill in that body last time it came to it as that it contracted Originall sinne then and was put to the slavery to serve that body and to serve it in the ways of sinne not for an Apprentiship of seven but seventy years after that that soul after it hath once got loose by death and liv'd God knows how many thousands of years free from that body that abus'd it so before and in the sight and fruition of that God where it was in no danger should willingly nay desirously ambitiously seek this scuttered body this Eastern and Western and Northern and Southern body this is the most inconsiderable consideration and yet Ego I I the same body and the same soul shall be recompact again and be identically numerically individually the same man The same integrity of body and soul and the same integrity in the Organs of my body and in the faculties of my soul too I shall be all there my body and my soul all my body all my soul I am not all here I am here now preaching upon this text and I am at home in my Library considering whether S. Gregory or S. Hierome have said best of this text before I am here speaking to you and yet I consider by the way in the same instant what it is likely you will say to one another when I have done you are not all here neither you are here now hearing me and yet you are thinking that you have heard a better Sermon somewhere else of this text before you are here and yet you think you could have heard some other doctrine of down-right Predestinations and Reprobation roundly delivered somewhere else with more edification to youâ— you are here and you remember your selves that now yee think of it This had been the fittest time now when every body else is at Church to have made such and such a private visit and because you would bee there you are there I cannot say you cannot say so perfectly so entirely now as at the Resurrection Ego I am here I body and soul I soul and faculties as Christ sayd to Peter Noli timere Ego sum Fear nothing it is I so I say to my selfe Noli timere My soul why art thou so sad my body why dost thou languish Ego I body and soul soul and faculties shall say to Christ Jesus Ego sum Lord it is I and hee shall not say Nescio te I know thee not but avow me and place me at his right hand Ego sum I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath Ego sum and I the same man shall receive the crown of glory which shall not fade Ego I the same person Ego videbo I shall see I have had no looking-glasse in my grave to see how my body looks in the dissolution I know not how I have had no houre-glasse in my grave to see how my time passes I know not when for when my eylids are closed in my death-bed the Angel hath said to me that time shall be no more Till I see eternity the ancient of days I shall see no more but then I shall Now why is Iob gladder of the use of this sense of seeing then of any of the other He is not He is glad of seeing but not of the sense but of the Object It is true that is said in the School Viciniùs se habent potentiae sensitivae ad animam quà m corpus Our sensitive faculties have more relation to the soul then to the body but yet to some purpose and in some measure all the senses shall be in our glorifyed bodies In actu or in potentiâ
which is a true joy but common to all Christians is that assurance which they have in their tribulations that God will give them the issue with the temptation not that they pretend not to feel that calamity so the Philosophers did but that it shall not swallow them this is naturall to a Christian he is not a Christian without this Thinke it not strange says the Apostle as though some strange thing were come unto you for we must accustome our selves to the expectation of tribulation but rejoyce says he and when his glory shall appeare yee shall be made glad and rejoyce He bids us rejoyce and yet all that he promises is but rejoycing at last he bids us rejoyce all the way though the consummate aud determinable joy come not till the end yet God hath set bounds to our tribulations as to the sea and they shall not overflow us But this perfect joy to speake of such degrees of perfection as may be had in this life this third joy the joy of this text is not a collaterall joy that stands by us in the tribulation and sustaines us but it is a fundamentall joy a radicall joy a viscerall a gremiall joy that arises out of the bosome and wombe and bowels of the tribulation it selfe It is not that I rejoyce though I be afflicted but I rejoyce because I am afflicted It is not because I shall not sink in my calamity and be buried in that valley but because my calamity raises me and makes my valley a hill and gives me an eminency and brings God and me nearer to one another then without that calamity I should have been when I can depart rejoycing and that therefore because I am worthy to suffer rebuke for the name of Christ as the Apostles did when I can feel that pattern proposed to my joy and to my tribulation which Christ gives Rejoyce and be glad for so persecuted they the Prophets when I can find that seale printed upon me by my tribulation If ye be railed on for the name of Christ blessed are ye for the spirit of God and of glory resteth on you that is that affliction fixes the holy Ghost upon me which in prosperity falls upon me but as Sun-beames Briefly if my soule have had that conference that discourse with God that he hath declared to me his purpose in all my calamities as he told Ananias that he had done to Paul he is a chosen vessell unto me for I will shew him how many things he must suffer for my sake If the light of Gods Spirit shew us the number the force the intent of our tribulations then is our soule come to that highest joy which she is capable of in this life when as cold and dead water when it comes to the fire hath a motion and dilatation and a bubling and a kind of dancing in the vessell so my soule that lay asleep in prosperity hath by this fire of Tribulation a motion a joy an exaltation This is the highest degree of suffering but this suffering hath this condition here that it be passio mea And this too that it be mea and not pro me but pro aliis that it be mine and no bodies else by my occasion That it be mine without any fault of mine that I be no cause that it fell upon me and that I be no occasion that it fall upon others And first it is not mine if I borrow it I can have no joy in the sufferings of Martyrs and other Saints of God by way of applying their sufferings to me by way of imitation and example I may by way of application and satisfaction I cannot borrowed sufferings are not my sufferings They are not mine neither if I steale them if I force them If my intemperate and scandalous zeal or pretence of zeal extort a chastisement from the State if I exasperate the Magistrate and draw an affliction upon my self this stoln suffering this forced suffering is not passio mea it is not mine if it should not be mine Natura cujusque rei est quam Deus indidit That onely is the nature of every thing which God hath imprinted in it That affliction onely is mine which God hath appointed for me and what he hath appointed we may see by his exclusions Let none of you suffer as a murtherer or as a thief or as an evill doer or as a busie-body in other mens matters and that reaches far I am not possessâ—r bonae fidei I come not to this suffering by a good title I cannot call it mine I may finde joy in it that is in the middest of it I may finde comfort in the mercy of Christ though I suffer as a malefactor But there is no joy in the suffering it self for it is not mine it is not I but my sinne my breach of the law my disobedience that suffers It is not mine again if it be not mine in particular mine and limited in me To those sufferings that fall upon me for my conscience or for the discharge of my duty there belongs a joy but when the whole Church is in persecution and by my occasion especially or at all woe unto them by whom the first offence comes this is no joyfull matter and therefore vae illis per quos scandalum they who by their ambition of preferment or indulgence to their present case or indifferency how things fall out or presumptuous confidence in Gods care for looking well enough to his own how little soever they doe give way to the beginnings of superstition in the times of persecution when persecutions come either they shall have no sufferings that is God shall suffer them to fall away and refuse their testimony in his cause or they shall have no joy in their sufferings because they shall see this persecution is not theirs it is not limited in them but induced by their prevarication upon the whole Church And lastly this suffering is not mine if I stretch it too far if I over-value it it is not mine A man forfeits his priviledge by exceeding it There is no joy belongs to my suffering if I place a merit in it Meum non est cujus nomine nulla mihi superest actiâ— says the Law That 's none of mine for which I can bring no action and what actioâ— can I bring against God for a reward of my merit Have I given him any thing of mine Quid habeo quod non accepi what have I that I received not from him Have I given him all his own how came I to abound then and see him starve in the streets in his distressed members Hath he changed his blessings unto me in single mony Hath he made me rich by half pence and farthings and yet have I done so much as that for him Have I suffered for his glory Am not I vas figuli a potters vessell and that Potters vessel and whose hand soever he
it is made can have nothing no syllable taken from it nor added to it Therefore is Gods will delivered to us in Psalms that we might have it the more cheerfully and that we might have it the more certainly because where all the words are numbred and measured and weighed the whole work is the lesse subject to falsification either by substraction or addition God speaks to us in or atione strictâ in a limited in a diligent form Let us speak to him in or atione solutâ not pray not preach not hear flackly suddenly unadvisedly extemporally occasionally indiligently but let all our speech to him be weighed and measured in the weights of the Sanctuary let us be content to preach and to hear within the compasse of our Articles and content to pray in those formes which the Church hath meditated for us and recommended to us This whole Psalm is a Prayer and recommended by David to the Church And a Prayer grounded upon Reasons The Reasons are multiplyed and dilated from the second to the 20. verse But as the Prayer is made to him that is Alpha and Omega first and last so the Prayer is the Alpha and Omega of the Psalme the Prayer possesses the first and the last verse thereof and though the Reasons be not left out Christ himself settles that Prayer which he recommended to our daily use upon a Reason Quia tuum est Regnum for thine is the Kingdome yet David makes up his Circle he begins and ends in prayer But our text fals within his Reasons He prays in the first verse that God would forbear him upon the Reasons that follow of which some are extrinsecall some arising out of the power some out of the malice some out of the scorn of other men And some are intrinsecall arising out of himself and of his sense of Gods Judgements upon him and our Text begins the Reasons of that last kind which because David enters with that particle not onely of Connexion but of Argumentation too For Rebuke me not O Lord for it stands thus and thus with me we shall make it a first short part to consider how it may become a godly man to limit God so far as to present and oppose Reasons against his declared purpose and proceedings And then in those calamities which he presents for his Reasons in this Text For thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore we shall passe by these steps first we shall see in what respect in what allusion in what notification he cals them arrows And therein first that they are alienae they are shot from others they are not in his own power a man shoots not an arrow at himselfe And then that they are Veloces swift in coming he cannot give them their time And again they are Vix visibiles though they bee not altogether invisible in their coming yet there is required a quick eye and an expresse diligence and watchfulnesse to discern and avoid them so they are arrows in the hand of another not his own and swift as they come and invisible before they come And secondly they are many arrows The victory lies not in scaping one or two And thirdly they stick in him they finde not David so good proof as to rebound back again and imprint no sense And they stick fast Though the blow be felt and the wound discerned yet there is not a present cure he cannot shake them off Infixae sunt And then with all this they stick fast in him that is in all him in his body and soul in him in his thoughts and actions in him in his sins and in his good works too Infixae mihi there is no part of him no faculty in him in which they stick not for which may well bee another consideration That hand which shot them presses him follows the blow and presses him sore that is vehemently But yet which will be our conclusion Sagittaetuae and manus tua These arrows that are shot and this hand that presses them so sore are the arrows and is the hand of God and therefore first they must have their Effect they cannot be dis-appointed But yet they bring their comfort with them because they are his because no arrows from him no pressing with his hand comes without that Balsamum of mercy to heal as fast as he wounds and of so many pieces will this exercise consist this exercise of your Devotion and perchance Patience First then this particle of connexion and argumentation For which begins our text occasions us in a first part to consider that such an impatience in affliction as brings us toward a murmuring at Gods proceedings and almost to a calling of God to an account in inordinate expostulations is a leaven so kneaded into the nature of man so innate a tartar so inherent a sting so inseparable a venim in man as that the holyest of men have scarce avoided it in all degrees thereof Iob had Gods testimony of being an upright man and yet Iob bent that way O that I might have my request says Iob and that God would grant me the thing that I long for Well if God would what would Iob aske That God would destroy me and cut me off Had it not been as easie and as ready and as usefull a prayer That God would deliver him Is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh of brasse says hee in his impatience What though it bee not Not stones not brasse is there no remedy but to wish it dust Moses had Gods testimonies of a remarkable and exemplar man for meeknesse But did God always finde it so was it a meek behaviour towards God to say Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant Have I conceived all this people have I begotten them that thou shouldest say unto me Carry them in thy bosome Elias had had testimonies of Gods care and providence in his behalf and God was not weary of preserving him and he was weary of being preserved He desired that he might dye and said Sufficit Domine It is enough O Lord now take my soul. Ioâ—as even then when God was expressing an act of mercy takes occasion to be angry and to bee angry at God and to be angry at the mercy of God we may see his fluctuation and distemper and irresolution in that case and his transportation He was aâ—gry says the text very angry And yet the text says He prayed but he prayed angerly O Lord take I beseech thee my life from me for it is better for me to dye then to live Better for him that was all he considered not what was best for the service and glory of God but best for him God asks him If he doe well to be angry And he will not tell him there God gives him time to vent his passion and he askes him again â—after Doest thou well to bee angry And he answers more angerly I doe
those sins upon other persons But all Israel stones thee arrows flie from every corner and thy measure is not to thank God that thou art not as the Publican as some other man but thy measure is to be pure and holy as thy father in heaven is pure and holy and to conform thy self in some measure to thy pattern Christ Jesus Against him it is noted that the Jews took up stones twice to stone him Once wheÌ„ they did it He went away and hid himself Our way to scape these arrows these tentations is to goe out of the way to abandon all occasions and conversation that may lead into tentation In the other place Christ stands to it and disputes it out with them and puts them from it by the scriptum est and that 's our safe shield since we must necessarily live in the way of tentations for coluber in via there is a snake in every path tentation in every calling still to receive all these arrowes upon the shield of faith still to oppose the scriptum est the faithfull promises of God that he will give us the issue with the tentation when we cannot avoid the tentation it self Otherwise these arrows are so many as would tire and wear out all the diligence and all the constancy of the best morall man Wee finde many mentions in the Scriptures of filling of quivers and emptying of quivers and arrows and arrows still in the plurall many arrows But in all the Bible I think we finde not this word as it signifies tentation or tribulation in the singular one arrow any where but once where David cals it The arrow that flies by day And is seen that is known by every man for for that the Fathers and Ancients runne upon that Exposition that that one arrow common to all that day-arrow visible to all is the naturall death so the Chalde paraphrase calls it there expresly Sagitta mâ—rtis The arrow of death which every man knows to belong to every man for as clearly as he sees the Sunne set he sees his death before his eyes Therefore it is such an arrow as the Prophet does not say Thou shalt not feel but Thou shalt not feare the arrow that flies by day The arrow the singular arrow that flies by day is that arrow that fals upon every man death But every where in the Scriptures but this one place they are plurall many so many as that we know not whence nor what they are Nor ever does any man receive one arrow alone any one tentation but that he receives another tentation to hide that though with another and another sin And the use of arrows in the war was not so much to kill as to rout and disorder a battail and upon that routing followed execution Every tentation every tribulation is not deadly But their multiplicity disorders us discomposes us unseâ—â—les us and so hazards us Not onely every periodicall variation of our years youth and age but every day hath a divers arrow every houre of the day a divers tentation An old man wonders then how an arrow from an eye could wound him when he was young and how love could make him doe those things which hee did then And an arrow from the tongue of inferiour people that which we make shift to call honour wounds him deeper now and ambition makes him doe as strange things now as love did then A fair day shoots arrows of visits and comedies and conversation and so wee goe abroad and a foul day shoots arrows of gaming or chambering and wantonnesse and so we stay at home Nay the same sin shoots arrows of presumption in God before it be committed and of distrust and diffidence in God after we doe not fear before and we cannot hope after And this is that misery from this plurality and multiplacity of these arrows these manifold tentations which David intends here and as often as he speaks in the same phrase of plurality vituli multi many buls canes multi many dogs and bellantes multi many warlike enemies and aquaeâ— multae many deep waters compasse me For as it is said of the spirit of wisdome that it is unicus multiplex manifoldly one plurally singular so the spirit of tentation in every soul is unicus multiplex singularly plurall rooted in some one beloved sin but derived into infinite branches of tentation And then these arrows stick in us the raine fals but that cold sweat hangs not upon us Hail beats us but it leaves no pock-holes in our skin These arrows doe not so fall about us as that they misse us nor so hit us as they rebound back without hurting us But we complain with Ieremy The sons of his quiver are entred into our reins The Roman Translation reads that filias The daughters of his quiver If it were but so daughters we might limit these arrows in the signification of tentations by the many occasions of tentation arising from that sex But the Originall hath it filios the sons of his quiver and therefore we consider these arrows in a stronger signification tribulations as well as tentations They stick in us Consider it but in one kinde diseases sicknesses They stick to us so as that we are not sure that any old diseases mentioned in Physicians books are worn out but that every year produces new of which they have no mention we are sure We can scarce expresse the number scarce sound the names of the diseases of mans body 6000 year hath scarce taught us what they are how they affect us how they shall be cur'd in us nothing on this side the Resurrection can teach us They stick to us so as that they passe by inheritance and last more generations in families then the inheritance it self does and when no land no Manor when no title no honour descends upon the heir the stone or the gout descends upon him And as though our bodies had not naturally diseases and infirmities enow we contract more inflict more and that out of necessity too in mortifications and macerations and Disciplines of this rebellious flesh I must have this body with me to heaven or else salvation it self is not perfect And yet I cannot have this body thither except as S. Paul did his I beat down this body attenuate this body by mortification Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I have not body enough for my body and I have too much body for my soul not body enough not bloud enough not strength enough to sustain my self in health and yet body enough to destroy my soul and frustrate the grace of God in that miserable perplexed riddling condition of man sin makes the body of man miserable and the remedy of sin mortification makes it miserable too If we enjoy the good things of this world Duriorem carcerem praeparamus wee doe but carry an other wall about our
Hammon did Davids servants A tentation that makes us think it is enough to be baptized to professe the name of Christ for Papist or Protestant it is but the train of the garment matter of civility and policy and government and may be cut off and the garment remain still So we need meat sustenance and then an arrow comes a tentation meets us Edite bibite Eat and drink tomorrow you shall die That there is no life but this life no blessednesse but in worldly abundances If we need physick and God offer us his physick medicinall corrections there flies an arrow a tentation Medice cura teipsum that hee whom wee make our Physician died himselfe of an infamous disease that Christ Jesus from whom we attend our salvation could not save himself In our clothing in our diet in our physick things which carry our consideration upon the body these arrowes stick fast in us in that part of us So in the more spirituall actions of our souls too In our alms there are trumpets blowne there 's an arrow of vaine-glory In our fastings there are disfigurings there 's an arrow of Hypocrisie In our purity there is contempt of others there 's an arrow of pride In our coming to Church there is custome and formality In hearing Sermons there is affection to the parts of the Preacher In our sinfull actions these arrows abound In our best actions they lie hid And as thy soul is in every part of thy body so these arrows are in every part of thee body and soul they stick and stick fast in thee in all thee And yet there is another weight upon us in the Text there is still a Hand that follows the blow and presse it Thy hand presses me sore so the Vulgat read it Confirmasti super me manum tuam Thy hand is settled upon mee and the Chalde paraphrase carries it farther then to man Sit super me vulnus manus tua Thy hand hath wounded mee and that hand keeps the wound open And in this sense the Apostle says It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God But as God leaves not his children without correction so he leaves them not without comfort and therefore it behoves us to consider his hand upon these arrows more then one way First because his hand is upon the arrow it shall certainly hit the mark Gods purpose cannot be disappointed If men and such men left-handed men and so many 700 left-handed men and so many of one Tribe 700 Benjamites could sling stones at a hairs breadth and not fail God is a better Mark-man then the left-handed Benjamites his arrows alwayes hit as he intends them Take them then for tribulation his hand is upon them Though they come from the malice of men his hand is upon them S. Ambrose observes that in afflictions Gods hand and the Devils are but one hand Stretch out thy hand says Satan to God concerning Iob And all that he hath is in thy hand says God to Satan Stretch out thy hand and touch his bones says Satan again to God And again God to Satan He is in thy hand but touch not his life A difference may be that when Gods purpose is but to punish as he did Pharaoh in those severall verall premonitory plagues there it is Digitus Dei It was but a finger and Gods finger When Balshazzar was absolutely to be destroyed there were Digiti and Manus hominis mens fingers and upon a mans hand The arrows of men are ordinary more venimous and more piercing then the arrows of God But as it is in that story of Elisha and Ioash The Prophet bade the King shoot but Elisha laid his hand upon the Kings hand So from what instrument of Satan soever thy affliction come Gods hand is upon their hand that shoot it and though it may hit the mark according to their purpose yet it hath the effect and it works according to his Yea let this arrow be considered as a tentation yet his hand is upon it at least God sees the shooting of it and yet lets it flie Either hee tries us by these arrows what proof we are Or he punishes us by those arrows of new sins for our former sins and so when he hath lost one arrow he shoots another He shoots a sermon and that arrow is lost He shoots a sicknesse and that arrow is lost He shoots a sin not that he is authour of any sin as sin but as sin is a punishment of sin he concurs with it And so he shoots arrow after arrow permits sin after sin that at last some sin that draws affliction with it might bring us to understanding for that word in which the Prophet here expresses this sticking and this fast sticking of these arrows which is Nachath is here as the Grammarians in that language call it in Niphal figere factae they were made to stick Gods hand is upon them the work is his the arrows are his and the sticking of them is his whatsoever and whosesoever they be His hand shoots the arrow as it is a tribulation he limits it whosoever inflict it His hand shoots it as it is a tentation He permits it he orders it whosoever offer it But it is especially from his hand as it hath a medicinall nature in it for in every tentation and every tribulation there is a Catechisme and Instruction nay there is a Canticle a love-song an Epithalamion a mariage song of God to our souls wrapped up if wee would open it and read it and learn that new tune that musique of God So when thou hearâ—st Nathans words to David The child that is born unto thee shall surely die let that signifie the children of thy labour and industry thy fortune thy state shall perish so when thou hear'st Gods word to David Choose famine or war or pestilence for the people let that signifie those that depend upon thee shal perish so when thou hear'st Esays words to Hezekiah Put thy house in order for thou shalt die let that signifie thou thy self in person shalt perish so when thou hear'st all the judgements of God as they lie in the body of the Scriptures so the applications of those judgements by Gods Ministers in these services upon emergent occasions all these are arrows shot by the hand of God and that child of God that is accustomed to the voice and to the ear of God to speak with him in prayer when God speaks to him in any such voice here as that to David or Hezekiah though this be a shooting of arrows Non sugabit eum vir sagittarius The arrow as we read it The Archer as the Romane Edition reades it cannot make that child of God afraid afraid with a distrustfull fear or make him loth to come hither again to hear more how close soever Gods arrow and Gods archer that
is his word in his servants mouth come to that Conscience now nor make him mis-interpret that which he does hear or call that passion in the Preacher in which the Preacher is but sagittarius Dei the deliverer of Gods arrows for Gods arrows are sagitta Compunctionis arrows that draw bloud from the eyes Tears of repentance from Mary Magdalen and from Peter And when from thee There is a probatum est in S. Aug. Sagittaveras cor meum Thou hast shot at my heart and how wrought that To the withdrawing of his tongue à nundinis loquacitatis from that market in which I sold my self for S. Aug. at that time taught Rhetorique to turn the stream of his eloquence and all his other good parts upon the service of God in his Church You may have read or heard that answer of a Generall who was threatned with that danger that his enemies arrows were so many as that they would cover the Sun from him In umbra pugnabimus All the better says he for then we shall fight in the shadow Consider all the arrows of tribulation even of tentation to be directed by the hand of God and never doubt to fight it out with God to lay violent hands upon heaven to wrastle with God for a blessing to charge and presse God upon his contracts and promises for in umbra pugnabis though the clouds of these arrows may hide all suns of worldly comforts from thee yet thou art still under the shadow of his wings Nay thou art still for all this shadow in the light of his countenance To which purpose there is an excellent use of this Metaphor of arrows Hâ—bak 3. 11. where it is said that Gods servants shall have the light of his arrows and the â—â—ining of his glittering spear that is the light of his presence in all the instruments and actions of his corrections To end all and to dismisse you with such a re-collection as you may carry away with you literally primarily this text concerns David He by tentations to sin by tribulations for sin by comminations and increpations upon sin was bodily and ghostly become a quiver of arrows of all sorts they stook and stook fast and stook full in him in all him The Psalm hath a retrospect too it looks back to Adam and to every particular man in his loines and so Davids case is our case and all these arrowes stick in all us But the Psalm and the text hath also a prospect and hath a propheticall relation from David to our Saviour Christ Jesus And of him and of the multiplicity of these arrows upon him in the exinanition and evacuation of himself in this world for us have many of the Ancients interpreted these words literally and as in their first and primary signification Turne we therefore to him before we goe and he shall return home with us How our first part of this text is applyable to him that our prayers to God for ease in afflictions may be grounded upon reasons out of the sense of those afflictions Saint Basil tels us that Christ therefore prays to his Father now in heaven to spare mankinde because man had suffered so much and drunk so deep of the bitter cup of his anger in his person and passion before It is an avoidable plea from Christ in heaven for us Spare them O Lord in themselves since thou didst not spare them in me And how far he was from sparing thee we see in all those severall weights which have aggravated his hand and these arrowes upon us If they be heavy upon us much more was their weight upon thee every dram upon us was a Talent upon thee Non delâ—r sicut dolor tuus take Rachel weeping for her children Mary weeping for her brother Lazarus Hezekiah for his health Peter for his sins Non est delor sicut dolor â—uus The arrows that were shot at thee were Alienae Afflictions that belonged to others and did not onely come from others as ours doe but they were alienae so as that they should have fallen upon others And all that should have fallen upon all others were shot at thee and lighted upon thee Lord though we be not capable of sustaining that part this passion for others give us that which we may receive Compassion with others They were veloces these arrows met swiftly upon thee from the sin of Adam that induced death to the sin of the last man that shall not sleep but be changed when thy hour came they came all upon thee in that hour Lord put this swiftnesse into our fins that in this one minute in which our eyes are open towards thee and thine eares towards us our sins all our sins even from the impertinent frowardnesse of our childhood to the unsufferable frowardnesse of our age may meet in our present confessions and repentances and never appear more They were as ours are too Invisibiles Those arrows which fell upon thee were so invisible so undiscernible as that to this day thy Church thy School cannot see what kinde of arrow thou tookest into thy soul what kinde of affliction it was that made thy soul heavy unto death or dissolved thee into a gelly of blood in thine agony Be thou O Lord a Father of Lights unto us in all our ways and works of darkenes manifest unto us whatsoever is necessary for us to know be a light of understanding and grace before and a light of comfort and mercy after any â—in hath benighted us These arrows were as ours are also plures plurall many infinite they were the sins of some that shall never thank thee never know that thou borest their sins never know that they had any such sins to bee horn Lord teach us to number thy corrections upon us so as still to see thy torments suffered for us and our own sins to be infinitely more that occasioned those torments then those corrections that thou layst upon us Thine arrows stook and stook fast in thee the weight of thy torments thou wouldest not cast off nor lessen when at thy execution they offered thee that stupesying drink which was the civil charity of those times to condemned persons to give them an easier passage in the agonies of death thou wouldest not tast of that cup of ease Deliver us O Lord in all our tribulations from turning to the miserable comforters of this world or from wishing or accepting any other deliverance then may improve and make better our Resurrection These arrows were in thee in all thee from thy Head torn with thorns to thy feet pierced with nayls and in thy soul so as we know not how so as to extorta Si possibile If it be possible let this cup passe and an Vt quid dereliquisti My God my God why half thou forsaken me Lord whilest we remain entire here in body and soul make us and receive us an entire sacrifice to
thee in directing body and soul to thy glory and when thou shalt be pleased to take us in pieces by death receive our souls to thee and lay up our bodies for thee in consecrated ground and in a Christian buryall And lastly thine arrows were followed and pressed with the hand of God The hand of God pressed upon thee in that eternall decree in that irrevocable contract between thy Father and thee in that Oportuit pati That all that thou must suffer and so enter into our glory Establish us O Lord in all occasions of diffidences here and when thy hand presses our arrows upon us enable us to see that that very hand hath from all eternity written and written in thine own blood a decree of the issue as well and as soon as of the tentation In which confidence of which decree as men in the virtue thereof already in possession of heaven we joyn with that Quire in that service in that Anthem Blessing and glory and wisdome and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever Amen SERMON XX. Preached at Lincolns Inne PSAL. 38. 3. There is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sinne IN that which is often reported to you out of Saint Hierome Titulus clavis that the title of the Psalme is the key of the Psalm there is this good use That the book of Psalms is a mysterious book and if we had not a lock every man would thrust in and if we had not a key we could not get in our selves Our lock is the analogy of the Christian faith That wee admit no other sense of any place in any Psalm then may consist with the articles of the Christian faith for so no Heretique no Schismatique shall get in by any countenance of any place in the Psalms and then our key is that intimation which we receive in the title of the Psalm what duty that Psalm is principally directed upon and so we get into the understanding of the Psalm and profiting by the Psalm Our key in this Psalm given us in the title thereof is that it is Psalmus ad Recordationem a Psalm of Remembrance The faculty that is awakened here is our Memory That plurall word nos which was used by God in the making of Man when God said Faciamus Let us us make man according to our image as it intimates a plurality a concurrence of all the Trinity in our making so doth it also a plurality in that image of God which was then imprinted in us As God one God created us so wee have a soul one soul that represents and is some image of that one God As the three Persons of the Trinity created us so we have in our one soul a threefold impression of that image and as Saint Bernard calls it A trinity from the Trinity in those three faculties of the soul the Vnderstanding the Will and the Memory God calls often upon the first faculty O that this people would but understand But understand Inscrutabiliâ— judicia tua Thy judgements are unsearchable and thy ways past finding out And oh that this people would not goe about to understand those unreveâ—led decrees and secrets of God God calls often upon the other faculty the Will too and complaines of the stiffe perversnesse and opposition of that Through all the Prophets runs that charge Noluerunt and Noluerunt they would not they refused me Noluerunâ— audire says God in Esay They are rebellious children that will not hear Domus Israel noluit says God to Ezekiel The house of Israel will not hear thee not Thee not the minister That 's no marvail it is added by God there Noluit me they will not hear me Noluerunt erubescere says God to Ieremy They will not be ashamed of their former ways And therefore Noluerunt reverti They will not return to better ways Hee that is past shame of sin is past recovery from sin So Christ continues that practise and that complaint in the Gospel too He sends forth his servants us to call them that were bidden Et noluerunt venire and they would not come upon their call Hee comes himself and would gather them as hen her chickens and they would not Their fault is not laid in this that they had no such faculty as a will for then their not coming were not their fault but that they perverted that will Of our perversenesse in both faculties understanding and will God may complain but as much of our memory for for the rectifying of the will the understanding must be rectified and that implies great difficulty But the memory is so familiar and so present and so ready a faculty as will always answer if we will but speak to it and aske it what God hath done for us or for others The art of salvation is but the art of memory When God gave his people the Law he proposes nothing to them but by that way to their memory I am the Lord your God which brought you out of the land of Egypt Remember but that And when we expresse Gods mercy to us we attribute but that faculty to God that he remembers us Lord what is man that thou art mindfull of him And when God works so upon us as that He makes his wonderfull works to be had in remembrance it is as great a mercy as the very doing of those wonderfull works was before It was a seal upon a seal a seal of confirmation it was a sacrament upon a sacrament when in instituting the sacrament of his body and his bloud Christ presented it so Doe this in remembrance of me Memorare novissima remember the last things and fear will keep thee from sinning Memorare praeterita remember the first things what God hath done for thee and love love which mis-placed hath transported thee upon many sins love will keep thee from sinning Plato plac'd all learning in the memory wee may place all Religion in the memory too All knowledge that seems new to day sayes Plato is but a remembring of that which your soul knew before All instruction which we can give you to day is but the remembring you of the mercies of God which have been new every morning Nay he that hears no Sermons he that reads no Scriptures hath the Bible without book He hath a Genesis in his memory he cannot forget his Creation he hath an Exodus in his memory he cannot forget that God hath delivered him from some kind of Egypt from some oppression He hath a Leviticus in his memory hee cannot forget that God hath proposed to him some Law some rules to be observed He hath all in his memory even to the Revelation God hath revealed to him even at midnight alone what shall be his portion in the next world And if he dare but remember that nights communication
as those bodies which shall be alive at the last day and shall be but changed and not dissolved in the dust must receive a glorification there besides that preservation from dissolution Now this Caro juxta culpam sinfull flesh is farther from that Glorification Our naturall flesh when it was at best had some thing to put on but our sinfull flesh hath also something to put off before it can receive glory So then for flesh in generall the body of Creatures though that flesh be our flesh because all Creatures are ours in that flesh there is no soundnesse because they are become worse for that flesh which we call naturall Adams first flesh besides that it was never capable of glory in it selfe but must have received that by receiving the light of Gods presence there is none of that flesh remaining now now universa caro all flesh is corrupted and that curse is gone upon it The glory of Iacob shall be empoverished and the fatnesse of his flesh shall be made leane Quia elatum sumpsimus spiritum because we have raised our spirits in pride higher then God would Ecce defluens quotidie portamus lutum Behold God hath walled us with mud walls and wet mud walls that waste away faster then God meant at first they should And by sinnes this flesh that is but the loame and plaster of thy Tabernacle thy body that all that that in the intire substance is corrupted Those Gummes and spices which should embalme thy flesh when thou art dead are spent upon that diseased body whilest thou art alive Thou seemest in the eye of the world to walk in silks and thou doest but walke in searcloth Thou hast a desire to please some eyes when thou hast much to doe not to displease every Nose and thou wilt solicite an adulterous entrance into their beds who if they should but see thee goe into thine own bed would need no other mortification nor answer to thy solicitation Thou pursuest the works of the flesh and hast none for thy flesh is but dust held together by plaisters Dissolution and putrefaction is gone over thee alive Thou hast over liv'd thine own death and art become thine own ghost and thine own hell No soundnesse in all thy flesh and yet beyond all these beyond the generall miserable condition of man and the highest of humane miseries sicknesse and sicknesse over all the parts and so over them all as that it hath putrefied them all there is another degree which followes in our Text and David calls Trouble There is no soundnesse in my flesh nor rest in my bones That which such a sicke man most needs this sick soule shall not have Rest. The Physician goes out and says hee hath left him to Rest but hee hath left no Rest to him The anguish of the disease nay the officiousnesse of visitors will not let him rest Such send to see him as would faine heare hee were dead and such weep about his sick-bed as would not weep at his grave Mine enemies speake evill of mee says David and say When shall hee die and his name perish And yet these evill-speaking enemies come there to see him They say an evill disease cleaveth fast unto him and that they say is true but they say it not out of compassion for they adde And now that hee lyeth let him rise no more Hee shall not get to that good trouble to that holy disquiet of a conscientious consideration how his state was got and it shall bee a greater trouble then hee can overcome how to dispose it He shall not onely not make a religious restitution but he shall not make a discreet Will He shall suspect his wifes fidelity and his childrens frugality and clogge them with Executors and them with Over-seers and be or be afraid hee shall bee over-seen in all And yet a farther trouble then all this is intended in the other word which is the last and highest of these vexations Non in ossibus no rest in my bones Saint Basil will needs havâ— us leave the obvious and the naturall signification of this Bones for Habet anima ossa sua says he The soule hath Bones as well as the body and there shall be no Rest in those Bones Such a signification is applyable to the Flesh as well as the Bones The flesh may signifie the lower faculties of the soule or the weaker works of the higher faculties thereof There may bee a Carnality in the understanding a concupiscence of disputation and controversie in unnecessary points Requirit quod sibi respondere nequit The mind of a curious man delights to examine it selfe upon Interrogatories which upon the Racke it cannot answer and to vexe it selfe with such doubts as it cannot resolve Sub eo ignara deficit quod prudenter requirit Wee will needs shew wit in moving subtile questions and the more ignorance in not being able to give our selves satisfaction But not onely seditions and contentions but Heresies too are called workes of the flesh howsoever men thinke themselves wittie and subtile and spirituall in these wranglings yet they have carnall respects they are of the flesh and there is no soundnes in them But beyond this carnality in matters of Opinions in points of a higher nature this diseased man in our Text comes to trouble in his Bones S. Basils spirituall bones Hee shall suspect his Religion suspect his Repentance suspect the Comforts of the Minister suspect the efficacy of the Sacrament suspect the mercy of God himselfe Every fit of an Ague is an Earth-quake that swallows him every fainting of the knee is a step to Hell every lying down at night is a funerall every quaking is a rising to judgment every bell that distinguishes times is a passing-bell and every passing-bell his own every singing in the ear is an Angels Trumpet at every dimnesse of the candle he heares that voice Fool this night they will fetch away thy soul and in every judgement denounced against sin he hears an lto maledicte upon himselfe Goe thou accursed into hell fire And whereas such meditations as these might sustaine a rectified soule as Bones in this sinner despaire shall have suck'd out all the marrow of these Bones and so there shall bee no soundnesse in his flesh no rest in his bones And so have you this sicke sinner dissected and anatomized Hee hath not onely his portion in misery that lies upon all mankinde which was our first branch but in the heavyest of all sicknesse which was a second and then a third sicknesse spread over all no soundnesse nor rest in that sicknesse which was a fourth consideration No soundnesse in his flesh in his weaker faculties and operations No rest in his bones no acquiescence in his best actions with which we end this first part In which wee consider sinfull man in himself and so all is desperate But in the second where we
him let us finde and lament all these numbers and all these weights of sin Here we are all born to a patrimony to an inheritance an inheritance a patrimony of sin and we are all good husbands and thrive too fast upon that stock upon the encrease of sin even to the treasuring up of sin and the wrath of God for sin How naked soever we came out of our mothers wombe otherwise thus we came all apparell'd apparell'd and invested in sin And we multiply this wardrobe with new habits habits of customary sins every day Every man hath an answer to that question of the Apostle What hast thou that thou hast not received from God Every man must say I have pride in my heart wantonnesse in mine eyes oppression in my hands and that I never receiv'd from God Our sins are our own and we have a covetousnesse of more a way to make other mens sins ours too by drawing them to a fellowship in our sins I must be beholden to the loyalty and honesty of my wife whether my children be mine own or no for he whose eye waiteth for the evening the adulterer may rob me of that propriety I must be beholden to the protection of the Law whether my goods shall be mine or no A potent adversary a corrupt Judge may rob me of that propriety I must be beholden to my Physician whether my health and strength shal be mine or no A garment negligently left off a disorderly meal may rob me of that propriâ—ty But without asking any man leave my sins will be mine own When the presumptuous men say Our lips are our own and our tongues are our own the Lord threatens to cut off those lips and those tongues But except we doe come to say Our sins are our own God will never cut up that root in us God will never blot out the memory in himself of those sins Nothing can make them none of ours but the avowing of them the confessing of them to be ours Onely in this way I am a holy lier and in this the God of truth will reward my lie for if I say my sins are mine own they are none of mine but by that confessing and appropriating of those sins to my selfe they are made the sins of him who hath suffered enough for all my blessed Lord and Saviour Christ Iesâ—s Therefore that servant of God S. August confesses those sins which he never did to be his sins and to have been forgiven him Peccata mihi dimissa a fateâ—r quae med sponte feci quae te duce non feci Those sins which I have done and those which but for thy grace I should have done are all my sins Alas I may die here and die under an everlasting condemnation of fornication with that woman that lives and dies a Virgin and be damn'd for a murderer of that man that out-lives me and for a robbery and oppression where no man is damnified nor any penny lost The sin that I have done the sin that I would have done is my sin We must not therefore transfer our sins upon any other Wee must not think to discharge our selves upon a Peccata Patris To come to say My father thriv'd well in this course why should not I proceed in it My father was of this Religion why should not I continue in it How often is it said in the Scriptures of evill Kings he did evill in the sight of the Lord and walk'd in via Patris in the way of his father father in the singular It is never said plurally In via Patrum in the way of his fathers Gods blessings in this world are express'd so in the plurall thou gavest this land patribus to their fathers says Solomon in the dedication of the Temple And thou brought'st Patres our Fathers out of Egypt And again Be with us Lord as thou wast with our Fathers So in Ezekiel where your Fathers dwelt you their children shall dwell too and your children and their childrens children for ever His blessings upon his Saints his holy ones in this world are expressed so plurally and so is the transmigration of his Saints out of this world also Thou shalt sleep cum patribus with thy fathers says God to Moses And David slept cum patribus with his fathers And Iacob had that care of himselfe as of that in which consisted or in which was testified the blessing of God I will lie cum patribus with my fathers and be buried in their burying place says Iacob to his son Ioseph Good ways and good ends are in the plurall and have many examples else they are not good but sins are in the singular He walk'd in the way of his father is in an ill way But carry our manners or carry our Religion high enough and we shall finde a good rule in our fathers Stand in the way says God in Ieremy and ask for the old way which is the good way We must put off veterem hominem but not antiqâ—â—m Wee may put off that Religion which we think old because it is a little elder then our selves and not rely upon that it was the Religion of my Father But Antiquissimum dieâ—um Him whose name is He that is and was and is for ever and so involves and enwraps in himself all the Fathers him we must put on Be that our issue with our adversaries at Rome By the Fathers the Fathers in the plurall when those fathers unanimely deliver any thing dogmatically for matter of faith we are content to be tried by the Fathers the Fathers in that plurall But by that 〈◊〉 Father who begers his children not upon the true mother the Church but upon the Court and so produces articles of faith according as State businesses and civill occasions invite him by that father we must refuse to be tried for to limit it in particular to my father we must say with Nehemiah Ege domus patris mei If I make my fathers house my Church my father my Bishop I and my fathers house have sinned says he and with Mordecai to Esther Thou and thy fathers house shall be destroyed They are not 〈◊〉 a patris I cannot excuse my sins upon the example of my father nor are they 〈◊〉 Tempâ—ris I cannot discharge my sins upon the Times and upon the present ill disposition that reigns in men now and doe ill because every body else does so To say there is a rot and therefore the sheep must perish Corruptions in Religion are crept in and work in every cornet and therefore Gods sheep simple souls must be content to admit the infection of this rot That there is a murrain and therefore cattell must die superstition practis'd in many places and therefore the strong servants of God must come to sacrifice their obedience to it or their bloud for it Then no such rot no such murrain no such corruption of times
to declare the sins or to denounce the punishments of those sins upon the people to call it by this word Onus visionis Onus Babylonis Onus Ninives O the burden of Babylon the burden of Niniveh And because some of those woes those Iudgements those burdens did not always fall upon that people presently they came to mock the Prophets and say to them New what is the burden of she Lord What Burden have you to preach to us and to talke of nowâ— Say unto them says God to the Prophet there This is the Burden of the Lord I will even forsake you And as it is elegantly emphatically vehemently added Every mans word shall be his burden That which he says shall be that that shall be laid to his charge His scorning his idle questioning of the Prophet What burden now what plague what famine what warre now Is not all well for all your crying The burden of the Lord Every mans word shall be his burden the deriding of Gods Ordinance and of the denouncing of his Judgements in that Ordinance shall be their burden that is aggravate those Judgements upon them Nay there is a heavyer weight then that added Ye shall say no more says God to the Prophet the burden of the Lord that is you shall not bestow so much care upon this people as to tell them that the Lord threatens them Gods presence in anger and in punishments is a heavy but Gods absence and dereliction a much heavyer burden As if extremes will admit comparison the everlasting losse of the fight of God in hell is a greater torment then any lakes of inextinguishable Brimstone then any gnawing of the incessant worme then any gnashing of teeth can present unto us Now let no man ease himself upon that fallacy sin cannot be nor sin cannot induce such burdens as you talk of for many men are come to wealth and by that wealth to honour who if they had admitted a tendernesse in their consciences and forborn some sins had lost both for are they without burden because they have wealth and honour In the Originall language the same word that is here a burden Châ—bad signifies honour and wealth as well as a burden And therefore says the Prophet Woe unto him that loadeth himselfe with thick clay Non densantur nisi per laborem There goes much pains to the laying of it thus thick upon us The multiplying of riches is a laborious thing and then it is a new pain to bleed out those riches for a new office or a new title Et tamen lutum says that Father when all is done we are but rough-cast with durt All those Riches all those Honours are a Burden upon the just man they are buâ— a multiplying of fears that they shall lose them upon the securest man they are but a multiplying of duties obligations for the more they havet he more they have to answer and upon the unjust they are a multiplying of everlasting torments They possess months of vanity and wearisom nights are appointed them Men are as weary of the day upon Carpets and Cushions as at the plough And the labourers wearinesse is to a good end but for these men They weary themselves to commit iniquity Some doe and some doe not All doe The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them Why Because he knows not how to goe to the City He that directs not his labours to the right end the glory of God he goes not to Jerusalem the City of holy peace but his sinfull labours shall bee a burden to him and his Riches and his Office and his Honour hee shall not be able to put off then when he puts off his body in his death-bed He shall not have that happinesse which he till then thought a misery To carry nothing out of this world for his Riches his Office his Honour shall follow him into the next world and clog his soule there But we proposed this consideration of this Metaphor That sinne is a burden as there is an infinite sweetnesse and infinite latitude in every Metaphor in every elegancy of the Scripture and therefore I may have leave to be loath to depart from it in some particular inconveniences that a burden brings and it is time to come to them SERMON XXIII Preached at Lincolns Inne The third Sermon on PSAL. 38. 4. For mine iniquities are gone over my head as a heavy Burden they are too heavy for mee AS a Torch that hath been lighted and used before is easier lighted then a new torch so are the branches and parts of this Text the easier reduced to your memory by having heard former distributions thereof But as a Torch that hath been lighted us'd before will not last so long as a new one so perchance your patience which hath already been twice exercised with the handling of these words may be too near the bottom to afford much And therefore much I have determined not to need God did his greatest work upon the last day and yet gave over work betimes In that day he made man and as the context leades us most probably to thinke he made Paradise and placed man in Paradise that day For the variety of opinions amongst our Expositors about the time when God made Paradise arises from one errour an errour in the Vulgat Edition in the translation of the Roman Church that reads it Plantaver at God had planted a garden as though God had done it before Therefore some state it before the Creation which Saint Hierome follows or at least relates without disapproving it and others place it upon the third day when the whole earth received her accomplishment but if any had looked over this place with the same ingenuity as their own great man Tyr an active man in the Councell of Trent hath done over the Book of Psalms in which one Booke he hath confessed 6000 places in which their translation differs from the Originall they would have seen this difference in this place that it is not Plantaver at but Plantavit not that God had before but that he did then then when hee had made man make a Paradise for man And yet God made an end of all this days work betimes in that day He walked in the garden in the cool of the Evening The noblest part of our work in handling this Text falls upon the conclusion reserved for this day which is the application of these words to Christ. But for that I shall be short and rather leave you to walke with God in the cool of the Evening to meditate of the sufferings of Christ when you are gone then pretend to expresse them here The Passion of Christ Jesus is rather an amazement an astonishment an extasie a consternation then an instruction Therefore though something we shall say of that anone First we pursue that which lies upon our selves the Burden in those four mischievous
our sakes not onely sinfull but sin it self And as one cruell Emperour wished all mankinde in one man that hee might have beheaded mankinde at one blow so God gathered the whole nature of sinne into one Christ that by one action one passion sin all sin the whole nature of sinne might bee overcome It was sin that was upon Christ else God could not have been angry with him nor pleased with us It was sin and his own sin Mine iniquities says Christ in his Type and figure David and in his body the Church and we may be bold to adde in his very person Mine iniquities Many Heretiques denied his body to be his Body they said it was but an airy an imaginary an illusory Body and denied his Soul to be his Soul they said he had no humane soul but that his divine nature supplied that and wrought all the operations of the soul. But we that have learnt Christ better know that hee could not have redeemed man by that way that was contracted betweene him and his Father that is by way of satisfaction except he had taken the very body and the very soul of man And as verily as his humane nature his body and soul were his his sins were his too As my mortality and my hunger and thirst and wearinesse and all my naturall infirmities are his so my sins are his sins And now when my sins are by him thus made his sins no Hell-Devill not Satan no Earth-Devill no Calumniator can any more make those sins my sins then he can make his divinity mine As by the spirit of Adoption I am made the childe of God the seed of God the same Spirit with God but yet I am not made God so by Christs taking my sins I am made a servant of my God a Beads-man of my God a vassall a Tributary debtor to God but I am no sinner in the sight of God no sinner so as that man or the Devill can impute that sin unto me then when my Saviour hath made my sins his As a Soldier would not part with his scars Christ would not They were sins that lay upon him part with our sins And his sins and as it follows in his Type David sins in a plurality many sins I know nothing in the world so manifold so plurall so numerous as my sins And my Saviour had all those But if every other man have not so many sins as I he owes that to Gods grace and not to the Devils forbearance for the Devill saw no such parts nor no such power in me to advance or hinder his kingdome no such birth no such education no such place in the State or Church as that he should be gladder of me then of other men He ministers tentations to all and all are overcome by his tentations And all these sins in all men were upon Christ at once All twice over In the root and in the fruit too In the bullein and in the coin too In grosse and in retail In Originall and in Actuall sin And howsoever the sins of former ages the sins of all men for 4000 years before which were all upon him when he was upon the Crosse might possibly be numbred as things that are past may easilier fall within a possibility of such an imagination yet all those sinnes which were to come after he himself could not number for hee as the Sonne of man though hee know how long the world hath lasted knowes not how long this sinfull world shall last and when the day of Judgement shall be And all those future sins were his sins before they were committed They were his before they were theirs that doe them And lest this world should not afford him sins enow he took upon him the sins of heaven it self not their sins who were fallen from heaven and fallen into an absolute incapacity of reconciliation but their sins which remained in heaven Those sins which the Angels that stand would fall into if they had not received a confirmation given them in contemplation of the death and merits of Christ Christ took upon him for all things in Earth and Heaven too were reconciled to God by him for if there had been as many worlds as there are men in this which is a large multiplication or as many worlds as there are sins in this which is an infinite multiplication his merit had been sufficient to all They were sins his sins many sinnes the sinnes of the world and then as in his Type David Supergressae his sins these sins were got above him And not as Davids or ours by an insensible growth and swelling of a Tide in Course of time but this inundation of all the sins of all places and times and persons was upon him in an instant in a minute in such a point as admits and requires a subtile and a serious consideration for it is eternity which though it doe infinitely exceed all time yet is in this consideration lesse then any part of time that it is indivisible eternity is so and though it last for ever is all at once eternity is so And from this point this timelesse time time that is all time time that is no time from all eternity all the sins of the world were gone over him And in that consideration supergressae caput they were gone over his head Let his head bee his Divine nature yet they were gone over his head for though there bee nothing more voluntary then the love of God to man for he loves us not onely for his own sake or for his own glories sake but he loves us for his loves sake he loves us and loves his love of us and had rather want some of his glory then wee should not have nay then he should not have so much love towards us though this love of his be an act simply voluntary yet in that act of expressing this love in the sending a Saviour there was a kinde of necessity contracted on Christs part such a contract had passed between him and his Father that as himself says there was an oportuit pati a necessity that he should suffer all that he suffered and so enter into glory when he was come so there was an oportuit venire a necessity a necessity induced by that contract that he should come in that humiliation and smother and suppresse the glory of the divine nature under a cloud of humane of passible of inglorious flesh So be his divine nature this head his sins all our sins made his were gone above his head And over his head all those ways that we considered before in our selves Sicut tectum sicut fornix as a roof as an arch that had separated between God and him in that he prayed and was not heard when in that Transeat Calix Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me the Cup was not onely not taken out of his hands but filled up
again as fast as he in obedience to his Father dranke of it more and worse miseries succeeding and exceeding those which hee had born before They were above him in clamore in that voice in that clamour which was got up to heaven and in possession of his Fathers ears before his prayer came Father forgive them for they are not forgiven that sinne of crucifying the Lord of life yet They were above his head tanquam aquae as an inundation of waters then when he swet water and bloud in the Agony when hee who had formerly passed his Israel thorough the Red Sea as though that had not been love large enough was now himself overflowed with a Red Sea of his owne bloud for his Israel again And they were over his head in Dominio in a Lordship in a Tyranny then when those marks of soveraign honour a robe and a scepter and a Crown of thorns were added to his other afflictions And so is our first part of this Text the supergressae sunt the multiplicity of sin appliable to Christ as well as to his Type to David and to us the members of his body And so is the last part that which we handled to day too the gravata sunt the weight and insupportablenesse of sin They were heavy they weighed him down from his Fathers bosome they made God Man That one sin could make an Angel a Devill is a strange consideration but that all the sins of the world could make God Man is stranger Yet sinne was so heavy Too heavy sayes the Text. It did not onely make God Man in investing our nature by his birth but it made him no Man by devesting that body by death and but for the vertue and benefit of a former Decree submitting that body to the corruption and putrefaction of the grave But this was the peculiar the miraculous glory of Christ Jesus He had sin all our sin and yet never felt worme of conscience He lay dead in the grave and yet never felt worm of corruption Sin was heavy It made God Man Too heavy It made Man no Man Too heavy for him even for him who was God and Man together for even that person so composed had certain velleitates as wee say in the School certain motions arising sometimes in him which required a veruntamen a review a re-consideration Not my will O Father but thine be done and such as in us who are pushed on by Originall sinne and drawn on by sinfull concupiscences in our selves would become sins though in Christ they were farre from it Sin was heavy even upon him in all those inconveniences which wee noted in a burden Incurvando when he was bowed down and gave his back to their scourges Fatigando when his soul was heavy unto death Retardando when they brought him to think it long Viquid dereliquisti Why hast thou forsaken mee And then praecipitando to make that haste to the Consummatum est to the finishing of all as to die before his fellows that were crucified with him died to bow down his head and to give up his soul before they extorted it from him Thus we burdned him And thus he unburdned us Et cum exonerat nos onerat when he unburdens us he burdens us even in that unburdening Onerat beneficio cum exonerat peccato He hath taken off the obligation of sinne but he hath laid upon us the obligation of thankfulnesse and Retribution Quid retribuam What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me is vox onerati a voyce that grones under the burden though not of sinne yet of debt to that Saviour that hath taken away that sinne Exi à me Domine that which Saint Peter said to Christ Lord depart from me for I am a sinfull man is says that Father vox onerati the voyce of one oppressed with the blessings and benefits of God and desirous to spare and to husband that treasure of Gods benefits as though he were better able to stand without the support of some of those benefits then stand under the debt which so many so great benefits laid upon him Truly he that considers seriously what his sins have put the Son of God to cannot but say Lord lay some of my sinnes upon me rather then thy Sonne should beare all this that devotion that says after Spare thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious bloud would say before spare that Son that must die spare that precious bloud that must be shed to redeeme us And rather then Christ should truely really beare the torments of hell in his soule which torments cannot be severed from obduration nor from everlastingness I would I should desire that my sins might return to me and those punishments for those sins I should be ashamed to be so farre exceeded in zeal by Moses who would have been blotted out of the book of life or by Paul who would have been separated from Christ for his brethren as that I would not undertake as much to redeem my redeemer and suffer the torments of Hell my selfe rather then hee should But it is an insupportable burden of debt that he hath laid upon me by suffering that which he suffered without the torments of Hell Those words Vis sanus fieri hast thou a desire to be well and a faith that I can make thee well are vox exâ—nerantis the words of him that would take off our burden But then the Tolle grabatum ambula Take up thy bed and walke this is vox oncrantis the voyce of Christ as he lays a new burden upon us ut quod prius suave jam onerosum sit that bed which he had ease in before must now be born with pain that sin which was forgotten with pleasure must now be remembred with Contrition Christ speaks not of a vacuity nor of a levity when he takes off one burden he lays on another nay two for one He takes off the burden of Irremediablenesse of irrecoverablenesse and he reaches out his hand in his Ordinances in his Word and Sacraments by which we may be disburdened of all our sins but then he lays upon us Onus resipiscentiae the burden of Repentance for our selves and Onus gratitudinis the burden of retribution and thankfulnesse to him in them who are his by our relieving of them in whom he suffers The end of all that we may end all in endlesse comfort is That our word in the originall in which the holy Ghost spoake is Iikkebedu which is not altogether as we read them graves sunt but graves fieri not that they are but that they were as a burden too heavy for me till I could lay hold upon a Saviour to sustaine me they were too heavy for me And by him I can runne through a troop through the multiplicity of my sins and by my God I can leap over a wall
ancestors which was a licentious kind of Carnavall If any amongst us have fallen into that disease to cast stones or dirt at his friends it is an infection from his own distemper not from our doctrine for if any man list to be contentious we have no such custome neither the Church of God We departed not from them then till it was come to a hot plague in a necessity of professing old opinions to be new articles of Faith not till we were driven by them and drawn by the voice of God in the learnedest men of all nations when they could not discharge themselves by the distinction of the Court of Rome and the Church of Rome because if the abuses had been but in the Court it was the greatest abuse of all for that Church which is so much above that Court not to mend it Nor can they require Miracles at our hands who doe none themselves and yet need them because they induce new articles of Religion neither can they reproach to us our Dissentions amongst our selves because they are neither in so fundamentall points nor pursued with so much uncharitablenesse as theirs So we justifie our secession from them but all this justifies in no part the secession of those distempered men who have separated themselves from us which is our next and our last consideration When the Apostle says study to be quiet 1 Thes. 4. 11. me thinks he intimates something towards this that the lesse we study for our Sermons the more danger is there to disquiet the auditory extemporall unpremeditated Sermons that serve the popular care vent for the most part doctrines that disquiet the Church Study for them and they will be quiet consider ancient and fundamentall doctrines and this will quiet and settle the understanding and the Conscience Many of these extemporall men have gone away from us and vainly said that they have as good cause to separate from us as we from Rome But can they call our Church a Babylon Confusion disorder All that offends them is that we have too much order too much regularity too much binding to the orderly and uniforme service of God in Church It affects all the body when any member is cut off Cum dolore amputatur etiam quae putruit pars corporis and they cut off themselves and feel it not when we lose but a mysticall limbe and they lose a spirituall life we feel it and they doe not When that is pronounced sit tibi sicut ethnicus if he hear not the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen gravius est quà m si gladio feriretur flammis absumeretur feris subigeretur it is a heavier sentence then to be beheaded to be burnt or devoured with wild beasts and yet these men before any such sentence pronounced by us excommunicate themselves Of all distempers Calvin falls oftenest upon the reproof of that which he calls Morositatem a certain peevish frowardnesse which as he calls in one place deterrimam pestem the most infectious pestilence that can fall upon a man so in another he gives the reason why it is so semper nimia morositas est ambitiosa that this peevish frowardnesse is always accompanied with a pride and a singularity and an ambition to have his opinions preferred before all other men and to condemn all that differ from him A civill man will depart with his opinion at a Table at a Councell table rather then hold up an argument to the vexation of the Company so will a peaceable man doe in the Church in questions that are not fundamentall That reverend man whom we mentioned before who did so much in the establishing of Geneva professes that it was his own opinion that the Sacrament might be administred in prisons and in private houses but because he found the Church of Geneva of another opinion and another practise before he came he applied himself to them and departed in practise from his own opinion even in so important a point as the ministration of the Sacrament Which I present to consideration the rather both because thereby it appears that greater matters then are now thought fundamentall were then thought but indifferent and arbitrary for surely if Calvin had thought this a fundamentall thing he would never have suffered any custome to have prevailed against his conscience and also because divers of those men who trouble the Church now about things of lesse importance and this of private Sacraments in particular will needs make themselves beleeve that they are his Disciples and always conclude that whatsoever is practised at Geneva was Calvins opinion Saint Augustine saith excellently and appliably to a holy Virgin who was ready to leave the Church for the ill life of Church-men Christus nobis imperavit Congregationem sibi servavit separationem Christ Jesus hath commanded us to gather together and recommended to us the Congregation as for the separation he hath reserved it to himself to declare at the last day who are Sheep and who are Goats And hee wrought that separation which our Fathers made from Rome by his expresse written Word and by that which is one word of God too Vox populi The invitation and acclamation of Doctors and People and Princes but have our Separatists any such publique and concurrent authorising of that which they doe since of all that part from us scarse a dozen meet together in one confession When you have heard the Prophet say Can two walke togeâ—her except they be agreed when you have heard the Apostle say I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speake the same things and that there be no divisions among you for if preachers speake one one way another another there will be divisions among the people And then it is not onely that in obedience to authority they speake the same things But Be perfectly joyned in the same mind and in the same judgement you had need make haste to this union this pacification for when we are come thither to agree among our selves we are not come to our journeys end Our life is a warfare other wars in a great part end in mariages Ours in a divorce in a divorce of body and soule in death Till then though God have brought us from the First Babylon the darknesse of the Gentiles and from the Second Babylon the superstitions of Rome and from the third Babylon the confusion of tongues in bitter speaking against one another after all this every man shall finde a fourth Babylon enough to exercise all his forces The civill warre the rebellious disorder the intestine confusion of his own Concupiscencies This is a transmigration a transportation layd upon us all by Adams rebellion from Jerusalem to Babylon from our innocent State in our Creation to this confusion of our corrupt nature God would have his children first brought to Babylon before he would be glorifyed in
me my sinnes the sinnes of my youth and my present sinnes the sinne that my Parents cast upon me Originall sinne and the sinnes that I cast upon my children in an ill example Actuall sinnes sinnes which are manifest to all the world and sinnes which I have so laboured to hide from the world as that now they are hid from mine own conscience and mine own memory Forgive me my crying sins and my whispering sins sins of uncharitable hate and sinnes of unchaste love sinnes against Thee and Thee against thy Power O Almighty Father against thy Wisedome O glorious Sonne against thy Goodnesse O blessed Spirit of God and sinnes against Him and Him against Superiours and Equals and Inferiours and sinnes against Me and Me against mine own soul and against my body which I have loved better then my soul Forgive me O Lord O Lord in the merits of thy Christ and my Iesus thine Anointed and my Saviour Forgive me my sinnes all my sinnes and I will put Christ to no more cost nor thee to more trouble for any reprobation or malediction that lay upon me otherwise then as a sinner I ask but an application not an extention of that Benediction Blessed are they whose sinnes are forgiven Let me be but so blessed and I shall envy no mans Blessednesse say thou to my sad soul Sonne be of good comfort thy sinnes are forgiven thee and I shall never trouble thee with Petitions to take any other Bill off of the fyle or to reverse any other Decree by which I should be accurst before I was created or condemned by thee before thou saw'st me as a sinner For the object of malediction is but a sinner which was our first and an Inveterate sinner A sinner of a hundred yeares which is our next consideration First Quia centum annorum because he is so old so old in sinne He shall be accur sed And then Quamvis centum annorum though he be so old though God have spared him so long he shall be accursed God is not a Lion in his house nor frantick amongst his servants saith the Wiseman God doth not rore nor tear in pieces for every thing that displeaseth him But when God is prest under us as a cart is prest that is full of sheaves the Lord will grone under that burthen a while but he will cast it off at last That which is said by David is if it be well observed spoken of God himself Cum perverso pervertêris from our frowardnesse God will learn to be froward But he is not so of his own nature If you walk contrary unto me I will walk contrary unto you saith God But this is not said of one first wry step but it is a walking which implies a long and a considerate continuance And if man come to sinne so and will not walk with God God will walk with that man in his own pace and overthrow him in his own wayes Nay it is not onely in that place If you walk contrary to me In occursu as Calvin hath it ex adverso as the vulgate hath it which implies an Actuall Opposition against the wayes of God but the word is but Chevi and Chevi is but In accidente in contingente if you walk negligently inconsiderately if you leave out God pretermit and slight God if you come to call Gods Providence Fortune to call Gods Judgements Accidents or to call the Mercies of a God favours of great Persons if you walk in this neglect of God God shall proceed to a neglect of you and then though God be never the worse for your leaving him out for if it were in your power to annihilate this whole world God were no worse then before there was a World yet if God neglect you forget pretermit you it is a miserable annihilation a fearfull malediction But God begins not before sinne nor at the first sinne God did not curse Adam and Eve for their sinne it was there first and God foresaw they would not be sinners of a hundred yeares But him that was in the Serpent that inveterate sinner him who had sinned in Gods Court in Heaven before and being banished from thence fell into this transmarine treason in another land to seduce Gods other Subjects there him God accurs'd Who amongst us can say that he had a Fever upon his first excesse or a Consumption upon his first wantonnesse or a Commission put upon him for his first Briberie Till he be a sinner of a hundred yeares till he have brought age upon himself by his sinne before the time and thereby be a hundred yeares old at fourtie and so a sinner of a hundred yeares till he have a desire that he might and a hope that he shall be able to sinne to a hundred yeares and so be a sinner of a hundred yeares Till he sinne hungerly and thirstily and ambitiously and swiftly and commit the sinnes of a hundred yeares in ten and so be a sinner of a hundred yeares till he infect and poyson that age and spoile that time that he lives in by his exemplary sinnes till he be Pestis secularis the plague of that age peccator secularis the proverbiall sinner of that age and so be a sinner of a hundred yeares till in his actions he have been or in his desires be or in the fore-knowledge of God would be a sinner of a hundred yeares an inveterate an incorrigible an everlasting sinner God comes not to curse him But then Quamvis centum annorum though he have lived a hundred yeares though God have multiplied upon him Evidences and Seals and Witnesses and Possessions and Continuances and prescriptions of his favour all this hath not so riveted God to that man as that God must not depart from him God was crucified for him but will not be crucified to him still to hang upon this Crosse this perversnesse of this habituall sinner and never save himself and come down never deliver his own Honour by delivering that sinner to malediction It is true that we can have no better Title to Gods future Blessings then his Blessings formerly exhibited to us God former blessings are but his marks set up there that he may know that place and that man the better against another time when he shall be pleased to come thither again with a supply of more Blessings God gives not Blessings as payments but as obligations and becomes a debtor by giving If I can produce that Remember thy mercies of old I need ask no new for even that is a Specialty by which God hath bound himself to me for more But yet not so if I abuse his former Blessings and make them occasions of sinne How often would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chickens saith Christ I know not how often surely very often for many hundreds of yeares But yet how often soever God left them open to the Eagle the Romane Eagle at last God gives
pieces and slackens the band of the Christian faith which faith is That Christ consisting of two natures in one person suffered for the salvation of man So then not onely to take from Jesus one of his natures God or man but to adde to him another person this addition is a Diminution a dissolution an annihilation of Jesus So also to adde to the Gospel to adde to the Scriptures to adde to the articles of faith this addition is a Diminution a Dissolution an Annihilation of those Scriptures that Gospel that faith and the Author and finisher thereof Iesus grew in stature says the Gospel But he grew not to his lifes end we know to how many feet he grew So the Scriptures grew to the number of the books grew But they grow not to the worlds end we know to how many bookes they grew The body of man and the vessels thereof have a certain and a limited capacity what nourishment they can receive and digest and so a certaine measure and stature to extend to The soul and soul of the soul Faith and her faculties hath a certain capacity too and certain proportions of spirituall nourishments exhibited to it in certaine vessels certaine measures so many these Bookes of Scriptures And therefore as Christ saies Which of you can adde one Cubit to your stature how plentifully and how delicately soever you feed how discreetly and how providently soever you exercise you cannot doe that so may he say to them who pretend the greatest power in the Church Which of you can adde another booke to the Scriptures A Codicill to either of my Testaments The curse in the Revelation fals as heavy upon them that adde to the booke of God as upon them that take from it Nay it is easie to observe that in all those places of Scripture which forbid the taking away or the adding to the Book of God still the commandment that they shall not and still the malediction if they do is first placed upon the adding and after upon the taking away So it is in that former place Plagues upon him that takes away but first Plagues upon him that addes so in Deut. you shall not diminish but first you shall not adde So again in that Book whatsoever I command you observe to do it Thou shalt not diminish from it but first Thou shalt not adde to it And when the same commandment seems to be given in the Proverbs there is nothing at all said of taking away but onely of adding as though the danger to Gods Church consisted especially in that Every word of God is pure saith Solomon there Adde thou not unto his word lest thou be reproved and found a lyer For though heretofore some Heretiques have offered at that way to clip Gods coin in taking away some book of Scripture yet for many blessed Ages the Church hath enjoyed her peace in that point None of the Books are denied by any church there is no substraction offered But for addition of Apocryphal Books to Canonicall the Church of God is still in her Militant state and cannot triumph and though she have victory in all the Reasons the cannot have peace You see Christs way to them that came to heare him Audiistis and Audiistis This and that you have heard others say Egâ— autem dico your Rule is what I say for Christ spoke Scripture Christ was Scripture As we say of great and universall Scholars that they are viventes Bibliothecae living walking speaking Libraries so Christ was lâ—quens Scriptura living speaking Scripture Our Sermons are Text and Discourse Christ Sermons were all Text Christ was the Word not onely the Essentiall Word which was alwayes with God but the very written word too Christ was the Scripture and therefore when he refers them to himselfe he refers them to the Scriptures for though here he seem onely to call upon them to hearken to that which he spoke yet it is in a word of a deeper impression for it is Videte See what you hear Before you preach any thing for my word see it see it written see it in the body of the Scriptures Here then lies the double obligation upon the Apostles The salvation of the whole world lies upon your preaching of that of All That of onely That which you hear from me now And therefore take heed what you hear And farther we carry not your consideration upon this first acceptation of the words as they are spoken personally to the Apostles but passe to the second as by reflexion they are spoken to us the Ministers of the Gospel In this consideration we take in also our Adversaries for we all pretend to be successors of the Apostles though not we as they in the Apostolicall yet they as well as we in the Evangelicall and Ministeriall function for as that which Christ said to Saint Peter he said in him to all the Apostles Vpon this Rock will I build my Church so in this which he saith to all the Apostles he saith to all us also Take heed what you heare Be this then the issue between them of the Roman distemper and us whether they or we do best perform this commandment Take heed what you heare conceal nothing of that which you have heard obtrude nothing but that which you have heard Whether they or we do best apply our practise to this rule Preach all the Truth preach nothing but the Truth be this lis contestata the issue joyned between us and it will require no long pleading for matter of evidence first our Saviour saith Man liveth by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God And this Christ saith from Moses also so that in the mouth of two unreproachable witnesses Moses and Christ the Law and the Gospel we have this established Mans life is the Word of God the Word is the Scripture And then our Saviour saith further The Holy Ghost shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance and here is the Latitude the Totality the Integrality of the meanes of salvation you shall have Scriptures delivered to you by them the Holy Ghost shall teach you all things and then you shall be remembred of all by the explication and application of those Scriptures at Church where lies the principall operation of the Holy Ghost Now is this done in the Roman Church Are the Scriptures delivered and explicated to them To much of the Scriptures as is read to them in their Lessons and Epistles and Gospels is not understood when it is read for it is in an unknown language so that that way the Holy Ghost teaches them nothing Neither are all the Scriptures distributed into these Lessons and Epistles and Gospels which are read so that if they did understand all they heard yet they did not heare all they were bound to understand And for remembring them by the way of preaching though it be true that the
Reformation by way of example though not by Doctrine have so much prevailed upon them as that they have now twenty Sermons in that Church for one that they had before Luther yet if a man could heare six Sermons a day all the days of his life he might die without having heard all the Scriptures explicated in Sermons But when men have a Christian liberty afforded to them to read the Scriptures at home and then are remembred of those things at Church and there taught to use that liberty modestly to establish their faith upon places of Scripture that are plain and to suspend their judgment upon obscurer places till they may by due meanes preaching or conference receive farther satisfaction therein from them who are thereunto authorized by God in his Church there certainly is this Rule of our Saviours Take heed what you hear preach all that you have received from me likelyer to be observed then there where the body of the conveyance the Scripture it self is locked up from us and the soule of the conveyance the sense and interpretation of the Scriptures is locked into one mans brest and the Great Seal of that conveyance the Sacrament of our Reconciliation is broken and mutilated and given us but by halfe But they do not onely stray on that hand in not giving all that the Scripture gives They doe not give the liberty of meates nor the liberty of mariage which the Scripture gives Nay they doe not give the liberty of trying whether the Scripture give it or no for they doe not give the liberty of reading the Scriptures But on the other hand they stray too and further That they deliver more then the Scriptures doe and make other Rules and Canons equall to Scriptures In which excesse they doe not onely make the Apocryphall Books Books that have alwaies had a favourable aspect and benigne countenance from the Church of God equall to Canonicall Scriptures But they make their decretall Epistles of their Popes and of their Extravagants as they call them and their occasionall Bulls nay their Bull-baitings their Buls fighting and crossing and contradicting one another equall to Canonicall Scripture So that these men have put the salvation of the world upon another science upon another profession It is not the Divine that is the Minister of salvation but the Canonist I must not determine my beleef in the Apostles Creed nor in Athanasius nor in that of the Nicen Fathers not onely not the Scriptures but not the Councels nor Fathers must give the Materials and Elements of my faith but the Canon law for so they rule it Gratian that hath collected the sentences of Fathers and Councels and digested them into heads of Divinity he is no rule of our beleef because say they he is no part of the body of the Canon law But they that first compiled the Decretals and the Extravagants and they who have since recompiled more Decretals and more Extravagants the Clementins and the Sextins and of late yeares the Septims with those of Iohn the 22. these make up the body of the Canon law and these must be our Rule what to beleeve How long Till they fall out with some State with whom they are friends yet or grown friends with some State that they are fallen out with now and then upon a new Decretall a new Extravagant I must contract a new or enlarge or restrain my old beleef Certainly as in naturall things the assiduity takes off the admiration The rising and the setting of the sunne would be a miracle to him that should see it but once and as in civill things the profusenesse and the communication and the indifferency takes off the Dignity for as gold is gold still the heaviest metall of all yet if it be beat into leaf gold I can blow it away so Honour is honour still the worthyest object of the worthyest spirits and the noblest reward of the greatest Princes yet the more have it the lesse every one hath of it So in the Roman Church they have not found a better way to justify their blasphemy of the insufficiency of the Scriptures then by making contemptible writings as sufficient as Scriptures equall to Scripture If they could make me beleeve the Scriptures were no more sufficient then their Decretals and Extravagants I should easily confesse there were no Scriptures sufficient for salvation And farther we presse not this evidence how farre they depart from this rule Take heed what you heare How much lesse and how much more then Christ gave they give but passe to the third acceptation of these words as in a fair accommodation they are spoken to you who are now as the Apostles were then Hearers Take heed what you heare And into this part I enter with such a protestation as perchance may not become me That this is the first time in all my life I date my life from my Ministery for I received mercy as I received the ministery as the Apostle speaks this is the first time that in the exercise of my Ministery I wished the King away That ever I had any kinde of loathnesse that the King should hear all that I sayd Here for a little while it will be a little otherwise because in this branch I am led to speak of some particular duties of subjects and in my poor way I have thought it somewhat an Eccentrique motion and off of the naturall Poles to speake of the Duties of subjects before the King or of the duties of Kings in publike and popular Congregations As every man is a world in himself so every man hath a Church in himself and as Christ referred the Church for hearing to the Scriptures so every man hath Scriptures in his own heart to hearken to Obedience to Superiours and charity to others are In-nate Scriptures Obedience and Charity are the Naturall mans the Civill mans the Morall mans Old and New Testament Take heed that is observe what you heare from them and they will direct you well And first Take heed what you heare is take heed that you hear That you do hearken to them whom you should hear Our Saviour saith He that is of God heareth his words ye therefore hear them not because you are not his Transferre this to a civill application to obedience to Superiors Christ makes account that he hath argued safely so If you heare him not you are none of his If you heare him not in his Lawes heare him not in his Proclamations heare him not in the Declarations of his wants and necessities you are none of his that is you had rather you were none of his There is a Nolumus hunc regnare smothered in our breasts if we will not hear and we had rather we might devest our Allegeance rather we might be no subjects By the Law he that was willing to continue in the service of his Master was willing to bee boared in the eare willing to testify a
Inquisition of Spaine But great inquirers into other men are easie neglecters of themselves The Image of God is not in mans body this way Nor that third way which others have imagined that is that when God said Let us make man after our likenesse God had respect to that forme which in the fulnesse of time his Sonne was to take upon him upon earth Let us make him now says God at first like that which I intend hereafter my Son shall be For though this were spoken before the fall of man and so before any occasion of decreeing the sending of Christ yet in the Schoole a great part of great men adhered to that opinion that God from all eternity had a purpose that his Sonne should become man in this world though Adam had not fallen Non ut Medicus sed ut Dominus ad nobilitandum genus humanum say they though Christ had not come as a Redeemer if man had not needed him by sin but had kept his first state yet as a Prince that desired to heap honour upon him whom he loves to doe man an honour by his assuming that nature Christ say they should have come and to that Image that forme which he was to take then was man made in this text say these imaginers But alas how much better were wit and learning bestowed to prove to the Gentiles that a Christ must come that they beleeve not to prove to the Iews that the Christ is come that they beleeve not to prove to our own Consciences that the same Christ may come again this minute to Judgment we live as though we beleeved not that then to have filled the world and torne the Church with frivolous disputations whether Christ should have come if Adam had not fallen Wo unto fomentors of frivolous disputations None of these ways not because God hath a body not because God assumed a body not because it was intended that Christ should be born before it was intended that man should be made is this Image of God in the body of man Nor hath it in any other relation respect to the body but as we say in the Schoole Arguitivè and Significativè that because God hath given man a body of a nobler forme then any other creature we inferre and argue and conclude from thence that God is otherwise represented in man then in any other creature So far is this Image of God in the body that as you see some Pictures to which the very tables are Jewells some Watches to which the very cases are Jewells and therefore they have outward cases too and so the Picture and the Watch is in that outward case of what meaner stuffe soever that be so is this Image in this body as in an outward case so as that you may not injure nor enfeeble this body neither by sinfull intemperance and licentiousnesse nor by inordinate fastings or other disciplines of imaginary merits while the body is alive for the Image of God is in it nor to defraud thy body of decent buriall and due solemnities after death for the Image of God is to returne to it But yet the body is but the out-cafe and God lookes not for the gilding or enamelling or painting of that but requires the labour and cost therein to be bestowed upon the Tablet it selfe in which this Image is immediately that is the soule And that 's truly the Vbi the place where this Image is And there remaines onely now the operation thereof how this Image of God in the soule of man works The Sphear then of this intelligence the Gallery for this Picture the Arch for this Statue the Table and frame and shrine for this Image of God is properly immediately the soule of man Not immediately so as that the soule of man is a part of the Essence of God For so effentially Christ onely is the Image of God Saint Augustine at first thought so Putaham te Deus Corpus Lucidum me frustum de illo Corpore I tooke thee ô God says that Father to be a Globe of fire and my soule a sparke of that fire thee to be a body of light and my soule to be a beame of that light But Saint Augustine does not onely retract that in himselfe but dispute against it in the Manichees But this Image is in our soule as our soule is the wax and this Image the seale The Comparison is Saint Cyrills and he addes well that no seale but that which printed the wax at first can fit that wax and fill that impression after No Image but the Image of God can fit our soule Every other seale is too narrow too shallow for it The magistrate is sealed with the Lion The woolfe will not fit that seale the Magistrate hath a power in his hands but not oppression Princes are sealed with the Crown The Miter will not fit that seale Powerfully and gratiously they protect the Church and are supreame heads of the Church But they minister not the Sacraments of the Church They give preferments but they give not the capacity of preferment They give order who shall have but they give not orders by which they are enabled to have that have Men of inferiour and laborious callings in the world are sealed with the Crosse a Rose or a bunch of Grapes will not answer that seale Ease and plenty in age must not be looked for without Crosses and labour and industry in youth All men Prince and People Clergy and Magistrate are sealed with the Image of God with the profession of a conformity to him and worldly seales will not answer that nor fill up that seale We should wonder to ses a Mother in the midst of many sweet Children passing her time in making babies and puppets for her own delight We should wonder to see a man whose Chambers and Galleries were full of curious master-peeces thrust in a Village Fair to looke upon six-penny pictures and three farthing prints We have all the Image of God at home and we all make babies fancies of honour in our ambitions The master-peece is our own in our own bosome and we thrust in countrey Fairs that is we endure the distempers of any unseasonable weather in night-journies and watchings we indure the oppositions and scornes and triumphs of a rivall and competitor that seeks with us and shares with us we indure the guiltinesse and reproach of having deceived the trust which a confident friend reposes in us and solicit his wife or daughter we endure the decay of fortune of body of soule of honour to possesse lower Pictures pictures that are not originalls not made by that hand of God nature but Artificiall beauties And for that body we give a soule and for that drugge which might have been bought where they bought it for a shilling we give an estate The Image of God is more worth then all substances and we give it for colours for dreames for shadowes But the
better to prevent the losse let us consider the having of this Image in what respect in what operation this Image is in our soule For whether this Image bee in those faculties which we have in Nature or in those qualifications which we may have in Grace or in those super-illustrations which the blessed shall have in Glory hath exercised the contemplation of many Properly this Image is in Nature in the naturall reason and other faculties of the immortall Soule of man For thereupon does Saint Bernard say Imago Dei uri potest in Gehenna non exuri Till the soule be burnt to ashes to nothing which cannot be done no not in hell the Image of God cannot be burnt out of that soule For it is radically primarily in the very soule it selfe And whether that soule be infused into the Elect or into the Reprobate that Image is in that soule and as far as he hath a soule by nature he hath the Image of God by Nature in it But then the seale is deeper cut or harder pressed or better preserved in some then in others and in some other considerations then meerly naturall Therefore we may consider Man who was made here to the Image of God and of God in three Persons to have been made so in Gods intendment three ways Man had this Image in Nature and does deface it he hath it also in Grace here and so does refresh it and he shall have it in Glory hereafter and that shall fix it establish it And in every of these three in this Trinity in man Nature Grace and Glory man hath not onely the Image of God but the Image of all the Persons of the Trinity in every of the three capacities He hath the Image of the Father the Image of the Sonne the Image of the holy Ghost in Nature and all these also in Grace and all in Glory too How all these are in all I cannot hope to handle particularly not though I were upon the first graine of our sand upon the first dram of your patience upon the first flash of my strength But a cleare repeating of these many branches that these things are thus that all the Persons of the heavenly Trinity are in their Image in every branch of this humane Trinity in man may at least must suffice In Nature then man that is the soule of man hath this Image of God of God considered in his Unity intirely altogether in this that this soule is made of nothing proceeds of nothing All other creatures are made of that pre-existent matter which God had made before so were our bodies too But our soules of nothing Now not to be made at all is to be God himselfe Onely God himselfe was never made But to be made of nothing to have no other parent but God no other element but the breath of God no other instrument but the purpose of of God this is to be the Image of God For this is nearest to God himselfe who was never made at all to be made of nothing And then man considered in nature is otherwise the nearest representation of God too For the steppes which we consider are four First Esse Beeing for some things have onely a beeing and no life as stones Secondly Vivere Living for some things have life and no sense as Plants and then thirdly Sentire Sense for some things have sense and no understanding Which understanding and reason man hath with his Beeing and Life and Sense and so is in a nearer station to God then any other creature and a livelier Image of him who is the root of Beeing then all they because man onely hath all the declarations of Beeings Nay if we consider Gods eternity the soule of man hath such an Image of that as that though man had a beginning which the originall the eternall God himselfe had not yet man shall no more have an end then the originall the eternall God himselfe shall have And this Image of eternity this past Meridian this after-noone eternity that is this Perpetuity and after everlastingnesse is in man meerly as a Naturall man without any consideration of grace For the Reprobate can no more die that is come to nothing then the Elect. It is but of the naturall man that Theodoret says a King built a City and erected his statue in the midst of the City that is God made man and imprinted his Image in his soule How will this King take it says that Father to have his statue thrown down Every man does so if he doe not exalt his naturall faculties If he doe not hearken to the law written in his heart if he doe not as much as Plato or as Socrates in the wayes of vertuous actions he throwes down the Statue of this King he defaces the Image of God How would this King take it says he if any other Statue especially the Statue of his enemy should be set up in this place Every man does so too that embraces false opinions in matter of doctrine or false appearances of happinesse in matter of conversation For these a naturall man may avoid in many cases without that addition of grace which is offered to us as Christians That comparison of other creatures to man which is intimated in Ieb is intended but of the naturall man There speaking of Behemoth that is of the greatest of Creatures he says in our translation that he is the chiefe of the ways of God Saint Hierome hath it Principium and others before him Initium viarum Dei That when God went that progresse over all the world in the Creation thereof he did but beginne he did but set out at Behemoth at the best of all such Creatures he all they were but Initium viarum the beginning of the wayes of God But Finis viarum the end of his journey and the Eve the Vespers of his Sabbath was the making of man even of the naturall man Behemoth and the other creatures were Vestigia says the Schoole in them we may see where God hath gone for all beeing is from God and so every thing that hath a beeing hath filiationem vestigii a testimony of Gods having passed that way and called in there But man hath filiationem Imaginis an expression of his Image and does the office of an Image or Picture to bring him whom it represēts the more lively to our memory Gods abridgement of the whole world was man Reabridge man into his least volume in pura naturalia as he is but meer man so he hath the Image of God in his soul. He hath it as God is considered in his Unity for as God is so the soule of man is indivisibly impartibly one intire and he hath it also as God is notified to us in a Trinity For as there are three Persons in the Essence of God so there are three faculties in the Soule of man The Attributes and some kind of specification
January 7. 1620. JOB 13. 15. Loe though he slay me yet will I trust in him THe name by which God notified himselfe to all the world at first was Qui sum I am this was his style in the Commission that he gave to Moses to Pharaoh say that he whose name is I am hath sent thee forthere God would have it made known that all Essence all Beeing all things that fall out in any time past or present or future had their dependece upon him their derivation from him their subsistence in him But then when God contracts himselfe into a narrower consideration not to be considered as God which implies the whole Trinity but as Christ which is onely the second Person and when he does not so much notifie himselfe to the whole world as to the Christian Church then he contracts his name too from that spacious and extensive Qui sum I am which includes all time to Alpha and Omega first and last which are peeces of time as we see in severall places of the Revelation he styles himselfe when God speakes to the whole world his name is Qui sum I am that all the world may confesse that all that is is nothing but with relation to him when he speakes to a Christian his name is Alpha and Omega first and last that a Christian may in the very name of God fixe his thoughts upon his beginning and upon his end and ever remember that as a few years since in his Cradle he had no sense of that honour those riches those pleasures which possesses his time now so God knowes how few days hence in his grave he shall have no sense no memory of them Our whole life is but a parenthesis our receiving of our soule and delivering it back againe makes up the perfect sentence Christ is Alpha and Omega and our Alpha and Omega is all we are to consider Now for all the letters in this Alphabet of our life that is for all the various accidents in the course thereof we cannot study a better booke then the person of Iob. His first letter his Alpha we know not we know not his Birth His last letter his Omega we know not we know not his Death But all his other letters His Children and his riches we read over and over againe How he had them how he lost them and how he recovered them By which though it appeare that those temporall things doe also belong to the care and provision of a godly man yet it appears too that neither his first care nor his last care appertaines to the things of this world but that there is a Primùm quaerite something to be sought for before The kingdome of God And there is a Memorare novissima something to be thought on after The Ioyes of heaven And then Catera adjicientur says Christ All other cares are allowable by way of Accessary but not as principall And therefore though this History of Iob may seeme to spend it selfe upon the relation of Iobs temporall passages of his wealth and poverty of his sicknesse and recovery yet if we consider the Alpha and Omega of the booke it selfe the first beginning and the later end thereof we shall see in both places a care of the Holy ghost to shew us first Iobs righteousnesse and then his riches first his Goodnesse and then his Goods in both places there is a Catechisme a Confession of his faith before and then an Inventory and Catalogue of his wealth for in the first place it is sayd He was an upright and just man and feared God and eschewed evill and then his Children and his substance follow And in the last place it is said That Iob was accepted by God and that he prayed for those friends which had vext him and then it is that his former substance was doubled unto him This world then is but an Occasionall world a world onely to be us'd and that but so as though we us'd it not The next world is the world to be enjoy'd and that so as that we may joy in nothing by the way but as it directs and conduces to that end Nay though we have no Joy at al though God deny us all conveniencies here Etiamsi occiderit though he end a weary life with a painefull death as there is no other hope but in him so there needs no other for that alone is both abundant and infallible in it selfe Now as no History is more various then Iobs fortune so is no phrase no style more ambiguous then that in which Iobs history is written very many words so expressed very many phrases so conceived as that they admit a diverse a contrary sense for such an ambiguity in a single word there is an example in the beginning in Iobs wife we know not from the word it selfe whether it be Benedicas or maledicas whether she sayd Blesse God and die or Curse God And for such an ambiguity in an intire sentence the words of this text are a pregnant and evident example for they may be directly and properly thus rendered out of the Hebrew Behold he will kill me I will not hope and this seemes to differ much from our reading Behold though he kill me yet will I trust in him And therefore to make up that sense which our translation hath which is truely the true sense of the place we must first make this paraphrase Behold he will kill me I make account he will kill me I looke not for life at his hands his will be done upon me for that And then the rest of the sentence I will not hope as we read it in the Hebrew must be supplyed or rectified rather with an Interrogation which that language wants and the translators use to add it where they see the sense require it And so reading it with an Interrogation the Originall and our translation will constitute one and the same thing It will be all one sense to say with the Originall Behold he will kill me that is let him kill me yet shall not I hope in him and to say with our translation Behold though he kill me yet will I hope in him And this sense of the words both the Chaldee paraphrase and all translations excepting onely the Septuagint do unanimously establish So then the sense of the words being thus fixed we shall not distract your understandings or load your memories with more then two parts Those for your ease and to make the better impression we will call propositum and praepositum first the purpose the resolution of a godly man which is to rely upon God and then the consideration the inducement the debatement of this beforehand That no Danger can present it selfe which he had not thought of before He hath carried his thoughts to the last period he hath stirred the potion to the last scruple of Rheuharb and Wormewod which is in it he hath digested the worst he hath considered Death
work for advancing thy state remember thy naturall death but especially when thou art in a sinfull worke for satisfying thy lusts remember thy spirituall death Be afraid of this death and thou wilt never feare the other Thou wilt rather sigh with David My soule hath too long dwelt with him that hateth peace Thou wilt be glad when a bodily death may deliver thee from all farther danger of a spirituall death And thou wilt be ashamed of that imputation which is layd upon worldly men by St. Cyprian Ad nostros navigamus ventos contrarios optamus we pretend to be sayling homewards and yet we desire to have the winde against us we are travelling to the heavenly Ierusalem and yet we are loath to come thither Here then is the use of our hope before death that this life shall be a gallery into a better roome and deliver us over to a better Country for if in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men the most miserable Secondly in the agony of death when the Sessions are come and that as a prisoner may looke from that Tower and see the Judge that must condemne him to morrow come in to night so we lye upon our death-bed and apprehend a present judgement to be given upon us when if we will not pleade to the Indictment if we will stand mute and have nothing to say to God we are condemned already condemned in our silence and if we do plead we have no plea but guilty nothing to say but to confesse all the Indictment against our selves when the flesh is too weake as that it can performe no office and yet would faine stay here when the soule is laden with more sins then she can bear and yet would faine contract more in this agony there is this use of our hope that as God shall then when our bodily eares are deaf whisper to our soules and say Memento homo Remember consider man that thou art but dust and art now returning into dust so we in our hearts when our bodily tongues are speechlesse may then say to God as it is in Iob Memento quaeso Remember thou also I beseech thee O God that it is thou that hast made me as clay and that it is thou that bringest me to that state againe and therefore come thou and looke to thine owne worke come and let thy servant depart in peace in having seen his salvation My hope before death is that this life is the way my hope at death is that my death shall be a doore into a better state Lastly the use of our hope is after death that God by his promise hath made himself my debter till he restore my body to me againe in the resurrection My body hath sinned and he hath not redeemed a sinner he hath not saved a sinner except he have redeemed and saved my body as well as my soule To those soules that lye under the Altar and solicite God for the resurrection in the Revelation God sayes That they should rest for a little season untill their fellow-servants and their brethren that should be killed even as they were were fulfilled All that while while that number is fulfilling is our hopes exercised after our death And therefore the bodies of the Saints of God which have been Temples of the Holy Ghost when the soule is gone out of them are not to be neglected as a sheath that had lost the knife as a shell that had spent the kernell but as the Godhead did not depart from the dead body of Christ Jesus then when that body lay dead in the grave so the power of God and the merit of Christ Jesus doth not depart from the body of man but his blood lives in our ashes and shall in his appointed time awaken this body againe to an everlasting glory Since therefore Iob had and we have this assurance before we dye when we dye after we are dead it is upon good reason that he did and we do trust in God though he should kill us when he doth kill us after he hath killed us Especially since it is Ille He who is spoken of before he that kills and gives life he that wounds and makes whole againe God executes by what way it pleases him condemned persons cannot chuse the manner of their death whether God kill by sicknesse by age by the hand of the law by the malice of man si ille as long as we can see that it is he he that is Shaddai Vastator Restaurator the destroyer and the repairer howsoever he kill yet he gives life too howsoever he wound yet he heales too howsoever he lock us into our graves now yet he hath the keys of hell and death and shall in his time extend that voyce to us all Lazare veni for as come forth of your putrefaction to incorruptible glory Amen SERMON XXXI Preached at Hanworth to my Lord of Carlile and his company being the Earles of Northumberland and Buckingham c. Aug. 25. 1622. JOE 36. 25. Every man may see it man may behold it afar off THe words are the words of Elihu Elihu was one of Iobs friends and a meer naturall man a man not captivated not fettered not enthralled in any particular forme of Religion as the Iewes were a man not macerated with the feare of God not infatuated with any preconceptions which Nurses or Godfathers or Parents or Church or State had infused into him not dejected not suppled not matured not entendred with crosses in this world and so made apt to receive any impressions or follow any opinions of other men a meer naturall man and in the meer use of meer naturall reason this man sayes of God in his works Every man may see it Man may behold it afar off It is the word of a naturall man and the holy Ghost having canonized it sanctified it by inserting it into the booke of God it is the word of God too Saint Paul cites sometimes the words of secular Poets and approves them and then the words of those Poets become the word of God Elihu speakes a naturall man and God speakes in canonizing his words and therefore when we speake to godly men we are sure to be believed for God sayes it if we were to speake to naturall men onely we might be believed for Elihu a naturall man and wise in his generation sayes it that for God in his works Every man may see it man may behold it afar off Be pleased to admit and charge your memories with this distribution of the words Let the parts be but two so you will be pleased to stoop and gather or at least to open your hands to receive some more I must not say flowers for things of sweetnesse and of delight grow not in my ground but simples rather and medicinall herbs of which as there enter many into good cordials so in this supreme cordiall of bringing
Evangelists that that voice added Hear him for after that Declaration that he who was visibly and personally come amongst them was the Sonne of God there was no reason to doubt of mens willingnesse to hear him who went forth in person to preach unto them in this world As long as he was to stay with them it was not likely that they should need provocation to hear him therefore that was not added at his Baptisme and entrance into his personall ministery But when Christ came to his Transfiguration which was a manifestation of his glory in the next world and an intimation of the approaching of the time of his going away to the possession of that glory out of this world there that voyce from heaven sayes This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased heare him When he was gone out of this world men needed a more particular solicitation to heare him for how and where and in whom should they heare him when he was gone In the Church for the same testimony that God gave of Christ to authorize and justifie his preaching hath Christ given of the Church to justifie her power The holy Ghost fell upon Christ at his Baptism and the holy Ghost fell upon the Apostles who were the representative Church at Whitsontide The holy Ghost tarried upon Christ then and the holy Ghost shall tarry with the Church usque ad consummationem till the end of the world And therefore as we have that institution from Christ Dic Ecclesiae when men are refractary and perverse to complaine to the Church so have they who are complained of to the Church that institution from Christ also Audi Ecclesiam Hearken to the voyce of God in the Church and they have from him that commination If you disobey them you disobey God in what fetters soever they binde you you shall rise bound in those fetters and as he who is excommunicated in one Diocese should not be received in another so let no man presume of a better state in the Triumphant Church then he holds in the Militant or hope for communion there that despises excommunication here That which the Scripture says God sayes says St. Augustine for the Scripture is his word and that which the Church says the Scriptures say for she is their word they speak in her they authorize her and she explicates them The Spirit of God inanimates the Scriptures and makes them his Scriptures the Church actuates the Scriptures and makes them our Scriptures Nihil salubrius says the same Father There is not so wholsome a thing no soule can live in so good an aire and in so good a diet Quà m ut Rationem praecedat authoritas Then still to submit a mans owne particular reason to the authority of the Church expressed in the Scriptures For certainly it is very truly as it is very usefully said by Calvin Semper nimia morositas est ambitiosa A frowardnesse and an aptnesse to quarrell at the proceedings of the Church and to be delivered from the obligations and constitutions of the Church is ever accompanied with an ambitious pride that they might enjoy a licentious liberty It is not because the Church doth truly take too much power but because they would be under none it is an ambition to have all government in their own hands and to be absolute Emperors of themselves that makes them refractary But if they will pretend to believe in God they must believe in God so as God hath manifested himself to them they must believe in Christ so if they will pretend to heare Christ they must heare him there where he hath promised to speake they must heare him in the Church The first reason then in this Trinity the person that directs is the Church the Trumpet in which God sounds his Iudgements and the Organ in which he delivers his mercy And then the persons of the second place the persons to whom the Church speakes here are Filiae Sion The daughters of Sion her owne daughters We are not called Filii Ecclesiae sonnes of the Church The name of sonnes may imply more virility more manhood more sense of our owne strength then becomes them who professe an obedience to the Church Therefore as by a name importing more facility more supplenesse more application more tractablenesse she calls her children Daughters But then being a mother and having the dignity of a Parent upon her she does not proceed supplicatorily she does not pray them nor intreat them she does not say I would you would go forth and I would you would looke out but it is Egredimini videte imperatively authoritatively Do it you must do it So that she showes what in important and necessary cases the power of the Church is though her ordinary proceedings by us and our Ministery be To pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God In your baptisme your soules became daughters of the Church and they must continue so as long as they continue in you you cannot devest your allegiance to the Church though you would no more then you can to the State to whom you cannot say ◠will be no subject A father may dis-inherit his son upon reasons but even that dis-inherited childe cannot renounce his father That Church which conceived thee in the Covenant of God made to Christians and their seed and brought thee forth in baptisme and brought thee up in catechizing and preaching may yet for thy misdemeanor to God in her separate thee à Mensa Toro from bed and board from that sanctuary of the soule the Communion Table and from that Sanctuary of the body Christian buriall and even that Christian buriall gives a man a good rise a good helpe a good advantage even at the last resurrection to be laid down in expectation of the Resurrection in holy ground and in a place accustomed to Gods presence and to have been found worthy of that Communion of Saints in the very body is some earnest and some kinde of first-fruits of the joyfull resurrection which we attend God can call our dead bodies from the sea and from the fire and from the ayre for every element is his but consecrated ground is our element And therefore you daughters of Sion holy and religious souls for to them onely this indulgent mother speaks here hearken ever to her voice quarrell not your mothers honor nor her discretion Despise not her person nor her apparell Doe not say she is not the same woman she was heretofore nor that she is not so well dressed as she was then Dispute not her Doctrine Despise not her Discipline that as you sucked her breasts in your Baptism in the other Sacrament when you entred and whilst you stayd in this life so you may lie in her bosome when you goe out of it Hear her a good part of that which you are to hear from her is envolv'd inwrapped in that w ch we have propos'd
though they be never done without Reason yet their principall scope and marke is the glory of God and though they seeme but Morall or Civill or domestique yet they have a deeper tincture a heavenly nature a relation to God in them The light in our Text then is essentially and personally Christ himself from him flowes the supernaturall light of faith and grace here also intended and because this light of faith and grace flowing from that fountaine of light Christ Jesus works upon the light of nature and reason it may conduce to the raising of your devotions if we do without any long insisting upon the severall parts thereof present to you some of those many and divers lights which are in this world and admit an application to this light in our Text the essentiall light Christ Iesus and the supernaturall light faith and grace Of these lights we shall consider some few couples and the first payre Lux Essentiae and Lux Gloriae the light of the Essence of God and the light of the glory of his Saints And though the first of these be that essentiall light by which we shall see God face to face as he is and the effluence and emanation of beams from the face of God which make that place Heaven of which light it is said That God who onely hath Immortality dwels in luce inaccessibili in the light that none can attaine to yet by the light of faith and grace in sanctification we may come to such a participation of that light of Essence or such a reflection of it in this world that it shall be true of us which was said of those Ephesians You were once darknesse but now are light in the Lord he does not say enlightned nor lightsome but light it self light essentially for our conversation is in heaven And as God sayes of Ierusalem and his blessings here in this world Calceavit Ianthino I have shod thee with Badgers skinne some translate it which the Antients take for some precious stuffe that is I have enabled thee to tread upon all the most estimable things of this world for as the Church it self is presented so every true member of the Church is endowed Luna sub pedibus the Moone and all under the Moone is under our feet we tread upon this world even when we are trodden upon in it so the precieus promises of Christ make us partakers of the Divine Nature and the light of faith makes us the same Spirit with the Lord And this is our participation of the light of essence in this life The next is the light of glory This is that Glorification which we shall have at the last day of which glory we consider a great part to be in that Denudation that manifestation of all to all as in this world a great part of our inglorious servitude is in those disguises and palliations those colours and pretences of publique good with which men of power and authority apparell their oppressions of the poore In this are we the more miserable that we cannot see their ends that there is none of this denudation this laying open of ourselves to one another which shall accompany that state of glory where we shall see one anothers bodies and soules actions and thoughts And therefore as if this place were now that Tribunall of Christ Jesus and this that day of Judgement and denudation we must be here as we shall be there content to stand naked before him content that there be a discovery a revealing a manifestation of all our sinnes wrought upon us at least to our owne consciences though not to the congregation If we will have glory we must have this denudation We must not be glad when our sins scape the Preacher We must not say as though there were a comfort in that though he have hit such a mans Adultery and anothers Ambition and anothers extortion yet for all his diligence he hath missed my sinne for if thou wouldest faine have it mist thou wouldest faine hold it still And then why camest thou hither What camest thou for to Church or to the Sacrament Why doest thou delude God with this complementall visit to come to his house if thou bring not with thee a disposition to his honour and his service Camest thou onely to try whether God knew thy sinne and could tell thee of it by the Preacher Alas he knowes it infallibly And if he take no knowledge of his knowing it to thy conscience by the words of the Preacher thy state is the more desperate God sends us to preach forgivenesse of sinnes where wee finde no sinne we have no Commission to execute How shall we finde your sinnes In the old sacrifices of the law the Priest did not fetch the sacrifice from the herd but he received it from him that brought it and so sacrificed it for him Doe thou therefore prevent the Preacher Accuse thyselfe before he accuse thee offer up thy sinne thy selfe Bring it to the top of thy memory and thy conscience that he finding it there may sacrifice it for thee Tune the instrument and it is the fitter for his hand Remember thou thine own sins first and then every word that fals from the preachers lipsshall be a drop of the dew of heaven a dram of the balme of Gilead a portion of the bloud of thy Saviour to wash away that sinne so presented by thee to be so sacrificed by him for if thou onely of all the congregation finde that the preacher hath not touched thee nor hit thy sinnes know then that thou wast not in his Commission for the Remission of sinnes and be afraid that thy conscience is either gangrend and unsensible of all incisions and cauterizations that can be made by denouncing the Iudgements of God which is as far as the preacher can goe or that thy whole constitution thy complexion thy composition is sinne the preacher cannot hit thy particular sinne because thy whole life and the whole body of thy actions is one continuall sin As long as a man is alive if there appeare any offence in his breath the physician will assigne it to some one corrupt place his lungs or teeth or stomach and thereupon apply convenient remedy thereunto But if he be dead and putrefied no man askes from whence that ill aire and offence comes because it proceeds from thy whole carcasse So as long as there is in you a sense of your sinnes as long as we can touch the offended and wounded part and be felt by you you are not desperate though you be froward and impatient of our increpations But when you feele nothing whatsoever wee say your soule is in an Hectique fever where the distemper is not in any one humor but in the whole substance nay your soule it selfe is become a carcasse This then is our first couple of these lights by our Conversation in heaven here that is a
watchfulnesse that we fall not into sinne we have lucem essentiae possession and fruition of heaven and of the light of Gods presence and then if we doe by infirmity fall into sinne yet by this denudation of our soules this manifestation of our sinnes to God by confession and to that purpose a gladnesse when we heare our sinne spoken of by the preacher we have lumen gloriae an inchoation of our glorified estate and then an other couple of these lights which we propose to be considered is lumen fidei and lumen naturae the light of faith and the light of nature Of these two lights Faith and Grace first and then Nature and Reason we said something before but never too much be cause contentious spirits have cast such clouds upon both these lights that some have said Nature doth all alone and others that Nature hath nothing to do at all but all is Grace we decline wranglings that tend not to edification we say onely to our present purpose which is the operation of these severall couples of lights that by this light of Faith to him which hath it all that is involved in Prophecies is clear and evident as in a History already done and all that is wrapped up in promises is his own already in performance That man needs not goe so high for his assurance of a Messias and Redeemer as to the first promise made to him in Adam nor for the limitation of the stock and race from whence this Messias should come so far as to the renewing of this promise in Abraham nor for the description of this Messias who he should be and of whom he should be born as to Esaias nor to Micheas for the place nor for the time when he should accomplish all this so far as to Daniel no nor so far as to the Evangelists themselves for the History and the evidence that all this that was to be done in his behalf by the Messias was done 1600. yeares since But he hath a whole Bible and an abundant Library in his own heart and there by this light of Faith which is not onely a knowing but an applying an appropriating of all to thy benefit he hath a better knowledge then all this then either Propheticall or Evangelicall for though both these be irrefragable and infallible proofs of a Messias the Propheticall that he should the Evangelicall that he is come yet both these might but concern others this light of Faith brings him home to thee How sure so ever I be that the world shall never perish by water yet I may be drowned and how sure so ever that the Lamb of God hath taken away the sinnes of the world I may perish without I have this applicatory Faith And as he needs not looke back to Esay nor Abraham nor Adam for the Messias so neither needs he to looke forward He needs not stay in expectation of the Angels Trumpets to awaken the dead he is not put to his usquequo Domine How long Lord wilt thou defer our restitution but he hath already died the death of the righteous which is to die to sinne He hath already had his buriall by being buried with Christ in Baptisme he hath had his Resurrection from sinne his Ascension to holy purposes of amendment of life and his Iudgement that is peace of Conscience sealed unto him and so by this light of applying Faith he hath already apprehended an eternall possession of Gods eternall Kingdome And the other light in this second couple is Lux naturae the light of Nature This though a fainter light directs us to the other Nature to Faith and as by the quantitie in the light of the Moone we know the position and distance of the Sunne how far or how neare the Sunne is to her so by the working of the light of Nature in us we may discern by the measure and virtue and heat of that how near to the other greater light the light of Faith we stand If we finde our naturall faculties rectified so as that that free will which we have in Morall and Civill actions be bent upon the externall duties of Religion as every naturall man may out of the use of that free will come to Church heare the Word preached and believe it to be true we may be sure the other greater light is about us If we be cold in them in actuating in exalting in using our naturall faculties so farre we shall be deprived of all light we shall not see the Invisible God in visible things which Saint Paul makes so inexcusable so unpardonable a thing we shall not see the hand of God in all our worldly crosses nor the seal of God in all our worldly blessings we shall not see the face of God in his House his presence here in the Church nor the mind of God in his Gospell that his gracious purposes upon mankinde extend so particularly or reach so far as to include us I shall heare in the Scripture his Vinite omnes come all and yet I shall thinke thatâ— his eye was not upon me that his eye did not becken me and I shall heare the Deus vult omnes salves that God would save all and yet I shall finde some perverse reason in my selfe why it is not likely that God will save me I am commanded scrutari Scripturas to search the scriptures now that is not to be able to repeat any history of the Bible without booke it is not to ruffle a Bible and upon any word to turne to the Chapter and to the verse but this is exquisit a scrutatio the true searching of the Scriptures to finde all the histories to be examples to me all the prophecies to induce a Saviour for me all the Gospell to apply Christ Jesus to me Turne over all the folds and plaits of thine owne heart and finde there the infirmities and waverings of thine owne faith and an ability to say Lord I beleeve help mine unbeleefe and then though thou have no Bible in thy hand or though thou stand in a dark corner nay though thou canst not reade a letter thou hast searched that Scripture thou hast turned to Marke 9. ver 24 Turne thine eare to God and heare him turning to thee and saying to thy soule I will marry thee to my selfe for ever and thou hast searched that Scripture and turned to Hos. 2. ver 19. Turne to thine owne histery thine owne life and if thou canst reade there that thou hast endeavoured to turne thine ignorance into knowledge and thy knowledge into Practice if thou finde thy selfe to be an example of that rule of Christs If you know these things blessed are you if you do them then thou hast searched that Scripture and turned to Io. 13. ver 14. This is Scrutari Scripturas to Search the Scriptures not as though thou wouldest make a concordance but an application as thou wouldest search a
doe just thus cannot be a rule of Iustice but the generall doctrine that every body needs at some times some helpes some meanes is certainly true Shall the riotous the voluptuous man stay till this something bee a surfet or a fever 'T is true this surfet and this fever will subdue the body but then thou doest it not Shall a lascivious wanton stay till a consumption or such contagious diseases as shall make him unsociable and so unable to exercise his sinne subdue his body These can doe it but this is Perimere non subjugare not a subduing of the body alone but a destroying of body and soule together Moderate disciplines subdue the body as under the government of a King a father of his people that governs them by a law But when the body comes to bee subdued by paines and anguish and loathsome diseases this becomes a tyranny a conquest and he that comes in by conquest imposes what lawes hee will so that these subduings of the body brought in by sinne may worke in us an obduration we shall feel them but not discerne the hand of God in them or if his hand yet not his hand to that purpose to relieve us but to seale our condemnation to us Beloved because our Adversaries of the Romane heresie have erroneously made a pattern for their Eremiticall and Monasticall life in Iohn Baptist and coloured their idlenesse by his example some of the Reformation have bent a little too far the other way and denied that there was any such austerity in the life of St. Iohn as is ordinarily conceived They say that his conversation in the Desert may well be understood to have been but a withdrawing of himself from publique and civill businesses home to his fathers house for his father dwelt in that Desert and thither went Mary to salute Elizabeth And Ioab had his house in this Desert and in this Desert are reckoned five or fixe good Townes so that indeed it was no such savage solitude as they fancie But yet for a Sonne of such Parents an onely Sonne a Sonne so miraculously afforded them to passe on with that apparellâ— and that diet is certainly remarkable and an evidence of an extraordinary austerity and an argument of an extraordinary sanctity Especially to the Jewes it was so amongst them this austerity of life and abstaining from those things which other men imbraced procured ordinarily a great estimation We know that amongst them the Essaei a severe Sect had a high reverence They did not marry they did not eate flesh they did not ease themselves by servants but did all their own work they used no proprietie they possessed nothing called nothing their own Vicatim habitant urbes fugiunt they forsake all great Townes and dwell in Villages And yet flying the world they drew the world so much afterâ— them as that it is noted with wonder per saeculorum Milia gens aeterna in qua nemo nascitur that there was an eternall Nation that had lasted many Generations and yet never any borne amongst them I am foecunda illis aliorum vitae poenitentia for every man that was crossed or wearied in his owne course of life applied himselfe to their Sect and manner of living as the onely way to Heaven And Iosephus writing his owne life and forwardnesse and pregnancy perchance a little too favourably or gloriously in his owne behalfe to be throughly beleeved for he saith that when he was but fourteen yeares old the greatest Doctours of the Law came to him to learne penitiorem sensum juris the secretest Mysteries of the Law and their Law was Divinity thought himselfe unperfect till he had spent some time in the strictnesse of all the three Sects of the Jewes and after he had done all that he spent three yeares more with one Bannus an Ermit who lived in the wildernesse upon herbs and roots Iohn Baptists austerity of life made him a competent and credible witnesse to them who had such austeritie in estimation And truely hee that will any way bee a witnesse for Christ that is glorifie him hee must endevour even by this outward holinesse of life to bee acceptable to good men Vox Populi vox Dei the generall voyce is seldome false so also Oculi populi Oculi Dei In this case God looketh upon man as man doth Singuli decipi decipere possunt One man may deceive another be deceived by another Nemo omnes neminem omnes fefellerunt no man ever deceived all the world nor did all the world ever joyn to deceive one man The generall opinion the generall voyce is for the most part good evidence with or against a man Every one of us is ashamed of the prayse and attestation of one whom all the world besides taketh to be dishonest so will Christ be ashamed of that witnesse that seeketh not the good opinion of good men When I see a Iesuit solicite the chastity of a daughter of the house where he is harboured and after knowledge taken by the Parents upon her complaint excuse it with saying that he did it but to trie her and to be the better assured of her religious constancy when I see a Iesuit conceale and foment a powder Treason and say he had it but in Confession and then see these men to proclaim themselves to be Martyrs witnesses for Christ in the highest degree I say still the Devill may be a witnesse but I ground not my Faith upon that Testimony A competent witnesse must be an honest man This competency Iohn Baptist had the good opinion of good men And then he had the seale of all Missus est he had his Commission He was sent to bear witness of that Light Though this word Missus est He was sent be not literally in the Text here yet it is necessarily implyed and therefore providently supplyed by the Translatours in this verse and before in the sixt verse it is literally expressed There was a man sent from God whose name was John The Law saith concerning witnesses Qui se ingerunt offerunt suspecti habentur those that offer their testimony before they be cited are suspicious witnesses Therefore they must have a Mission a sending For by Saint Pauls rule How can they preach except they be sent Preach they may but how with what successe what effect what blessing So that the good successe of Iohn Bapstists preaching For the multitudes The people came to him and not light people carried about with every winde of rumour and noise and noveltie but Pharises and Sadduces men of learning of sadnesse and gravity and not onely Scholars affected with subtilties but Publicans too men intent upon the world and other men whose very profession submits them to many occasions of departing from the strict rules which regularly binde other men and therefore may be in some things which tast of injustice more excusable
that in some visible in some permanent manner in writing and that that writing is Scripture if we had not these testimonies these necessary consequences derived even from the naturall reason of man to convince men how should we convince them since our way is not to create Faith but to satisfie reason And therefore let us rest in this testimony of men that all Christian men nay Iewes and Turkes too have ever beleeved that there are certain Scriptures which are the revealed will of God and that God hath manifested to us in those Scriptures all that he requires at our hands for Faith or Manners Now which are those Scriptures As for the whole body intirely together so for the particular limbs and members of this body the severall books of the Bible we must accept testimonium ab homine humane Arguments and the testimony of men At first the Jewes were the Depositaries of Gods Oracles and therefore the first Christians were to aske the Jewes which books were those Scriptures Since the Church of God is the Master of those Rolls no doubt but the Church hath Testimonium à Deo The Spirit of God to direct her in declaring what Books make up the Scripture but yet even the Church which is to deal upon men proceedeth also per testimonium ab homine by humane Arguments such as may work upon the reason of man in declaring the Scriptures of God For the New Testament there is no question made of any Book but in Conventicles of Anabaptists and for the Old it is testimony enough that we receive all that the Jews received This is but the testimony of man but such as prevails upon every man It is somewhat boldly said not to permit to our selves any severer or more bitter animadversion upon him by a great man in the Romam Church that perchance the book of Enoch which S. Iude cites in his Epistle was not an Apocryphal book but Canonicall Scripture in the time of the Iews As though the holy Ghost were a time-server and would sometimes issue some things for present satisfaction which he would not avow nor stand to after as though the holy Ghost had but a Lease for certain years a determinable estate in the Scriptures which might expire and he be put from his evidence that that book might become none of his which was his before We therefore in receiving these books for Canonicall which we do and in post-posing the Apochryphall into an inferior place have testimonium ab homine testimony from the People of God who were and are the most competent and unreproachable witnesses herein and we have Testimonium ab inimico testimony from our adversary himself Perniciosius est Ecclesiae librum recipere pro sacro qui non est quà m sacrum rejicere It is a more pernicious danger to the Church to admit a book for Canonicall which is not so then to reject one that is so And therefore ne turberis novitie saith another great Author of theirs Let no young student in Divinity be troubled si alicubi repererit libros istos supputari inter Canonicos if he finde at any time any of these books reckned amongst the Canonical nam ad Hiero. limam verba Doctorum Concilio rum reducenda for saith he Hieroms file must passe over the Doctors and over the Councels too and they must be understood and interpreted according to S. Hier. now this is but testimonium ab homine S. Hier. testimony that prevailed upon Cajetan and it was but testimonium ab homine the testimony of the Iews that prevailed upon S. Hierom himself It is so for the whole body The bible it is so for all the limbs of this body every particular book of the Bible and it is so for the soul of this body the true sense of every place of very book thereof for for that the sense of the place we must have testimonium ab homine the testimony that is the interpretation of other men Thou must not rest upon thy self nor upon any private man Iohn was a witnesse that had witnesses the Prophets had prophesied of Iohn Baptist. The men from whom we are to receive testimony of the sense of the Scriptures must be men that have witnesses that is a visible and outward calling in the Church of God That no sense be ever admitted that derogateth from God that makes him a false or an impotent or a cruell God That every contradiction and departing from the Analogy of Faith doth derogate from God and divers such grounds and such inferences as every man confesses and acknowledges to be naturally and necessarily consequent these are Testimonia ab homine Testimonies that passe like currant money from man to man obvious to every man suspicious to none Thus it is in the generall but then when it is deduced to a more particular triall what is the sense of such or such a place when Christ saith Scrutamini Scripturas search the Scriptures non mittit ad simplicem lectionem sed ad scrutationem exquisitam It is not a bare reading but a diligent searching that is enjoyned us Now they that will search must have a warrant to search they upon whom thou must rely for the sense of the Scriptures must be sent of God by his Church Thou art robbed of all devested of all if the Scriptures be taken from thee Thou hast no where to search blesse God therefore that hath kept thee in possession of that sacred Treasure the Scriptures and then if any part of that treasure ly out of thy reach or ly in the dark so as that thou understandest not the place search that is apply thy self to them that have warrant to search and thou shalt lack no light necessary for thee Either thou shalt understand that place or the not understanding of it shall not be imputed to thee nor thy salvation hindred by that Ignorance It is but to a woman that Saint Hierome saith Ama Scripturas amabit te Sapientia Love the Scriptures and Wisdome will love thee The weaknesse of her Sex must not avert her from reading the Scriptures It is instruction for a Childe and for a Girle that the same Father giveth Septem annorum discat memoriter Psalterium As soone as she is seaven yeares old let her learn all the Psalmes without book the tendernesse of her age must not avert her from the Scriptures It is to the whole Congregation consisting of all sorts and sexes that Saint Chrysostome saith Hortor hortari non desinam I alwayes doe and alwayes will exhort you ut cum domi fueritis assiduae lectioni Scripturarum vacetis that at home in your owne houses you accustome your selves to a dayly reading of the Scriptures And after to such men as found or forced excuses for reading them he saith with compassion and indignation too O homo non est tuum Scripturas evolvere
Conscientiâ scrupulosâ when the conscience hath received any single scruple or suspicion to the contrary and so too in conscientiâ opinante in a conscience that hath conceived but an opinion which is far from a debated and deliberate determination yea in conscientiâ errante though the conscience be in an error yet it is sin to do aright against the conscience but then as it is a sin to do against the conscience labouring under any of these infirmities so is it a greater sin not to labour to recover the conscience and devest it of those scruples by their advise whom God hath indued with knowledg and power for that purpose For as it is in civill Iudicature God refers causes to them and according to their reports Gods ordinary way is to decree the cause to loose where they loose to binde where they binde Their imperfections or their corruptions God knowes how to punish in them but thou shalt have the recompense of thy humility and thy obedience to his ordinance in hearkning to them whom he hath set over thee for the rectifying of thy conscience Neither is this to erect a parochiall popacy to make every minister a Pope in his own parish or to re-enthrall you to a necessity of communicating all your sinnes or all your doubtfull actions to him God forbid God of his goodnesse hath delivered us from that bondage and butchery of the conscience which our Fathers suffered from Rome and Anathema and Anathema Maran-atha cursed be he till the Lord comes and cursed when the Lord comes that should go about to bring us in a relapse in an eddy in a whirlepoole into that disconsolate estate or into any of the pestilent errors of that Church But since you think it no diminution to you to consult with a Physician for the state of your body or with a Lawyer for your Lands since you are not borne nor grown good Physicians and good Lawyers why should you think your selves born or grown so good Divines that you need no counsell in doubtfull cases from other men And therefore as for the Law that governs us that is the Scripture we go the way that Christ did to receive the testimony of man both for the body that Scriptures there are and for the limbs of that body that these books make up those Scriptures and for the soule of this body that this is the sense of the holy Ghost in that place so for our Iudge which is the conscience let that be directed before hand by their advise whom God hath set over us and setled and quieted in us by their testimony who are the witnesses of our conversation And so we have done with our Problematicall part we have asked and answered both these questions Why this light requires any testimony and that is because exhalations and damps and vapours arise first from our ignorance then from our incredulity after from our negligence in practising and lastly from our slipperinesse in relapsing and therefore we need more and more attestations and remembrances of this light and the other question Why after so many other testimonies from himself from his Father from the Angell from the Star from the Magi from Simeon from Anna from many many very many more he required this testimony of Iohn and that is because all those other witnesses had testified long before and because God in all matters belonging to Religion here or to salvation hereafter refers us to man but to man sent and ordained by God for our direction that we may do well and to the testimony of good men that we have done well And so we passe to our dogmaticall part what his testimony was what Iohn Baptist and his successors in preaching and preparing the ways of Christ are sent to do he was sent to beare witnesse of that light Princes which send Ambassadors use to give them a Commission containing the generall scope of the businesse committed to them and then Instructions for the fittest way to bring that businesse to effect And upon due contemplation of both these his Commission and his Instructions arises the use of the Ambassadors judgement and discretion in making his Commission and his Instructions which do not always agree in all points but are often various and perplext serve most advantagiously towards the ends of his negotiation Iohn Baptist had both therefore they minister three considerations unto us first his Commission what that was and then his Instructions what they were and lastly the execution how he proceeded therein His Commission was drawn up and written in Esa◠and recorded and entred into Gods Rolls by the Evangelists It was To prepare the way of the Lord to make streight his paths that therefore every valley should be exalted every mountaine made law and all this he was to cry out to make them inexcusable who contemne the outward Ministery and relie upon private inspirations This Commission lasts during Gods pleasure and Gods pleasure is that it should last to the end of the world Therefore are we also joyned in Commission with Iohn and we cry out still to you to all those purposes First that you prepare the way of the Lord. But when we bid you do so we do not meane that this preparing or pre-disposing of your selves is in your selves that you can prevent Gods preventing grace or mellow or supple or fit your selves for the entrance of that grace by any naturall faculty in your selves When we speak of a co-operation a joint working with the grace of God or of a post-operation an after working upon the virtue of a former grace this co-operation this post-operation must be mollified with a good concurrent cause with that grace So there is a good sense of co-operation and post-operation but praeoperation that we should work before God work upon us can admit no good interpretation I could as soon beleeve that I had a being before God was as that I had a will to good before God moved it But then God having made his way into you by his preventing grace prepare that way not your way but his way sayes our Commission that is that way that he hath made in you prepare that by forbearing and avoiding to cast new hinderances in that way In sadnesse and dejections of spirit seek not your comfort in drinke in musique in comedies in conversation for this is but a preparing a way of your owne To prepare the Lords way is to look and consider what way the Lord hath taken in the like cases in the like distresses with other servants of his and to prepare that way in thy self and to assure thy selfe that God hath but practised upon others that he might be perfect when he comes to thee and that he intends to thee in these thy tribulations all that he hath promised to all all that he hath already performed to any one Prepare his way apply that way in which he hath gone
to others to thy self And then by our Commission we cry out to you to make streight his paths In which we do not require that you should absolutely rectifie all the deformities and crookednesse which that Tortuositas Serpentis the winding of the old Serpent hath brought you to for now the streame of our corrupt nature is accustomed to that crooked channell and we cannot divert that we cannot come to an absolute directnesse and streightnesse and profession in this life and in this place the holy Ghost speaks but of a way a path not of our rest in the end but of our labour in the way Our Commission then is not to those sinlesse men that think they have nothing for God to forgive But when we bid you make streight his paths as before we directed you to take knowledge what his wayes towards others had been so here we intend that you should observe which is the Lords path into you by what way he comes oftnest into you who are his Temple and do not lock that doore do not pervert do not crosse do not deface that path The ordinary way even of the holy Ghost for the conveying of faith and supernaturall graces is as the way of worldly knowledge is by the senses where his way is by the care by hearing his word preached do not thou crosse that way of his by an inordinate delight in hearing the eloquence of the preacher for so thou hearest the man and not God and goest thy way and not his God hath divers wayes into divers men into some he comes at noone in the sunshine of prosperity to some in the dark and heavy clouds of adversity Some he affects with the musick of the Church some with some particular Collect or Prayer some with some passage in a Sermon which takes no hold of him that stands next him Watch the way of the Spirit of God into thee that way which he makes his path in which he comes oftnest to thee and by which thou findest thy self most affected and best disposed towards him and pervert not that path foule not that way Make streight his paths that is keepe them streight and when thou observest which is his path in thee by what means especially he workes upon thee meet him in that path embrace him in those meanes and alwayes bring a facile a fusil a ductile a tractable soule to the offers of his grace in his way Our Commission reaches to the exalting of your valleys Let every valley be exalted In which we bid you not to raise your selves in this world to such a spirituall heighth as to have no regard to this world to your bodies to your fortunes to your families Man is not all soule but a body too and as God hath married them together in thee so hath he commanded them mutuall duties towards one another and God allowes us large uses of temporall blessings and of recreations too To exalt valleyes is not to draw up flesh to the heighth of spirit that cannot be that should not be done But it is to draw you so much towards it as to consider and consider with an application that the very Law which was but the schoolmaster to the Gospell was given upon a mountaine That Moses could not so much as see the Land of promise till he was brought up into a mountaine That the inchoation of Christ glory which was his transfiguration was upon a mountaine That his conversation with God in prayer That his returne to his eternall Kingdom by his ascension was so too from a mountaine even his exinanition his evacuation his lowest humiliation his crucifying was upon a mountaine and he calls even that humiliation an exaltation Si exaltatus If I be exalted lifted up sayes Christ signifying what death he should die Now if our depressions our afflictions be exaltations so they were to Christ so they are to every good Christian how far doth God allow us an exalting of our vallies in a considering with a spirituall boldnesse the heighth and dignity of mankind and to what glory God hath created us Certainly man may avoid as many sinnes by this exalting his vallies this considering the heighth and dignity of his nature as by the humblest meditations in the world For upon those words of Iob Manus tuae fecerunt me Saint Gregory says Misericordiae judicis dignitatem suae conditionis opponit Iob presents the dignity of his creation by the hand of God as an inducement why God should regard him It is not his valley but his mountaines that he brings into Gods sight not that dust which God took into his hands when he made him but that person which the hands of God had made of that dust Man is an abridgement of all the world and as some Abridgements are greater then some other authors so is one man of more dignity then all the earth And therefore exalt thy vallies raise thy selfe above the pleasures that this earth can promise And above the sorrowes it can threaten too A painter can hardly diminish or contract an Elephant into so little a forme but that that Elephant when it is at the least will still be greater then an Ant at the life and the greatest Sinne hath diminished man shrowdly and brought him into a narrower compasse but yet his naturall immortality his soule cannot dye and his spirituall possibility even to the last gaspe of spending that immortality in the kingdome of glory and living for ever with God for otherwise our immortality were the heaviest part of our curse exalt this valley this cold of earth to a noble heighth How ill husbands then of this dignity are we by sinne to forfeit it by submitting our selves to inferior things either to gold then which every worme because a worme hath life and gold hath none is in nature more estimable and more precious Or to that which is lesse then gold to Beauty for there went neither labour nor study nor cost to the making of that the Father cannot diet himselfe so nor the mother so as to be sure of a faire child but it is a thing that hapned by chance wheresoever it is and as there are Diamonds of divers waters so men enthrall themselves in one clime to a black in another to a white beauty To that which is lesse then gold or Beauty voice opinion fame honour we sell our selves And though the good opinion of good men by good ways be worth our study yet popular applause and the voice of inconsiderate men is too cheape a price to set our selves at And yet it is hardly got too for as a ship that lies in harbour within land sometimes needs most of the points of the Compasse to bring her forth so if a man surrender himselfe wholly to the opinion of other men and have not his Criterium his touchstone within him he will need both North and South all the points of the
it and well To pray And therefore if from our words proceed any vexation to your consciences you must not say Transeat calix let that Cup passe no more of that matter for it is the physick that must first stirre the humour before it can purge it And if our words apply to your consciences the soverain balm of the merits of your Saviour and that thereupon your troubled consciences finde some rest be not too soon secure but proceed in your good beginnings and continue in hearing as we shall continue in all these manners of praying and intreating which fall into the word of our Text Obsecramus by being beholden to you for your application or making you beholden to us for our ministration which was the first use of the words of grieving for you or grieving you for your fins which was the second of troubling your consciences and then of setling them again in a calm reposednesse which was the third signification of the word in their Translation Yet does the Holy Ghost carry our office I speak of the manner of the execution of our office for for the office it self nothing can be more glorious then the ministration of the Gospel into lower terms then these He suffered his Apostles to be thought to be drink They were full of the Holy Ghost and they were thought full of new wine A dramme of zeal more then ordinary against a Patron or against a great Parishioner makes us presently scandalous Ministers Truly beloved we confesse one sign of drunkennesse is not to remember what we said If we doe not in our practise remember what we preached and live as we teach we are dead all the week and we are drunk upon the Sunday But Hannah praid and was thought drunk and this grieved her heart so must it us when you ascribe our zeale to the glory of God and the good of your souls to any inordinate passion or sinister purpose in us And yet hath the Holy Ghost laid us lower then this To be drunk is an alienation of the minde but it is but a short one but S. Paul was under the imputation of madnesse Nay our blessed Saviour himself did some such act of vehement zeal as that his very friends thought him mad S. Paul because his madnesse was imputed to a false cause to a pride in his much learning disavowed his madnesse I am not mad O noble Festus But when the cause was justifiable he thought his madnesse justifiable too If we be besides our selves it is for God and so long well enough Insaniebat amatoriam insaniam Paulus S. Paul was mad for love S. Paul did and we doe take into our contemplation the beauty of a Christian soul Through the ragged apparell of the afflictions of this life through the scarres and wounds and palenesse and morphews of sin and corruption we can look upon the soul it self and there see that incorruptible beauty that white and red which the innocency and the blood of Christ hath given it and we are mad for love of this soul and ready to doe any act of danger in the ways of persecution any act of diminution of our selves in the ways of humiliation to stand at her doore and pray and begge that she would be reconciled to God And yet does the Holy Ghost lay us lower then this too Mad men have some flashes some twilights some returns of sense and reason but the foole hath none And we are fools for Christ says the Apostle And not onely we the persons but the ministration it self the function it self is foolishnesse It pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that beleeve Anger will bear an action and Racah will bear an action but to say Foole was the heaviest imputation and we are fooles for Christ and pretend nothing to work by but the foolishnesse of preaching Lower then this we cannot be cast and higher then this we offer not to climbe Obsecramus we have no other Commission but to pray and to intreat and that we doe in his words in his tears in his blood and in his bowels who sent us we pray you in Christs stead which is that that constitutes our second Part with what respect you should receive us In mittendariis servanda dignitas mittentis To diminish the honour of his Master is not an humility but a prevarication in any Ambassadour and that is our quality expressed in this verse God is the Lord of Hosts and he is the Prince of peace He needs neither the Armies of Princes nor the wisdome of Councell Tables to come to his ends He is the Proprietary and owner of all the treasures in the world Ye have taken my silver and my gold and The silver is mine and the gold is mine All that you call yours all that you can call yours is his your selves are but the furniture of his house and your great hearts are but little boxes in his cabinet and he can fill them with dejection and sadnesse when he will And does any Prince govern at home by an Ambassadour he sends Pursuivants and Serjeants he sends not Ambassadours God does and we are they and we look to be received by you but as we perform those two laws which binde Ambassadours First Reisuae ne quis legatus esto Let no man be received as an Ambassadour that hath that title onely to negotiate for himself and doe his own businesse in that Country And then Nemini credatur sine principale mandato Let no man be received for an Ambassadour without his Letters of Credence and his Masters Commission To these two we submit our selves First we are not Rei nostrae legati we come not to doe our own businesse what businesse of ours is it what is it to us that you be reconciled to God Vae mihi si non Necessity is laid upon me and â—oe unto me if I preach not the Gospel but if I doe I have nothing to glory in nay I may be a reprobate my self I can claim no more at Gods hand for this service then the Sun can for shining upon the earth or the earth for producing flowers and fruits and therefore we are not Rei nostraeâ— legati Ambassadours in our own behalfs and to doe our own businesse Indeed where men are sent out to vent and utter the ware and merchandises of the Church and Court of Rome to proclaime and advance the value and efficacy of uncertain reliques and superstitious charms and incantations when they are sent to sell particular sinnes at a certain price and to take so much for an incest so much for a murder when they are sent with many summs of Indulgencies at once as they are now to the Indies and were heretofore to us when these Indulgencies are accompanied with this Doctrine that if the Indulgence require a certain peece of money to be given for it as for the most part they doe if
proceedings by the benefit of those helps shall but aggravate our condemnation Alpha and Omega make up the Name of Christ and between Alpha and Omega are all the letters of the Alphabet included A Christian is made up of Alpha and Omega and all between He must begin well imbrace the true Church and live well according to the profession of that true Church and die well according to that former holy life and practise Truth in the beginning Zeale all the way and Constancie in the end make up a Christian. Otherwise for all this filiation children may be disinherited or submitted to such calamities as these which are interminated upon the children of Israel which constitute our second part They shall be without a King and without a Prince and without a Sacrifice and without an Ephod and without a Teraphim Disobedient children are not cast off but yet disobedience is not left uncorrected Be mercifull but mercifull so as your Father in Heaven is mercifull Be not so mercifull upon any private respect as to be thereby cruell to the publique And be Iust but just as your Father in Heaven is just Hate not the vice of a man so as thereby to hate the man himself God hath promised to be an enemy to our enemies an adversary to our adversaries but God is no irreconciliable enemy no implacable no inexorable Adversary For that hatred which David calls Odium perfectum I have hated them with a perfect hatred is not onely a vehement hatred but as Saint Hilary calls it Odium religiosum a hatred that may consist with religion That I hate not another man for his religion so as that I lose all religion in my self by such a hating of him And Saint Augustine calls it Odium Charitativum a hate that may consist with Charitie that I hate no man for his peremptory uncharitablenesse towards my religion so as to lose mine own Charity for I am come to one point of his religion if I come to be as uncharitable as he God and Kings are at a near distance All gods Magistrates and inferiour persons are at a near distance all dust As God proceeds with a King with Iehosaphat in that temper that moderation Shouldst thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord So men with men Magistrates with inferiour men learned men with ignorant men should proceed with Saint Pauls moderation If any man obey not but be refractary unconformable note that man saith the Apostle and have no company with him but yet count him not as an enemy The union of the two Natures in Christ give us a faire example that Divinity and Humanity may consist together No Religion induces Inhumanity no Piety no Zeal destroyes nature and since there is a time to hate and a time to love then is love most seasonable when other civill contracts civill alliances civill concurrences have soupled and intenerated the dispositions of persons or nations formerly farther asunder to a better possibility to a fairer probability to a nearer propinquity of hearkning to one another That Christ might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Crosse having slain the enmity thereby Civill Offices may worke upon religions too and where that may follow That our mildnesse in civill things may prevail upon their obduration in religion there is the time to love But in cases where civill peace and religious foundations are both shaked that the State and the Church as they are both in one bottome so they are chased by one Pirate I hate not with a perfect hatred not perfect towards God except I declare and urge and presse home the truth of God against their errours in my Ministery nor perfect towards man except I advance in my place the execution of those Lawes against their practises without which they are inabled nay incouraged nay perswaded nay intreated to goe forward in those practises God himself proceeds against his own children so farre and dearer then those children were to God can no friends be to us no allies to any Prince That they should be without King without Prince without Sacrifice without Image without Ephod without Teraphim that is without Temporall without Ecclesiasticall Government First then we presume we presuppose and that necessarily every peece of this part of our Text to fall under the Commination they were threatned with the losse of every particular and therefore they were the worse for every particular losse Not the worse onely because they thought themselves the worse because they had fixed their love and their delight upon these things but because they were really the better for having them it was really a curse a Commination that they should lose them as well that they should lose their Ephod and their Image and their Teraphim as that they should lose their Sacrifices But first though that other fall also within the Commination that they should be without a setled form of Religion without Sacrifice and Ephod and the rest the first thing that the Commination falls upon is That they should be without a Civill form of government without King and without Prince For though our Religion prepare us to our Bene esse our well-being our everlasting happinesse yet it is the State the civill and peaceable government which preserves our very Esse our very Being and there cannot be a Bene esse without an Esse a well and a happy Being except there be first a Being established It is the State the Law that constitutes Families and Cities and Propriety and Magistracy and Jurisdiction The State the Law preserves and distingâ—â—shes not onely the Meum Tuum the Possessions of men but the Me Te the very persons of men The Law tels me not onely whose land I must call every Acre but whose son I must call every man Therefore God made the Body before the Soule Therefore there is in man a vegetative and a sensitive soule before an immortall and reasonable soule enter Therefore also in this place God proposes first the Civil State the temporall Government what it is to have a King and a Prince before he proposes the happinesse of a Church and a Religion not but that our Religion conduces to the greater happinesse but that our Religion cannot be conserved except the Civil State and temporall Government be conserved too The first thing then that the Commination fals upon is the losse of their Temporall State But the Commination doth not fall so fully upon the exclusion of all formes of Government as upon the exclusion of Monarchy It does not so expresly threaten an Anâ—â—chy that they should have no Government no Governours It is not sine Regimine but sine Rege If they had any they should not have the best They should be without a King Now if with S. Hierome and others that accompany him in that interpretation we take the Prophecy of this Text to be fulfilled
their places A declination in the Kingdome of the Jewes in the body of the Kingdome in the soul of the State in the form of Government was such an Earth-quake as could leave nothing standing Of all things that are there was an Idea in God there was a modell a platform an examplar of every thing which God produced and created in Time in the mind and purpose of God before Of all things God had and Idea a preconception but of Monarchy of Kingdome God who is but one is the Idea God himselfe in his Unity â—s the Modell He is the Type of Monarchy He made but one World for this and the next are not two Worlds This is but the Morning and that the everlasting Noon of one and the same Day which shall have no Night They are not two Houses This is the Gallery and that the Bed-chamber of one and the same Palace which shall feel no ruine He made this one World but one Eye The Sunne The Moone is not another Eye but a Glasse upon which the Sunne reflects He made this one World but one Eare The Church He tells not us that he heares by a left Eare by Saints but by that right Eare the Church he doth There is One God One Faith One Baptisme and these lead us to the love of one Soveraign of Monarchy of Kingdome In that Name God hath convayed to us the state of Grace and the state of Glory too and he hath promised both in injoining that Petition Adveniat Regnum Thy Kingdome come Thy Kingdome of Grace here Thy Kingdome of Glory hereafter All forms of Government have one and the same Soul that is Soveraignty That resides somewhere in every form and this Soveraignty is in them all from one and the same Root from the Lord of Lords from God himself for all Power is of God But yet this form of a Monarchy of a Kingdome is a more lively and a more masculin Organe and Instrument of this Soul of Soveraigntie then the other forms are Wee are sure Women have Soules as well as Men but yet it is not so expressed that God breathed a Soule into Woman as hee did into Man All formes of Government have this Soule but yet God infuseth it more manifestly and more effectually in that forme in a Kingdome All places are alike neare to Heaven yet Christ would take a Hill for his Ascension All governments may justly represent God to mee who is the God of Order and fountaine of all government but yet I am more eased and more accustomed to the contemplation of Heaven in that notion as Heaven is a kingdome by having been borne and bred in a Monarchy God is a Type of that and that is a Type of Heaven This form then in nature the noblest in use the profitablest of all others God always intended to his best-beloved people God always meant that the Jews should have a King though he prepared them in other forms before As hee meant them peace at last though he exercised them in Warre and meant them the land of promise though he led them through the Wildernesse so he meant them a King though he prepared them by Iudges God intended it in himselfe and he declared it to them 400 yeares before he have them a King he instructed them what kinde of King they should set over them when they came to that kinde of government And long before that he made a promise by Iacob to Iudah of a Kingdome and that the Scepter should not depart from him till Siloh came And when God came neare the time in which he intended to them that government in the time of Samuel who was the immediate predecessor to their first King Saul God made way for a Monarchy for Samuel had a much more absolute authority in that State then any of the Judges had Samuel judged them and in their petition for a King they ask but that Make us a King to judge us Samuel was little lesse then a King and Sauls reign and his are reckoned both in one number and made as the reign of one man when it is said in the Acts that Saul reigned 40 yeares Samuels time is included in that number for all the yeares from the death of Eli â— to the beginning of David are but 40 years God meant them a Kingdome in himselfe promised them a kingdome in Iudah made Laws for their kingdome in Deuteronomy made way for the kingdome in Samuel and why then was God displeased with their petition for a Kingdome It was a greater fault in them then it could have been in any other people to ask a King not that it was not the most desirable form of government but that God governed them so immediately so presentially himselfe as that it was an ingratefull intemperance in them to turn upon any other meanes God had ever performed that which he promised them in that which comprehended all Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people And therefore Iosephus hath expressed it well All other people are under the forme of Democratiâ— or Aristocratiâ— or such other formes composed of men Sed noster Legislator Theocratiam instituit The Jews were onely under a Theocratiâ— an immediate government of God he judged them himselfe and hee himselfe fought their battels And therefore God says to Samuel They have not rejected thee Thou wast not King But they have rejected mee I was To bee weary of God is it enough to call it a levity But if they did onely compare forme with forme and not God himselfe with any forme if they did onely thinke Monarchy best and beleeve that God intended a Monarchy to them yet yet to limit God his time and to make God performe his promise before his day was a fault and inexcusable Daniel saw that the Messiah should come within seventy weekes Daniel did not say Lord let it bee within fifty weekes or let it bee this weeke The Martyrs under the Altar cry Vsqueque Domine How long Lord but then they leave it there Even as long as pleaseth thee Their petition should have been Adveniat regnum â—wordsâ— Let us have that Kingdome which because thou knowest it is good for us thou hast promised to us But yet Fiat voluntas tua Let us have it then when thy Wisdome sees it best for us You said to mee says Samuel by way of Reproofe and Increpation You said Nay but a King shall reigne over us Now that was not their fault but that which followes The unseasonablesse and inconsideration of their clamorous Petition You said a King shall reigne over us when the Lord your God was your King They would not trust Gods meanes there was their first fault And then though they desired a thing good in it selfe and a good intended to them yet they fixed God his time and they would not stay his leisure And either of these To aske other things then
God would give or at other times then God would give them is displeasing to him Use his meanes and stay his leisure But yet though God were displeased with them he executed his own purpose he was angry with their manner of asking a King but yet he gave them a King Howsoever God be displeased with them who prevaricate in his cause who should sustaine it and doe not Gods cause shall be sustained though they doe it not We may distinguish the period of the Jewish State well enough thus that they had Infantiam or pueritiam their infancy their minority in Adam and the first Patriarchs till the flood that they had Adolescentiam A growing time from Noah through the other Patriarchs till Moses and that they had Iuventuâ—em a youth and strength from Moses through the Judges to Saul but then they had Virilitatom virilem atatem their established vigor under their Kings and after them they fell in sâ—nectutem into a wretched and miserable decay of old age and decrepitnesse their kingdome was their best State and so much God in the Prophet intimates pregnantly when refreshing to their memories in a particular Inventory and Catalogue all his former benefits to them how he clothed Ierusalem how he fed her how he adorned her he summed up all in this one profecisti in regnum I have advanced thee to be a kingdome there was the Tropique there was the Solstice farther then that in this world we know not how God could goe a kingdome was really the best State upon Earth and Symbolically the best figure and Type of Heaven And therefore when the Prophet Ieremy historically beheld the declination of this kingdome in the death of Iâ—osiah and prophetically foresaw the ruines thereof in the transportition of Zedekiah or if he had seen that historically too yet prophetically he foresaw the utter devastation and depopulation and extermination which scattered that nation soon after Christ to this day and God and no man knows for how long when they who were a kingdome are now no where a village and they who had such Kings have now no where a Constable of their owne historically prophetically Ieremy had just cause of lamentation for the danger of that kingdome We had so also for this our kingdome this day God hath given us a kingdome not as other kingdomes made up of divers Cities but of divers kingdomes and all those kingdomes were destined to desolation in one minute It was not onely the destruction of the persons present but of the kingdomâ— for to submit the kingdome to the government of a forein Prelate was to destroy the Monarchy to annihilate the Supremacy to ruine the very forme of a kingdome a kingdome under another head besides the King is not a kingdome as ours is The oath that the Emperour takes to the Pope is by their authours called Iuramentum Sidelitatis an oath of Allegiance and if they had brought our Kings to take an oath of Allegiance so this were no kingdome Pope Nicolas the second went about to create two kingdomes that of Tuscan and that of Lombardy his successors have gone about to destroy more for to make it depend upon him were to destroy our kingdome That they have attempted historically and as long as these Axiomes and Aphorismes remaine in their Authors that one shall say that De jurs by right all Christian kingdomes doe hold of the Pope and De facto are forfeited to the Hope and another shall say that Christendome would be better governed if the Pope would take the forfeiture and so bring all these Royall farmes into his owne demesne we see also their propheticall desire their propheticall intention against this kingdome what they would doe In their Actions we have their history in their Axioms we have their prophecy Ieremy lamented the desolation of the kingdome but that expressed in the death and destruction of the King Hee did not divide the King and the kingdome as if the kingdome could do well and the King in distresse Umnipotentia Dei Asylum haeresicâ—rum it is well said by more then one of the ancients that the Omnipotence of God is the Sanctuary of Heretiques when they would establish any heresie they flye to Gods Almightinesse God can doe All therefore he can doe this So in the Roman Church they establish their heresie of Transubstantiation And so their deliverance of soules not from Purgatory onely but from Hell it selfe They think to stop all mouths with that God can do it no man dares deny that when as if that were granted which in such things as naturally imply contradiction in themselves or contradiction to Gods word cannot be granted for God cannot do that God cannot lye yet though God can do it concludes not that God will do it or hath done it Omnipotentiâ— Dei Asylum haereticorum The omnipotency of God is the Sanctuary of Heretiques and so Salus Regni is Asylum proditorum Greater Treasons and Seditions and Rebellions have never been set on foote then upon colour and pretence of a care of the State and of the good of the Kingdome Every where the King is Sponsus Regni the husband of the Kingdome and to make love to the Kings wife and undervalue him must necessarily make any King jealous The King is Anima Regni The soule of the Kingdome and to provide for the health of the body with the detriment of the soule is perverse physick The King is Caput Regni The head of the Kingdome and to cure a Member by cutting off the head is ill surgery Man and wife soule and body head and members God hath joyned and those whom God hath joyned let no man sever Salus Regni Asylum Proditorum To pretend to uphold the Kingdome and overthrow the King hath ever been the tentation before and the excuse after in the greatest Treasons In that action of the Iews which we insisted upon before in their pressing for a King The Elders of Israel were gathered together and so far they were in their way for this was no popular no seditious Assembly of light and turbulent men but The Elders And then they came to Samuel And so farre they were in their right way too for they held no counsels apart but came to the right place for redresse of grievances to their then highest Governour to Samuel When they were thus lawfully met they forbeare not to lay open unto him the injustice of his greatest Officers though it concerned the very Sonnes of Samuel and thus farre they kept within their convenient limits But when they would presse Samuel to a new way of remedy to an inconvenient way to a present way to their own way and referre nothing to him what care soever they pretended of the good of the State it is evident that they had no good opinion of Samuel himself and even that displeased God That they were ill affected to that person whom he had set over
think that of all this Congregation which lookes me in the face now I should not meet one at the Resurrection at the right hand of God! And for so much as concerns me it is all one if none of you be saved as if none of you be saved by my help my means my assistance my preaching If I put you upon miraculous wayes to be saved without hearing or upon extraordinary wayes to be saved by hearing others this shall aggravate my condemnation though you be saved How much more heavy must my burden be if by my negligence both I and you perish too So then this calling this marriage is a burden every way When at any midnight I heare a bell toll from this steeple must not I say to my selfe what have I done at any time for the instructing or rectifying of that mans Conscience who lieth there now ready to deliver up his own account and my account to Almighty God If he be not able to make a good account he and I are in danger because I have not enabled him and though he be for himself able that delivers not me if I have been no instrument for the doing of it Many many burdens lie upon this calling upon this marriage but our recompense is that marriage is as well an honourable as a painefull calling If be a Father where is mine Honour faith God If you can answer God why you have it in your Prophets They have it that satisfieth him that dischargeth you For he that receiveth them receiveth him But if Christ who repeats that complaint in every one of us That a Prophet hath no honour in his own Countrie that a Pastor is least respected of his own stock you have not your Quctus est for the honour due to God God never discharges the honour due to him if it be not paid into their hands whom he sendeth for it to them upon whom he hath directed it Would the King believe that man to honour him that violateth his Image or that calumniateth his Ambassadour Every man is the Image of God every Creature is the Ambassadour of God The Heavens and as well as the Heavens the Earth declare the glory of God but the Civill Magistrate and the Spirituall Paster who have married the two Daughters of God The state and the Church are the Images and Ambassadours of God in a higher and more peculiar sense and for that marriage are to be honoured And then Honour implieth that by which Honour subsisteth maintenance and they which withdraw that injuriously or with-hold that contentiously dishonour God in the dishonour of his servants and so make this marriage this calling onely burdensome and not honourable So then the interest of your particular Minister and the particular Church being such as between Man and Wife a marriage we consider the uses of marriage in Gods first intention and apply them to this marriage Gods first intentions in marriage were two In adjutorium for mutuall helpers and in prolem for procreation and education of Children For both these are we made Husbands of Churches in prolem to assist in the regeneration of Children for the inheritance of Heaven and in adjutorium to be helpers to one another And therefore if the husband the Pastor put the wife his flock in a circumcision to pare themselves to the quick to take from their necessary means to sustain their families to satisfie him the wife will say as Zipporah said to Moses sponâ— sus sanguinum a bloudy husband art thou that exactest and extortest more then is due In that case the Husband is no helper But if we be alwayes ready to help your children over the threshold as Saint Augustine calls Baptisme Limen Ecclesiae alwayes ready to Baptize the Children if we be alwayes ready to help you in all your spirituall diseases to that Cordiall that Balsamum the body and bloud of Christ Iesus If we be alwayes ready to help you in all your bodily distresses ready even at your last gasp to open your eyes then when your best friends are ready to close them ready to deliver your souls into the hands of God when all the rest about you are ready to receive into their hands that which you leave behinde you and then ready to lay up the garments of your soules your bodies in the wardrobe the grave till you call for them and put them on again in the resurrection then are we truely helpers true husbands and then if the Wife will say as Iobs wife to the husband Curse God and die be sorry that thou hast taken this Profession upon thee and live in penury and die in povertie In a word if he presse too much if she withdraw too much this frustrates Gods purpose in making that a marriage they are not mutuall helpers to one another These were Gods two principall intentions in marriage in adjutorium in prolem But then mans fall induced a third in remedium That for a remedy against burning and to avoid fornication every man should have his own wife every woman her own husband And so in remedium for a remedy against spirituall fornication of running after other men in other places out of disaffection to their own Pastor or over affecting another God hath given every wife her own husband Every Church her own Pastor And to all these purposes our function is a marriage It is a marriage it deserves the honour it undertakes the burden of that state and then it is a marriage of a widow of a Church left in widow-hood by the death of her former husband In the Law literally God forbad the High Priest to marry a widdow The Romane Church continues that literally and more they extend it that which was in figure enjoined to the High Priest onely they in fact extend to all Priests no man that ever married a widow may be a priest though she be dead when he desires orders There is no question but there is a more exemplary sanctity required in the Priest then in other persons and more in those who are in high places in the Church then in those of inferiour Jurisdictions and the name and title of Virginity hath ever been exhibited as an Embleme as a Type of especiall Sanctity And as such the Apostle uses it when he saith That he would present the Church of Corinth as a chaste Virgine to Christ That is as chaste as a Virgin though married for so he saith in the words immediately before That he had espoused them to a husband As marriage is an honourable state though in poverty so is the bed undefiled with strange lust a chaste bed even in marriage And in the accommodation of the Figure to the present occasion our marriage to severall Churches If we might marry no widowes no Churches which had been wives to former husbands we should finde few Virgins that is Churches newly erected for us But when the wife of a former husband is left
for the New that there was an Old so the two testaments grow one Bible so in these two Affections if there were not a jealousie a fear of losing God we could not love him nor can we fear to lose him except we doe love him Place the affection by what name soever upon the right object God and I have in some measure done that which this Text directed Taught you the fear of the Lord if I send you away in either disposition Timorous or amorous possessed with either the fear or the love of God for this fear is inchoative love and this love is consummative fear The love of God begins in fear and the fear of God ends in love and that love can never end for God is love SERMON XLVII An Anniversary Sermon preached at St. Dunstans upon the commemoration of a Parishioner a Benefactor to that Parish GEN. 3. 24. And dust shalt thou eat all the dayes of thy life THis is Gods malediction upon the Serpent in Paradise There in the Region in the Store-house of all plenty he must starve This is the Serpents perpetuall fast his everlasting Lent Dust shalt thou eat all the dayes of thy life There is a generation derived from this Serpent Progenies viperarum a generation of Vipers that will needs in a great and unnecessary measure keep this Serpents Lent and binde themselves to performe his fact for the Carthusian will eat no flesh and yet I never saw better bodied men men of better habitudes and constitution howsoever they recompense their abstinence from flesh and the Fueillans will eat neither flesh nor fish but roots and fallets and yet amongst them amongst men so enfeebled by roots was bred up that man who was both malicious courage and bodily strength to kill the last King who was killed amongst them They will be above others in their fasts Fish and Roots will they eat all the dayes of their life but their Master will be above them in his fast Dust must he eat all the dayes of his life It is Luthers observation upon this place That in all Moses his Books God never spoke so long so much together as here upon this occasion Indeed the occasion was great It was the arraignment of all the world and more of mankinde and of Angels too of Adam and Eve and there were no more of them and then of the Serpent and of Satan in that and of all the fallen Angels in him For the sentence which God as Judge gave upon them upon all these Malefactors of that part which fell upon the woman all our mothers are experimentall witnesses they brought forth us in sorrow and in travaile Of that part of the sentence which fell upon man every one of us is an experimentall witnesse for in every calling in the sweat of our face we eat our bread And of that part of the Judgement which was inflicted upon the Serpent and Satan in him this dead brother of ours who lyes in this consecrated earth is an experimentall witnesse who being by death reduced to the state of dust for so much of him as is dust that is for his dead body and then for so long time as he is to remaine in that state of dust is in the portion and jurisdiction and possession of the Serpent that is in the state which the Serpent hath induced upon man and dust must he eat all the dayes of his life In passing thorough these words we shall make but these two steps first What the Serpent lost by this judgement inflicted upon him and secondly What man gained by it for these two considerations imbrace much involve much first That Gods anger is so intensive and so extensive so spreading and so vehement as that in his Justice he would not spare the Serpent who had no voluntary no innate no naturall ill disposition towards man but was onely made the instrument of Satan in the overthrow of man And then that Gods mercy is so large so overflowing so super-abundant as that even in his Judgement upon the Serpent he would provide mercy for man For as it is a great waight of judgement upon the Serpent that the Serpent must eat dust so is it a great degree of mercy to man that the Serpent must eate but dust because mans best part is not subject to be served in at his table the soule cannot become dust and dust must he eate all the dayes of his life O in what little sinne though but a sinne of omission though but a sinne of ignorance in what circumstance of sinne may I hope to scape Judgement if God punished the Serpent who was violently and involuntarily transported in this action And in what depth in what height in what hainousnesse in what multiplicity of sin can I doubt of the mercy of my God who makes judgement it self the instrument the engin the Chariot of his mercy What room is there left for presumption if the Serpent the passive Serpent were punished What room for desperation if in the punishment there be a manifestation of mercy The Serpent must eate dust that is his condemnation but he shall eate no better meat he shall eate but dust there is mans consolation First then as it is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God so is it an impossible thing to scape it God is not ashamed of being jealous he does not onely pronounce that he is a jealous God but he desires to be known by none other name The Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God so jealous as that he will not have his name uttered in vaine not onely not blasphemed not sworne by but not used indifferently transitorily not Proverbially occasionally not in vaine And if it be what then Even for this he will visite to the third and fourth generation and three and foure are seven and seven is infinite So jealous as that in the case of the Angels not for looking upon any other Creatures or trusting in them for when they fell as it is ordinarily received there were no other creatures made but for not looking immedidiately directly upon God but reflecting upon themselves and trusting in their own naturall parts God threw those Angels into so irrecoverable and bottomelesse a depth as that the merits of Christ Jesus though of infinite super-infinite value doe not boye them up so jealous a God is God so jealous as that in Adams case for over-loving his own wife for his over tender compassion of her foreating the forbidden fruit ne contristaretur delicias suas as Saint Hierome layes his fault left he should deject her into an inordinate and desperate malancholy and so make her incapable of Gods mercy God threw the first man and in him all out of Paradise out of both Paradises out of that of rest and plenty here and that of Joy and Glory hereafter Consider Balaams sin about cursing Gods people or Moses sinne
about striking the rock and wouldst not thou be glad to change sinnes with either of them Are not thy sinnes greater heavier sinnes And yet wouldest thou not be sorry to undergoe their punishments are not thy punishments lesse Hast thou found hony says the holy Ghost in Solomon and he says it promiscuously and universally to every body eate as much as is sufficient Every man may And then Ionathan found that hony and knew not that it was forbidden by Sauls proclamation and did but taste it and that in a case of extreme necessity and Ionathan must die Any man might eate enough He did but taste and he must die If the Angels if Adam if Balaam if Moses if Ionathan did if the Serpent in the text could consider this how much cheaper God hath made sinne to thee then to them might they not have colour in the eye of a naturall man to expostulate with God Might not Ananias and Saphira who onely withheld a little of that which but a little before was all their own and now must die for that have been excusable if they had said at the last gaspe How many direct Sacrileges hath God forborne in such and such and we must die Mighty not Eâ— and Onan after their uncleane act upon themselves onely for which they died have been excusable if they had said at the last gaspe How many direct adulteries how many unnaturall incests hath God forborne in such and such and we must die How many loads of miserable wretches maist thou have seen suffer at ordinary executions when thou mightest have said with David Lord I have done wickedly but these sheep what have they done What had this Serpent done The Serpent was more subtile then any other beast It is a dangerous thing to have a capacity to doe evill to be fit to be wrought upon is a dangerous thing How many men have been drawn into danger because they were too rich How many women into solicatation and tentation because they were too beautifull Content thy selfe with such a mediocrity in these things as may make thee fit to serve God and to assist thy neighbour in a calling and be not ambitious of extraordinary excellency in any kinde It is a dangerous thing to have a capacity to do evill God would do a great work and he used the simplicity of the Asse he made Balaams Asse speak But the Devill makes use of the subtilty of the craft of the Serpent The Serpent is his Instrument no more but so but so much he is his instrument And then says S. Chrysostome Pater noster execuratur gladium as a naturall father would so our heavenly father does hate that which was the instrument of the ruine of his children Wherein hath he expressed that hate not to binde our selves to Iosephus his opinion though some of the ancients in the Christian Church have seconded that opinion too that at that time the Serpent could goe upright and speak and understand and knew what he did and so concurred actually and willingly to the temptation and destruction of man though he were but anothers instrument he became odious to God Our bodies of themselves if they had no souls have no disposition to any evill yet these bodies which are but instruments must burn in hell The earth was accursed for mans sin though the earth had not been so much as an instrument of his sin Onely because it was after to conduce to the punishment of his children it was accursed God withdrew his love from it And in the law those beasts with which men committed bestiality were to be stoned as well as the men How poor a plea will it be to say at the last day I got nothing by such an extortion to mine own purse it was for my master I made no use of that woman whom I had corrupted it was for a friend Miserable instrument of sin that hadst not the profit nor the pleasure and must have the damnation As the Prophet cals them that help us towards heaven Saviours Saviours shall come up on Mount Sion so are all that concurre instrumentally to the damnation of others Devils And at the last day we shall see many sinners saved and their instruments perish Adam and Eve both God interrogated and gave them time to meditate and to deprecate To Adam he says Where art thou and who told thee that thou wast naked And to Eve What is this that thou hast done But to the Serpent no such breathing The first words is Quia fecisti no calling for evidence whether he had done it or no but Because thou hast done it thou art accursed Sin is Treason against God and in Treason there is no Accessory The instrument is the Principall We passe from that first Part the consideration of heavy Judgements upon faults in appearance but small derived from the punishment of the Serpent though but an Instrument Let no man set a low value upon any sin let no man think it a little matter to sin some one sin and no more or that one sin but once and no oftner or that once but a little way in that sin and no father or all this to do another a pleasure though he take none in it himself as though there were charity in the society of sin and that it were an Alms to help a man to the means of sinning The least sin cost the blood of the Son of God and the least sinner may lose the benefit of it if he presume of it No man may cast himself from a Pinnacle because an Angel may support him no man may kill himself because there is a Resurrection of the body nor wound his soul to death by sin because there may be a resurrection of that by grace Here is no roome for presumption upon God but as little for desperation in God for in the punishment of the Serpent we shall see that his Mercy and Justice are inseparable that as all the Attributes of God make up but one God Goodnesse and Wisdome and Power are but one God so Mercy and Justice make up but one act they doe not onely duly suceed and second one another they doe not onely accompany one another they are not onely together but they are all one As Manna though it tasted to one man like one thing to another like another for it tasted to every man like that that that man liked best yet still was the same Manna so for Gods corrections they have a different taste in different persons and howsoever the Serpent found nothing but Judgement yet we find mercy even in that Judgement The evening and the morning make up the day says Moses as soon as he had named evening comes in morning no interposing of the mention of a dark and sad night between As soon as I hear of a Judgement I apprehend Mercy no interposing of any dark or sad suspition or diffidence
or distrust in God and his mercy and to that purpose we consider the Serpents punishment and espcially as it is heightned and aggravated in this Text Dust shalt thou eate all the days of thy life There are three degrees in the Serpents punishment First Super pectus He must creep upon his belly And secondly Inimicitias ponam I will put enmity God will raise him an enemy And thirdly Pulverem comedes Dust shalt thou eate all the days of thy life And in all these three though they aggravate the judgement upon the Serpent there is mercy to us For for the first that the Serpent now does but creep upon his belly S. Augustine and S. Gregory understands this belly to be the seat of our affections and our concupiscencies That the Serpent hath no power upon our heart nor upon our brain for if we bring a tentation to consideration to deliberation that we stop at it think of it study it and forsee the consequences this frustrates the tentation Our nobler faculties are always assisted with the grace of God to resist him though the belly the bowels of sin in sudden surprisals and ebullitions and foamings of our concupiscencies be subject to him for though it may seem that if that be the meaning which from S. Augustine and S. Gregory we have given you That the Serpent hath this power over our affections and that is intended by that The belly it should rather have been said super pectus vestrum Hee shall creep upon your belly then upon his owne yet indeed all that is his own which we have submitted and surrendred to him and hee is upon his own because we make our selves his for to whom ye yeeld your servants to obey his servants you are So that if he be super pectus nostrum if he be upon our belly he is upon his own But he does but creep He does not fly He is not presently upon you in a present possession of you you may discern the beginning of sin and the ways of sin in the approaches of the Serpent if you will The Serpent leaves a slime that discovers him where he creeps At least behinde him after a sin you may easily see occasion of remorse and detestation of that sinne and thereby prevent relapses if you have not watched him well enough in his creeping upon you When hee is a Lion he does not devoure all whom he findes He seeks whom he may devoure He may not devoure all nor any but those who cast themselves into his jaws by exposing themselves to tentations to sin He does but creep why did he any more before was his forme changed in this punishment Many of the Ancients think literally that it was and that before the Serpent did goe upon feet we are not sure of that nor is it much probable That may well be true which Luther says fuit suavissima bestiola till then it was a creature more lovely more sociable more conversable with man and as Calvin expresses the same Minus odiosus man did lesse abhor the Serpent before then after Beloved it is a degree of mercy if God bring that which was formerly a tentation to mee to a lesse power over me then formerly it had If deformity if sicknesse if age if opinion if satiety if inconstancy if any thing have worn out a tentation in that face that transported me heretofore it is a degree of mercy Though the Serpent be the same Serpent yet if he be not so acceptable so welcome to me as heretofore it is a happy a blessed change And so in that respect there was mercy It was a punishment to the Serpent that though he were the same still as before yet he was not able to insinuate himself as before because hee was not so welcome to us So the having of the same form which he had might be a punishment as nakednesse was to man after his fall He was naked before but he saw it not he felt it not he needed no cloathes before Now nakednesse brings shame and infirmities with it So God was so sparing towards the Serpent as that he made him not worse in nature then before and so mercifull to us as that hee made us more jealous of him and thereby more safe against him then before Which is also intimated pregnantly in the next step of his punishment Inimicitias ponam That God hath kindled a war between him and us Peace is a blessed state but it must be the peace of God for simeon and Levi are brethren they agree well enough together but they are instruments of evill and in that case the better agreement the worse So war is a fearfull state but not so if it be the war of God undertaken for his cause or by his Word Many times a State suffers by the security of a Peace and gains by the watchfulness of a War Wo be to that man is so at peace as that the spirit fights not against the flesh in him and wo to them too who would make them friends or reconcile them betweene whom God hath perpetuated an everlasting war The seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent Christ and Beliall Truth and Superstition Till God proclaimed a warre between them the Serpent did easily overthrow them but therefore God brought it to a war that man might stand upon his guard And so it was a Mercy But the greatest mercy is in the last and that which belongs most directly though all conduce pertinently and usefully to our present occasion Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life He must eat dust that is our bodies and carnall affections Hee was at a richer diet he was in better pasture before before he fed upon souls too But for that his head was bruised in the promise of a Messias who delivers our souls from his tyranny But the dust the body that body which for all the precious ransome and the rich and large mercy of the Messias must die that dust is left to the Serpent to Satan that is to that dissolution and that putrefaction which he hath induced upon man in death He eats but our dust in our death when he hath brought us to that that is a mercy nay he eats up our dust before our death which is a greater mercy our carnal affections our concupiscencies are eaten up and devoured by him and so even his eating is a sweeping a deansing a purging of us Many times we are the better for his tentations My discerning a storm makes me put on a cloak My discerning a tentation makes me see my weaknesse and fly to my strength Nay I am somtimes the safer and the readier for a victory by having been overcome by him The sense and the remorse of a sin after I have fallen into it puts me into a better state and establishes better conditions between God and me then were before when I felt no
nor over-mourne for that which as we have induced it upon our selves so God shall deliver us from at last that is both death and corruption after death and captivity in that comfortlesse state but for the resurection For so long we are to be dust and so long lasts the Serpents life Satans power over man dust must he eate all the days of his life In the meane time for our comfort in the way when this Serpent becomes a Lyon yet there is a Lyon of the Tribe of Iudah that is too strong for him so if he who is Serpens serpens humi the Serpent condemned to creep upon the ground doe transforme himselfe into a flying Serpent and attempt our nobler faculties there is Serpens exaltatus a Serpent lifted up in the wildernesse to recover all them that are stung and feel that they are stung with this Serpent this flying Serpent that is these high and continued sinnes The creeping Serpent the groveling Serpent is Craft the exalted Serpent the crucified Serpent is Wisdome All you worldly cares all your crafty bargaines all your subtill matches all your diggings into other means estates all your hedgings in of debts all your planting of children in great allyances all these diggings and hedgings and plantings savour of the earth and of the craft of that Serpent that creeps upon the earth But crucifie this craft of yours bring all your worldly subtilty under the Crosse of Christ Jesus husband your farmes so as you may give a good account to him presse your debts so as you would be pressed by him market and bargaine so as that you would give all to buy that field in which his treasure and his pearle is hid and then you have changed the Serpent from the Serpent of perdition creeping upon the earth to the Serpent of salvation exalted in the wildernesse Creeping wisedome that still looks downward is but craft Crucified wisedome that looks upward is truly wisedome Between you and that ground Serpent God hath kindled a war and the nearer you come to a peace with him the farther ye go from God and the more ye exaspetate the Lord of Hosts and you whet his sword against your own souls A truce with that Serpent is too near a peace to condition with your conscience for a time that you may continue in such a sin till you have paid for such a purchase married such a daughter bought such an annuity undermined and eaten out such an unthrift this truce though you mean to end it before you die is too near a peace with that Serpent between whom and you God hath kindled an everlasting war A cessation of Arms that is not to watch all his attempts and tentations not to examine all your particular actions A Treaty of Peace that is to dispute and debate in the behalf and favour of a sin to palliate to disguise to extenuate that sin this is too near a peace with this Serpent this creeping Serpent But in the other Serpent the crucified Serpent God hath reconciled to himself all things in heaven and earth and hell You have peace in the assistance of the Angels of heaven Peace in the contribution of the powerfull prayers and of the holy examples of the Saints upon earth peace in the victory and triumph over the power of hell peace from sins towards men peace of affections in your selves peace of conscience towards God From your childhood you have been called upon to hold your peace To be content is to hold your peace murmure not at God in any corrections of his and you doe hold this peace That creeping Serpent Satan is war and should be so The crucified Serpent Christ Jesus is peace and shall be so for ever The creeping Serpent eats our dust the strength of our bodies in sicknesses and our glory in the dust of the grave The crucified Serpent hath taken our flesh and our blood and given us his flesh and his blood for it And therefore as David when he was thought base for his holy freedome in dancing before the Ark said he would be more base so since we are all made of red earth let him that is red be more red Let him that is red with the blood of his own soul be red again in blushing for that rednesse and more red in the Communion of the blood of Christ Jesus whom we shall eat all the days of our life and be mystically and mysteriously and spiritually and Sacramentally united to him in this life and gloriously in the next In this state of dust and so in the territory of the Serpent the Tyrant of the dead lies this dead brother of ours and hath lien some years who occasions our meeting now and yearly upon this day and whose soul we doubt not is in the hands of God who is the God of the living And having gathered a good Gomer of Manna a good measure of temporall blessings in this life and derived a fair measure thereof upon them whom nature and law directed it upon and in whom we beseech God to blesse it hath also distributed something to the poor of this Parish yearly this day and something to a meeting for the conserving of neighbourly love and something for this exercise In which no doubt his intention was not so much to be yearly remembred himself as that his posterity and his neighbours might be yearly remembred to doe as he had done For this is truly to glorifie God in his Saints to sanctifie our selves in their examples To celebrate them is to imitate them For as it is probably conceived and agreeably to Gods Justice that they that write wanton books or make wanton pictures have additions of torment as often as other men are corrupted with their books or their pictures so may they who have left permanent examples of good works well be beleeved to receive additions of glory and joy when others are led by that to do the like And so they who are extracted and derived from him and they who dwelt about him may assist their own happiness and enlarge his by following his good example in good proportions Amen SERMON XLVIII Preached at St. Dunstans LAMENT 3. 1. I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath YOU remember in the history of the Passion of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus there was an Ecce homo a shewing an exhibiting of that man in whom we are all blessed Pilat presented him to the Jews so with that Ecce homo Behold the man That man upon whom the wormwood and the gall of all the ancient Prophecies and the venome and malignity of all the cruell instruments thereof was now poured out That man who was left as a tender plant and as a roote out of a dry ground without forme or beauty or comelinesse that wee should desire to see him as the Prophet Esay exhibits him That man who upon the brightnesse of
by nature they are Spirits but by office they are Angels and when they see so good effect of their service as that a Sinner is converted There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God Christ himselfe had a spirituall office and employment To give light to the blind and to inflict blindnesse upon those who thought they saw all And when that was done Exultavit in spiritu in that houre Christ rejoyced in the Spirit and said I thank thee ô Father Lord of Heaven and Earth c. To have something to doe to doe it and then to Rejoyce in having done it to embrace a calling to performe the Duties of that calling to joy and rest in the peacefull testimony of having done so this is Christianly done Christ did it Angelically done Angels doe it Godly done God does it As the Bridegroome rejoyceth in his Bride so doth thy God rejoyce in thee Example as well as the Rule repeats it to you Gaudete semper But how farre may we carry this joy To what outward declarations To laughing Saint Basil makes a round answer to a short question An in Universum ridere non licet May a Man laugh in no case Admodum perspicuum est It is very evident that a Man may not because Christ saies Vae vobis Wo be unto you that laugh And yet Saint Basil himselfe in another place sayes which we are rather to take in explanation than in contradiction of himselfe that that woe of Christ is cast in obstreperum Sonum non in sinceram hilaritatem upon a dissolute and undecent and immoderate laughting not upon true inward joy howsoever outwardly expressed At the promise of a Son Abraham fell on his face and laughed a religious Man and a grave Man 100 yeares old expressed this joy of his heart by this outward declaration Hierome's Translation reads it Risit in Corde he laughed within himselfe because Saint Hierome thought that was a weaknesse a declination towards unbeliefe to laugh at Gods promise as he thinks Abraham did But Saint Paul is a better Witnesse in his behalf Against hope he believed in hope he was not weake in faith he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief Quòd risit non incredulitatis sed exultation is indicium fuit his laughing was no ebbe of faith but a flood of joy It is not as S. Hierome takes it Risit in Corde putans celare deum apertè ridere non ausus he kept-in his laughing and durst not laugh out But as St. Ambrose says well Risus non irrisio diffidentis sed exultatio gratulantis he laughed not in a doubtfull scorne of Gods promise but in an overflowing of his own joy It is well expressed and well concluded O virum aeterno risu vere dignum sempiternae jueunditati bene praeparatum This was good evidence that he was a man well disposed for the joyes of heaven that he could conceive joy in the temporall blessings of God and that he thought nothing mis-becomming him that was an outward declaration of this joy It is a dangerous weaknesse to forbeare outward declarations of our sense of Gods goodnesse for feare of mis-interpretations to smother our present thankfulnesse for fear that some should say it was a levity to thank God so soon till God had done the whole work For God does sometimes leave half his work undone because he was not thanked for it When David danced and leaped and shouted before the Arke if he laughed too it mis-became him not Not to feele joy is an argument against religious tendernesse not to show that joy is an argument against thankfulnesse of the heart that is a stupidity this is a contempt A merry heart maketh a cheerfull countenance If it be within it will be without too Except I heare thee say in thine actions Gaudeo I do rejoyce I cannot know that thou hast heard the Apostle say Gaudete Joy for Gods blessings to us joy for Gods glory to himself may come ad Risum and farther Not onely ad Ridendum but ad Irridendum not onely to laugh in our own prosperity but to laugh them to scorne that would have impeached it They are put both together in God himself Ridebo and Irridebo I will laugh at your calamities and I will mock when your feare cometh And this being in that place intended of God is spoken in the person of Wisdome It mis-becomes not wisdome and gravity to laugh in Gods deliverances not to laugh to scorne those that would have blown up Gods Servants when it is carried so high as to the Kings of the Earth and the Rulers that take counsell against the Lord and against his Anoynted we may come Ad Gaudium to joy in Gods goodnesse but because their place and persons are sacred we leave the Ridere and the Irridere to God who says ver 4. That he will laugh at them and hold them in derision But at lower instruments lower persons may laugh when they fill the world with the Doctrine of killing of Kings and meane that that should animate men against such Kings as they call Heretiques and then finde in experience that this hath wrought onely to the killing of Kings of their own Religion we lament justly the event but yet we forbeare our Ridere and our Irridere at the crossing and the frustrating of their plots and practises Pharaohs Army was drowned Et Cecinit Moses Moses sung Sisera was slaine Et Cecinit Deborah Deborah sung Thus in the disappointing of Gods enemies Gods servants come to outward manifest signes of joy Not by a libellous and scurrill prophanation of persons that are sacred but in fitting Psalmes and Sermons and Prayers and publique Writings to the occasion to proceed to a Ridere and Irridere and as Saint Augustine reades that place of the Proverbs Superridere to laugh Gods Enemies into a confusion to see their Plots so often so often so often frustrated For so farre extends Gaudete Rejoyce evermore Joy then and cheerefulnesse is Sub praecepto it hath the nature of a commandment and so he departs from a commandment that departs and abandons himself into an inordinate sadnesse And therefore David chides his soule Why art thou cast down O my soul why art thou disquiesed within me And though he come after to dispute against this sadnesse of the soul which he had let in Hope yet in God and yet the Lord will command his loving kindnesse and my prayer shall be unto the God of my life yet he could not put it off but he imagines that he heares his enemies say Where is thy God and when he hath wrestled himself weary he falls back again in the last verse to his first faintnesse Why art thou cast down O my soule why art thou disquieted within me For As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather so is he that singeth Songs to
many and very good grammarians amongst the Hebrews have thought and said that that name by which God notifies himself to the world in the very beginning of Genesis which is Elohim as it is a plurall word there so it hath no singular they say we cannot name God but plurally so sociable so communicable so extensive so derivative of himself is God and so manifold are the beames and the emanations that flow out from him It is a garden worthy of your walking in it Come into it but by the gate of nature The naturall man had much to do to conceive God a God that should be but one God and therefore scattered his thoughts upon a multiplicity of Gods and he found it as he thought reasonable to think that there should be a God of Iustice a God of Wisedome a God of Power and so made the severall Attributes of God severall Gods and thought that one God might have enough to do with the matters of Iustice another with the causes that belonged to power and so also with the courts of Wisedome the naturall man as he cannot conceive a vacuity that any thing should be empty so he cannot conceive that any one thing though that be a God should fill all things and therefore strays upon a pluralty of Gods upon many Gods though in truth as Athanasius expresses it ex multitudine numinum nullitas numinum he that constitutes many Gods destroys all God for no God can be God if he be not all-sufficient yet naturally I mean in such nature as our nature is a man does not easily conceive God to be alone to be but one he thinks there should be company in the Godhead Bring it farther then so A man that lies in the dregs of obscured and vitiated nature does not easily discern unicum Deum a God that should be alone a God that should be but one God Reason rectified rectified by the word of God can discern this this one God But when by that means of the Scripture he does apprehend Deum unicum one God does he finde that God alone are there not three Persons though there be but one God 'T is true the RomaÌ„s mis-took infinitely in making 300 Iupiters Varro mis-took infinitely in making Deos terrestres and Deos câ—lesâ—es sub-lunary and super-lunary heavenly and earthly Gods and Deus marinos and fluviatiles Sea Gods and River Gods salt and fresh-water Gods and Deos mares and faeminas he Gods and she Gods and that he might be sure to take in all Deos certos incertos Gods which they were sure were Gods Gods w ch might be Gods for any thing they knew to the contrary There is but one God but yet was that one God ever alone There were more generations infinitely infinite before the world was made then there have been minutes since it was made all that while there were no creasures but yet was God alone any one minute of al this was there not alwais a Father and a Son a holy Ghost And had not they always an acquiescence in one another an exercise of Affection as we may so say a love a delight and a complacency towards one another So as that the Father could not be without the Son and the holy Ghost so as neither Sonne nor holy Ghost could be without the Father nor without one another God was from all eternity collected into one God yet from all eternity he derived himselfe into three persons God could not be so alone but that there have been three persons as long as there hath been one God Had God company enough of himselfe was he satisfied in the three Persons We see he proceeded further he came to a Creation And as soon as he had made light which was his first Creature he took a pleasure in it he said it was good he was glad of it glad of the Sea glad of the Earth glad of the Sunne and Moone and Starres and he said of every one It is good But when he had made All peopled the whole world brought all creatures together then he was very glad and then he said not onely that it was good but that it was very good God was so far from being alone as that he found not the fulnesse of being well till all was made till all Creatures met together in an Host as Moses calls it then the good was extended into very good Did God satisfie himselfe with this visible and discernible world with all on earth and all between that and him were those foure Monarchies the foure Elements and all the subjects of those foure Monarchies if all the foure Elements have Creatures company enough for God was that Heptarchie the seven kingdomes of the seven Planets conversation enough for him Let every Starre in the firmament be so some take them to be a severall world was all this enough we see God drew persons nearer to him then Sunne or Moon or Starres or any thing which is visible and discernible to us he created Angels How many how great Arithmetique lacks numbers to to expresse them proportion lacks Dimensions to figure them so far was God from being alone And yet God had not shed himselfe far enough he had the Leviathan the Whale in the Sea and Behemoth and the Elephant upon the land and all these great heavenly bodies in the way and Angels in their infinite numbers and manifold offices in heaven But because Angels could not propagate nor make more Angels he enlarged his love in making man that so he might enjoy all natures at once and have the nature of Angels and the nature of earthly Creatures in one Person God would not be without man nor he would not come single not alone to the making of man but it is Faciamas hominem Let us us make man God in his whole counsail in his whole Colledge in his whole society in the whole Trinity makes man in whom the whole nature of all the world should meet And still our large and our Communicable God affected this association so as that having three Persons in himselfe and having Creatures of divers natures and having collected all natures in man who consisted of a spirituall nature as well as a bodily he would have one liker himselfe then man was And therefore he made Christ God and Man in one person Creature and Creator together One greater then the Seraphim and yet lesse then a worme Soveraigne to all nature and yet subject to naturall infirmities Lord of life life it selfe and yet prisoner to Death Before and beyond all measures of Time Born at so many moneths yet Circumcised at so many days Crucified at so many years Rose againe at so many Houres How sure did God make himselfe of a companion in Christ who united himselfe in his godhead so inseparably to him as that that godhead left not that body then when it lay dead in the grave but
staid with it then as closely as when he wrought his greatest miracles Beyond all this God having thus maried soule and body in one man and man and God in one Christ he maries this Christ to the Church Now consider this Church in the Type and figure of the Church the Arke in the Arke there were more of every sort of cleane Creatures reserved then of the uncleane seven of those for two of these why should we feare but that in the Church there are more reserved for salvation then for destruction And into that room which was not a Type of the Church but the very Church it selfe in which they all met upon whitsunday the holy Ghost came so as that they were enabled by the gift of tongues to convay and propagate and derive God as they did to every nation under heaven so much does God delight in man so much does God desire to unite and associate man unto him and then what shall disappoint or frustrate Gods desires and intentions so farre as that they should come to him but singly one by one whom he cals and wooes and drawes by thousands and by whole Congregations Be pleased to carry your considerations upon another testimony of Gods love to the society of man which is his dispatch in making this match his speed in gathering and establishing this Church for forwardnesse is the best argument of love and dilatory interruptions by the way argue no great desire to the end disguises before are shrewd prophecies of jealousies after But God made hast to the consummation of this Marriage between Christ and the Church Such words as those to the Colosrians and such words that is words to such purpose there are divers The Gospell is come unto you as it is into all the world And againe It bringeth forth fruit as it doth in you also And so likewise The Gospell which is preached to every creature which is under heaven such words I say a very great part of the Antients have taken so literally as thereupon to conclude That in the life of the Apostles themselves the Gospell was preached and the Church established over all the world Now will you consider also who did this what persons cunning and crafty persons are not the best instruments in great businesses if those businesses be good as well as great Here God imployed such persons as would not have perswaded a man that grasse was green that blood was red if it had been denyed unto them Persons that could not have bound up your understanding with a Syllogisme nor have entendred or mollified it with a verse Persons that had nothing but that which God himselfe calls the foolishnesse of preaching to bring Philosophers that argued Heretiques that wrangled Lucians and Iulians men that whet their tongues and men that whet their swords against God to God Unbend not this bowe blacken not these holy thoughts till you have considered as well as how soone and by what persons so to what Doctrine God brought them Wee aske but St. Augustins question Quis tantam multitudinem ad legem carni sanguini centrariam induceret nisi Deus Who but God himselfe would have drawn the world to a Religion so contrary to flesh and blood Take but one piece of the Christian Religion but one article of our faith in the same Fathers mouth Res incredibilis resurrectio That this body should be eaten by fishes in the sea and then those fishes eaten by other men or that one man should be eaten by another man and so become both one man and then that for all this assimilation and union there should arise two men at the resurrection Res incredibilis sayes he this resurrection is an incredible thing Sed magis incredibile totum mundum credidisse rem tam incredibilem That all the world should so soone believe a thing so incredible is more incredible then the thing it selfe That any should believe any is strange but more that all such believe all that appertains to Christianity The Valentinians and the Marcionites pestilent Heretiques grew to a great number Sed vix duo vel tres de iisdem eadem docebant says Irenaeus scarce any two or three amongst them were of one opinion The Acatians the Eunomians and the Macedonians omnes Arium parentem agnoscunt sayes the same Father they all call themselves Arians but they had as many opinions not onely as names but as persons And that one Sect of Mahomet was quickly divided and sub-divided into 70 sects But so God loved the world the society and company of good soules ut quasi una Domus Mundus the whole world was as one well governed house similiter credunt quasi una anima all beleeved the same things as though they had all but one soule Constanter praedicabant quasi unum os At the same houre there was a Sermon at Ierusalem and a Sermon at Rome and both so like for fundamentall things as if they had been preached out of one mouth And as this Doctrine so incredible in reason was thus soone and by these persons thus uniformely preached over all the world so shall it as it doth continue to the worlds end which is another argument of Gods love to our company and of his loathnesse to lose us All Heresies and the very names of the Heretiques are so utterly perished in the world as that if their memories were not preserved in those Fathers which have written against them we could finde their names no where Irenaeus about one hundred and eighty yeers after Christ may reckon about twenty heresies Tertullian twenty or thirty yeares after him perchance twenty seven and Epiphanius some a hundred and fifty after him sixty and fifty yeare after that St. Augustine some ninety yet after all these and but a very few yeares after Augustine Theodoret sayes that in his time there was no one man alive that held any of those heresies That all those heresies should rot being upheld by the sword and that onely the Christian Religion should grow up being mowed down by the sword That one graine of Corne should be cast away and many eares grow out of that as Leo makes the comparison That one man should be executed because he was a Christian and all that saw him executed and the Executioner himself should thereupon become Christians a case that fell out more then once in the primitive Church That as the flood threw down the Courts of Princes and lifted up the Arke of God so the effusion of Christian blood should destroy heresies and advance Christianity it self this is argument abundantly enough that God had a love to man and a desire to draw man to his society and in great numbers to bring them to salvation I will not dismisse you from this consideration till you have brought it thus much nearer as to remember a later testimony of Gods love to our
too much for so I may presume Of Schoolmen some affirm Prayer to be an act of our will for we would have that which we aske Others of our understanding for by it we ascend to God and better our knowledge which is the proper aliment and food of our understanding so that is a perplexed case But all agree that it is an act of our Reason and therefore must be reasonable For onely reasonable things can pray for the beasts and Ravens Psalme 147. 9. are not said to pray for food but to cry Two things are required to make a Prayer 1. Pius affectus which was not in the Devills request Matth. 8. 31. Let us goe into the Swine nor Job 1. 2. Stretch out thy hand and touch all he hath and stretch out thy hand and touch his bones and therefore these were not Prayers And it must be Rerum decentium for our government in that point this may inform us Things absolutely good as Remission of sinnes we may absolutely beg and to escape things absolutely ill as sinne But mean and indifferent things qualified by the circumstances we must aske conditionally and referringly to the givers will For 2 Cor. 8. when Paul begged stimulum Carnis to be taken from him it was not granted but he had this answer My grace is sufficient for thee Let us now not in curiosity but for instruction consider the reason They know not what they doe First if Ignorance excuse And then if they were ignorant Hast thou O God filled all thy Scriptures both of thy Recorders and Notaries which have penned the History of thy love to thy People and of thy Secretaries the Prophets admitted to the foreknowledge of thy purposes and instructed in thy Cabinet hast thou filled these with prayses and perswasions of wisedome and knowledge and must these persecutors be pardoned for their ignorance Hast thou bid Esay to say 27. 11. It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them shall not have compassion of them And Hosea 4. 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge and now dost thou say Forgive them because they know not Shall ignorance which is often the cause of sinne often a sinne it self often the punishment of sinne and ever an infirmity and disease contracted by the first great sinne advantage them Who can understand his faults saith the man according to thy heart Psalme 19. 12. Lord cleanse me from my secret faults He durst not make his ignorance the reason of his prayer but prayed against ignorance But thy Mercy is as the Sea both before it was the Sea for it overspreads the whole world and since it was called into limits for it is not the lesse infinite for that And as by the Sea the most remote and distant Nations enjoy one another by traffique and commerce East and West becoming neighbours so by mercy the most different things are united and reconciled Sinners have Heaven Traytors are in the Princes bosome and ignorant persons are in the spring of wisdome being forgiven not onely though they be ignorant but because they are ignorant But all ignorance is not excusable nor any lesse excusable then not to know what ignorance is not to be excused Therefore there is an ignorance which they call Nescientiam a not knowing of things not appertaining to us This we had had though Adam had stood and the Angels have it for they know not the latter day and therefore for this we are not chargeable They call the other privation which if it proceed meerly from our owne sluggishnesse in not searching the meanes made for our instruction is ever inexcusable If from God who for his owne just ends hath cast clouds over those lights which should guide us it is often excusable For 1 Tim. 1. 13. Paul saith I was ablasphemer and a persecutor and an oppressor but I was received to mercy for I did it ignorantly through unbelief So though we are all bound to believe and therefore faults done by unbeliefe cannot escape the name and nature of sinne yet since beliefe is the immediate gift of God faults done by unbeliefe without malicious concurrences and circumstances obtaine mercy and pardon from that abundant fountaine of grace Christ Jesus And therefore it was a just reason Forgive them for they know not If they knew not which is evident both by this speech from truth it self and by 2 Cor. 2. 8. Had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory and Acts 3. 17. I know that through ignorance ye did it And though after so many powerfull miracles this ignorance were vincible God having revealed enough to convert them yet there seemes to be enough on their parts to make it a perplexed case and to excuse though not a malitious persecuting yet a not consenting to his Doctrine For they had a Law Whosoever shall make himself the sonne of God let him dye And they spoke out of their Lawes when they said We have no other King but Caesar. There were therefore some among them reasonably and zealously ignorant And for those the Sonne ever-welcome and well-heard begged of his Father ever accessible and exorable a pardon ever ready and naturall We have now passed through all those roomes which we unlockt and opened at first And now may that point Why this prayer is remembred onely by one Evangelist and why by Luke be modestly inquired For we are all admitted and welcommed into the acquaintance of the Scriptures upon such conditions as travellers are into other Countries if we come as praisers and admirres of their Commodities and Government not as spies into the mysteries of their State nor searchers nor calumniators of their weaknesses For though the Scriptures like a strong rectified State be not endangered by such a curious malice of any yet he which brings that deserves no admittance When those great Commissioners which are called the Septuagint sent from Hierusalem to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greeke had perfected their work it was and is an argument of Divine assistance that writing severally they differed not The same may prove even to weake and faithlesse men that the holy Ghost super-intended the foure Evangelists because they differ not as they which have written their harmonies make it evident But to us faith teacheth the other way And we conclude not because they agree the holy Ghost directed for heathen Writers and Malefactors in examinations do so but because the holy Ghost directed we know they agree and differ not For as an honest man ever of the same thoughts differs not from himself though he do not ever say the same things if he say not contraries so the foure Evangelists observe the uniformity and samenesse of their guide though all did not say all the same things since none contradicts any And as when my soule which enables all my limbs to their functions disposes my legs to go my whole body is truly said to
go because none stayes behinde so when the holy Spirit which had made himself as a common soule to their foure soules directed one of them to say any thing all are well understood to have said it And therefore when to that place in Matth. 27. 8. where that Evangelist cites the Prophet Ieremy for words spoken by Zachary many medicines are applyed by the Fathers as That many copies have no name That Ieremy might be binominous and have both names a thing frequent in the Bible That it might be the error of a transcriber That there was extant an Apocryph booke of Ieremy in which these words were and sometimes things of such books were vouched as Iannes and Iambres by Paul St. Augustine insists upon and teaches rather this That it is more wonderfull that all the Prophets spake by one Spirit and so agreed then if any one of them had spoken all those things And therefore he adds Singula sunt omnium omnia sunt singulorum All say what any of them say And in this sense most congruously is that of St. Hierome applyable that the foure Evangelists are Quadriga Divina That as the foure Chariot wheeles though they looke to the foure corners of the world yet they move to one end and one way so the Evangelists have both one scope and one way Yet not so precisely but that they differ in words For as their generall intention common to them all begat that consent so a private reason peculiar to each of them for the writing of their Histories at that time made those diversities which seem to be for Matthew after he had preached to the Jewes and was to be transplanted into another vineyard the Gentiles left them written in their owne tongue for permanency which he had preached transitorily by word Mark when the Gospell fructified in the West and the Church enlarged her self and grew a great body and therefore required more food out of Peters Dictates and by his approbation published his Evangile Not an Epitome of Matthewes as Saint Ierome I know why imagines but a just and intire History of our blessed Saviour And as Matthewes reason was to supply a want in the Eastern Church Markes in the Western so on the other side Lukes was to cut off an excesse and superfluitie for then many had undertaken this Story and dangerously inserted and mingled uncertainties and obnoxious improbabilities and he was more curious and more particular then the rest both because he was more learned and because he was so individuall a companion of the most learned Saint Paul and did so much write Pauls words that Eusebius thereupon mistaketh the words 2 Tim. 2. 1. Christ is raised according to my Gospell to prove that Paul was author of this Gospell attributed to Luke Iohn the Minion of Christ upon earth and survivor of the Apostles whose books rather seem fallen from Heaven and writ with the hand which ingraved the stone Tables then a mans work because the heresies of Ebion and Cerinthus were rooted who upon this true ground then evident aud fresh that Christ had spoke many things which none of the other three Evangelists had Recorded uttered many things as his which he never spoke Iohn I say more diligently then the rest handleth his Divinity and his Sermons things specially brought into question by them So therefore all writ one thing yet all have some things particular And Luke most for he writ last of three and largeliest for himselfe 1 Act. 1. saith I have made the former Treatise of all that Iesus began to doe and teach untill the Day that he was taken up which speech lest the words in the last of Iohn If all were written which Iesus did the world could not contain the Bookes should condemne Ambrose and Chrysostome interpret well out of the words themselves Scripsit de omnibus non omnia He writ of all but not all for it must have the same limitation which Paul giveth his words who saith Acts 20. in one verse I have kept nothing back but have shewed you all the counsell of God and in another I kept back nothing that was profitable It is another peculiar singularity of Lukes that he addresseth his History to one man Theophilus For it is but weakely surmised that he chose that name for all lovers of God because the interpretation of the word suffereth it since he addeth most noble Theophilus But the work doth not the lesse belong to the whole Church for that no more then his Masters Epistles doe though they be directed to particulars It is also a singularitie in him to write upon that reason because divers have written In humane knowledge to abridge or suck and then suppresse other Authors is not ever honest nor profitable We see after that vast enterprise of Iustinian who distilled all the Law into one vessell and made one Booke of 2000. suppressing all the rest Alciate wisheth he had let them alone and thinketh the Doctors of our times would better have drawn usefull things from those volumes then his Trebonian and Dorothee did And Aristotle after by the immense liberality of Alexander he had ingrossed all Authors is said to have defaced all that he might be in stead of all And therefore since they cannot rise against him he imputes to them errours which they held not vouches onely such objections from them as he is able to answer and propounds all good things in his own name which he ought to them But in this History of Lukes it is otherwise He had no authority to suppresse them nor doth he reprehend or calumniate them but writes the truth simply and leaves it to outweare falshood and so it hath Moses rod hath devoured the Conjurers rods and Lukes Story still retains the majestie of the maker and theirs are not Other singularities in Luke of form or matter I omit and end with one like this in our Text. As in the apprehending of our blessed Saviour all the Evangelists record that Peter cut off Malchus eare but onely Luke remembers the healing of it again I think because that act of curing was most present and obvious to his consideration who was a Physician so he was therefore most apt to remember this Prayer of Christ which is the Physick and Balsamum of our Soule and must be applied to us all for we doe all Crucifie him and we know not what we do And therefore Saint Hierome gave a right Character of him in his Epistle to Paulinus Fuit Medicus pariter omnia verba illius Animae languentis sunt Medicinae As he was a Physitian so all his words are Physick for a languishing soule Now let us dispatch the last consideration of the effect of this Prayer Did Christ intend the forgivenesse of the Jewes whose utter ruine God that is himselfe had fore-decreed And which he foresaw and bewaild even then hanging upon the Crosse For those Divines which reverently forbeare to interpret the words